Japan Bribes IWC

On June 13, London newspaper The Sunday Times published a watershed investigation exposing Japanese officials bribing members of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in order to maintain its whaling industry. The undercover exposé proves that government members offered money and prostitutes to a handful of small nations to buy their votes, and six countries—St. Kitts and Nevis, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Grenada, Republic of Guinea, and Ivory Coast—agreed to the bribes. The report is causing a global stir, but according to Sea Shepherd Conservation Society president Paul Watson, it’s old news. Watson says that he’s preached against Japan’s aggressive, unlawful tactics for years.