http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/351165
Anonymous promises response to Japanese gov’t over marine issues
In a video published on YouTube today, hacktivist group Anonymous claims to have threatened to take the Japanese Government to task over whaling and other marine issues.
Called one of the “100 most influential people” in the world by Time Magazine, the virtual community group known as Anonymous, has now turned its attention on the Japanese Government.
In a newly-released video dated May 30, the organization said:
Government of Japan, it has come to our attention that you are actively participating in the destruction of marine life worldwide. Not only are you hunting on endangered species, you are destroying that which existed long before humanity did.
Amid images of the Japanese whaling fleet harpooning fighting whales, Anonymous allegedly continues:
On a daily basis you are killing dolphins, sharks, whales and every other single creature that lives in the ocean. Anonymous can no longer allow this to happen. Anonymous will respond to this. We support those without a voice. We will not have them disappear quietly into the night. No, we will speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.
While displaying a sign that reads, “People should not be afraid of their government, the government should be afraid of their people,” the group then asks the people of Japan not to follow the “idiotic beliefs of your government,” and further warns:
The oceans overlap our entire planet, and the life within them is of the highest value to all of us. Your government needs to stop the attacks against the marine life for those attacks will also backfire upon their followers.
The campaign, Anonymous suggests, has already begun:
#OPmarinelife commenced.
#OPjapan revived
We are anonymous.
We are legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Government of Japan, it would be smart to expect us.
The announcement by the hacktivist group came ahead of Australia’s legal action against Japan over whaling. Beginning in June, hearings at The Hague in the Netherlands, will hear Australia’s case against whaling.
The country is requesting the UN court to intervene and halt the Japanese whaling research program, which allows Japan to sidestep the ban on commercial whaling established by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) some 25 years ago. Australia’s top attorney — Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, will begin trying the case on June 26.
Under the ‘research’ permit, Japan is allowed to hunt approximately 1,000 whales per year, even in the protected Antarctic Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. Critics have long argued, that Japan’s research program is commercial whaling in disguise.
One of the strongest critics of Japanese whaling is Sea Shepherd Conservation Society who recently launched its tenth campaign — Operation Relentless, earlier this month.
