GREENS FOR SADDAM

Paul Sheehan lists the many measures of energetic support that Greenpeace worldwide gave to Saddam Hussein. It's "Green" to support a Fascist butcher? "Greenpeace" should be renamed "Redpiece". Saddam was a socialist dictator, after all. A reader adds:

Greenpeace's recent antics in Sydney harbour remind me of when i was a civilian dockyard worker at Garden Island Naval Dockyard in the 1980s where "no nuclear ships" was the flavour of the month. i was co-located with the dockyard's own safety and rescue personnel who, thanks to anti-nuke protestors, had the job of pulling any protestor or unfortunate cop in danger below a ship out of the drink. they were the last line of safety. owing to the risks these stunts (protests is not the right word) created for them, not only on the day of the stunt, but in their training as well... they didn't really share a high opinion of the anti-nuke crowd, despite a healthy cross section of political opinion in the team. Anyhow one day one of the safety team pointed out to me that prominent "peace flotilla" activist Ian Cohen, who has now turned his self-publicity efforts in for a New South Wales parliament (Upper House) seat, used to have his surf ski delivered to the waters of Woolloomooloo Bay courtesy of the roof rack of a commercial TV station's current affairs programme's van!!!

***********************************