We started out this morning with a political briefing from our intrepid retired Colonel Ann Wright, who has been busting her butt on this project for the past year! Ann told us that the Greek Foreign Ministry came out with a statement that the flotilla is "not helpful" and encouraged Greek citizens as well as ships under Greek registry not to take part in the new flotilla. The Greek government, which has growing economic and military ties with Israel, said that while it is against the blockade of Gaza and the use of violence to prevent ships from reaching the coastal strip, the flotilla will not help the humanitarian situation. Ann speculated that the Israelis are putting intense pressure on the Greek government to stop the flotilla.

The Hamas government in Gaza reached out to President Obama on the occasion of his visit to the Middle East, announcing that Hamas was willing to talk to all parties "on the basis of mutual respect and without preconditions." CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin, who carried the letter out from Gaza, said that the letter represented a significant development and an effort by Hamas to present a new face to the Western world. "While Osama bin Laden used the occasion of President Obama's visit to deliver a scathing attack, Hamas reached out to a feminist U.S. peace group to deliver a letter to Obama urging dialogue, mutual respect and adherence to international law," said Medea Benjamin.

CAIRO--We have some great news to report!!!

The day started out with a 3a.m. call from one of our delegations in Al Arish saying that secret police had contacted them at 2p.m. to intimidate them and say they would not get into Gaza. We, in Cairo, told them to go on to the border and see what happens.

Then at 9a.m. in the morning, when all three groups got in their buses to go to the border, they were stopped at the first checkpoint, surrounded by riot police, and not allowed to even get off the bus.

They were told that there were military exercises going on in the area and that they could not move forward to the border. Meanwhile, they saw other cars going in and out. But they were forced to turn around to go back to Al Arish.