Japan harpoons US on humpback deal ("no written agreement")

[Barrett808]

Source: The Australian

Japan harpoons US on humpback deal
Paul Maley | December 21, 2007

TOKYO and Washington are at loggerheads over the Japanese whaling program, with the US embassy standing by comments that a deal has been struck to exclude endangered humpbacks from the slaughter in the Southern Ocean.

Former ambassador to Australia Tom Schieffer, now the US's representative in Japan, on Wednesday insisted an agreement had been reached. "I think we had an agreement this morning or last night between the US and Japan that humpback whales would not be harvested," he said.

However, the Japanese Government contradicted the US envoy, saying whalers had no intention of altering their plans to cull up to 50 humpbacks.

"There is no (new) written, diplomatic agreement between Japan and the US over the current specific whaling mission," Tomohiko Taniguchi, a spokesman for the Japanese Foreign Ministry, said yesterday.

Read more: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22957346-2702,00.html

[saigon68]

1. Thugish Environmental Gangsters

[krkaufman]

2. "Environmental Gangsters"?

[Number9Dream]

3. Notice the pro-Japanese choice of words...

These sentient beings are "harvested"... like carrots or wheat.
These singing giants are "culled", not slaughtered or butchered.

http://www.seashepherd.org/whales/

[xchrom]

4. barbaric asswipes.

what the fuck -- there aren't enough nightmares haunting us all already?