Forgive my asking, but would you please sign this petition to the White House to grant Captain Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, from extradition from the United States to either Japan or Costa Rica.

Sea Shepherd use direct non-violent protest to protect marine wildlife from the unconscionable predation by barbaric states, leading the internation opposition to whaling and the explotation of other marine creatures, and their success puts Captain Watson and his Sea Shepherd crews in harms way. There are two active Interpol Red Notices issued against Captain Watson at the request of Costa Rica and Japan. Underlying these notices are non-lethal acts in defense of marine life suffering from illegal shark fishing and whaling operations. The warrants are politically motivated. Please sign the petition to protect Captain Watson from this threat of extradition from the US - no need to be a US citizen.

http://wh.gov/VnRf

Fait accompli Sir .

I see there are many more signatories to this petition (9,447) than there are to urge Congress to back President Obama's call for gun control (just 501). Both need 100,000 before the end of February to go through.

Sorry, but I don't have much truck with the attitude of the American people at the moment. And I certainly don't want to go on a White House database.

Absolutely not, this man sounds like a complete hypocrites and menace. I only have the Internet for research, but the Wikipedia page on him paints a pretty damning picture.

I can't help feeling that I am already on Uncle Sam's persona non grata list so any opportunity to ruffle his feathers is welcome . Will have to read up on the gentleman concerned before I comment further but when it comes to character assassination, government cronies are in the top league .

When Greenpeace describe someone as a "violent extremist" that can't be good.

Please stop doing that.
It's very annoying and pretentious.

pourquoi ?

Because he does .

And you are the law!

Strange as it may seem pretentious is not something that has been levelled at me before so I will add it to my curriculum vitae post haste .

If I had one .

He doesn't like it because he doesn't understand it! Public education you see!

That's bizarre, I thought he knew everything!

Poor old Simon , who expressed his concern with the best of intentions over the hapless Captain Watson , is finding his post becoming increasingly distant .

Maybe we should concentrate our opinions on the subject not the opinionators .

Your comment was tongue in cheek, I realize, but you can still learn modern (and even classical) languages in state schools as far as I know. Unfortunately it's not still a compulsory part of the syllabus.

Anyway, first I've heard that knowing French is pretentious!

I'd like to support the notion, but I would like more info. Also, like others have said, I'm not about to notify the White House that I'm a 'commie b*stard'!

I would be more than pleased if they achieved elementary English .

Pretentious? Moi?

I think you are slightly in error - the French are pretentious, not their language

Thanks for that AC. In fairness my best suggestion is to search the internet for comment and opinion about Captain Watson and Sea Shepherd. I'm very comfortable with their aims and objectives, but non-violent direct action is more hands-on than a bit of gentle protest and not everyone is going to approve. It takes a certain kind of individual to take the action these guys do, and that doesn't necessarily make them attractive people. That said I thought the Wikipedia article was pretty balanced.

Sea Shepherd hasn't had very much media coverage, they're certainly not as well known as the less in-your-face Greenpeace, but they are winning some high-profile supporters, and that will raise their profile.