Australia’s crackpot left has once again thrown its lot in with eco-terrorist group Sea Shepherd, demanding Japan release operative Peter Bethune, arrested for illegally boarding a whaling vessel on the high seas, supposedly in an effort to capture it.
After former Sea Shepherd captain Peter Bethune (a New Zealand national) boarded the Japanese whaler, he was held in loose confinement onboard whilst the ship made its way back to Japan, then transferred to Tokyo where he was arrested pending an investigation by the Japan Coast Guard.
Sea Shepherd’s backers in the Australian Green Party vow that they will see him escape punishment for his crimes, and Green leader Senator Bob Brown called on Australian Prime Minister Rudd to secure the terrorist’s release.
Grandstanding for the cameras, he fraudulently claimed Japan “has no jury system” and highlights the “98%” conviction rate of Japanese courts, apparently implying that fair trials are impossible there as a result:
“There will be an international campaign to free Peter Bethune so if either the Australian or New Zealand authorities thought it was all going to die away, it will not.
The crew on the Shonan Maru No.2 ought to be in the dock and the ship impounded … for illegal whaling and illegally refuelling in the Antarctic and illegally running down the Ady Gil.”
As well as calling for the release of a pirate and terrorist, the party also criticised its own government for allowing federal police to conduct searches of Sea Shepherd vessels, accusing them of being in Tokyo’s thrall, a charge which would undoubtedly strike many in Japan as ironic considering the unerringly supine position of their own government in international relations.
Sea Shepherd for its part still intends to charge Japan with piracy after the loss of one of its vessels during risky maneuvers for the cameras.
Meanwhile Japanese media gleefully reports how the confined skipper happily tucked in to meals of meat and fish on the voyage back to Japan, despite supposedly enforcing a strictly vegetarian diet on his own vessel.
The year’s theatrics have otherwise subsided, with Japanese whalers thought to have taken about 700 Minke whales in the season, of a global population estimated to be around 1,000,000. How much Sea Shepherd received in donations is not recorded.
I love Australia but wtf?
Meat and fish meals were provided as a taunt. Had he asked for vegetarian meals, they would have been denied, I think. And I’m not even advocating for vegans: I am a red meat person myself.
A pirate? He doesn’t make financial profit by boarding the whalers. If h sold the product of their hauls or sold the ships, or the crew as slaves yes, that would make him a pirate. So… no.
A terrorist? Because he forcefully stops japanese vessels from whaling when whaling as a whole should not happen? Japanese whalers still slaughter an endagered species just to satisfy the tastes of their clientele in the name of “cultural traditions” and under the cover of “scientific research” which is not just a lie, but an official insult to the intelligence of whomever they will tell this to. So… terrorist, no. He is even kinder than he should be.
It’s not a matter of “left” or “right” or whatever political bullshit you want to pull into this. It’s about one guy who does what should be done, whil those legally required to enforce the international laws just have their thumbs in their arses. Just being japanese doesn’t mean you’re right about everything. Even on Sankaku.
Man…. its too hard to get the Japs to stop whaling, its what they take pride in and belongs to a part of their “culture”. But if its just for the sake of one country’s culture that’s going to diminish the number of a species that we have on our planet, then its better to cut down and restrain oneself (or one country) to stop harming the planet.
Human beings have already done enough damage to the planet and where do those numbers even come from? Wiki ? JP sites that promotes whaling? And guys, I don’t think they’re “using” the whales’ leftover carcass as meat, they’re hunting them FOR the meat in the name of scientific research. Which is the same as a cannibal eating another human and saying that he/she is doing this in the name of “anthropological research” for the delicacy of the human race =_+
LOL eat whale is NOT SAME as eat HUMAN, u stupid !
This is where greenpeace gets it wrong instead of doing these stupid pacifist operations the sea shepherded should lay sea in in whaling waters you soon see a big reduction of whalers after a few boats have hit the mines.
You’re right, some whales are smarter than some humans..
Do your wailing in ur own sea! Soon there won’t be any left for you to murder!
even there’s no whale well they can still alive . LOL . stupid people ! nature is there to serve humans
So the shonan maru 2 rams a sea shepherd boat, capsizes it, ignores the distress calls, and peter bethune is the bad guy?
Yeah, I know, and the Jews ruined Germany’s economy and suddenly Hitler is a war criminal. Yeesh.