BBC Ignores Guards Who Saved Italian Cruise Ship Were Israeli

Can you tell the difference between these two reports about the attempted high jacking of the Italian Cruise Ship Melody? One key word is missing from the BBC Coverage.

This first one is from the Scotsman:

Cruise ship's security force fends off attack by pirates By NICOLE WINFIELD
AN ITALIAN cruise ship with 1,500 people on board fended off a pirate attack 500 miles off the coast of Somalia when its Israeli private security force exchanged fire with the bandits.
The MSC Melody was 200 miles north of the Seychelles during a 22-day cruise from Durban to Genoa, Italy, when six men in a small, white boat approached at about 5:30pm on Saturday and opened fire with automatic weapons.

Domenico Pellegrino, the cruise's director, said the pirates retreated after the security officers returned fire and sprayed them with water hoses. The ship then continued its journey, with windows darkened.

None of the 1,000 passengers or 500 crew were hurt.

"It felt like we were in war," said Ciro Pinto, the ship's commander. "They tried to put a ladder up. They were starting to climb up but we reacted, we started to fire ourselves. When they saw our fire, and also the water from the water hoses that we started to spray, they left."

Mr Pellegrino said all MSC cruise ships were staffed with Israeli security agents because they are "the best trained".

Now the BBC

Italian cruise ship foils pirates

A captain of an Italian cruise ship has given the BBC a dramatic account of how his crew fended off a pirate attack near the coast of Somalia.

Capt Ciro Pinto said six pirates in a speedboat approached his ship, the Melody, and opened fire, but then fled after security men fired in the air.

He said his crew also sprayed water on the gunmen when they tried to climb aboard using a ladder.

No-one was hurt in Saturday's incident. Some 1,500 people were on the vessel.

Somali pirates have also seized an empty Yemeni oil tanker and clashed with the coast guard on Sunday, a Yemeni official said.

Two pirates were killed in the action as the Yemeni coast guard tried to free the vessel, a Yemeni government official was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.

The official said three pirates and two Yemeni coast guard members were also wounded in the exchange.

See map of how piracy is affecting the region and countries around the world

Last year, pirates attacked more than 100 ships in the region, demanding huge ransoms for their release. Their attacks have intensified recently.

'Throwing chairs'

Capt Pinto told the BBC that the pirates tried to hijack his ship late on Saturday, about 290km (180 miles) north of Victoria in the Seychelles.

"One white small boat with six people on board approached the port [left] side of the ship and started shooting."

The captain said the pirates fired some 200 rounds of shots on the vessel.

His said "our security started shooting in the air... and also we started spraying some water" to beat off the attackers.

Capt Pinto said the pirates were forced to give up after about five minutes of shooting and a high-speed chase.

Samantha Hendey from Durban, South Africa, told the BBC that her sister Tabitha Nicholson was on board the ship during the attack and the situation was "pretty dramatic".

"She said that there were lots of passengers on deck watching it unfold and they even took action themselves by throwing chairs overboard, trying to hit the pirates," Samantha said.

"She said there were lots of bullet holes in the ship but that they were not serious enough to force it to return to port."

The head of the Italy's MSC Cruises, which owns the Melody, credited the captain for his "cool-headed" handling of the incident, Italy's Ansa news agency reported.

The ship was on a cruise from South Africa to Italy. It was now headed as scheduled for the Jordanian port of Aqaba.

Did you notice the word left out of the BBC Coverage? Israeli. So what is going on? Does the BBC Hate Israel so much that the refuse to recognize when Israelis do a good thing? Or are they still smarting for being smacked around by the BBC Trustees for their biased coverage of Israel. Either way, this is additional proof that BBC stands for Bullcrap Broadcast Continually.