Ashcroft Pursues Greenpeace

On Friday, April 12, 2002, the 965-foot cargo ship APL Jade approached Miami with contraband cargo -- nothing unusual for a port through which large quantities of illegal drugs pass every week. Three miles off Miami Beach, a crewman lowered a 50-foot ladder to allow a harbor pilot aboard. When the pilot boat departed, two small inflatables pulled alongside. Climbers Hillary Hosta, 28, and Scott Anderson, 29, clambered up the ladder, wearing T-shirts labeled "Greenpeace illegal forest crime unit."

Greenpeace transmitted a radio communiqué to the Jade: "We are conducting a peaceful demonstration. We have personnel on your ship." The Jade reportedly carried 70 tons of Amazon mahogany, which Greenpeace claimed violated Brazilian, U.S., and international trade laws. "I am not against the trade in forest products," Anderson explained. "I'm against the illegal trade -- and cannot believe that the U.S. turns a blind eye in the face of overwhelming evidence."

The U.S. Coast Guard arrested Hosta and Anderson as they prepared to unfurl a banner that read, "President Bush, Stop Illegal Logging." They spent a weekend in the Miami Federal Detention Center, along with 12 compatriots.

"We knew we'd be arrested for boarding the ships," said Scott Paul, one of the detainees. "Everyone was relaxed. The officers in jail told us to order pizza. They released us on Monday morning, and everything seemed normal." Six protesters pleaded guilty, received minor fines, and were sentenced to time served, a typical result for a Greenpeace protest.

Fifteen months later, the U.S. Attorney for south Florida, Marcos Daniel Jimenez, indicted Greenpeace USA for "boarding a vessel before its arrival in port and the conspiracy to do so."

"The conspiracy charge implies serious consequences," Greenpeace lawyer Tom Wetterer said. "It transforms a trivial offense into a federal felony."

In order to invoke the conspiracy statute, there had to be a crime committed by the organization. For this purpose, the U.S. Department of Justice harkened back to an 1872 law prohibiting "sailor-mongering." Lawmakers enacted the statute to stop brothels from sending hawkers, armed with liquor and prostitutes, to entice sailors to their establishments.

The obscure law has been enforced only twice. The New York judge who presided over the first conviction called the language "inartistic and obscure." In 1890, a second conviction followed the boarding of a ship by seedy characters at the mouth of Oregon's Columbia River. For the next 112 years, the law remained unused and obsolete, until the Greenpeace arraignment in Miami.

The case against Greenpeace represents the most direct attack on free speech in America since the dawn of the civil rights movement, according to longtime observers. Said the NAACP's Julian Bond, "This is a government assault on time-honored nonviolent civil disobedience."

Redressing Grievances

Greenpeace claims it is the victim of selective persecution by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Ashcroft grew up in a family of devout Pentecostal fundamentalists in Missouri. As that state's attorney general, he opposed school desegregation. As governor, he used black prisoners for domestic help and publicly insulted women and gays. In his memoirs, he described his political defeats as "crucifixions" and his victories as "resurrections."

When named U.S. Attorney General, Ashcroft swathed the exposed breast of the Statue of Justice and instituted a Justice Department prayer group. "The law is not about forgiveness," he advised his new group. "It is oftentimes about vengeance."

This is not the first time Greenpeace has faced Ashcroft's wrath. After Greenpeace activists violated a security zone in California, protesting the "Star Wars" missile defense program, government attorneys sought curiously long prison sentences for 17 defendants. To avoid the excessive jail time -- and in deference to U.S. sentiment after the Sept. 11 attacks -- Greenpeace USA signed a consent decree, waiving its right to protest Star Wars research for five years.