Watchman Newsletter

'Nasrallah wants to turn Egypt into Lebanon'

Haaretz (Link) (April 11, 2009)

Hezbollah agents have infiltrated Egypt in an attempt to stir unrest and turn the country into a base from which to advance Iranian interests, an Egyptian source told the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat on Saturday.

The source said Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah is seeking to foment instability in Egypt on Tehran's behalf so as to divert international attention away from Iran's nuclear program. "He wants to turn Egypt into a playground like Lebanon," the source told the newspaper.

On Friday Nasrallah said Egypt was holding a member of the Lebanese Shi'ite militia who was in Egypt "working to help the resistance of Palestine." Nasrallah said the Lebanese man, identified as Sami Shehab, was arrested Nov. 19 along with other Egyptian and Palestinian citizens on charges of smuggling arms and equipment to Gaza through the Egyptian border.

This is the first time the militant group has acknowledged Shehab was a member, although media reports in November linked him to the group. "What he [Shehab] really did was a kind of logistic work to help Palestinian brothers in transporting men and equipment for the resistance inside Palestine," Nasrallah said.

We need a total opt-out from 'EU militarisation'

Irish Times (Link) - Roger Cole (April 10, 2009)

OPINION: The elite’s desire for wars has created a strong and growing global peace movement, writes ROGER COLE.

“It is an absolute requirement for us to spend more, spend better, and spend more together” | Javier Solana, EU Observer: November 20th, 2007

These words were spoken by Javier Solana after a meeting of the EU defence ministers at which the European Defence Agency’s (EDA’s) annual budget was increased by a third to improve the EU’s military performance.

The next time some intellectual mercenary writes about the EDA being about reducing military expenditure, just quote Solana, the EU high representative for foreign policy and security policy, secretary-general of the nuclear armed military alliance the Western European Union, and former general secretary of the nuclear armed military alliance Nato, which is responsible for over 70 per cent of the world’s military and which backed president George Bush’s war on Iraq.

The EU military-industrial complex makes these weapons, and is the driving force behind the “militarisation of the European Union”. Its role in the formation of the EDA is well documented in Ben Hayes’s 2006 pamphlet for Statewatch and the Transnational Institute, Arming Big Brother, which can be downloaded from the Peace and Neutrality Alliance website, www.pana.ie.

The EDA was mentioned in the EU Constitution which was rejected by the French and Dutch people. It was up and running with a budget of €20 million by 2004, and its head was Javier Solana. The Government decided to support it, but never asked Dáil Éireann for approval. During the debate on the Nice Treaty, Brian Cowen, then minister for foreign affairs, insisted that support for the EU military-industrial complex was not in the treaty, despite the fact that Article 17 stated: “The progressive framing of a common defence policy will be supported, as Member States consider appropriate, by co-operation between them in the field of armaments.”

Exposing the Conspiracy of Silence: Why Not Allow the Name of Jesus into Discussions of UFOs?

UFO Digest (Link) - Stephen Yulish (April 9, 2009)

“The battle with UFOs is not for the planet of man but for the soul of man” | Trevor James Constable

Everyone from such disparate groups as governments, research scientists, military officers, UFO organizations, New Age seekers, secret United Nations groups, and the Vatican are all talking about the possibility of an upcoming full disclosure of the presence of UFOs in our midst. Some people think that even Hollywood is in on the act by preparing us for such a monumental occurrence by producing such recent movies as The Day the Earth Stood Still, Return to Witch Mountain, and Knowing. The truth is that neither governments, nor the military, nor the gurus, nor the United Nations, nor the Vatican and especially not Hollywood have any idea of what really is going on. They all sincerely think that they do know, but all are actually unwitting dupes in a great deception that they have no idea even exists. The very deceivers are being deceived.

A few months ago, UFO Digest Publisher, Dirk Vander Ploeg, wrote to me and asked me “if I knew of any alien abductions being stopped in the name of Jesus Christ.” “Apparently,” he continued, “this information is being withheld by Mufon (the Mutual UFO Network) and other reporters and investigators.” This was an amazing statement by a self proclaimed Gnostic and Publisher of one of the largest UFO online websites. He raised the name that few in the UFO community dare to mention. He exposed the conspiracy of silence in this area that has tried to keep the name of Jesus out of the discussion.

Report: Ahmadinejad downplays Israel's threats on Iran

China View (Link)  (April 9, 2009)

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday downplayed the Israeli threat to launch a military attack on Iran, the local Press TV website reported. "The Iranian nation considers Israel as just a nonentity and the regime is too weak to threaten us," Ahmadinejad told a group of people in Iran's central city of Isfahan. "Today nobody dares to threaten the Iranian nation," he stressed.

Israel successfully intercepted a target simulant of an Iranian missile in a test of its Arrow anti-missile system recently. During the test, the target missile, simulating an Iranian Shehab, was launched by Israel's air forces over the Mediterranean Sea, before it was intercepted.

Earlier in March, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said Israeli nuclear sites are within the reach of its missiles.

The United States and its allies, including Israel, have accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program. However, Iran insists that its nuclear plan is only for peaceful purposes, and continues its uranium enrichment activity despite pressure from the West and relevant resolutions and sanctions of the United Nations.

'Jerusalem should be capital for the Palestinians and Israel'

Haaretz (Link) (April 9, 2009)

Jordan's King Abdullah II pressed on Britain the need for "serious negotiations" between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and the Palestinians over a two-state solution on Thursday, in a meeting with the British Foreign Secretary.

David Miliband, speaking at a joint press conference following the meeting, expressed Britain's concerns at Israeli plans to demolish scores of houses in East Jerusalem, leaving around 1,500 Palestinians homeless.

It was Miliband's first trip to Amman as foreign secretary, where he also met Jordanian Prime Minister Nader Dahabi, in talks which also took in the global financial crisis.

Obama's G20 plan kisses off Declaration of Independence

WorldNet Daily (Link) (April 8, 2009)

At the G20 meeting in London, President Obama agreed to create of an international board with authority to intervene in U.S. corporations by dictating executive compensation and approving or disapproving business management decisions, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports.

Political consultant Dick Morris said that by agreeing to create the Financial Stability Board, Obama is a "willing accomplice" to a decision that effectively repealed the U.S. Declaration of Independence and abrogated the sovereignty of the United States.

The final communiqués coming out of the G20 meeting in London April 2 included a document entitled "Declaration on Strengthening the Financial System."

"By agreeing to the stipulations in this document, President Obama gave the blessing of the United States to the G20 decision to elevate the Financial Stability Forum into the Financial Stability Board," Corsi wrote. "The United States has only one vote in the newly constituted Financial Stability Board, a group that will be largely controlled by European central bankers."

The new global regulator now has the authority to examine all U.S. banks, brokerage firms and corporations – including non-financial companies such as the Big Three automakers – to examine operations and determine risk.

Some link economy with crime wave

MSNBC (Link) - Washington Post - Philip Rucker (April 8, 2009)

In Binghamton, N.Y., a Vietnamese immigrant upset about losing his job burst into an immigration center and killed 13 people before killing himself. In Pittsburgh, police said a gun enthusiast recently discharged from the Marine Corps opened fire and killed three police officers. And in Graham, Wash., investigators said a man whose wife was leaving him shot and killed five of his children in their mobile home before taking his own life.

The carnage that occurred during less than 48 hours last week capped a recent string of unusually brazen mass killings, which crime experts say have touched more people and occurred in more public settings than in any time in recent memory. Comparative statistics are difficult to come by, but during the past month alone, at least eight mass homicides in this country have claimed the lives of 57 people. Just yesterday, four people were discovered shot to death in a modest wood-frame home in a remote Alabama town.

Sorry, But The Science Is Never 'Settled'

Investors Business Daily (Link) - David Demming  (April 8, 2009)

President Obama has said that the science of global warming is "beyond dispute," and therefore settled. This is the justification for the imposition of a carbon cap-and-trade system that will cost $2 trillion. But Obama does not understand science.

"Settled science" is an oxymoron, and anyone who characterizes science as "settled" or "indisputable" is ignorant not only of science, but also history and philosophy.

Aristotle, who lived and wrote in the fourth century B.C., was one of the greatest geniuses the world has ever known. He invented the discipline of logic, and founded the sciences of ecology and biology.

Aristotle's physics were accepted as correct for nearly two thousand years. In 1534, faculty at the University of Paris officially asserted that the works of Aristotle were "the standard and basis of all philosophic enquiry."

The G20 moves the world a step closer to a global currency

Telegraph UK (Link) - Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (April 7, 2009)

A single clause in Point 19 of the communiqué issued by the G20 leaders amounts to revolution in the global financial order. "We have agreed to support a general SDR allocation which will inject $250bn (£170bn) into the world economy and increase global liquidity," it said. SDRs are Special Drawing Rights, a synthetic paper currency issued by the International Monetary Fund that has lain dormant for half a century.

In effect, the G20 leaders have activated the IMF's power to create money and begin global "quantitative easing". In doing so, they are putting a de facto world currency into play. It is outside the control of any sovereign body. Conspiracy theorists will love it.

It has been a good summit for the IMF. Its fighting fund for crises is to be tripled overnight to $750bn. This is real money.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director, said in February that the world was "already in Depression" and risked a slide into social disorder and military conflict unless political leaders resorted to massive stimulus.

Massive Earthquake Hits off Kuril Islands

The Washington Post (Link) (April 7, 2009)

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Russia's Pacific coast on Tuesday about 182 miles east northeast off Kuril'sk in the Kuril Islands, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

The quake, which struck at 12:24 a.m. EDT, was at a depth of 24.3 miles, USGS said. There was no immediate tsunami warning from the quake, according to the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center website.

Japan's Meteorological Agency Web site said only a minor tremor was recorded in the northeast of Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, and no risk was seen of a tsunami in Japan.

Kremlin to supply PA with new weapons

The Jerusalem Post (Link) (April 7, 2009)

Moscow has promised to supply the Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank with new weapons, including two helicopters. The Russians have also agreed to supply the PA with more than 5,000 AK-47 assault rifles, 300 armored vehicles, 100 pistols and large quantities of ammunition, a senior PA official in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the PLO ambassador to Russia, Afif Safieh, has been sacked for attending a photo exhibition in solidarity with the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, the official in Ramallah said. The PA is an organ of the PLO.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas decided to fire Safieh after learning the ambassador had attended a "pro-Hamas rally" in Moscow, the official said.

He said the decision was also taken following complaints from a number of embassy employees that Safieh was spending too much time at concerts and theaters. Abbas was currently under heavy pressure to rescind the decision, the official added.

IDF planning largest-ever drill to prepare Israel for war

Haaretz (Link) - Anshel Pfeffer (April 7, 2009)

The Home Front Command is preparing to hold the largest exercise ever in Israeli history, scheduled to take place in about two months, in hopes of priming the populace and raising awareness of the possibility of war breaking out.

Should there be a war, Israel would have insufficient emergency and rescue response units, according to a senior Home Front Command officer.

Speaking with Haaretz, Col. Hilik Sofer, who is in charge of the Department for Population at the Home Front Command, said that "in wartime there will be insufficient Magen David Adom, rescue and chemical and biological warfare units. Even if we call up the reserves of the Home Front Command, we will have to rely on the population itself."

"We need to train for a reality in which during war missiles can fall on any part of the country without warning," he said. The Home Front Command is hoping to convince the population that in a future war the entire country can become a front without warning.

Italy 6.7 Mag. Earthquake: 92 Dead, 50,000 Homeless

Sky News (Link) (April 6, 2009)

Rescuers have pulled 60 survivors from the rubble after a massive earthquake in central Italy, which killed more than 150 people. Around 1,500 people have been made homeless by the quake, hospital sources said.

Rescuers have been searching for survivors as dozens of aftershocks continued to plague the area hampering their efforts. TV footage showed rescuers racing away from the rubble of a ruined house as a tremor hit, sending masonry flying.

Gianfranco Fini, speaker of Italy's lower house of parliament, said entire towns had been "virtually destroyed" with 15,000 buildings off limits.

The epicentre was close to the city of L'Aquila in the centre of Italy, about 100 miles northeast of Rome.