In a game of cat and mouse, the cat always wins but the mouse can be really, really annoying. So show (some of the cables in) the WikiLeaks dump: Japan, tired of having its whaling ships harassed by the Sea Shepherd group of TV’s Whale Wars fame, asked the U.S. to look into the NGO’s tax status.

The U.S. upped the stakes, saying it would try to rein in Sea Shepherd’s at-sea antics if Japan agreed to kill fewer whales in the Antarctic whale sanctuary. The UK and the EU nixed that deal.

Many environmentalists have questioned the strategy of negotiating maximum quotas with Japan, which already flouts international laws controlling whaling. But Sea Shepherd head Paul Watson took pleasure in the cables’ revelation that Japan blames his group for its failure to meet its minimum quotas over the last few years.

“This completely validates Sea Shepherd’s actions as effective,” he said.

Below is a video in which the Japanese whaling ship apparently intentionally strikes a Sea Shepherd vessel, which later sank.