End Japan's illegal whaling and FREE CAPTAIN PAUL WATSON!
brianlux
Posts: 41,820
Japan is at it again, killing whales despite universal laws prohibiting whaling. Please consider checking out Operation Kangie Maru here to see how to help stop this illegal slaughter:
Thank you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoRPKRxnwH8&t=1s“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
Variously credited to Mark Twain or Edward Abbey.
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this song is meant to be called i got shit,itshould be called i got shit tickets-hartford 06 -
Greed and money, sorry to say.
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this song is meant to be called i got shit,itshould be called i got shit tickets-hartford 06 -
On the morning of Sunday, July 21st, Captain Paul Watson was arrested upon arrival in Nuuk, Greenland by Danish federal police.
Captain Watson, on board his 72-meter flagship the M/Y John Paul DeJoria stopped in Greenland with 25 volunteer crew to refuel, en route to the NorthWest Passage as a part of the CPWF’s Operation Kangei Maru, a mission to intercept Japan’s newly-built factory whaling ship Kangei Maru in the North Pacific.
“We were here and arrested Paul due to an international arrest order from Japan”, stated the commanding officer of the Danish federal police at the site of the arrest. The crew were given no further information.
The arrest is believed to be related to a former Red Notice issued for Captain Watson’s previous anti-whaling interventions in the Antarctic region. Japan’s Antarctic research whaling program JARPA was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2014.
“We’re completely shocked, as the Red Notice had disappeared a few months ago. We were surprised because it could mean that it had been erased or made confidential. We understand now that Japan made it confidential to lure Paul into a false sense of security. We implore the Danish government to release Captain Watson and not entertain this politically-motivated request”, stated Locky MacLean, Ship Operation’s Director for CPWF.
Operating in breach of the ICJ ruling for several years, Japan eventually ceased Antarctic high-seas whaling in 2016, and now only hunts whales within its territorial waters. CPWF believes Japan plans to resume high-seas whaling in the Southern Ocean and North Pacific as early as 2025, and the reactivation of the Red Notice against Captain Watson is politically motivated and coincides with the launch of a newly-built factory whale processing vessel.
In Nuuk, over a dozen Danish police and SWAT team members boarded the M/Y John Paul DeJoria as soon as it made port. After a handcuffed Captain Watson was led off of the ship, he was taken to the local police station. The crew and Foundation have no means of contacting him and have had no further news. At the time of writing, Watson remains in custody and it is unknown whether Denmark will allow Mr. Watson to be extradited to Japan.
#FREEPAULWATSON
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C970E0-h7VS/?igsh=MWd3ZXE3a2c4NTltdQ==
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
This is excellent! Very glad to see this, thanks!
All who are against illegal whaling say, FREE PAUL WATSON!
Paul’s Legal Battle Explained
On July 21, 2024, Paul Watson was ambushed and arrested in Nuuk, Greenland. But this is not the first time he has faced injustice, nor will it deter us from our mission.
How did we get here? Let's go back to February 11, 2010. Two crewmembers on the Japanese whaling vessel, Shonan Maru 2, fired pepper spray at four anti-whaling activists in an inflatable boat. The wind turned their weapon back on them, but they claimed that a glass stink bomb injured them instead. That incident, based on distorted facts, became the first of many charges against Paul. To see footage of the actual event filmed by Animal Planet by helicopter, click here.
Charge #1. Bodily injury (§204 of the penal code) Anyone who injures the body of another is liable to imprisonment for up to 15 years or a fine of up to 500,000 yen.
On February 15, 2010, New Zealand citizen Peter Bethune cut a small net in order to board the Shonan Maru 2. Peter Bethune gained entry onto the whaling ship to request reimbursement from the Japanese Captain who rammed his vessel, the Ady Gil, (formerly Pet Bethune’s vessel called EarthRace) on January 6th 2010, slicing it in two and ultimately causing it to sink. To see footage of the attack on the Ady Gil and its crew, click here.
Charge #2. -Intrusion into boats and ships (§ 130 of the Penal Code) and damage to property (1) Any person who intrudes into the home of another or into the houses, buildings or boats or ships under the surveillance of a person and does not leave these places when requested to do so by the authorised person shall be liable to a term of imprisonment not exceeding three years or a fine not exceeding 100,000 yen.
Despite the destruction of his ship, Peter Bethune was sent to prison in Japan and served a suspended sentence (4 months in jail, 2 year suspended sentence and deportation). Under duress, Peter confessed that Paul Watson ordered him to board the ship—a claim he later retracted, revealing the coercion he faced in Japanese custody. This fabricated confession added a conspiracy charge against Paul.
Charge #3. Conspiracy: If two or more persons commit an offence together, all persons are considered to be the main offenders.
From 2010 until May 2012, Paul traveled freely. But suddenly, Japan's influence led to his arrest in Germany. A decade-old warrant from Costa Rica, driven by Japan, sought to silence him. Yet, the charges were dismissed, and Paul resumed his fight for the oceans.
Fast forward to July 21, 2024. Paul is arrested once more, this time by Denmark, under Japan's influence. It's clear that Japan’s obsession with revenge outweighs any concern for justice. Their whaling practices were exposed to the world by Animal Planet’s TV show Whale Wars, and their retaliation is to persecute the man who brought their illegal Antarctic whaling operations to light.
Japan's latest accusation claims Paul conspired to impede commerce. Yet, Japan claimed at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that its whaling activities in Antarctica were authorized under Article VIII of the IWC Convention, which provides for each Contracting Government to issue special permits for whaling involved in scientific research. So which is it, research or commerce? Their contradictory claims only highlight the truth: these charges are baseless and politically motivated. Furthermore the ICJ at the Hague determined Japan was whaling illegally in Antarctica, a suit filed by the Governments of Australia and New Zealand.
Paul Watson is a symbol of our collective resolve, and his imprisonment will not stop us. This year, Japan built a new killing machine, the Kangei Maru, aimed at whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. We cannot and will not allow this to happen.
We will not rest until whaling is banned globally. We fight not just for ourselves, but for our children, our grandchildren, our great grandchildren, and our planet.
For the Oceans,
The Captain Paul Watson Foundation
Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson says Japan seeking to make an example of him
In an interview from jail in Greenland with the AFP news agency, the anti-whaling activist said Tokyo has a vendetta against him
Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson has said that authorities in Tokyo are seeking to make an example of him, as he awaits a possible extradition to Japan, while in detention in a Greenland prison.
Speaking to the AFP news agency, the 73-year-old US-Canadian campaigner said his time behind bars has not prevented him from continuing his fight to save whales.
“If they think it prevents our opposition, I’ve just changed ship. My ship right now is Prison Nuuk,” Watson said, a reference to Greenland’s Nuuk Prison.
Watson was arrested in July in Nuuk, the capital of the autonomous Danish territory of Greenland, on the basis of a 2012 Interpol arrest warrant issued by Japan, which accuses him of causing damage to one of its whaling ships in 2010 in the Antarctic.
The warrant also claims he injured a Japanese crew member with a stink bomb intended to disrupt the whalers’ activities. Japan has asked Denmark to extradite him to face trial. Watson is being held behind bars pending the government’s decision.
Watson and his legal team insist Tokyo has a vendetta against him.
“They want to set an example that you don’t mess around with their whaling,” Watson told AFP, adding “the lawyers tell me they’re going to extend my detention.”
The Nuuk court is to decide on 4 September whether to prolong his custody.
Watson, who featured in the reality TV series Whale Wars and founded Sea Shepherd as well as the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF), is known for radical tactics including confrontations with whaling ships at sea.
In 2012, he was arrested in Germany at the request of Costa Rica over another incident. He was released on bail and required to report to police daily, but he left the country to avoid extradition.
More than 100,000 people across the world have signed a petition calling for his release.
French president Emmanuel Macron’s office has asked Denmark not to extradite the activist, as has Brigitte Bardot, the French actor turned animal rights activist. Watson has lived in France for almost two years.
“Denmark is in a very difficult place,” he said. “They can’t extradite me because first they are vocal proponents of human rights,” adding that the Japanese judicial system was “medieval”.
“I didn’t do anything, and even if I did the sentence would be [a fine of] 1,500 kroner ($223) in Denmark – not even a prison sentence – while Japan wants to sentence me to 15 years.”
From his cell in the modern grey prison building overlooking the sea, Watson said he watch as whales and icebergs pass by his window.
“In 1974, my objective was to eradicate whaling, and I hope to do that before I die.”
But he insists that he and his co-activists are “not a protest organisation”.
“We’re an enforcement organisation” ensuring that the seas are protected, he said, rejecting the label of ecoterrorist sometimes used against him.
“I do aggressive non-violence interference.”
“There is no contradiction between aggressive and non-violence – it means that I will try and get the knife from the person trying to kill a whale, but I won’t hurt them.”
“I don’t cross the line, I’ve never hurt anyone,” he said.
I thought you’d like to know that Ed came out and spoke to the crowd about the arrest of Paul Watson and urged everyone to speak up and write to the Danish government.
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this song is meant to be called i got shit,itshould be called i got shit tickets-hartford 06 -
You're talking about two different subjects. One is protecting whales and ocean life that are endangered, and the other, your passionate advocacy for people to become vegan/ vegetarian. Two different topics. I honor your beliefs for your cause, but do not appreciate you thread crapping here. Please take it somewhere else. Thank you.
"Justice Delayed is Justice Denied"
Written by Captain Paul Watson inside Nuuk Prison
October 2, 2024
Today is my 73rd day of incarceration in Nuuk prison and it was my 4th appearance in the Greenland court. It was what I expected, the judge refused documentation and arguments from my defense team and ordered me detained for an additional 28 days. That means 91 days on a bogus accusation on a very minor offense from 14 years ago for something I did not participate in.
It's a classic case of “Justice delayed is Justice denied”.
The court has all the evidence, they have all the information needed to make a decision. It is clearly quite political.
The judge sat the bench like a stone
Evidence he denied to be shown
The prosecutor scowled
With contempt for the crowd
Her bias reflected in her tone
And so my friends it’s back to my cell with a view, where I can see the icebergs in the fjord and the occasional breach of a humpback whale to remind me why I am here.
I can endure the time for however long it takes. My only concern, my only regret is separation from my wife and our two little boys. I am not here because I am a criminal. I am here for opposing a criminal enterprise with the most deadly of weapons – a camera.
With our cameras we exposed the crimes of the Japanese whaling industry and in so doing, we embarrassed the proud nation of Japan, bringing their unlawful activities into the living rooms of millions of people around the world with our Animal Planet television show “Whale Wars”.
Japanese whaling is not a criminal enterprise because I say so. It is a criminal operation for violating the 1986 International Whaling Commission’s Global Moratorium on Commercial Whaling. Japan’s argument of it being a research effort and non-commercial was shut down in 2014 by the world’s highest court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague. This ruled that slaughtering whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary was not research. It is commercial.
The whalers went to sea you see,
To see how many whales to kill, you see
We caught them in the act
An indisputable fact
And drove them from the sea, you see
In addition, the Japanese whalers deliberately rammed and destroyed a two million (US) dollar catamaran, broke the rib of an Animal Planet cameraman, pitching 6 crewmembers into the frigid waters of the Southern Ocean, refusing to rescue them. In the face of the documented violence, the whalers suffered no consequences. When the Greenlandic prosecutor claims that a single Japanese whaler suffered a blister on his cheek, from the chemical pepper spray from his own crew, something she describes as a crime of severity, it illustrates the almost comical absurdity of the charges.
What she claims is trespassing is captured on film showing Pete Bethune politely knocking on the wheelhouse door of the Shonan Maru, the door opens, he hands the Japanese captain a letter of complaint and a request for compensation for the ship they deliberately destroyed. The Japanese response was to kidnap captain Bethune and to transport him to Japan to charge him with trespassing, obstruction of business, and assault. He was interrogated daily until he confessed to the charges although he refused to confess to assault.
It was only after a coerced confession was he brought before a judge where a deal was made. A suspended sentence in exchange for a statement that I ordered him to take these actions. He was then released and allowed to return home and a warrant was issued against me for conspiracy.
After his release, Pete Bethune signed an affidavit stating he lied in exchange for the suspended sentence. His accusation was the sole evidence that Japan used against me, but despite the retraction by captain Bethune, the Japanese prosecutor refused to drop the charges against me.
The whalers sliced his boat in two
Our cameras have proved this true
Pete Bethune was kidnapped
The evidence was scrapped
By the criminal whaling crew
What makes my incarceration bearable is the tremendous worldwide support I am receiving. Hundreds of thousands of names signing petitions for my release. So many demonstrations in hundreds of places around the globe, thousands of calls to the Danish Embassies and Consulates, the support of world leaders like President Macron of France and President Lula of Brazil, numerous celebrities, concerts held on my behalf. Such an incredible outpouring of love and support all brought together by our collective love and respect for whales and dolphins, diversity and interdependence of all life in the sea and on land.
The enemy has been clearly identified
Five thousand people from many a state
Protesting with actions, petitions and art
All united in opposing cetacide
It’s compassion we seek to instigate
Fired by courage born deep in the heart.
I am so very grateful for the 2,300 letters I have received in prison from over 30 countries. I am especially grateful and very much touched by the hundreds of letters from children, many accompanied with drawings of whales or poems.
Every poem, every drawing of a whale
Sent by children from around the Ocean
Delivered here behind this prison wall
Provides a storm of hope to fill my soul
Unleashing a tsunami of emotion
From across the blue shroud I hear them call.
I am in this prison cell for another four weeks, so please continue to raise your voices. It means a great deal and it is effective. Please continue to contact Danish Embassies and Consulates. And please continue to send me your letters, drawings and poems. The prison guards tell me they have never seen anyone receive so much mail and your letters very much reflect the level of support. It also keeps me busy because I read every piece of mail. I try to answer as many as I can although it has been difficult because I am still recovering from the handcuff injury to my writing hand (my left hand). However, when I am released, I will answer every letter with a certificate of appreciation for your support. You all give me strength.
A very special thank you to Lamya Essemlali, the President of Sea Shepherd France, to Elodie, and Christelle for making the numerous trips from France to Nuuk, Greenland. They have been with me for every court appearance. Thank you also to Nathalie Gil, the President of Sea Shepherd Brazil, who made the long trip from Brazil to attend one of my appearances. Thank you to Rod Marining, who along with myself was a co-founder of Greenpeace. He journeyed all the way from Vancouver to visit me. Thanks also for the visits from Omar Todd, Kylie Herd, and Rob Read from the Captain Paul Watson Foundation for making the long trip to visit me. Thanks to Locky MacLean and Dior for visiting me and the crew of the John Paul DeJoria for attending my first court appearance. Thanks to Vakita from France, Nat Geo from the USA, and other film crews from Denmark, France, and the UK for visiting and interviewing me in this prison.
My Nordic jail cell has an amazing view,
Of the wild wide fjord that lies before me
Studded with jagged bergy bits of ice
Where great whales breach upon the Ocean blue
Happy and free in the Greenlandic sea
A wondrous site worthy of sacrifice.
Captain Paul Watson
Nuuk Prison, Greenland
To send letters to Paul in prison, please address them to:
Anstalten Prison
c/o Paul Watson
Nuuk, Greenland
DK-3900
Click here to sign the Peition
Click here for other ways to help #freepaulwatson
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT
Once again, Judge Lars-Christian Sinkbæk has extended Paul Watson's detention by an additional three weeks, postponing his next hearing until November 13, 2024. This delay only prolongs the injustice he faces!
"Today we argued that the case is being expedited too slowly. The time Paul Watson has spent in detention since July is completely disproportionate, even if he had committed the acts he's accused of, which he has not. He has effectively already served the equivalent of a sentence.” - Finn Meinel, Paul Watson Defense.
Captain Watson has dedicated over 50 years to protecting our oceans and marine life, yet he remains in detention while Denmark and Japan continue to deny him justice.
YOUR support is essential in preventing Paul's extradition! It is imperative to convey to global leaders that we will not remain passive spectators while Japan and Denmark unjustly incarcerate Ocean Defender, Paul Watson.
Please continue to email the Danish Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard and ask for the immediate release of Captain Watson
Phone: +45 7226 8400
Mail: jm@jm.dk
Tag Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen on your social posts @mette
Use the hashtag #FREEPAULWATSON on all social media posts
Sign the Petition by clicking here
Coordinate protests, contact celebrities, contact your local governments, and share this message with everyone you know. Thank you for all of your efforts!
Write to Paul in Prison
Anstalten Prison
C/O Paul Watson
Nuuk, Greenland
DK-3900
For the Oceans, For Justice -
The Captain Paul Watson Foundation