Watchman Newsletter

Solana holds first ever meeting with Hezbollah MP

Google News (Link) - AFP (June 13, 2009)

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana held unprecedented talks with a Hezbollah official on Saturday, during a Beirut visit to reaffirm Europe's support for Lebanon after last week's polls.

He met in parliament with MP Hussein Hajj Hassan, whose Shiite movement is considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and which was defeated in the June 7 general election.

"Lists of terrorist groups are not the same in every country," Solana told a news conference when asked about the US blacklist of the Shiite militant group.

"Hezbollah is a member of the Lebanese society and it is represented in the Lebanese parliament and it will bear responsibilities," he said before leaving for Egypt at the end of a two-day visit.

For his part Hajj Hassan told AFP that the meeting "means more EU overture towards Hezbollah, and one at a higher level."

"This also means better communication for the European Union with the region and its parties," he said after the talks, adding that the move will "move the EU towards more realism."

Hajj Hassan is among 11 Hezbollah candidates who won seats in the 128-seat parliament.

Solana said Lebanon's rival political leaders "realise the responsibility they face" and he expected them to "find a way to push the country forward and form a cabinet" as soon as possible.

The Power Elite and the Secret Nazi Plan

News With Views (Link) - Dennis L. Cuddy, Ph.D. (February 23, 2009)

This is actually a three-part series. The first article was published February 23, the second March 9 and the third on May 18, 2009. I've combined them all together here.

[NOTE: As I’ve written many times before, the goal of the Power Elite (PE) is a World Socialist Government. Critical to coercing Americans to accept Socialism is the nationalization of key sectors of the economy, such as banking. I’ve indicated in the past that this type of coercion would be brought about by an economic crisis, such as the one we are currently experiencing. Relevant to this, Jon Meacham and Evan Thomas wrote “We Are All Socialists Now” (Newsweek, Feb. 16, 2009), and Matthew Richardson and Nouriel Roubini wrote “Nationalize the Banks! We’re all Swedes Now!” (The Washington Post, Feb. 15, 2009) which begins: “The U.S. banking system is close to being insolvent, and unless we want to become like Japan in the 1990s—or the United States in the 1930s—the only way to save it is to nationalize it.” Even Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham on ABC’s “This Week” (Feb. 15, 2009) indicated we should consider the possibility of nationalizing banks.

[And in case you think this crisis happened accidentally, just consider the fact that “the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) waived the 12 to 1 leverage ratios for the five biggest investment banks. Those banks then leveraged 40 to 1 and collapsed the worldwide financial system” (January 5, 2009 Financial Sense editorial by James Quinn of the Wharton Business School). Do you really believe no one could see what the disastrous results of going from 12 to 1 leveraging to 40 to 1 would be? When these banks started taking losses, Quinn has also pointed out, their capital was immediately wiped out and the problem was dumped in the taxpayers’ laps.]

In previous columns, I’ve mentioned the secret Nazi plan described in American official Sumner Welles’ The Time for Decision (1944). It was a plan (for a Nazi loss in WWII) which would come to fruition two generations later. It included Nazi agents going underground into two successive countries to avoid detection (Paul Dickopf went underground into Switzerland in 1942). These agents would eventually rise to positions of power in those second nations.

Welles must have learned of this secret plan when he was on friendly terms with the Nazi leadership long before the U.S. entered WWII. A Google search of “sumner welles portraits” shows a photograph of Welles and Hermann Goering on March 19, 1940. But why almost two years before the U.S. entered WWII would the Nazis plan for a loss? And why after WWII was there never an investigation of this secret plan? Robert Ludlum in his fictional The Apocalypse Watch referred to “The Brotherhood of the Watch” a global neo-Nazi secret organization formed in the days after the Third Reich’s defeat and exposed about 50 years later.

House Health-Care Proposal Adds $600 Billion in Taxes

Bloomberg (Link) - Laura Litvan (June 12, 2009)

Health-care overhaul legislation being drafted by House Democrats will include $600 billion in tax increases and $400 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel said.

Democrats will work on the bill’s details next week as they struggle through “what kind of heartburn” it will cause to agree on how to pay for revamping the health-care system, Rangel, a New York Democrat, said today. The measure’s cost is reaching well beyond the $634 billion President Barack Obama proposed in his budget request to Congress as a 10-year down payment for the policy changes.

Asked whether the cost of a health-care overhaul would be more than $1 trillion over a decade, Rangel said, “the answer is yes.” Some Senate Republicans, including Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, say the costs will likely exceed $1.5 trillion.

Sotomayor: Never thought about rights of unborn

One News Now (Link) - Jim Brown (June 11, 2009)

President Obama's Supreme Court nominee has made an astonishing admission -- she has never considered whether an unborn child has any rights.

Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) says he had a "good meeting" with Judge Sonia Sotomayor on Wednesday that covered a broad range of issues, but none of his concerns about the high court nominee were eased.

DeMint, chairman of the Senate Steering Committee, says he remains deeply disturbed with her view of the Second Amendment. "She was unwilling to say the Second Amendment protects a fundamental right that applies to all Americans, which raises serious questions about her view of the Bill of Rights," the senator offers.

Audit of Federal Reserve nearing critical mass

WorldNet Daily (Link) - Bob Unruh (June 11, 2009)

A plan by U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, to audit the Federal Reserve today lacks only a handful of signatures on a list of co-sponsors to hold a majority in the U.S. House.

Officials with Paul's office have confirmed to WND there now are 213 cosponsors signed onto H.R. 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 that demands an audit of the organization.

Paul long has opposed the power held by the Federal Reserve and its ability to manipulate the nation's economy and over the years has launched multiple proposals to get rid of the quasi-governmental agency, without significant support.

But in light of the economic collapse in the United States – the government takeover of the banking industry, the government's demands for various auto industry bankruptcies, the government's appointment of a "pay czar" – change apparently is coming.

When the bill has garnered the support of 218 members of the 435-member U.S. House, it technically has the support of the majority, even though the process of holding hearings and having committee review still provides for open doors for failure.

A spokeswoman for Paul told WND today that procedurally the best way to assure the success of the bill is to have hearings and earn committee approval, even though all parliamentary procedures are being reviewed.

Paul's ultimate goals have not changed over the years he's been concerned by the impacts on the nation's economy.

"To understand how unwise it is to have the Federal Reserve, one must first understand the magnitude of the privileges they have," he wrote in a recent Straight Talk commentary. "They have been given the power to create money, by the trillions, and to give it to their friends, under any terms they wish, with little or no meaningful oversight or accountability."

'Them Jews keep me away from Obama'

The Jerusalem Post (Link) (June 11, 2009)

Rev. Jeremiah Wright said he does not feel any regrets over his severed relationship with President Barack Obama, according to an interview in The Daily Press published Wednesday. Obama was a member of the Chicago church in which Wright was the longtime pastor (Click here for audio of interview).

Wright also told the publication that he had not spoken to his former parishioner since Obama became president, implying that the White House won't allow Obama to talk to him. He did not indicate whether he had tried to reach the president.

"Regret for what... that the media went back five, seven, 10 years and spent $4,000 buying 20 years' worth of sermons to hear what I've been preaching for 20 years?

"Regret for preaching like I've been preaching for 50 years? Absolutely none," Wright said.

Military Covering Up Fireballs From Space

Fox News (Link) - Space.com - Leonard David (June 11, 2009)

For 15 years, scientists have benefited from data gleaned by U.S. classified satellites of natural fireball events in Earth's atmosphere — but no longer.

A recent U.S. military policy decision now explicitly states that observations by hush-hush government spacecraft of incoming bolides and fireballs are classified secret and are not to be released, SPACE.com has learned.

The satellites' main objectives include detecting nuclear bomb tests, and their characterizations of asteroids and lesser meteoroids as they crash through the atmosphere has been a byproduct data bonanza for scientists.

The upshot: Space rocks that explode in the atmosphere are now classified.

"It's baffling to us why this would suddenly change," said one scientist familiar with the work. "It's unfortunate because there was this great synergy ... a very good cooperative arrangement. Systems were put into dual-use mode where a lot of science was getting done that couldn't be done any other way. It's a regrettable change in policy."

Scientists say not only will research into the threat from space be hampered, but public understanding of sometimes dramatic sky explosions will be diminished, perhaps leading to hype and fear of the unknown.

EU security proposals are 'dangerously authoritarian'

Telegraph UK (Link) - Bruno Waterfield (June 10, 2009)

The European Union is stepping up efforts to build an enhanced pan-European system of security and surveillance which critics have described as “dangerously authoritarian”.

Civil liberties groups say the proposals would create an EU ID card register, internet surveillance systems, satellite surveillance, automated exit-entry border systems operated by machines reading biometrics and risk profiling systems.

Europe's justice ministers will hold talks on the "domestic security policy" and surveillance network proposals, known in Brussels circles as the "Stockholm programme", on July 15 with the aim of finishing work on the EU's first ever internal security policy by the end of 2009.

Jacques Barrot, the European justice and security commissioner, yesterday publicly declared that the aim was to "develop a domestic security strategy for the EU", once regarded as a strictly national "home affairs" area of policy. "National frontiers should no longer restrict our activities," he said.

Mark Francois, Conservative spokesman on Europe, has demanded "immediate clarity on where the government stands on this".

"These are potentially dangerous proposals which could interfere in Britain's internal security," he said.

Mr. Obama's Speech To The Islamic World

Israel Prayer List (E-mail) (June 10, 2009)

We will not here attempt to analyze the portions of Mr. Obama's speech to the Islamic World last week which related directly to Israel; the opinions and views he expressed, although they aroused strong feelings, were not new or particularly unexpected. What was for us much more immediately disturbing was what he may have been opening in the heavenlies over himself and the country he leads with the paean offered on behalf of Islam itself.

We would not be critical of his "reaching out" to a nation or nations which are Muslim. But it seemed that he was reaching out, in the name of his nation, to and on behalf of the religion itself," I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition (emphasis ours).

Islam is an ideology, not a nation like the United States; it is a system of belief (one with an enormous spiritual power at its base). Although, in his speech Mr. Obama owned himself to be a Christian, at the heart of Christianity is Jesus' claim to be the Son of God, the Way, the Truth and the Life and the only way to the Father. This is something which Islam does not and will not accept. Those Americans who believe Jesus' claims to be true and the ideology of Islam are indeed exclusive. Thus, in comparing a nation and an ideology, the only way that it could really be a "truth that America and Islam are not exclusive" would be if America were itself to become an Islamic republic. The very word "Islam" means "submission" or "surrender" -and in this context it always is and must be to that religion's deity.

The New Muslim-Catholic Coalition

The Washington Post (Link) - Anthony Stevens-Arroyo (June 10, 2009)

The political experts will decide if President Obama's speech at the University of Cairo on June 4 was a factor in the unexpected electoral defeat of Hezbollah in Lebanon's elections on June 7. But while the international effects may be murky, a clear and immediate result of the Cairo speech is its impact on Muslims living in the U.S. Pride about praise of one's religious traditions from political leaders often adds votes and voices within U.S. society. Catholic America should know: this was part of our past journey to inclusion.

But more than a touchy-feely sort of thing is the likelihood that the Cairo speech will produce greater support for socialized health care and an end to Israeli settlements. Those Catholics in America who agree with the bishops and the pope have long supported a universal health care plan and a two-state solution for Palestine and Israel. With the President's speech, Muslims in the U.S. have been invited to make an alliance with Catholics.

Obama's speech aligned the U.S. treatment of Muslims and the Muslim world with the vision of Pope Benedict XVI. That's not my opinion, but one found in the Vatican's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano and echoed by Archbishop Wilton Gregory who speaks for the U.S. bishops: "Both the pope and president concur that a dialogue of civilizations must supplant the specter of a clash of civilizations ... All Catholic Americans who hope for a more secure world, and peace among the religions, can feel grateful that the president underscored the indispensable role of religion in advancing educational, economic, and scientific goals."

The Globalization of Tolerance

The Washington Post (Link) - Tony Blair (June 9, 2009)

Faith matters. Even if you are not of religious faith yourself. Over 4 billion people world-wide recognize themselves as religious. They may not attend an organized place of worship. But Faith plays a part in their lives. A recent poll found that religion is important for around 30-35% of people in Europe, 65% of Americans and for about 90% of people in most Muslim-majority countries.

I started the Tony Blair Faith Foundation because I believe the modern world cannot work unless people from different faiths and cultures learn to live in peaceful co-existence with each other. Understanding increases the possibility of peace. Ignorance increases the potential for division.

The reason this is so important today is that globalization is shrinking the space we live in, making us share it, pushing people together in a way that is unique in human history. Some dislike this process. Some, like me, are content and even welcome it. But, for sure, it is a fact.

In this world, if religious faith becomes a counter force to this process, one which pulls people apart, then it becomes reactionary and divisive. So if I define myself as a Christian in opposition to you as a Muslim, then just as we are forced to live together by globalization, so we are forced apart by a view of religious faith that is exclusionary and hostile to those of a different faith to our own.

North Korea would use nuclear weapons in a 'merciless offensive'

The Independent (Link) - AP (June 9, 2009)

North Korea today said it would use nuclear weapons in a "merciless offensive" if provoked — its latest bellicose rhetoric apparently aimed at deterring any international punishment for its recent atomic test blast.

The tensions emanating from Pyongyang are beginning to hit nascent business ties with the South: a Seoul-based fur manufacturer became the first South Korean company to announce Monday it was pulling out of an industrial complex in the North's border town of Kaesong.

The complex, which opened in 2004, is a key symbol of rapprochement between the two Koreas but the goodwill is evaporating quickly in the wake of North Korea's nuclear test on May 25 and subsequent missile tests.

Pyongyang raised tensions a notch by reviving its rhetoric in a commentary in the state-run Minju Joson newspaper today.

"Our nuclear deterrent will be a strong defensive means...as well as a merciless offensive means to deal a just retaliatory strike to those who touch the country's dignity and sovereignty even a bit," said the commentary, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

Deceit, Delusion and the Destruction of America

Crossroad (Link) - Berit Kjos (June 8, 2009)

"...a concentration of world evil, of hatred for humanity is taking place and it is fully determined to destroy your society."[1] "Communism: A Legacy of Terror" by the respected Russian author, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, 1976.

"The Social Sciences will concern themselves with the rationalization of social control... the control of human behavior."[2] Rockefeller Foundation president Max Mason

"The federal government is likely within weeks to emerge as the principal owner of a storied U.S. corporation.... It will simultaneously serve as the company's regulator, tax collector, customer, pension backstop and lender."[3] Wall Street Journal

"We don't have to invade Iraq to find terrorists. They're right here.... Dr. Tiller is dead by an anti-abortion assassin, and this is the absolutely inevitable consequence of 35 years of anti-abortion fanatic rhetoric and intimidation...."[4] "Late-term abortion doctor decries Tiller killing"

"O our God... we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You." 2 Chronicles 20:12

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Obama didn't lie when he promised CHANGE. He just didn't define it. Nor did he explain the basis for his HOPE. Today, with a bit of hindsight, the fog is lifting and we see the immediate future more clearly. Both words imply a shift away from the foundational truths and values of America. As Communist nations have determined, man's hope must rest in a useful worldly vision, not in the disturbing distraction of the Biblical God or other-worldly heaven.

Today, CHANGE and HOPE point to a New World Order -- a virtual utopia where the masses would eventually enjoy peace, pluralism, parity and the promise of universal welfare. Both slogans serve as bait to draw the masses into a web of deception.

As in Orwell's Animal Farm, today's spreading tentacles of Marxian socialism imply two classes of people: the equally poor masses and their wealthy "more equal" rulers. While the latter reign in luxury, the equally poor (new "middle class") may struggle to feed their families.

Washington Post to Obama: Back Down on ‘Settlements'

Israel National News (Link) - Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu (June 8, 2009)

The liberal-leaning Washington Post, often noted as reflecting U.S. policy, editorialized Sunday that U.S. President Barack Obama’s demand that Israel stop all building for Jews in Judea and Samaria may leave him without Israel as an ally and without Arab support. The daily traditionally has taken a harsh view of Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria.

“The problem is that no Israeli government -- not Mr. Netanyahu's, not even one led by the current opposition -- is likely to agree to a total construction ban,” The Washington newspaper stated in its editorial. “By insisting on one, the administration risks bogging it down in a major dispute with its ally, while giving Arab governments and Palestinians a ready excuse not to make their own concessions.”

The paper also declared that Palestinian Authority negotiators have already conceded that large Jewish population centers in the PA will become part of Israel if and when a new PA state is created. No PA leader has made this statement in public, and President Obama’s declaration that “settlements are illegitimate” has strengthened confidence in the Arab world that all of the territorial demands in the 2002 Saudi Arabia Peace Plan will be met.

White House Set to Appoint a Pay Czar

The Wall Street Journal (Link) - Deborah Solomon (June 8, 2009)

The Obama administration plans to appoint a "Special Master for Compensation" to ensure that companies receiving federal bailout funds are abiding by executive-pay guidelines, according to people familiar with the matter.

The administration is expected to name Kenneth Feinberg, who oversaw the federal government's compensation fund for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, to act as a pay czar for the Treasury Department, these people said.

Mr. Feinberg's appointment could be announced as early as next week, when the administration is expected to release executive-compensation guidelines for firms receiving aid from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Those companies, which include banks, insurers and auto makers, are subject to a host of compensation restrictions imposed by the Bush and Obama administrations and by Congress.

Wall Street has been anxiously awaiting more details on how the rules will be applied. "The law is confusing and a bit ambiguous, and so we're looking for certainty as to how to structure pay incentives," said Scott Talbott, senior vice president of government affairs for the Financial Services Roundtable, a trade association.

The move comes amid a series of sometimes-overlapping efforts to curb pay at financial firms following perceived industry excesses that led to the lending boom and bust.

Poll wrap: How the EU nations voted

The Australian (Link) - AFP (June 8, 2009)

Punishing incumbents, promoting extremists or pushing local issues, this is how the 27 European Union member states voted in elections to the bloc's parliament.

Austria
A eurosceptic campaigner made major gains while the ruling Social Democrats endured their worst-ever election debacle.

Belgium
Right-wing parties pushing for greater autonomy in Flanders saw a sharp spike in support in Belgian regional elections which overshadowed the parallel EU vote, with negotiations over state reform topping the local agenda.

Britain
British far-right party BNP won its first two EU parliament seats as Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour Party slipped to third place, early results leaving them at 15 percent, well behind the opposition conservatives who polled 29 percent and even beaten by the eurosceptic UK Independence Party on 17 percent.

Bulgaria
The centre-right GERB opposition party came out ahead of the ruling socialists of premier Sergey Stanishev, according to exit polls.

Cyprus
Cyprus' opposition conservative party secured more votes than President Demetris Christofias's Communists, but lost one of its three seats.

Conservatives racing ahead in EU parliament voting

Yahoo! News (Link) - AP - Constant Brand & Robert Wielaard (June 7, 2009)

Conservatives raced toward victory in some of Europe's largest economies Sunday as initial results and exit polls showed voters punishing left-leaning parties in European parliament elections in France, Germany and elsewhere.

Some right-leaning parties said the results vindicated their reluctance to spend more on company bailouts and fiscal stimulus amid the global economic crisis.

First projections by the European Union showed center-right parties would have the most seats — between 263 and 273 — in the 736-member parliament. Center-left parties were expected to get between 155 to 165 seats.

Right-leaning governments were ahead of the opposition in Germany, France, Italy and Belgium, while conservative opposition parties were leading in Britain and Spain.

Greece was a notable exception, where the governing conservatives were headed for defeat in the wake of corruption scandals and economic woes.

Germany's Social Democrats headed to their worst showing in a nationwide election since World War II. Four months before Germany holds its own national election, the outcome boosted conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel's hopes of ending the tense left-right "grand coalition" that has led the European Union's most populous nation since 2005.

Lebanon's pro-Western majority declares victory

Yahoo! News (Link) - AP - Sam F. Ghattas (June 7, 2009)

Lebanon's pro-Western coalition declared victory early Monday, as local television stations reported the faction had successfully fended off a serious challenge by the Shiite militant group Hezbollah and its allies to grab the majority in parliament.

Official results for Sunday's election were not expected until later Monday, but the winners were already celebrating by shooting in the air, setting off fireworks and driving around in honking motorcades.

The election was an early test of President Barack Obama's efforts to forge Middle East peace. A win by Hezbollah would have boosted the influence of its backers Iran and Syria and risked pushing one of the region's most volatile nations into international isolation and possibly into more conflict with Israel.

"I present this victory to Lebanon," Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said on television after stations projected his pro-Western coalition was winning. "It is an exceptional day for democracy in Lebanon."

Earthquake shakes Greece, causes property damage

Breitbart (Link) - AFP (June 7, 2009)

Property damage was reported on Sunday in Greece following an undersea earthquake at mid-day that measured 4.2 on the open-ended Richter scale.

Seismologists at the Athens Observatory put the epicentre of the quake, which struck at noon (0900 GMT), at a point 150 kilometres (95 miles) west of Athens in the Corinthian Gulf, off the city of Aigio.

The tremor was felt throughout the north of the Peloponnese, with property damage reported notably at a coastal hotel, the domestic Athens News Agency reported.

Greece is the European nation most exposed to earthquakes, accounting for half of all tremors recorded on the continent.

Europe's most recently deadly earthquake struck on April 6 in Italy, killing 295 people in and around L'Aquila city with a magnitude of 5.8 on the Richter scale.