Late Report from Cypress. 
The Iran arms ship bound for Hamas in the Gaza Strip, according to Chairman of the JCS Admiral Mullen, did not go onto a Syrian port, as was declared earlier, but is now reported docked at Nicosia, Cypress (right). This is not the diplomatic script as agreed upon by the
adversaries over the last week. The story started on January 21-22 when the US Navy intercepted the Nochegorsk in the Red Sea as it was bound for the Suez Canal and then onto Gaza in some fashion. Inspected, contained, restricted to remain tied up at the edge of the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, the captain challenged the Egyptians to free him to pass through the Suez. His papers showed that he was bound for Syria. The Egyptians and Americans both feared that the Israeli Navy would intercept, board and capture the ship, as it did in 2003 with the Karine A. The fear was not idle, since Israel and Syria remain at war; and intercepting the arms and rockets made sense. George Mitchell, the new Mideast envoy, rushed to Cairo to conferred with Hosni Mubarak about Gaza, and especially to keep the confusion of the Nochegorsk from erupting into an incident. Mubarak lied to Mitchell that the ship was Syria bound, and Mitchell pretended to believe the lie. All went well along, and then Admiral Mullen declared that the ship was laden with arms for Hamas but that the US Navy could not stop it from proceeding to Syria. The US watched the ship pass through the canal into the Med. At one point in the Med, the Nochegorsk was escorted by an EU warship, an American warship, and a Russian warship, all with different agendas. It was supposed to be Syria-bound, where it would tie up with the Russian. And watching all four players was Israel.
Not Syria.
But now Nochegorsk is tied up at Nicosia, awaiting what we are told is an imminent inspection. The latest report is that the US and Israel requested that the Cypriot authorities detain the ship for inspection, since it is Cyrpiot-flagged. The inspection is due on Friday 30 January. This is not the end of the story.
It's interesting to note how everybody seems to be having a fabulous time blaming their favorite whipping horse for all our nation's ills. Some blame immigration; others blame Bush; CEO's; the Russians; Chinese; Obama; Democrats; Israel; Pelosi; the media; Al Gore; etc. Most agree, however, that we're all collectively heading somewhere unpleasant. Interesting too, is our sense of inevitability; we all feel it’s all going to hit the fan soon, if it hasn’t done so already (we may just not know it yet).
People are talking about surviving the next four years. Then, it is thought, we can take our country back (if there should indeed be anything left of it to take back). Others see our future as bleak and already cast in stone.
But there are also some hopeful signs. Already, I see some indication of activism on the people’s part. We’re hoarding our money, for instance. This may be symptomatic of our instinct for self-preservation. But it may also be due to an impulse to lock the brakes on this runaway train (many feel) we find ourselves on; to actively deny the government the fruits of our labor. By staying out of the stores, we are saying in effect that we are refusing to reward wrong-headed policies with our patronage. By forcing stores and corporations out of business, we deny our lawmakers the largesse of our sales and withholding taxes. All this is still legal. They can’t put us in jail for not shopping (yet). We are driving less – even with gasoline prices at a (temporary) low – to deny the government of yet another revenue stream. We travel less; rent fewer hotel rooms – whether we know it or not – to starve the government’s ability to continue on it’s dangerous and destructive course.
Of course, we can expect the government to fight back. They will attempt to devalue our savings by printing more paper. It remains to be seen who starves first, the government or us. I’m betting on us. I’m betting the government will starve first. I’m betting it’ll come to the point where we dump cartons of cigarettes into Boston harbor, our version of Gandhi’s “salt march” (satyagraha); where we refuse to pay our taxes (those of us who still have a choice). This is illegal, but they can’t put us all in jail. We run this country. It's not the other way around. It's a lesson Obama and company will have to learn sooner or later.
I see the euphoria of Obama’s coronation already fading. Resistance to Pelosi’s policies is growing. Israel will wake up and see what the State Department has in store for it; they’ll move to take care of business themselves. Hamas, Ahmadinejad and all the other bad actors will praise our president one too many times; he will apologize for America once too often. …and we will continue to sit on our wallets until someone cries “uncle”.
The ship is docked at Nicosia?!! That would be quite a story in itself since Nicosia, the capital city of Cyprus, is many miles from the sea. More likely, the ship is docked at one of the country's southern ports, either Larnaca or Limassol. A small nit, but we must be accurate. Otherwise, good reporting, JB.