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Activists Attack Japanese Whaling Vessel
AP via SFGate ^ | 2/9/7 | RAY LILLEY

Posted on 02/09/2007 9:36:49 PM PST by SmithL

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) --

Two activists attacked a Japanese whaling ship with a bottle of acid and a smoke bomb Friday, slightly injuring two crew members after the vessel helped rescue the protesters from the icy Ross Sea off Antarctica, officials said.

The activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society protest ship Farley Mowat disappeared during a confrontation with the Nisshin Maru but were found after about seven hours, with members of the Japanese whaling expedition assisting.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Japan
KEYWORDS: alf; animalrights; environment; seashepherd; terrorism; terrorists; ungratefulwretches; whaling

1 posted on 02/09/2007 9:36:50 PM PST by SmithL
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To: SmithL

Toss 'em back.


2 posted on 02/09/2007 9:40:46 PM PST by SquirrelKing
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To: SmithL

I'd have been tempted to leave them adrift.


3 posted on 02/09/2007 9:40:55 PM PST by Huntress (Proud owner of Norman/Norma, the transsexual attack cat.)
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To: SmithL; TigerLikesRooster; Jet Jaguar; All

Were they try help Greenpeace guys sound like it


4 posted on 02/09/2007 9:41:02 PM PST by SevenofNine ("We are Freepers, all your media belong to us, resistence is futile")
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To: SmithL

French Naval Command, please pick up the white courtesy phone. French Naval Command.


5 posted on 02/09/2007 9:43:07 PM PST by IslandJeff (that for every right there is a duty, for every benefit an obligation)
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To: SmithL

6 posted on 02/09/2007 9:45:10 PM PST by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life ;o)
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To: SmithL; girlangler; proud_yank

“We’re not a protest organization, we’re a policing organization,” Paul Watson...of his Sea Shepherd...

A pirate organization is more like it. Sporting the skull and crossbones, his black or battleship-gray ships sail menacingly through the waves.

They are painted with the names of the boats Watson has rammed and sunk.

The ships are fitted with...a concrete-filled bow made for ramming, and an attachment dubbed the “can opener” that can tear open a boat’s hull.

In his book Earth Warrior, David Morris writes that Watson wears a long bowie knife at his side and carries AK-47s on board.

He blasts Richard Wagner’s rousing “Ride of the Valkyries” to herald his arrival and terrify his victims.

SSCS’s mission is to stop fishing...

Its preferred methods?

Ramming and sinking fishing ships, throwing butyric acid on their decks, and firing machine guns. Watson argues that United Nations resolutions authorize him to commit violent acts.


7 posted on 02/09/2007 9:54:24 PM PST by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: george76

Paul Watson and his band are not anything more than TERRORISTS, pirates.

UN authorized?

Who the heck finances these freaks? That's what I want to know.



8 posted on 02/09/2007 10:01:58 PM PST by girlangler (Fish Fear Me)
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To: SmithL

I believe the Japanese would be justified in taking whatever measures necessary to ward off these bastards....

Semper Fi


9 posted on 02/09/2007 10:29:49 PM PST by river rat (You may turn the other cheek, but I prefer to look into my enemy's vacant dead eyes.)
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To: SevenofNine

uh...yeah : )


10 posted on 02/09/2007 10:34:10 PM PST by stephenjohnbanker (Our troops will send all of the worlds terrorists to hell in a handbasket with no virgins!)
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To: SmithL

I think whaling should be banned worldwide.

However, I think the Japanese navy would be justified in firing upon these pirate ships.


11 posted on 02/09/2007 10:37:50 PM PST by Aussiebabe
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To: SquirrelKing

"Toss 'em back." - harpoon them.


12 posted on 02/09/2007 10:43:11 PM PST by GSlob
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To: SmithL

Once a snake, always a snake.


13 posted on 02/09/2007 10:48:58 PM PST by MistrX
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To: george76

And why haven't armed guards or even military not been aboard any fishing vessels to protect these legal fishermen, and to attack these pirates?


14 posted on 02/09/2007 11:14:05 PM PST by TheBattman (I've got TWO QUESTIONS for you....)
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To: SmithL

Ungrateful bast**ds. They're nothing more than pirates, and they deserve to be treated as such. That being said, I wish whaling would stop. I think they're magnificent creatures, and hate seeing them hunted.


15 posted on 02/09/2007 11:42:46 PM PST by jim35 ("...when the lion and the lamb lie down together, ...we'd better damn sure be the lion")
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To: SmithL

If you need / want red meat, eat beef but not whales. Let them recover and survive, that's my opinion, FWIW.


16 posted on 02/10/2007 12:31:39 AM PST by jws3sticks (Hillary can take a very long walk on a very short pier, anytime, and the sooner the better!)
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To: jim35
That being said, I wish whaling would stop. I think they're magnificent creatures, and hate seeing them hunted.

Down the road from me are some really fine cows. They have the most expressive brown eyes.

17 posted on 02/10/2007 6:01:20 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going....)
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To: george76

That was so sweet of the AP to provide a helpful link to the Sea Shepherd home page. I love the balanced reporting/activism.


18 posted on 02/10/2007 6:02:40 AM PST by boop (Now Greg, you know I don't like that WORD!)
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To: SmithL
Activists Attack Japanese Whaling Vessel

It appears to be be 'suicide by harpoon'

Says the headline of the Tokyo Marine News...

19 posted on 02/10/2007 6:03:22 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going....)
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To: TheBattman

"And why haven't armed guards or even military not been aboard any fishing vessels to protect these legal fishermen, and to attack these pirates?"

Because ship owners are cheap and don't pay for anything they don't have to. Many owners won't pay for mandatory safety equipment unless they have to visit American ports. Others won't even register their GMDSS beacons. Guards cost money.


20 posted on 02/10/2007 6:50:44 AM PST by GAB-1955 (being dragged, kicking and screaming, into the Kingdom of Heaven....)
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To: george76

I'd like to know who is funding this, because keeping a vessel like this operating isn't cheap.


21 posted on 02/10/2007 6:52:58 AM PST by Old_Mil (http://www.gohunter08.com/)
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To: george76
Isn't there a 'law of the seas' whereby any attacked ship is duty-bound to annihilate their attackers?

Seems to me the Japanese have all the right in the cosmos to send these fools to the bottom of the seas.

22 posted on 02/10/2007 7:01:33 AM PST by Thumper1960 (Unleash the Dogs of War as a Minority, or perish as a party.)
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To: Cagey; MotleyGirl70; Larry Lucido; lesser_satan

MAN: Keep fighting matey! Get your head above the water! I've got you matey! I've got you! Matey! (he loses the rope) I'll remember her name! Elaine Benes! I'll write to her. I'll tell her all about you and what you did out here! Goodbye, matey! Goddbye!


23 posted on 02/10/2007 8:08:44 AM PST by Mr. Brightside
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To: SmithL

Loose Fish, Fast Fish.


24 posted on 02/10/2007 8:15:49 AM PST by Sawdring
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To: SmithL

What is described here is clear-cut piracy. Where's the Japanese Navy when you need them?


25 posted on 02/10/2007 8:21:59 AM PST by Aikonaa
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To: girlangler

Greenpeace has the money

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1556415/posts


26 posted on 02/10/2007 8:28:55 AM PST by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: SmithL

If any of that acid gets in the water, fish will die. Nice going guys.


27 posted on 02/10/2007 8:30:36 AM PST by dfwgator (The University of Florida - Championship U)
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To: TheBattman

The fishermen are afraid of the lawyers who might sue.


28 posted on 02/10/2007 8:30:36 AM PST by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: boop

AP loves the terrorists.

AP does all it can to help raise money for their terrorist activities.

remember Lebanon ?


29 posted on 02/10/2007 8:32:13 AM PST by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: Old_Mil

Questionable Donors

Where does Watson get the funds for his exploits? In part, from an eclectic cadre of shadowy personalities.

That includes Susan Bloom, a long-time donor to the most extreme factions of the environmental and animal-rights movement. Bloom was the founder and main financier of the British Columbia animal-rights group Bear Watch, which employed David Barbarash, a former “spokesman” for the terrorist Animal Liberation Front (ALF). Paul Watson has hosted at least one Bear Watch fundraiser.

Ann Johnston gave SSCS almost $2.7 million in stock in 1997. Her husband, Pritam Singh, is a real estate developer and a member of SSCS’ financial and management advisory board. According to the Key News Journal, he’s under investigation by the FBI for his questionable business dealings. One Key West attorney has also filed a civil lawsuit against Singh, alleging almost 20 years of criminal activity -- including racketeering and fraud. Singh was fined $1.2 million by the federal Office of Thrift Supervision in 1995. And he quietly settled a lawsuit filed by members of his sales staff who said he illegally withheld their commissions.

Johnston’s 1997 stock donation included shares of a company named Northern Development Associates, a for-profit business which is now 100-percent owned by Sea Shepherd.

Corporate records show that the company’s officers include Watson’s ex-wife Lisa DiStefano and longtime associate Michael Kundu. Northern Development’s mailing address is the same as Pritam Singh’s Key West Golf Club. Watson and DiStefano also serve, with Singh, on the board of something called the Sea Trek 2000 Foundation. The mailing address for that group is the same as one of Singh’s Miami lawyers.

http://www.activistcash.com/organization_overview.cfm/oid/347


30 posted on 02/10/2007 8:36:52 AM PST by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: jws3sticks

IIRC, the Japanese are taking Minke whales of which there are over 100,000. Not all whale species are endangered. The best way to speed the recovery of the baleen whales is to kill orcas who prey upon the calves.


31 posted on 02/10/2007 9:12:04 AM PST by darth
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To: Liberty Valance; monkapotamus; All

You got everybody in there except ONE replace Tom Cruise with Godzilla


32 posted on 02/10/2007 10:07:17 AM PST by SevenofNine ("We are Freepers, all your media belong to us, resistence is futile")
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To: darth
The best way to speed the recovery of the baleen whales is to kill orcas who prey upon the calves.

Why would we want to disrupt the cycle of life?

33 posted on 02/10/2007 12:01:01 PM PST by JackDanielsOldNo7 (On guard until the seal is broken)
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To: JackDanielsOldNo7

The cycle is already disrupted. Too many orcas and not enough baleen whales. The orcas are the primary reason that the baleens, e.g., blue whales, have not rebounded in population now that humans no longer kill them. Orcas are ganging up in great numbers to kill newborn baleen whales. Humans need to manage the population of sea mammals just as we do on land.


34 posted on 02/10/2007 1:21:57 PM PST by darth
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