Greenpeace says US threatens civil rights

[T_i_B]

Anyone here fancy a spot of sailor-mongering?

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=472811

Greenpeace has asked a judge in the United States to strike out a prosecution it faces under the little-used law of "sailor-mongering".

The environmental pressure group is in the dock after two activists boarded a ship in Miami, saying it was carrying illegally logged mahogany from the Amazon. The protesters tried to unfurl a banner reading "President Bush: Stop Illegal Logging", but were arrested by coastguards.

The protesters were sent to jail for a weekend for illegally boarding the vessel two miles offshore in April last year. But the organisation was then prosecuted under an 1872 law designed to stop criminals and prostitutes boarding vessels to lure sailors to shore.

The last time the law, which forbids the boarding of "any vessel about to arrive at the place of her destination, before her actual arrival", was used was more than 100 years ago.

[Eric J in MN]

1. The sooner the judge throws out this case, the better.

The sooner the judge throws out this case, the better.

Bush/Aschroft don't hesitate to use the law to destroy entire organizations.

They destroyed the entire Arthur Anderson accounting-organization because of what a tiny percentage of its thousands of employees did, instead of prosecting the people at Arthur Anderson who broke the law.

Arthur Anderson shouldn't have been indicted as an organization. Thousands of good people lost their jobs because Bush/Ashcroft/The Justice Dept. didn't go after the few people who broke the law.

[tlcandie]

2. They didn't destroy them anymore than they did Enron ...

They just ducked and went undercover and branched out into other organizations...

[Eric J in MN]

3. First they laid off thousands of good people (nt)

nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. how could it have survived?

Its reputation for honesty was cut to shreds (almost literally). What shareholders would possibly have chosen it as the auditors fro their company?

[MasonJar]

5. Back to Greenpeace

What can we do to help? Being an idiot on the computer, I need e-mail links or etc. Thanks! I love Greenpeace; they have single-handedly and at great risk saved the lives of many whales.