Posted on 01/15/2008 7:43:41 PM PST by Stoat
This is the moment a British anti-whaling activist was taken captive on a Japanese harpoon ship.
Giles Lane appears to be crying out in pain as the sailors surround him and bind him.
In the dramatic pictures his companion, an Australian, is wrapped around with rope and seems powerless to help.
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Captured: Giles Lane, left, appears to cry out while his Australian companion (right) looks on
Colleagues of the pair in the Sea Shepherd marine protection organisation claim they were later tied to the radar mast in the freezing cold as the vessel sped from the area in the Antarctic.
"They have assaulted and kidnapped two of my crew," said Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd vessel Steve Irwin.
The Japanese Whaling Association last night denied the men had been tied to the mast, but admitted they were being held on board the Yushin Maru.
A spokesman claimed that Mr Lane, 36, from Cuckfield, in West Sussex, and Australian Benjamin Potts had boarded the ship illegally and intended to entangle the vessel's propellers with rope and throw bottles of acid on the decks.
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Sea spray: The Yushin Maru crew turn a high pressure hose on the men as they approach
The sensational confrontation came hours after an Australian court banned Japan from whaling in its Antarctic waters.
The ruling applies to a sanctuary declared by Australia in 2000 - which Japan does not recognise.
Some of its ships are already in the area for a planned cull of 1,000 fin and minke whales for "scientific research".
When crew members on board the Steve Irwin learned of the judgment they clapped and cheered, then tried to send a radio message to a fleet they had been shadowing for three days.
The Japanese failed to respond, so Captain Watson decided to send Mr Lane and Mr Potts to one of the ships, the Yushin Maru, to deliver a letter outlining the judgment and demanding that the whaling stop immediately.
First the sailors turned high-pressure hoses on them. And Captain Watson said that as soon as the two men boarded the ship by clambering up a ladder the Japanese set upon them.
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Illegal: Japanese whalers have been banned from hunting in Australian waters by a court judgment
"First of all they tried to throw Benjamin Potts overboard, but he managed to get his way out of that," he said.
"Then they assaulted Giles Lane. He seems to be in some pain.
"They tied him up with an incredible number of ropes. It looks like some kind of bondage movie. It's ridiculous."
There are concerns now for the safety of the two men in the freezing conditions.
In Tokyo last night, Makoto Ito, spokesman for the Japanese Whaling Association denied they had been tied to a mast.
"It is illegal to board another country's vessels on the high seas. As a result, at this stage, they are being held in custody while decisions are made on their future," he said.
"This is just propaganda by Sea Shepherd," he added. "I believe the two men are on the boat but we cannot give further details at this time.
"Sea Shepherd has been harassing our research vessels, but no one is bound to the mast of the Yushin Maru."
There are also concerns that more serious confrontations will occur in coming days when an Australian government vessel arrives in the area.
The converted cruise liner has a number of weapons on board - and environmentalists believe it will try to drive the Japanese out.
“Mine the waters! Perhaps then Japan will recognize Australias sovereignty.”
This did not happen in Australia’s national waters. It happened in a whale sanctuary that Australia “declared” off limits. The U.S., I think, does not even recognize this sanctuary. So an Australian court really has no say so over what goes on here.
Black Bart was a stage couch robber in old California. He was famous for leaving poems at his crime scences
Back in the times when criminals had a sense of style, unlike today's lot who can only come up with throwing acid on people. No style, no class, no honor from criminals nowadays.
If you want to know more about Black Bart purchase the book Bad Company by Joseph Henry Jackson. A good read.
Thanks very much; sincerely appreciated :-)
I am unfamilair with laws on the high seas, but to my knowledge the captain has absolute authoirty on his ship. It is why ships have brigs.
Thank you for chatting; goodnight :-)
I believe that Captains do indeed have quite a bit of authority, but I don't believe that all ships are going to have a dedicated 'brig' per se. It looks as though this Japanese ship will have to make do with several tough sailors carrying lengths of lead pipe stationed outside of an office door :-)
Hopefully these terrorists will attempt an escape and invoke the wrath of some people who have been eating way too much fish.......
Australia does not have a navy?
...putting them in violation of International Whaling Commission rules.
I don't recognize the authority of "international law." There is no such thing.
I don't recognize any "international law." Japan is still under the terms of unconditional surrender to the United States at the end of WWII.
The Japanese did not surrender to the UN, nor did they surrender to Australia.
Here in the Puget Sound in Washington state, it is way, way, way to common to see hundreds of salmon lying on beaches, private and public, whole except for the eggs which are on their way to Japan.
Japan is still under the terms of unconditional surrender to the United States.
Our overwhelmingly (D)state legislature's response to this abridgment of sovereign nation conservationism?
Cash the tribe's campaign donations and shut down fisheries to everyone else.
Yes. Liberals. Here in Oregon, these idiots have been screwing with the fishing regulations too. And they don't want the "farmed fish" either. In California, they have severely limited fishing. There are plenty of fish out there and I have seen them.
Understand that I do not like these practices, but I am not willing to surrender my rights to any global governing body. This would include my free speech and my right to defend myself.
These Greenpeace a$$holes are Communists and should be shot for piracy...
As a matter of fact, the Japanese did surrender to Australia as well as the United States.
The man standing directly behind General MacArthur is General (later Field Marshal) Sir Thomas Blamey, Commander-in-Chief Australian Military Forces, Commander of Allied Land Forces, South West Pacific.
Shortly after that photo was taken he accepted the Japanese surrender on behalf of the government of Australia.
(LMAO!)
British anti-whaling protester held hostage on Japanese harpoon ship offered whale meat for dinner
How prescient you are :-)
British anti-whaling protester held hostage on Japanese harpoon ship offered whale meat for dinner
Yes, he accepted the surrender of Japan to the United States. Japan surrendered to the USA.
No, Japan surrendered to the Allied Powers.
I can quote the Instrument of Surrender if you like. I could just about recite it, as I had to write the bloody thing out by hand twenty times when I was at the Royal Australian Naval College.
You may cite away all the diplomatic paperwork, but it was indeed a surrender to the USA because we are the only ones who can enforce it.
How many forces does Australia have in Japan?
Do not think I am beating on the Australians by asking, because nothing would be so grievously heinous as to suggest Australians do not have that spirit of bravery and valor in battle as us Yanks, which both of us have inherited from British military tradition...
But, given the current political climate of both Britain and Australia, the lack of men who will actually fight the Islamofascists in their own countries, and the confiscation of firearms from the general populace, how the hell do you suppose you are going to tell a technically advanced society like Japan they cannot run whaling ships in the South Pacific?
What are you going to fight them with? Spitballs?
I don’t deny that the United States was the nation that, by a very great margin, had the most effect on the outcome of the War in the Pacific. That war could probably not have been won without the United States. It could have still been won if any other allied nation had not been involved.
Nonetheless, as a matter of fact and law, the Japanese surrendered to all the Allied Powers. They did not specifically surrender only to the United States.
Australian doesn’t currently have any forces stationed in Japan, but Australians served as part of the Occupying Force until 1951.
Do I believe Australia could take on Japan militarily today? No. The Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force is over twice the size of the Royal Australian Navy, and while we’re probably more experienced, experience isn’t enough to overcome the numerical gap.
But if Australia decides to enforce Australian law (or at least what the Federal Court has said Australian law is - personally, I don’t think our claim over Antarctica is valid, and therefore the waters the Japanese are whaling are not part of an Australian whale sanctuary), it won’t involve war with Japan. It will be a Customs and Fisheries exercise - something we are very experienced at, and extremely good at.
Yes, we could do that.
I don’t think we will, because a diplomatic approach is more likely to be successful in the long term, and aggressive action would make that less likely to work. But, yes, we could deal with the Japanese whaling fleet, quite successfully, if we wanted to.
I would also make the point that Australia has been engaged in military operations against Islamists since 1999.
And contrary to lies spread by certain political groups in America, Australians have not been disarmed. I’m a gun owner myself - one of hundreds of thousands, holding million of firearms in private hands.
Law only means something if there is force to back it.
The Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force is over twice the size of the Royal Australian Navy,...
My point exactly. International waters.
I would also make the point that Australia has been engaged in military operations against Islamists since 1999.
I know this. You have problems at home with them as well. So does Britiain and the USA... The welfare of whales is the last thing I care about...
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