At this time, the Audacity of Hope is still being held in the Athens port but organizers believe they may be close to success in their attempts to persuade the Greek government to allow their boat to leave the Greek port to join the others in the Flotilla. The Greek government has been under tremendous pressure from the US and Israel, including financial in the midst of their failing economy, to prevent the flotilla boats from leaving.

We just learned that the Greek passenger boat has been sabotaged -- it's propeller axle having been cut. The ship is jointly owned by Swedish, Greek, and Norwegian activists. The crews of all of the boats in the port are now on high alert watching for scuba divers that might be trying to disable other boats.

The US boat is perhaps the most dangerous to Israel because of the possibility of American passengers being injured or killed in an attack on the boat in international waters, and they are concerned about how that might play. A number of high profile people are on the boats, including cabinet members, writers, and well-known journalists . Among the passengers on the Audacity are writer Alice Walker, retired Colonel Ann Wright, non-violent activist Kathy Kelly, Code Pink's Medea Benjamin, former CIA analyist Ray McGovern and an Israeli former Air Force pilot. About 25% of the passengers are Jewish, and almost 20% of the American boat are over 60, the oldest being 81 and 86.


Things you can do:

Until the boats are released from greek ports, call or email the Greek embassy, asking that they be released, and that Greece not succumb to pressure to prevent aid from reaching a desperate people on unarmed ships.

consulate@greekembassy.org
Telephone 202-939-1306

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