Are you kidding me? The US government is claiming that Sea Shepherd’s tactics are dangerous yet the Japanese whaling fleets who slaughter weak whale populations is somehow fine? You really have to wonder about the fights this administration likes to take on. Whether it’s this or the Michael Vick story, there’s a complete lack of common sense. Americans really aren’t in favor of the brutal Japanese whale hunts so move on. Besides, haven’t we see enough caving to last a lifetime?

Japanese and American officials discussed taking action to weaken a prominent anti-whaling group, with Tokyo insisting that Sea Shepherd’s confrontations on the high seas actually hurt efforts to reduce whaling, U.S. diplomatic cables show.

The U.S. representative to the International Whaling Commission, Monica Medina, discussed revoking the U.S.-based conservation group’s tax exempt status during a meeting with senior officials from the Fisheries Agency of Japan in November 2009, according to the documents released by WikiLeaks on Monday.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s yearly protest campaigns — which chase Japan’s whaling fleet in boats trying to disrupt the hunt by fouling fishing lines and throwing rancid butter at whalers — have drawn high-profile donors and volunteers, and spawned the popular Animal Planet series “Whale Wars.” In Japan, the harrassment is seen by some as foreign interferance in national affairs, making politicians wary of getting involved.