WikiLeaks show Australia favored Japanese story of Ady Gil sinking (VIDEO)

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2011:

MELBOURNE--“Embassy cables,  obtained by WikiLeaks and provided exclusively to The Age,”  show that Australian diplomats quickly defended the Japanese whalers whose ship Shonan Maru #2 cut the bow off the high-speed anti-whaling vessel Ady Gil on January 6, 2010,  reported Philip Dorling of the Melbourne Age on January 8, 2011.

 

The aft portion of the Ady Gil was towed for two days by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel Bob Barker,  but was eventually scuttled.
“An initial report by the U.S. embassy on the day of the collision noted that while there were no reported casualties,  the incident was ‘a major escalation of the confrontation over whaling in the Southern Ocean’ that would ‘increase public and opposition pressure on the [Australian] government to more actively confront Japan,'”  Dorling wrote.

“Against the backdrop of the [Australian] government’s efforts to reach a settlement with Japan that would allow a limited continuation of whaling,  the U.S. embassy said that ‘if Japan is at fault,  [the incident] will further chill Australia’s diplomatic engagement on whaling,'”  Dorling continued.  “The embassy cables also show that New Zealand was at odds with Australia in its initial assessment of the collision.  New Zealand Foreign Ministry officials told the US embassy in Wellington that it was not clear which vessel was to blame for the incident.   However,  Paula Watt, director of Foreign Affairs’ marine environment section,  told the U.S. embassy that while a final determination of fault would be made by maritime safety authorities,  she was confident the Japanese would ‘come away clean.'”