Armed Israeli Guards Thwart Pirate Attack on Cruise Ship, BBC Glosses Over Fact

On Saturday, an Italian cruise liner was attacked by Somali pirates. The would-be hijackers, however, were repelled by the ship's private armed security detail, which hails from Israel.

Well, today blogger Don Surber noted how the BBC is leaving out the nationality of the security crew by inaccurately attributing the "crew" of the Melody with fending off the attack. Far from being an insignificant detail, an executive with the cruise line  that hired the crew praised them as the best in the private security business, reported the Associated Press.  From Surber's blog:

The BBC account credited the “crew” of the Italian cruise ship, Melody, without mentioning it was really an Israeli security force that fended off a pirate attack near the coast of Somalia.

And you thought the BBC was only anti-British.

This was a pretty big deal. A private ship did not need military assistance on thwarting a pirate raid. The ship had 1,000 passengers and a crew of 500, plus and undisclosed number of security guards.

AP reported: “Domenico Pellegrino, head of the Italian cruise line, said Msc Cruises hired the Israelis because they were the best trained security agents, the ANSA news agency reported.”

The BBC report did not mention the nationality of the security team.

I wonder why?

I sent an e-mail.

The BBC report is here.

I posted the AP version (and my comments) here earlier.