GREENPEACE INDICTED BY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Greenpeace has been indicted by federal prosecutors in Miami for the actions of their members in illegally boarding a ship off the Florida coast.

Three miles off the Florida coast in April 2002, two Greenpeace activists clambered from an inflatable rubber speedboat onto a cargo ship. They were detained before they could unfurl a banner, spent the weekend in custody and two months later were sentenced to time served for boarding the ship without permission.

It was a routine act of civil disobedience until, 15 months after the incident, federal prosecutors in Miami indicted Greenpeace itself for authorizing the boarding.

John Passacantando, the executive director of Greenpeace in the United States, said he authorized the boarding of the ship and

"Never before has our government criminally prosecuted an entire organization for the free speech activities of its supporters. . ." [ and ]

"I do give final sign-off on an action like this," he said. "The buck does stop with me."

Court documents indicated the prosecutors' basis for the indictment.

"The heart of Greenpeace's mission," they wrote, "is the violation of the law."

A December trial is scheduled.

My take on this is that it's been common practice for Greenpeace to break the laws of the United States with impunity. It's not right. In my mind, the perceived nobility of a group's or person's cause should not be an automatic license to violate the law. They should be subject to the same punishment that would be meted out to any other organization, despite the perceived nobility of their cause.