Greenpeace Blocks UK Ship Loading Army Equipment

Reuters | 2/01/03 | Jeremy Lovell

[kattracks]

LONDON (Reuters) - Greenpeace activists protesting against the threat of an attack on Iraq moored their flagship across the bows of a British freighter loading military supplies for the Gulf on Saturday and vowed to stay put.

"We are currently having a peaceful blockade of the Dart 8 cargo vessel," Melanie Hill, spokeswoman for the environmental and anti-war group, told Reuters by telephone from the Rainbow Warrior in Marchwood military port in southern England.

"We are going to stay here for as long as we can. We are determined to stop this headlong rush into a war with Iraq that will only make the world a more dangerous place," she added.

She said the group had inflatable motorboats in the water around the freighter, watched by waterborne police who had so far kept their distance.

Dart 8 is loading equipment including helicopters, tanks and jeeps at Marchwood, the military section of Southampton port, to supply British troops who will join the thousands of U.S. soldiers already in the Gulf region.

The protest is Greenpeace's second action in the port in a week.

The Ministry of Defense failed on Friday to get an injunction stopping Greenpeace from blocking the port but did obtain a limited ruling preventing the activists from boarding or touching ships chartered to carry military supplies.

A ministry spokesman said Saturday's blockade was making it difficult but not impossible to load the ship. "They are creating difficulties but we have a range of contingency plans," he told Reuters. He declined to say when the Dart 8 was due to sail.

Prime Minister Tony Blair met President Bush at the White House on Friday for what many saw as a council of war. Both insist Iraq is hiding weapons of mass destruction from U.N. weapons inspectors and must disarm voluntarily or be disarmed by force. Iraq insists it has no such weapons.

Bush said time was running out for a peaceful end to the crisis, while Blair said on his way home that he believed the U.N. Security Council would pass a second resolution condemning Iraq if it continued to stall the inspectors.

Secretary of State Colin Powell is due to present to the Security Council on Wednesday what he says is compelling evidence that Iraq is concealing weapons programmes from the U.N. inspectors.

Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix, who said on Monday that Iraq was hampering investigations and listed a range of weapons still unaccounted for, is due to present a further report on his team's findings on February 14.

[Keith in Iowa]

Let the Brits use the Greanpeace boat for target practice.

[SouthernFreebird]

inflatable motor boats against a freighter?...... I think this can be resolved quickly.

[MadIvan]

Blow them out of the water.

Regards, Ivan

[Movemout]

Wasn't it the French who sunk the Rainbow Warrior back in the 80s, I think? I don't think these lame brains really want to screw around with the Brits. They are much more aggressive than the French.

[EternalVigilance]

Enemy combatants. They should be treated accordingly.

[anniegetyourgun]

Their website says one of their goals is to bring about: "An end to the nuclear threat and nuclear contamination." The U.S. and allies are simply trying to aid Greenpeace in that effort. Sheesh....a little help here...

[Bluntpoint]

Somebody needs to grab a porpoise, hold a gun to its head and threaten to "cap his ass" if the Greenpeace ship does not give way.

[IronJack]

Wasn't it the French who sunk the Rainbow Warrior back in the 80s

Yep. About the only thing courageous the French have done in half a century. Technically, this ship should be called Rainbow Warrior II, since Warrior I is now a reef.

[ASA Vet]

Enemy combatants. They should be treated accordingly

I'm sure there's room for them at our country club in Cuba.

[Riley]

"We are currently having a peaceful blockade of the Dart 8 cargo vessel,..."

And then:

She said the group had inflatable motorboats in the water around the freighter,

The solution to the problem is so screamingly obvious, it's almost painful.

[justrepublican]

Little floating green pieces.

[jimtorr]

The Ministry of Defense failed on Friday to get an injunction stopping Greenpeace from blocking the port but did obtain a limited ruling preventing the activists from boarding or touching ships chartered to carry military supplies.

Whaaaat? A court would not agree that it's actually a bad thing to let civilians, most of whom are foreigners, blockade a port?

Shoot, it's even contrary to international law to blockade a port, unless one is at war with the nation the port is located in. Is the court saying that Greenpeace is at war with Britain?

[Bottom_Gun]

She said the group had inflatable motorboats in the water around the freighter

screaming obvious? Well, as a qualifed Helms/Planesman...the order "HARD right rudder" comes to mind! hehehehehe

[Smile-n-Win]

Is the court saying that Greenpeace is at war with Britain?

Hmm, well they actually are at war with Britain, so they may legally blockade the port--and the British may legally shoot them, of course.

[southland]

Send them to North Korea until they can resolve that problem.

[lysie]

Blow them out of the water.

I like your style. Only one thing I could add,

After blowing them out of the water...put them back in, then blow them out again.

THIS morning I am NOT in the mood!!

[SandRat]

Like your idea but may a suggest a slight modification? Do it off the great barrier reef of Australia. Hey even the Great-Whites have to eat.

[INSENSITIVE GUY]

Grab these SOBs and beat hell out of them!TERRORIST SYMPATHIZERS.

[lysie]

Hey even the Great-Whites have to eat.

Great idea. Kind of like biting the hand that feeds them.

[wizardoz]

About the only thing courageous the French have done in half a century.

Did you see Mark Steyn's piece in WND today about France? I'm looking at them a little differently now.

[IronJack]

I'll check it out.

[X918]

Why is the crew using water cannons when a 30.06 shell would do quite nicely and be more environmentally friendly by conserving water and feeding the fish?

[areafiftyone]

I cannot believe they just don't tow that dam boat out of there.

[SunStar]

"We are currently having a peaceful blockade of the Dart 8 cargo vessel," Melanie Hill, spokeswoman for the environmental and anti-war group, told Reuters by telephone from the Rainbow Warrior in Marchwood military port in southern England.

A blockade is an act of war. Blow them out of the water!

[DAnconia55]

That wasn't Greenpeace - it was the French Navy!

[DAnconia55]

Do they have sewage tanks or the like that they could dump? :)

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Reuters gives the leftist traitors their power. In the interest of truth - and to salvage the corrupted journalistic profession - Reuters needs to print a few thousand articles from those who would pay to blow up those rubber rafts and send the spoiled idiots into the icy water. Will of the people! editor@reuters.com

[EricT.]

Right after the Gulf War, my friend was a Marine on the USS Ogden. Greenpeace had tried to stop 2000 Marines who had been at sea for weeks from shore leave in Australia. Not very bright are they?

[EricT.]

I'm sure they had some nice heavy scrap metal somewhere on board to "help" these idiots with. (KERPLUNK!!)

[Squantos]

Hmmmm .....how is it that a non-MOD/DOD asset gets so close to a MOD/DOD asset in a post USS Cole era ? In the UK or not...

Business as usual I guess till the next atrocity.

Stay Safe !

[JackRyanCIA]

Shoot the monkey mucks!

[Grampa Dave]

Exactly!

Establish a quarantee zone or restricted zone of at least one half mile past the docks. Put buoys out with warnings that entrance into this zone will result in shoot to kill responses.

Have some SAS snipers on watch 24/7 to handle any Zodiac type boats. Then have some 50 caliber crews with depleted Uranium slugs at the end of every dock for the bigger boats.

Give the order to shoot to kill if the Quarantee Zone is penetrated!

[Grampa Dave]

So how much did Uncle Soddomite pay his Green Jihadists, Greenpeace to conduct this little farce?

[dinodino]

...or a frogman with a knife.

[Let's Roll]

And then they would discover how long they can tread water.

[El Sordo]

"Somebody needs to grab a porpoise, hold a gun to its head and threaten to "cap his ass" if the Greenpeace ship does not give way."

Chuckle...

Thanks, I needed that this morning.

[lepton]

They are much more aggressive than the French.

But the French don't have to put up with the French throwing a public hissy-fit.

[Travis McGee]

Hard to believe they have not put a "deadly force authorized" zone around that ship post Cole.

[yankeedame]

Somebody needs to grab a porpoise, hold a gun to its head and threaten to "cap his ass" if the Greenpeace ship does not give way.

ROFL!!! And, you know...it's just so crazy it might work!

[a_Turk]

Well then, I'm sort of glad we're not the only entity whose war on terror is hampered by "western civilization.."

[Just mythoughts]

LOL Tug them out into open water first.

[Just mythoughts]

This actually sounds like a DNC funding if they had any money, maybe that's why the don't.

[Grampa Dave]

Both probably get a lot of funding from the Opecker Islamofacists like from their favorite Uncle, Soddomite.

[Hoverbug]

You beat me to the punch.

I guess the lesson learned today is that terrorists need only dress up like a green-piece(OS), get in with the other boats and BAM!

'Course, a suicide bomber would never do that. He might get killed!

This sounds like GB might run their part of this war like we ran Vietnam, delivering the message that they're not really committed to this thing, and giving encouragement to the enemy to resist.

I noticed green-piece(OS) didn't do anything like this in the U.S. when the ships were loading and getting ready to depart.

Wassa matter green-piece(OS), chicken?

[cubreporter]

Excuse me? Blocking the Army supplies? Excuse me? Someone better take control of this situation and soon!

[Squantos]

LOL.....Agree on the Greenpiece OS thingie, Welcome to FR BTW........Stay Safe !

[finnman69]

Unbelievable...after the USS Cole bombing, why do they let any non official boat or vessel approach any military related traffic.

[cmsgop]

Are there anymore pics of this?