Did Ashcroft go too far in Greenpeace indictment?

Bergen Record ^ | Tuesday, November 4, 2003 | JONATHAN TURLEY

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IT HAS lain dormant in the darkest recesses of American law for 125 years, but last month Attorney General John Ashcroft introduced critics of the administration to his latest weapon in law enforcement.

In a Miami federal court, the attorney general charged the environmental group Greenpeace under an obscure 1872 law originally intended to end the practice of "sailor-mongering," or the luring of sailors with liquor and prostitutes from their ships. Ashcroft plucked the law from obscurity to punish Greenpeace for boarding a vessel near port in Miami.

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Greenpeace is annoying, but Ashcroft is dangerous.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Did Ashcroft go too far in Greenpeace indictment?

No.

Next question.

[Neanderthal]

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

[JoJo Gunn]

Ashcroft dangerous? Perhaps he's looking at the wrong law book. Supposedly there are laws against being boarded. Piracy, I think it's called....

[JAWs]

STOP THE PRESS GANGS!

[TheBigB]

Screw Greenpeace. I'll take Ashcroft.

[Fierce Allegiance]

I like the resourcefulness. I enjoy my freedom, but if they had boarded my means of providing for my family, they'd have been shot.

[dead]

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

Are you maintaining that Greenpeace actually mongered some sailors?

[goodnesswins]

"Ashcroft's jihad against free speech, however, is not limited to environmentalists. Consider the case of three Dominican nuns. Last year, Sister Ardeth Platte, 66, Sister Jackie Hudson, 68, and Sister Carol Gilbert, 55, participated in a peaceful demonstration for nuclear disarmament."

"As part of the protest, the three nuns cut through a chain-link fence around a Minuteman III missile silo. There is only a light fence because the missile is protected by a 110-ton concrete cap designed to withstand a nuclear explosion. The nuns proceeded to paint crosses on the cap and symbolically hit it with hammers. They then knelt, prayed, sang religious songs, and waited for arrest. The most the government could allege in terms of damage was $3,000."

Soooo....Jonathon Turkey.....if a pro-life person as much as TOUCHED an abortion clinic what would happen?

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Screw Greenpeace. I'll take Ashcroft.

Don’t bitch when Hillary’s president and Andrew Cuomo’s the AG selectively enforcing sailor mongering laws on abortion protestors or the NRA.

[Tai_Chung]

If the law is bad, it should be abolished.

Many don't like enforcing immigration laws either, but it doesn't mean others should ignore it.

[saminfl]

Screw Greenpeace. I'll take Ashcroft.

DITTO!!

[Neanderthal]

"Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

Are you maintaining that Greenpeace actually mongered some sailors?"

I'm referring to the nuns literally. Ashcroft says Greenpeace broke the mongering law, and should "do the time" as well.

[CHUCKfromCAL]

Liberals don't mind when anti-abortion protesters are persecuted and arrested. But they sure don't like it when their groups are threatened.

[Southack]

They should be charged under maritime law for illegal boarding and given the stiffest punishment possible; preferably hanging.

Shoot, GreenPeace certainly isn't complaining about Chirac ordering the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior these days (which killed one GreenPeace sailor), so they should hardly mind any other such punishments.

[CHUCKfromCAL]

Liberals don't mind when anti-abortion protesters are persecuted and arrested. But they sure don't like it when their groups are threatened.

[theDentist]

Greenpeace could lose its tax-exempt status - a potential death knell

Yeeeee-haaawwwwwww!

[PhilipFreneau]

>> Greenpeace is annoying, but Ashcroft is dangerous.

Greenpeace is trash. Ashcroft is the trash man.

[dead]

Liberals don't mind when anti-abortion protesters are persecuted and arrested. But they sure don't like it when their groups are threatened.

Well I’m not liberal. Nor am I as inconsistent as many on this thread.

I don’t support the selective political enforcement of laws against Greenpeace or Operation Rescue.

[rogue yam]

I like the way the article gracefully ellides over the fact that the ship was not engaged in the illegal activity that the Greenpeace pirates proffered as their excuse for interfering with its operations.