Regarding the Jan. 17 article "Sea Shepherd 'hostages' pawns, pirates?": Is there a bigger farce than the annual "whaling protests" by groups like Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd society? Last week we had a couple of men engage in what some called an act of piracy, while Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson and his mouthpieces (BBC and the Australian government) were claiming that these criminals were being held "hostage" by a Japanese harpoon ship.
Criminals have no right to make demands; they should be held prisoner until they can be brought to Japan and tried in a court of law. As for the Australian government, it has no business in this affair whatever. All Australia has succeeded in doing is to show the world how racist and foolish it is.