Free Republic

TOKYO — The leader of a U.S.-based anti-whaling organization is now on an international wanted list for allegedly masterminding the group's disruption of Japanese whale hunts in the Antarctic Ocean, Japan's coast guard said Friday. The move — done at Japan's request — signals Tokyo's escalating anger against the Sea Shepherd group, which it accuses of putting whalers' lives at risk during the annual Antarctic hunt. The Canadian founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Paul Watson, 59, has been on the Interpol list since Wednesday, Coast Guard spokesman Shinichiro Tanaka said. He said Watson's whereabouts is unknown. [excerpt]

Japan plans to seek an international arrest warrant against the leader of the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd over tense high-seas clashes, the nation's public broadcaster says. The Japan Coast Guard has obtained an arrest warrant in Tokyo against 59-year-old Canadian Paul Watson for allegedly instructing members of his group to obstruct Japan's whaling mission and causing injury to Japanese crew, NHK said on Friday. Japan will seek his arrest through the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol), NHK said. No immediate confirmation of the report was available from the coast guard. The last ship of Japan's Antarctic whaling fleet sailed home...

Extra funds to support ongoing project to protect the Galapagos Marine Reserve On February 4th, 2010, at the Goed Geld Gala in Utrecht, the Netherlands, the Dutch National Postcode Lottery not only donated the annual amount of half a million Euros, they also handed over an additional check worth €1 million to Geert Vons, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s General Director of the Netherlands and Alex Cornelissen, Director of Operations, Galapagos. The extra funds will support Sea Shepherd’s ongoing efforts to protect the Galapagos, a UN World Heritage Site. Despite clear rules and legislation, commercial fisheries are still exploiting the legally...

The Sea Shepherd's anti-whaling speedboat Ady Gill has sunk after it was sliced in two by a Japanese whaling vessel during a clash in the Southern Ocean on Wednesday. Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson told ABC News Breakfast the Ady Gill went down shortly before 3:30am AEDT while it was being towed to a French research base by the group's Bob Barker boat. "I think they were towing for about six or seven hours," he said. "Even the act of towing was taking more water on. The Japanese vessel had cut the vessel completely in half and made it unseaworthy."...

The captain and first officer of the anti-sealing ship the Farley Mowat were due to appear in court in Sydney, N.S., on Sunday, a day after their arrest off the west coast of Newfoundland. They have been charged with interfering with the seal hunt after a confrontation with a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker two weeks ago. Their vessel was boarded and seized Saturday in the Gulf of St. Lawrence by RCMP officers, working with officials from the federal Fisheries Department and the coast guard... Paul Watson of the international group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which owns the vessel, said its...

Activist a 'pirate,' not eco-terrorist By ROD MCGUIRK ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER MELBOURNE, Australia -- Paul Watson flies the Jolly Roger from his ship and boasts of ramming more boats than any living seafarer, part of an anti-whaling crusade that even Greenpeace calls too radical. Watson and his group came under withering criticism this season, summer in the Antarctic, for tactics that some say put the lives of whales above the lives of people. A Japanese whaling ship caught fire after being chased and harassed by Watson's fleet, the ships and volunteers of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which not only...

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat is now officially a pirate vessel. We are at sea without a flag, in search of illegal whaling operations in hostile and remote waters at the bottom of the world. The Farley Mowat cleared Australian Customs in Hobart, Tasmania on December 29, 2006 only hours before the nation of Belize struck our flag. The Belize registry had only been issued ten days before on December 19, 2006 The Belize registry was sought after Britain pulled the registry in early December the same day it was issued. In October, the Farley Mowat, registered...

For many of those who contribute to the Sea Shepherd Society, Paul Watson is recognized as a man who cares about nature and has dedicated his life to protecting it. I don’t doubt that there is some truth to that perception, but many others outside his sphere of influence also recognize him as nothing more than a home grown terrorist.

“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...

The guise of modern-day terrorism is no longer limited to Palestinian suicide-bombers or the visceral images of the tragedy of 9/11. In a world of ever-increasing ideological disharmony, a new, equally violent terrorist has emerged – the eco-terrorist. Like the purveyors of radical Islamic terrorism, the eco-terrorist uses fear, intimidation, and violence in attainment of its goal, which for the eco-terrorist is simply the reclamation of the Earth to its pre-humanity condition, no matter what the cost. Heading-up this domestic terrorist offensive of radical animal-rights and extreme environmentalism is Paul Watson, who, even amidst the nation’s grief over 9/11, made...

A serious problem with the most commonly used internet communications protocol has been revealed by computer experts. Experts say the flaw in the Transmission Control Protocol (TPC) could be used to knock out many brands of router - the machines that direct traffic between computer networks on the internet.Details were revealed in an advisory issued by the UK government's National Infrastructure Security Co-Ordination Centre (NISCOC) on Tuesday. The advisory rates the issue as "critical" but states that different hardware and software will be affected to different degrees. Roger Cumming, director of NISCOC says exploitation of this vulnerability could affect the...

NEW DELHI — Once bitter foes, India and Israel plan to strengthen their defense, intelligence and trade ties when Ariel Sharon attends a summit here today in the first official visit by an Israeli prime minister. Although Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Sharon are expected to sign a joint declaration on drug trafficking, the environment and other issues, the most significant deals are likely to be negotiated behind the scenes. Flush from a booming economy, India has gone on an arms-buying spree and wants to purchase advanced systems from Israel. At the top of the shopping list is...

WAR WITH IRAQ Rioters Stab L.A. Times ReporterBy Paul WatsonTimes Staff Writer April 16, 2003 MOSUL, Iraq --[...] But the mob wanted blood, and I could see two men who had pulled out knives. "Let me through — I want to kill him!" screamed one. After several minutes of struggling and stone-throwing, the mob knocked me to the ground and kicked me repeatedly in the head and back before stabbing me in the buttocks.[...]