some of them, brooke, spent 48 hours aboard this vessel after spending days trapped in tripoli and are going to be very relieved, i expect, to set foot on land again and away from the conflict and the chaos in libya. sure. i m sure that feeling of relief is an understatement. we are not going to move away from these live pictures, ivan. you re doing an amazing job of helping me walk through what we re seeing as they move the stairs close to the maria dolores ferry and as we wait and watch for those first few passengers on board who, as ivan mentioned, had been essentially holed up on this thing for 48 hours praying for the weather to improve, for them to leave, just to get to malta. you know, ivan, you mentioned president obama and the white house and we ll be hearing from dan lothian momentarily as well. but significant, significant announcements out of jay carney s moej mouth at the white house daily briefing saying the u.s. government is imposing