Paul Watson and the “truth”
both alien to one another
Paul Watson one of the founding members of Greenpeace and
later established the group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, authored a book in
1993 titled “Earthforce.” On page 43 he
wrote:
“If you do not know
an answer, a fact, or a statistic, then simply follow the example of an
American President and do as Ronald Reagan did---make it up on the spot and deliver
the information confidently and without hesitation.”
In essence when he wrote “make it up” he was condoning being
unfaithful to the truth, tell a lie, be a liar.
Over the past twenty-four years Mr. Watson did not lie when advocating telling
a lie because he has left a reckless trail of lies and deceits.
In 2009 Mr. Ady Gil of Los Angeles, California spent over
one million dollars of his own money to purchase a “wave-piercing trimaran” named
Earthrace.
After the purchase was
renamed MY Ady Gil and chartered to Paul Watson’s Sea Shepherd for one dollar a
year.
Mr. Watson used the vessel in their Southern Ocean campaign
he named Operation Waltzing Matilda to harass the Japanese Whalers during the 2009 / 2010 whaling season. During this campaign the MY Ady Gil collided with
the Japanese vessel MV Shonan Maru No. 2.
As a result of this collision the tip of the MY Ady Gil was
severed making the vessel inoperative.
Sea Shepherd’s vessel MY Bob Barker started to tow the damaged MY Ady
Gil when according to the organization the tow-line snapped and Mr. Ady Gil’s
damaged vessel was lost at sea and thought to have sunk.
Some nine months later Peter Bethune who was the
captain of the MY Ady Gil wrote Mr. Ady Gil the following email in part:
“Ady: There is
something you should know. I was ordered by Paul and Chuck to scuttle the
Ady Gil after she was rammed. I am so sorry for this. It has been dragging
me down for months. Today I am coming cleanabout it. … It was a
gross error in judgement on my part to do the biddingof Paul and Chuck….”
The email caused Mr. Gil to investigate further and initiate
a legal action against Sea Shepherd and Paul Watson for damages, and the abandoning
of his vessel.
The parties involved agreed to resolve the legal action
through an arbitration tribunal. At its
conclusion Mr. Ady Gil was awarded a monetary judgement. The telling part of the tribunal was the
numerous references to Paul Watson and Sea Shepherds reprehensible and
deceitful behavior in the 83 page document outlining the judgement. (Link to the full pdf document below this
article.) Here are some examples:
Page 6, the piracy of Sea Shepherd:
As noted, SSCS
describes its work against Japanese whaling as involving “direct-action tactics.” The Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals has described SSCS’s activities differently, terming them “violent
acts for private ends, the very embodiment of piracy.”
Page 19, Paul Watson being truth challenged:
“For example, and as
discussed further below, the Arbitrator found Mr. Watson’s testimony regarding certain
events to be highly evasive, internally contradictory, or at odds with his own prior written statements, and in certain areas simply lacking the basic indicia
of genuineness that instinctively inspires confidence and trust.”
Page 39, conflicting claims by Paul Watson:
“By contrast, Paul
Watson’s position on this issue has shifted numerous times. In his deposition, he denied
being aware at any point in time that seacocks on the Ady Gil hadbeen opened, thereby
flooding the engine compartment.104 He invoked the Whale Wars video segment in
which he was recorded as telling Mr. Swift that the decision what to do with the Ady Gil was
entirely Mr. Bethune’s to make: “It’s Pete’s boat; it’s Pete’s decision.”105 Mr.
Watson claimed that this segment was recorded prior to the decision to abandon the vessel,
and not taped after the fact as others claimed (discussed further below).
This denial directly
contradicted Mr. Watson’s own prior rendition of events. In October 2010, after Pete
Bethune offered to forgo his claim for US$500,000 from SSCS if Paul Watson would take a
lie detector test answering the question, “did you ask Chuck/Pete to sink the Ady Gil,”
Paul Watson responded by email. At that time, he acknowledged that the scuttling
occurred on his orders, but attempted to justify it as necessary to minimize anavigational hazard
once it became clear that the tow could not continue.”
Page 40, once again Paul Watson’s honesty is suspect:
“The Arbitrator
concludes that Mr. Watson’s testimony on this point was not credible. It was inconsistent
internally, with his own prior writings, and with the testimony of two other witnesses. His
demeanor was evasive. It was accompanied by other assertions that were not believable,
such as the insistence in his deposition that Pete Bethune was reporting at the time
of the accident to Mr. Gil,114 whom the evidence clearly demonstrated (as
discussed further below) was largely disconnected from the events unfolding half a
world away.”
Page 42, MY Ady Gil scuttled on orders from Watson:
“The Arbitrator notes
that this conclusion — that the Ady Gil was deliberately scuttled and that this scuttling
occurred on the orders of Paul Watson for SSCS…..”
Page 48, further notes on the purposeful scuttling of the
MY Ady Gil by Sea Shepherd:
“The Arbitrator
concludes that this desire to maximize media attention ultimately led to the decision both to
abandon tow efforts and to actively scuttle the Ady Gil, albeit in a shroud of secrecy. It
also led those in the know to double-down on the lie, by staging for the Animal Planet
film crew a false discussion of options followed by a purportedly spontaneous decision,
made after the real decision (and the scuttling of the Ady Gil) both already had
occurred.141 As Mr. Swift explained, the various statements he was recorded on television as
making, regarding the failure of the tow and the need to cut the Ady Gil loose…….”
The Arbitration Tribunal document is an indictment on Sea
Shepherd and Paul Watson’s honesty. It
is a legal document outlining the reprehensible behavior by the self-proclaimed
captain and his organization. Consider this: Mr. Ady Gil contributed over one-million
dollars to assist Sea Shepherd / Paul Watson, and look how he was lied to and
deceived. If Mr. Gil was treated this
way, how does this organization and pretend captain treat or regard those who
donate $25.00 or $100.00?
Reading the document one will discover the lies were told to
members of their organization and those who cough up the money to keep them
afloat. Please formulated your own
conclusion based on the above and the pdf below.
Pdf of the arbitration decision:
