U.S. Navy Donates F-14 Fighters to Greenpeace

CWT - San Francisco. A confidential source inside the Greenpeace environmental protection organization revealed to Cats With Thumbs the United States Navy will donate 6 recently decommissioned Grumman F-14 Tomcat multi-role strike fighter aircraft to help Greenpeace upgrade their whaling interdiction and self defense capabilities. A highly placed Greenpeace operative, speaking off the record, told CWT: "This will change our entire environmental defense paradigm - we've been taking it on the chin from the fishing conglomerates for years; it's a whole new ball game now." The U.S. Navy Public Affairs Office at Patuxent River, MD. refused to comment when contacted for verification by Cats With Thumbs. A U.S. Navy Captain involved with the final F-14 decommissioning spoke with CWT on condition his name be withheld: "It's a hell of an aircraft - Greenpeace is getting one of the finest supersonic strike platforms ever developed. I'm pretty sure any fishing fleet will get the message once a few of their tubs take a Phoenix missile broadside."














Greenpeace is an international environmental activist organization founded in 1971 with thousands of members and a well -funded political lobbying apparatus; Greenpeace advocates direct, non-violent confrontation when necessary to prevent damage to the earth's ecosystems. Worldwide media coverage of Greenpeace activists in small rubber boats being hosed, arrested, and capsized while trying to block fishing and whaling vessels has helped the organization publicize its efforts and gain crucial support for environmental protection campaigns.

Cats With Thumbs spoke with several veteran crew members from the Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise with experience directly opposing whaling and fishing vessels. "It gets nasty out there," said an American who asked that his name not be revealed, "after awhile you get sick of just taking it when they knock you out of the boat with fire hoses or ram you; I can't wait to get these F-14s operational - the next time some rust bucket bottom fisher tries to get nasty, I'm calling in an air strike." Another longtime crew member told CWT, "we've been at this awhile and the fishing fleets have gotten used to us - we've become just a minor nuisance to them, like seagulls. Press coverage has also declined; the war in Iraq and the upcoming election are the big stories now. The first time one of our new 'Rainbow Tomcats' takes out a net-dragger we'll be back on the front pages."

CWT has learned from the same confidential source at Greenpeace that a group of 25 activists have secretly been training to fly the F-14 fighter at an undisclosed California location: " They are all very excited to be an integral part of taking environmental activism to the next level. Greenpeace has always been able to adapt interdiction capabilities as threats to ecosystems evolve - we can now take the fight to the enemy wherever they are, and we won't be showing up in a rubber dinghy."















None of the Eastern Rim fishing concerns contacted by Cats With Thumbs would go on the record with a response to the reported Greenpeace F-14 acquisition. Several fishing vessel captains spoke privately with CWT: "Are they crazy?" asked one incredulous fisherman, "I know they have a lot of pull, but if they put a hole in my boat they'll be fighting more than fishnets and old men. Hell, those guys can barely drive a rowboat - F-14s? I'll believe it when I see it." Others were not so sure - a captain with experience confronting Greenpeace said, "those greenpeacies are adrenaline junkies; I've seen'em attach signs to moving whales and try to gum up my props with toothpaste and superglue - it wouldn't surprise me a bit to see a couple of'em jump my butt in a fighter."

Greenpeace officials at the San Francisco office would neither confirm nor deny the F-14 report when contacted by Cats with Thumbs - the original anonymous source told CWT, " we are not taking an offensive posture with the fishing industry, but we will now be able to monitor their actions worldwide - if the need arises we will be equipped to defend marine life with extreme prejudice."