Washington State - Gray Whale Hunt: Desperate White House tries to silence activist-heros

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NEWS RELEASE - SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY

 

March 20, 2000

FEDS DESPERATE TO PUNISH WHALE ACTIVISTS

U.S. Attorney grasping at straws in Makah whale hunt cases

 

The U.S. Attorney's Office has disclosed the evidence on which it intends

to base its prosecution of whale activists charged with negligent operation

of a vessel in connection with the active resistance to the Makah whale

hunt off Washington State in May 1999.

 

The government's evidence consists of paint chips from one whale activist's

jet ski, found embedded in the side of a zodiac-type inflatable that was

being piloted by a second activist.

 

" The government is calling scraped paint evidence of reckless operation, "

noted Sea Shepherd Conservation Society President Paul Watson. " Two vessels

came alongside in rough seas so the pilots could communicate with each

other. If it was a violation whenever two vessels lost paint when they came

alongside or docked at a port facility, every sea captain in the world

would be in jail. "

 

No charges have been filed in connection with violation of the Coast

Guard's 100-yard " exclusion zone " that was declared around the whale

hunting vessels.

 

" The U.S. Attorney was unable to bring charges against us for anything we

did to the whale hunters, and has wisely elected not to put the blatantly

unconstitutional exclusion zone on trial, " said Watson; " this is the best

they can do. Trumped-up charges like this are a sign of strings being

pulled higher up. The green light for the Makah whale hunt came straight

from the White House, and we have every reason to believe that this is from

the same source. "

 

In further evidence of political tampering, Lt. Commander Michael J. Lodge,

Principal Assistant Legal Officer for the U.S. Coast Guard's 13th District,

has been appointed the Special Assistant U.S. Attorney to prosecute the

cases. " The Coast Guard has committed itself to win at any cost - even if

U.S. citizens' rights are trampled in the process, " said Watson. " They

arrested these people, and now they're prosecuting them in court. What's

next? A Coast Guard judge and jury? "

 

The two activists -- Cheryl Rorabeck-Siler of Nehalem, Oregon, and Alison

Lance, a Sea Shepherd volunteer -- will be tried in federal court in

Tacoma, Washington, this spring. Similar charges laid against Brett Siler,

stemming from the protest against the November 1998 Makah whale hunt, were

dismissed in February when an internal agency review concluded that the

U.S. Coast Guard commander's testimony consisted of " little factual

account, " and was " merely conjecture and, in fact, somewhat contradictory. "

 

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