Watchman Newsletter

Russia plans navy bases in Libya, Syria,Yemen

YNet News (Link) (January 17, 2009)

Russia has decided to establish naval bases in Libya, Syria and Yemen within a few years, Itar-Tass news agency quoted military officials as saying on Friday, in a sign of Moscow's growing foreign policy ambitions.

"It is difficult to say how much time it will take to create the bases for our fleet in these countries, but within a few years this will be done without question," a military official was quoted as saying. "The political decision on this question has been taken," the official said. A spokesman for the Russian navy could not immediately be reached for comment.

Israel says it's close to end of Gaza offensive

Breitbart (Link) - AP (January 17, 2009)

Israel said Friday it was close to winding up its offensive against Hamas, and diplomats in Washington said the U.S. will provide assurances on ending weapons smuggling into Gaza as part of a cease-fire. However, Hamas' Syrian-based political chief Khaled Mashaal rejected Israeli conditions for a cease-fire and demanded an immediate opening of the besieged territory's borders.

"I hope we are entering the end game and that our goal of sustained and durable quiet in the south is about to be attained," Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said. He said it was possible that Cabinet ministers would make a decision on a cease-fire as early as this weekend. But he said Israel was first waiting to receive reports from envoys who traveled Friday to Cairo and Washington to discuss terms of a truce. Israel wants militants to halt rocket fire and international guarantees that militants won't rearm before it agrees to a truce.

In the Qatari capital of Doha, Hamas chief Mashaal took a tough line and asked a summit of Arab countries to back him by cutting off any ties with Israel. "We will not accept Israel's conditions for a cease-fire," Mashaal told the summit. He said Hamas demands that "the aggression stop," Israeli troops withdraw and crossings into Gaza open immediately.

Cholera Kills 2,225 in Zimbabwe, Infects 42,600

Yahoo! News (Link) - AP - Bradley Klapper (January 16, 2009)

The death toll from a cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe rose to 2,225 Friday, and the head of the U.N. children's agency toured a hospital where weakened victims of the waterborne disease were receiving international help. UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman, on a three-day visit to the southern African nation, also met Friday with President Robert Mugabe. No details of their meeting were released, but it came the same day as the United Nations urged Zimbabwe to speed up the delivery of humanitarian supplies.

As Veneman toured the hospital in Budiriro, a crowded neighborhood of Harare, the capital, women collected water from tanks set up outside. Zimbabwe's economic collapse has destroyed its infrastructure, and the country has not been able to ensure clean water or prompt medical help for its citizens. UNICEF has provided funds, medicine and food to keep the Budiriro hospital going since October, but it was overwhelmed with patients in recent months. The crowding has since fallen, but Veneman said that does not mean the cholera epidemic that has swept the country is slowing.

In Geneva, the United Nations said the cholera death toll in Zimbabwe since August reached 2,225 on Friday, with 42,675 others infected and 1,550 new cases being reported every day. The U.N. also said a lack of clean water and proper hygiene was causing re-infection after treatment and added there was an "urgent need" for funds to pay Zimbabwean health workers.

Mexico in danger of collapse, says US army

Telegraph UK (Link) - David Blair (January 16, 2009)

A report on the "Joint Operating Environment", compiled by the army's high command, places Mexico alongside Pakistan as a possible failed state of the future. America, which shares a 2,000 mile border with Mexico, would be the obvious destination for massive refugee flows if its neighbour descended into civil war.

President Felipe Calderon has deployed Mexico's army in a new offensive against organised crime. This battle against four major drug cartels, along with a myriad of local syndicates, claimed the lives of 5,367 members of the security forces or suspected criminals last year alone.

"Two large and important states bear consideration for rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico," reads the US army's report. "The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state."

Rescue of U.S. banks hints at nationalization

International Herald Tribune (Link) - Edmund L. Andrews (January 16, 2009)

Last fall, as Federal Reserve and Treasury Department officials rode to the rescue of one financial institution after another, they took great pains to avoid doing anything that smacked of nationalizing banks. They may no longer have that luxury. With two of the nation's largest banks buckling under yet another round of huge losses, the incoming administration of Barack Obama and the Federal Reserve are suddenly dealing with banks that are "too big to fail" and yet unable to function as the sinking economy erodes their capital.

Particularly in the case of Citigroup, the losses have become so large that they make it almost mathematically impossible for the government to inject enough capital without taking a majority stake or at least squeezing out existing shareholders.

And the new ground rules laid down by Obama's top economic advisers for the second half of the $700 billion bailout fund, as explained in a letter submitted to Congress on Thursday, call for the government to play an increasing role in the major activities of the banks, from the dividends they pay to shareholders to the amount they can pay executives.

"We are down a path that this country has not seen since Andrew Jackson shut down the Second National Bank of the United States," said Gerard Cassidy, a banking analyst at RBC Capital Markets. "We are going to go back to a time when the government controlled the banking system."

Avi Primor: EU Essential for Guaranteeing Israeli Security in Gaza

Deutsche Welle (Link) - Diana Fong (January 15, 2009)

DW-WORLD.DE spoke to Israel's former ambassador to Germany, Avi Primor, about the reasons for the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip and how the EU can help bring about peace between the Jews and Palestinians. Avi Primor, who was Israel's ambassador to Germany from 1993 to 1999, is head of the Center for European Studies in Herzliya.

DW-WORLD.DE: The numbers speak for themselves in Gaza. Over 1,000 casualties on the Palestinian side: Civilians and children killed or maimed by Israeli fire, whereas Hamas' hand-made rockets have killed only a handful of soldiers in Israel. This lopsided war is damaging to Israel's international reputation and drawing bad blood among young Palestinians. Why has Israel's response been so "disproportionate"?

Avi Primor: I agree with your assumptions, but we didn't have a choice. We're trying to fight a terrorist organization, which claims its aim is to destroy the state of Israel. We had a ceasefire agreement last year and on the 19th of December, Hamas unilaterally declared the end of it and started bombarding our towns with as many as 80 rockets a day.

Look at it like this: you live in a town in which an alarm goes off every five minutes, you keep hearing rockets exploding and you can't have a normal life. Even if you are not directly hit, you live in fear and you don't see any reason to be fired at.

I agree that the casualties are far higher on the Palestinian side, but that is because Hamas first of all, hides behind the civilian population, using people as a human shield. Secondly, our fire power is much stronger than theirs. In war, you use all the means at your disposal to enforce a ceasefire. It's a horrible tragedy, but this is not a circus game in which you have to use the same amount of power as the other side.

And Hamas knows all that. The Egyptians kept telling them, "We told you to stop provoking Israel. Because when Israel hits back with all its firepower, it's not going to be in your favor".

Foreclosure Filings Up 81 Percent in 2008

Fox News (Link) - AP (January 15, 2009)

More than 2.3 million American homeowners faced foreclosure proceedings last year, an 81 percent increase from 2007, with the worst yet to come as consumers grapple with layoffs, shrinking investment portfolios and falling home prices. Nationwide, more than 860,000 properties were actually repossessed by lenders, more than double the 2007 level, according to RealtyTrac, a foreclosure listing firm based in Irvine, Calif., which compiled the figures. Moody's Economy.com, a research firm, predicts the number of homes lost to foreclosure is likely to rise by another 18 percent this year before tapering off slightly through 2011.

Still, foreclosures - which keep breaking records going back 30 years, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association - are likely to remain well above normal levels for years to come, and that will continue to keep home prices from rebounding. "Hitting bottom is a lot different than coming off the bottom," said Christopher Thornberg, a principal with Beacon Economics in Los Angeles.

Powerful quake hits in eastern Russia near Japan

Breitbart (Link) - AFP (January 15, 2009)

A powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake has hit east of the Kuril Islands in the Pacific Ocean, which are disputed between Russia and Japan, the United States Geological Survey said Thursday. The quake hit at 3:49 a.m. Friday (1749 GMT Thursday) at a location 428 kilometres (266 miles) east of the Russian town of Severokurilsk and 1,787 kilometres (1,111 miles) northeast of Tokyo, the USGS said on its website.

Scientists left baffled as mysterious columns of coloured light appear in the night skies

Mail Online (Link) (January 15, 2009)

These stunning images show mysterious columns of light streaming into the sky above the town of Sigulda in Latvia at the end of last month. Taken by designer Aigar Truhins with a standard digital camera, the photographs have prompted excited online discussions among amateur astronomists all over the internet. 'My son exclaimed, 'The aliens are coming!'' Truhins was quoted as saying. 'It certainly looked that way,' he added.

But experts are agreed there may be a more prosaic explanation - ice crystals in the air. The air above the town was notably cold and filled with suspended ice crystals. It is believed that the columns were formed by those reflecting light from the bright streetlamps and other lights on the ground - beaming it back downwards again. Skies all over Europe have been filled with such natural phenomena during the cold snap of recent weeks.

Scientists at the website spaceweather.com said: 'Truhin’s pillars are not the ordinary kind. Even eading experts in atmospheric optics can’t quite figure them out 'These pillars are mysterious. They have unexplained curved tops and even curved arcs coming from their base. 'Arcs in rare displays like these could be from column crystals to give parts of tangent arcs, others could be the enigmatic Moilanan arc or even the recently discovered reflected Parry arc. 'We do not know – so take more photos on cold nights!'

9 Things to Watch in 2009

Fulfilled Prophecy (Link) - Holly Pivec (January 14, 2009)

Did the 70th Week of Daniel start on Jan. 1, 2007? If so, then we should expect to see the creation of a new world political, economic and religious order. So here are the stories FP will be watching this year.

• Middle East talks:

Will an agreement be reached between the Israelis and Palestinians? If so, will the EU’s Javier Solana play a key role?

Financial crisis: Will a global economic body be formed?

Obama presidency: Will President Obama subject the United States to international bodies, like the United Nations and the International Criminal Court?

Alliance of Civilizations: Will America join the Group of Friends? See here

Lisbon Treaty: If the treaty passes, will Javier Solana get the powerful foreign minister post? And will the 10 Brussels Treaty Powers remain in control of the EU military?

Tony Blair Faith Foundation: Will Tony Blair woo more evangelicals to join his interfaith work? See here

Rick Warren: Will his gospel of good works overshadow the gospel of salvation from sin?

Catholic-Muslim dialogue: Will the Vatican’s overtures lead to unity?

Apostolic-prophetic movement: Will more Christians come under the authority of these false apostles and false prophets? See them here

Rockets from Lebanon threaten 2nd front for Israel

My Way (Link) - AP - Ibrahim Barzak & Amy Teibel (January 14, 2009)

Guerrillas in Lebanon rocketed northern Israel on Wednesday for the second time in a week, drawing Israeli artillery fire and threatening to drag the Jewish state into a second front as it battled Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The violence defied a new call from the U.N. chief to immediately end fighting in Gaza.

Israel showed no signs of slowing its bruising 19-day-old offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers, striking some 60 targets in the strip bordering southern Israel. One airstrike hit an overcrowded cemetery, spreading body parts and rotting flesh over a wide area. The army said the airstrike targeted a weapons cache hidden near the graveyard.

The rocket fire from Lebanon caused no injuries, but sent residents scurrying to bomb shelters. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed guerrilla group that fought a month-long war with Israel in 2006, denied involvement in last week's attack, and speculation focused on small Palestinian groups. Lebanese security officials said the Israeli army fired at least eight artillery shells on south Lebanon in response. There were no reports of Lebanese injuries from the retaliatory fire.

Most US Christians define own theology

The Christian Science Monitor (Link) (January 14, 2009)

American individualism has made its imprint on Christianity. A sizable majority of the country's faithful no longer hew closely to orthodox teachings, and look more to themselves than to churches or denominations to define their religious convictions, according to two recent surveys. More than half of all Christians also believe that some non-Christians can get into heaven. "Growing numbers of people now serve as their own theologian-in-residence," said George Barna, president of Barna Group, on releasing findings of one of the polls on Jan. 12.

In the Barna survey, 71 percent of American adults say they are more likely to develop their own set of religious beliefs than to accept a defined set of teachings from a particular church. Even among born-again Christians, 61 percent pick and choose from the beliefs of different denominations. For people under the age of 25, the number rises to 82 percent.

Many "cafeteria Christians" go beyond the teachings of Christian denominations to embrace parts of other world religions. Half of Americans also believe that Christianity is now just one of many faith options people can choose from (44 percent disagree with that perception). Residents of the Northeast and West were more likely than those in the South and Midwest to say Christianity has lost its status as the favored American religion.

Israel’s Fight For Survival

Frontpage Magazine (Link) - Bruce Thornton (January 14, 2009)

Israel’s fight for survival is not only against Hamas, Hezbollah, and their state sponsors Syria and Iran. Equally formidable, if more insidious, are those in the West whose virulent hatred of Israel imperils her existence. This antipathy among Western academics, commentators, and reporters is itself a reflection of the larger moral and intellectual corruption that endangers not just Israel but Western civilization. The media coverage of the current Israeli offensive against Hamas and its rockets in Gaza bears all the signs of this irrational and incoherent hatred of the only country in the Middle East in which the rule of law, human rights, and political freedom––all the boons we Westerners take for granted––are respected in ways impossible to duplicate in any Muslim Arab country.

Just as with the Lebanon offensive of 2006, the Western media report events in terms of a prefabricated narrative shorn of historical fact and context. In this mythic paradigm, Israel is the neo-colonial, neo-imperialist minion of late capitalism, an outpost of Western aggression and exploitation of the dark-skinned Third-World “other” whose land has been stolen and whose people have been displaced. All the dysfunctions of the West, so this tale goes, such as racism and xenophobia, are expressed in Israel’s treatment of her victims. Hence the mechanisms of Zionist “apartheid” such as checkpoints, walls, restrictions on movement, “refugee” camps, “displaced” persons, and the brutal indifference and “disproportionate” response of Israel’s U.S.-financed military machine. Muslim “terrorism” is explained away as the understandable response on the part of those subjected to this oppression and lacking the resources to fight back. Thus they can be forgiven for being caught up in the “cycle of violence” whose prime mover is Israel.

Alien Abductions Stopped by the Name of Jesus Christ

UFO Digest (Link) - Stephen Yulish PhD (January 13, 2009)

Dirk Vander Ploeg, the Publisher of UFO Digest, recently asked me if I knew of alien abductions having been stopped by the utterance of the name of Jesus. He told me that “apparently this information is being withheld by Mufon and other reporters, investigators etc.”

I reminded him that I had written about the possibility of such occurrences in several articles including, Extraterrestrials Tremble at the Name of Jesus, UFO Digest March 29, 2007, and more recently The Birth of Christ caused the Extraterrestrial Fallen Angels to Tremble, UFO Digest, December 3, 2008.

The word of God tells us that demons (as well as fallen angels, i.e. extraterrestrials) tremble at the name of Jesus (James 2:19) because God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above all names (Philippians 2:9). At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow of those on the earth, and those under the earth and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10).

Obama invites gay bishop to offer prayer at inauguration ceremony

Guardian UK (Link) - Riazat Butt (January 13, 2009)

US president-elect Barack Obama has invited the world's first openly gay Anglican bishop to offer the prayer that will mark the beginning of the inauguration festivities. In an email sent to a US blog yesterday the Right Rev Gene Robinson, of New Hampshire, said it would be an "enormous honour" to offer prayers for the country and its new president at the Lincoln Memorial. He wrote that he was "humbled and overjoyed" at the news and took the invitation as a sign of Obama's commitment to being "president of all the people".

Yesterday Robinson said: "I am totally excited and a little overwhelmed. It ranks up there with some of the most important moments of my life. We have put an enormous burden on this man and I want to remind the country that we have a part to play in this too."

Robinson said he had not received any time constraints or direction from Obama's office, but added: "It won't be overtly Christian. I want the prayer to be for all people," he said.

Bombs More "Precious" than Children—HAMAS TV

Bridges For Peace (email) - Ron Ross (January 13, 2009)

The Hamas war effort may be getting desperate as a recent HAMAS TV music video which defies any standard of decency depicts. The Palestinian Media Watch has reported on a video which teaches Arab children than bombs are more valuable than they are. According to the PMW report a five-year-old girl finds out her mother wore a bomb belt to a suicide terror attack. The child sings: “Now I know what was more precious than us!” With this standard established she then swears to follow in her mother’s footsteps to become a suicide bomber.

It is obvious Hamas has no humane agenda for the children of Gaza. “Children are taught to value violence, hatred, and Islamic supremacy,” the PMW report goes on to say. For children’s’ rights groups to have any legitimacy in the world today they need to be speaking out on behalf of the Arab child who is being brainwashed openly and persistently.

The Palestinian Media Watch has created a five-minute compilation of key segments from Hamas TV illustrating the shameless indoctrination of children. Read this and more at their website.

Gaza war shines spotlight on EU foreign policy

EU Observer (Link) - Honor Mahony (January 12, 2009)

The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has served to underline weaknesses in EU foreign policy, something that some analysts say will not necessarily be fixed by the bloc's planned new treaty. As the Israeli attacks on the Gaza strip intensified, so too did the number of EU people on mission to the region.At one stage, Israeli President Shimon Peres had an array of European interlocutors, including three EU foreign ministers, the EU external relations commissioner and the EU's foreign policy chief. In addition, French President Nicolas Sarkozy was in the area in an unofficial capacity, but was working on a high-profile solution to the conflict.

As the crisis continues, with hundreds of Palestinians already dead, the EU's response has exposed the difficulty it has in being taken seriously in the Middle East in particular and, generally, in responding conclusively to politically-charged crises.

The situation has been exacerbated by the fact the Israeli military strikes began under the French Presidency of the EU - which has international diplomatic clout - and continued under the Czech Presidency of the EU, which lacks the same resources. Commenting on Mr Sarkozy's unilateral efforts to resolve the crisis, Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini said: "When everyone conducts one's own mission, it weakens our strategic position."

Hezbollah and Lebanese Army on alert on Lebanese-Israeli border

Monsters & Critics (Link) (January 11, 2009)

The Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah and the Lebanese Army went on full alert Sunday after unknown gunmen in Syria opened fire on a group of Israeli military engineers in the Israeli- occupied Golan Heights. According to an eyewitness in the Bekaa Valley, Hezbollah militants were seen taking their positions in the mountainous Knessineh area overlooking the Israeli-Lebanese border shortly after the Golan incident took place.

Lebanese security sources said that all precautionary measures have been taken by the Lebanese Army and UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon to prevent any incident that would breach the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel.

Hezbollah and Israel fought 33 days of fierce battles in 2006, after the Shiite group snatched two Israeli soldiers in a cross- border attack. The fighting came to an end after the UN Security Council issued Resolution 1701 calling for a halt to all violence in August 2006 and called on the Lebanese Army and UN forces to monitor the situation on the border. It was believed that the firing of shots in the Golan Heights was by Palestinian militants in protest at Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip and cause tension on a second front.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese Army and UN peacekeepers intensified their patrols on the Lebanese side of the border to prevent any incident similar to Thursday's firing of Katyusha rockets into northern Israel.

Hezbollah has denied it fired the salvo into northern Israel, and officials in both Israel and Lebanon said it was probably the work of a radical Palestinian faction.

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I think this may hold significance given past Israeli threats to hold Damascus responsible for attacks by Hezbollah.

Russian warships to visit Syrian port

RIA Novosti (Link) (January 12, 2009)

A naval task force from Russia's Northern Fleet will visit on Monday the Syrian port of Tartus, where the Russian Navy keeps a maintenance and resupply site, a Navy spokesman said. (Russian Navy modernized - Image gallery)

The task force, which includes the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, the Admiral Levchenko destroyer and the Nikolay Chiker salvage tug, is currently on a tour of duty in the Mediterranean.

Capt. 1st Rank Igor Dygalo said the carrier group had carried out joint exercises with the Turkish Navy last week and would return to its duties in the Mediterranean Sea after visiting Tartus.

The Soviet-era Navy maintenance site near Tartus is the only Russian foothold in the Mediterranean. Russian media reports have suggested the facility could be turned into a base for the country's Black Sea Fleet, which could lose its current main base in Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula in 2017.

About 50 naval personnel and three floating piers are reportedly deployed at the Tartus site, which can accommodate up to a dozen warships, and Russia is expanding the port and building a pier in nearby El-Latakia. No official confirmation of the reports has been made.

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I find it interesting, considering Bible prophecy on the alliances that will attack Israel, that Russia has been carrying out exercises with the Turkish navy and that just to the North of Israel Russia's navy is expanding several ports to accommodate its fleet. Could this be a way to ship troops just to Israel's North when the time for fulfillment comes? Something to think about.

The earth's magnetic field impacts climate: Danish study

Terra Daily (Link) - AFP (January 12, 2009)

The earth's climate has been significantly affected by the planet's magnetic field, according to a Danish study published Monday that could challenge the notion that human emissions are responsible for global warming. "Our results show a strong correlation between the strength of the earth's magnetic field and the amount of precipitation in the tropics," one of the two Danish geophysicists behind the study, Mads Faurschou Knudsen of the geology department at Aarhus University in western Denmark, told the Videnskab journal.

He and his colleague Peter Riisager, of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), compared a reconstruction of the prehistoric magnetic field 5,000 years ago based on data drawn from stalagmites and stalactites found in China and Oman.

Rupture feared in Israel-Turkey relations

WorldNet Daily (Link) - Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin (January 12, 2009)

Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip could affect its relationships with Turkey, impact U.S. Middle East policy and even push Turkey closer to Iran, which supports Hamas in Gaza, security experts say, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has decried Israeli action in the Gaza Strip, accusing the Jewish state of "perpetrating inhuman actions which would bring it to self-destruction. Allah will sooner or later punish those who transgress the rights of innocents."

Although Turkey is a non-Arab Muslim nation, it has been one of Israel's closest allies in the region. For years, it has had a close military cooperative arrangement which has included Israeli renovation of Turkish tanks, joint naval and air force maneuvers, weapons sales and the use of Israeli technology to police Turkey's porous borders.

At the same time, Turkey has close economic and military ties with Iran. While their history has pitted them as rivals, they have growing trade relations and are negotiating expanded energy cooperation. Because of the links to Iran, Erdogan has offered to the incoming Obama administration to be a mediator with Tehran. Such an offer may not last, because Obama and his security team have declared the 1915 killing by Turkey under the Ottoman of more than 600,000 Armenians to be genocide. The Turkish government adamantly opposes the view.

The Time Clock Has Run Out: Israel Ready to Strike Iran

Newsmax (Link) - Jim Meyers (January 12, 2009)

Informed sources in Washington tell Newsmax that Israel indeed will launch a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities soon – possibly in just days as President George W. Bush prepares to leave office. The reason: The time clock has begun to run out. Iran is close to acquiring a nuclear device under the control of its radical president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said in June that Iran would have a nuclear weapon in as little as six months. That six-month period has passed.

Reports of Israel’s decision to imminently launch strikes, although unconfirmed, would seem to contradict the Bush stance outlined in a front-page New York Times story last week, which asserted that Bush rejected a plea from Israel last year to help it raid Iran’s main nuclear complex. The Times said Israel was rebuffed after it requested from the U.S. specialized bunker-busting bombs that it needs to attack Iran’s nuclear complex at Natanz. The U.S. also reportedly nixed permission to the Israeli warplanes to fly over Iraqi territory to reach Iran.

Israel’s requests to the U.S. for military assistance came as the Jewish state was reportedly angry over a U.S. intelligence assessment in late 2007 that concluded Iran had effectively suspended its development of nuclear weapons.

Obama Czar Has Socialist Ties

Fox News (Link) - Bret Baier (January 12, 2009)

Social Studies

Incoming Global Warming Czar Carol Browner was — until last week — listed as one of 14 leaders of a socialist group that advocates what's called "global governance" and says rich countries must shrink their economies to address climate change. The Washington Times reports Browner's name and biography were listed on the Web page for Socialist International.

Mr. Obama's transition team says Browner's membership in the organization is not a problem and that it brings experience in policymaking to her new role. But House Minority Leader John Boehner’s spokeswoman Antonia Ferrier asks, “Does she agree with the group's positions on global governance- that the United States should abdicate its international leadership to international organizations? Does she support its position that the international community should be the ultimate arbiter of climate change policy?"

Mr. Obama has said action on climate change will be a priority in his administration.

Myths & Facts about the Gaza War

Aish.com (Link) - Mitchell Bard (January 11, 2009)

This article will debunk the following 10 myths:

1. Israel broke the cease-fire with Hamas.
2. Israel has responded to Hamas rocket fire with "disproportionate force."
3. Palestinians in Gaza are innocent victims.
4. Israel's operation in Gaza will only embitter Palestinians and make them seek revenge rather than peace.
5. Israel should negotiate a cease-fire with Hamas.
6. Hamas targets military objectives.
7. Hamas fears Israel's military might.
8. At the end of this war, Israel will have to negotiate with Hamas.
9. Israel deliberately attacked a UN school.
10. Media coverage of the Gaza war is fair and accurate.