Watchman Newsletter

Europe Needs to Cast USA Aside Before It Is Too Late

Pravda (Link) (November 27, 2009)

The European Union needs the joint all-European army. The subject surfaced in the beginning of the 1990s, when European countries realized the scale of global changes after the fall of the iron curtain.

The US administration is very negative about the idea. The question about the all-European army was pushed into the background after the Balkan war, when European armies were acting within the framework of KFOR and NATO. The USA believed that one needed to strengthen NATO, and everyone agreed. France was trying to show resistance to it, but after the nation became a full-fledged member of NATO on Sarkozy’s initiative, the French administration forgot about the creation of the all-European army too.

Things changed in 2009. The European Parliament established the Rapid Deployment Force of the European Union in 2009. Last week, officials of the Italian administration put forward a suggestion to look into the matter of the European Army again. Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini stated that Europe needed the army to deepen the European integration, optimize the spending on military operation in NATO and repulse possible threats.

U.S. Intel reports ‘Al Qaida infrastructure’ in northeastern Syria

The World Tribune (Link) (November 27, 2009)

The U.S. intelligence community has detected an expanding Al Qaida presence along Syria’s border with Iraq.

Officials said the intelligence community has determined that Al Qaida was expanding its presence in northeastern Syria. They said an increasing number of Al Qaida agents and recruits were operating near the Iraqi border.

“There is an entire Al Qaida infrastructure in eastern Syria that includes induction, training, financing and logistics,” an official said. “The Syrian regime knows about this and allows this to continue.”

The U.S. assessment matched that of Iraqi intelligence, Middle East Newsline reported, which determined that the Al Qaida network in Syria was responsible for the spate of mass-casualty suicide strikes in Baghdad in mid- and late 2009. The U.S. military has concluded that Al Qaida operatives were working with agents of the former Saddam Hussein regime to destabilize the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki.

Lebanon agrees Hezbollah right to use arms against Israel

Google News (Link) - AFP (November 26, 2009)

Lebanon's new cabinet has agreed on a policy statement that acknowledges Hezbollah's right to use its weapons against Israel, despite disagreement by some members of the ruling majority.

Information Minister Tarek Mitri said late Wednesday after a cabinet committee set up to draft the statement met for the ninth time that an agreement had been reached.

He said the new statement will retain the same clause approved by the previous cabinet as concerns the arsenal of Hezbollah, which fought a devastating war with Israel in 2006 and is considered a terrorist organisation by Washington.

The clause states the right of "Lebanon, its government, its people, its army and its resistance" to liberate all Lebanese territory.

Hezbollah is commonly referred to as the resistance in Lebanon.

The EU's 'nice' stich-up

Gulf News (Link) -  Ilana Bet-El (November 26, 2009)

If someone held the patent for the word ‘nice' they would make a fortune today: the only thing anyone can find to say about Lady Ashton is that she's nice. Sometimes she's just nice, other times she's nice in comparison to Lord Mandelson, her predecessor as EU trade commissioner. She also has nice people skills, and is nice to work with. Perhaps a fashion journalist will cast her eye over her soon and pronounce her dress sense nice; but maybe not. Or maybe one of those ‘EU diplomats' who are the constant source of all knowledge in Brussels will be so kind as to say she has nice handwriting or something equally patronising. And that is just part of the problem.

Cathy Ashton was chosen because she is from the right political family, from a state that needed to get a big portfolio but not in finance or trade since it is not trusted on either any more, and because she is a woman. On the whole the dire politicians who made the decision couldn't care less about women — or indeed anything else, given the appalling way in which this appointment process was handled and its ridiculous results but they have a new problem in their life: the European parliament.

Hamas suspends Schalit negotiations

The Jerusalem Post (Link) - Khaled Abu Toameh (November 25, 2009)

The Hamas leadership in Syria decided on Wednesday to suspend negotiations for the release of IDF soldier Gilad Schalit until after the Muslim feast of Id al-Adha, which begins on Friday and lasts for four days, sources close to Hamas in Gaza City and Damascus said.

The decision to suspend the negotiations coincided with allegations by a senior Hamas official, Khalil al-Haya, that Israel was hindering a prisoner exchange agreement between the two sides because of its refusal to release all prisoners demanded by Hamas in return for Schalit.

"Israel still hasn't accepted the demands of Schalit's captors," Haya said. "We hold Israel responsible for the delay in reaching a prisoner exchange agreement."

His announcement came shortly after a senior Hamas delegation from the Gaza Strip held marathon talks with Hamas leaders in Damascus about the latest developments surrounding the Schalit case.

Iran cleric: Religious authorities have begun taking control of schools

Haaretz (Link) - AP (November 25, 2009)

An Iranian cleric said in an interview on Wednesday that religious authorities have started taking control of the country's schools.

Cleric Ali Zolelm is quoted by the Etemad paper as saying schools in several provinces have been transferred from government oversight to control by Islamic seminaries.

Many consider this move to be part of a wider ideological drive by hard-liners to wage what authorities call a soft war against Western influence.

Elementary grades are believed to be the focus of the nationwide plan. It was not immediately clear whether higher grades also would fall under clerical control.

Iranian officials have already announced plans to appoint a cleric in every school - a move widely seen as an effort to bring stricter Islamic interpretations into the public education system.

Obama’s Science Czar John Holdren involved in unwinding “Climategate” scandal

Canada Free Press (Link) - Dr. Tim Ball and Judi McLeod (November 24, 2009)

Lift up a rock and another snake comes slithering out from the ongoing University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit (CRU) scandal, now riding as “Climategate.”

Obama Science Czar John Holdren is directly involved in CRU’s unfolding Climategate scandal. In fact, according to files released by a CEU hacker or whistleblower, Holdren is involved in what Canada Free Press (CFP) columnist Canadian climatologist Dr. Tim Ball terms “a truculent and nasty manner that provides a brief demonstration of his lack of understanding, commitment on faith and willingness to ridicule and bully people.”

“The files contain so much material that it is going to take some time to put it all in context,” says Ball. “However, enough is already known to underscore their explosive nature. It is already clear the entire claims and positions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are based on falsified manipulated material and is therefore completely compromised.

“The fallout will be extensive as material continues to emerge. Reputations of the scientists involved are already destroyed, however fringe players will continue to be identified and their reputations destroyed or sullied.”

While the mainstream media is bending into pretzels to keep the scandal under the rug, Climategate is already the biggest scientific scandal in history because of the global policy implications.

The bankruptcy of the United States is now certain

The Daily Crux (Link) - Porter Stansberry (November 24, 2009)

It’s one of those numbers that’s so unbelievable you have to actually think about it for a while... Within the next 12 months, the U.S. Treasury will have to refinance $2 trillion in short-term debt. And that’s not counting any additional deficit spending, which is estimated to be around $1.5 trillion. Put the two numbers together. Then ask yourself, how in the world can the Treasury borrow $3.5 trillion in only one year? That’s an amount equal to nearly 30% of our entire GDP. And we’re the world’s biggest economy. Where will the money come from?

How did we end up with so much short-term debt? Like most entities that have far too much debt - whether subprime borrowers, GM, Fannie, or GE - the U.S. Treasury has tried to minimize its interest burden by borrowing for short durations and then “rolling over” the loans when they come due. As they say on Wall Street, “a rolling debt collects no moss.” What they mean is, as long as you can extend the debt, you have no problem. Unfortunately, that leads folks to take on ever greater amounts of debt… at ever shorter durations… at ever lower interest rates. Sooner or later, the creditors wake up and ask themselves: What are the chances I will ever actually be repaid? And that’s when the trouble starts. Interest rates go up dramatically. Funding costs soar. The party is over. Bankruptcy is next.

When governments go bankrupt it’s called “a default.” Currency speculators figured out how to accurately predict when a country would default. Two well-known economists - Alan Greenspan and Pablo Guidotti - published the secret formula in a 1999 academic paper. That’s why the formula is called the Greenspan-Guidotti rule. The rule states: To avoid a default, countries should maintain hard currency reserves equal to at least 100% of their short-term foreign debt maturities. The world’s largest money management firm, PIMCO, explains the rule this way: “The minimum benchmark of reserves equal to at least 100% of short-term external debt is known as the Greenspan-Guidotti rule. Greenspan-Guidotti is perhaps the single concept of reserve adequacy that has the most adherents and empirical support.”

The principle behind the rule is simple. If you can’t pay off all of your foreign debts in the next 12 months, you’re a terrible credit risk. Speculators are going to target your bonds and your currency, making it impossible to refinance your debts. A default is assured.

Egyptian Muslim Mob Attacks Thousands of Coptic Christians in Egypt

Christian News Wire (Link) - Ihab Aziz (November 24, 2009)

As of Saturday, November 21, 2009 the Egyptian town of Farshoot, located 300 miles south of Cairo, and the neighboring villages of Kom Ahmar, Shakiki and Ezbet Waziri, have been the scenes of massive Muslim mob attacks against Coptic Christian inhabitants. The mob looted, vandalized and burnt Coptic properties estimated for six million Egyptian pounds (over one million dollars), while Copts are still hiding indoors fearing for their lives. There are reports that many Copts were attacked and injured. According to many eye witnesses, the mob made wooden crosses and burnt them in the streets while shouting "Allah Akbar."

Victims and eye witnesses said that nearly 3000 angry Muslims have been damaging and looting at least 50 shops all owned by Christians, including jewelry stores and pharmacies, over a claim that a 20 year old Christian man, now in custody, had a relationship with a 12 year old Muslim girl. Coptic priest Rev. Benjamin Noshi was attacked and is now hospitalized as a result of a fracture in his skull. His car was damaged by the Muslim mob. By the evening most Coptic businesses were looted and burnt and many Coptic Christian families were thrown out of their homes by other Muslim residents.

Obama Shatters Spending Record for First-Year Presidents

Fox News (Link) (November 24, 2009)

The federal government spent $3.5 trillion during President Obama's first year in office. This far exceeds the spending for any other first-year president.

President Obama has shattered the budget record for first-year presidents -- spending nearly double what his predecessor did when he came into office and far exceeding the first-year tabs for any other U.S. president in history.

In fiscal 2009 the federal government spent $3.52 trillion -- $2.8 trillion in 2000 dollars, which sets a benchmark for comparison. That fiscal year covered the last three-and-a-half months of George W. Bush's term and the first eight-and-a-half months of Obama's.

That price tag came with a $1.4 trillion deficit, nearly $1 trillion more than last year. The overall budget was about a half-trillion more than Bush's for 2008, his final full fiscal year in office.

Taking Over The World

Koinonia House (Link) - Chuck Missler (November 24, 2009)

"Gee, Brain, what do you want to do tonight?"

"The same thing we do every night, Pinky—try to take over the world!"

The majority of people on the earth want peace and well being for the entirety of mankind. There seems to be a constant problem though; human beings. Yet, despite past dismal results, world nations continue to make efforts to unite on major issues in order to find common ground and make binding international treaties. The leaders of Iran and Brazil met this week with visions of working-over the international order, and the upcoming meeting at Copenhagen will be another attempt at seeing eye-to-eye on reducing greenhouse emissions. Yet, while recent efforts at global governance have proved weak and unproductive, their very failures may one day turn out to be the impetus for an all-out push for true global "unity".

The representatives of 192 nations will meet in Copenhagen December 7-18 for the United Nations Climate Change Conference. This is the follow-up to the 1997 meeting in Kyoto, Japan that attempted to deal with global climate change. The US Senate never ratified the Kyoto Protocol, which is set to expire in 2012.

Things do not look so good for the globalists and environmentalists' cause. While the nations of the world may give lip service to lowering carbon dioxide emissions, environmentally friendly technologies are expensive to implement. Getting industrial nations to agree to lower their emissions by 25-40 percent by 2020 (as UN scientists have recommended) during a robust economy would be hard enough, let alone during the current time of belt-tightening. When "green" technologies raise the costs of food and fuel, many countries are going to be hesitant to sign on. Both US President Obama and China's President Hu have pushed for a two-step plan, which means agreeing to emissions reductions this December, but not actually signing anything legal until next year.

Germany Warns U.S. About Market Bubbles

The Trumpet (Link) (November 24, 2009)

Germany’s finance minister says the United States is contributing to another possible round of global instability by setting low interest rates. Speaking at a banking conference in Frankfurt last Friday, Wolfgang Schäuble echoed concerns of China’s banking regulator Liu Mingkang, who a week previously warned that low U.S. interest rates were fueling another round of asset price bubbles.

Around the world, and especially in Europe, there is growing concern that the low U.S. interest rate is fueling a “carry trade.” This is when investors borrow money in a country with a low interest rate and invest it in a country where they can get a relatively high return on their investment. After a short period of time, in theory, they can sell their investments, pay back their debts in the original country, and have some extra money left over. In practice, although the carry trade can be lucrative, it is also a risky business. (A detailed explanation of the carry trade can be found here.)

Some economists are worried that investors are taking advantage of the weak dollar and the U.S. government’s easy-money monetary policy to finance carry trades. If this is the case, then the global economy could be in for another shock.

Wave of Debt Payments Facing U.S. Government

The New York Times (Link) - Edmund L. Andrews (November 23, 2009)

The United States government is financing its more than trillion-dollar-a-year borrowing with i.o.u.’s on terms that seem too good to be true.

But that happy situation, aided by ultralow interest rates, may not last much longer.

Treasury officials now face a trifecta of headaches: a mountain of new debt, a balloon of short-term borrowings that come due in the months ahead, and interest rates that are sure to climb back to normal as soon as the Federal Reserve decides that the emergency has passed.

Even as Treasury officials are racing to lock in today’s low rates by exchanging short-term borrowings for long-term bonds, the government faces a payment shock similar to those that sent legions of overstretched homeowners into default on their mortgages.

With the national debt now topping $12 trillion, the White House estimates that the government’s tab for servicing the debt will exceed $700 billion a year in 2019, up from $202 billion this year, even if annual budget deficits shrink drastically. Other forecasters say the figure could be much higher.

In concrete terms, an additional $500 billion a year in interest expense would total more than the combined federal budgets this year for education, energy, homeland security and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The potential for rapidly escalating interest payouts is just one of the wrenching challenges facing the United States after decades of living beyond its means.

Analysts speculate Israeli-Iranian war scenario in wake of Iran defense maneuver

China View (Link) - David Harris (November 23, 2009)

Iran's military is staging five days of exercises this week in an attempt to test its defenses, particularly around its nuclear installations. Amongst other issues, it is trying to establish, in the eyes of analysts, whether it could survive any strike by Israel.

Israel and the United States have consistently refused to rule out the possibility of military strikes against Iran over its refusal to halt its nuclear program. While Iran has said on numerous occasions that if it is attacked by Israel or the United States it will destroy the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.

These bring suppositions being made about how the two sides would act in the event of warfare.

Cloward-Piven Government

American Thinker (Link) - James Simpson (November 23, 2009)

It is time to cast aside all remaining doubt. President Obama is not trying to lead America forward to recovery, prosperity and strength. Quite the opposite, in fact.

In September of last year, American Thinker published my article, Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis. Part of a series, it connected then-presidential candidate Barack Obama to individuals and organizations practicing a malevolent strategy for destroying our economy and our system of government. Since then, the story of that strategy has found its way across the blogosphere, onto the airwaves of radio stations across the country, the Glenn Beck television show, Bill O'Reilly, and now Mark Levin.

The methodology is known as the Cloward-Piven Strategy, and we can all be grateful to David Horowitz and his Discover the Networks for originally exposing and explaining it to us. He describes it as:

The strategy of forcing political change through orchestrated crisis. The "Cloward-Piven Strategy" seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.

Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven were two lifelong members of Democratic Socialists of America who taught sociology at Columbia University (Piven later went on to City University of New York). In a May 1966 Nation magazine article titled "The Weight of the Poor," they outlined their strategy, proposing to use grassroots radical organizations to push ever more strident demands for public services at all levels of government.

The result, they predicted, would be "a profound financial and political crisis" that would unleash "powerful forces ... for major economic reform at the national level."

What’s Germany Up to Now?

The Trumpet (Link) - Ron Fraser (November 23, 2009)

Those who watch what happens on the surface in Europe were left scratching their heads over the appointment of two unknowns to the two top positions created by the Lisbon Treaty/EU constitution. Dig below the surface, however, and the plot becomes clearer.

To really appreciate what is happening in Europe today, and in Germany in particular, one needs a historical perspective. But that perspective need not be long. Just a little over 100 years is sufficient. True, the political vision of Germany’s elites tracks back to Charlemagne in terms of its post-Roman Empire phase. Yet its true metamorphosis in a modern setting commences with the unification of Germany under Count Otto von Bismark.

Bismark was expert in creating alliances to favor German expansion by treaty. The strength of those alliances, as the French found out in 1871, was twofold. There was the power of the German military machine, especially its High Command. Then there was the influence of the elite bankers and industrialists who funded the war effort.

In terms of the process that seeks the extension of German power, nothing has really changed over the past 120 years. The European Union has been built via a series of treaties in which German politicians, its elite banker and industrialist cadre and its military officer cabal have, often behind the scenes, continued to wield primary influence.

Two entities have vied for power using the repetitively resurrecting Holy Roman Empire—the papacy and the German state.

Javier Solana talks about the Middle East

Euronews (Link) - Sergio Cantone (November 23, 2009) Video of interview at link

Javier Solana has been the EU’s “Mr Diplomacy” for more than ten years. But now he is handing the job over to Catherine Ashton, the recently- appointed High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy.

Javier Solana took office in June 1999 just a few days after the end of the Kosovo war, during which he had been NATO’s Secretary General.

Trying to give the EU a bigger say in resolving the conflicts in the Middle East – from Gaza and the West Bank, to Iran – has always been one of his top priorities.

Sergio Cantone, euronews: Javier Solana, outgoing high representative for foreign and security policy, welcome to euronews. What do you think about the recent appointments of the top-jobs of the European Union. Do you think that this is up-grading the role of the EU on the world stage?

Javier Solana. Outgoing EU Foreign Policy Chief: I happen to know both, the president and the high representative, well. You are talking about the high representative, Catherine Ashton, I know her well from some years back and I have followed her the last period of time here in Brussels, where she had a very important portfolio in the commission, trade. There is no doubt that today the economic component of the foreign policy, the trade dossier, is a very important one. It’s true that the other parts of the foreign policy dossier, the crisis management is going to be at the heart of the job, but this something that you learn as you learn some other things.

Iran: We'll send our ballistic missiles to Tel Aviv

Jerusalem Newswire (Link) - Stan Goodenough (November 22, 2009)

Before the dust settles from Israel's attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities, the Islamic Republic will send its ballistic missiles into the very heart of Tel Aviv.

This was spelled out at the weekend by a deputy of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative in the Revolutionary Guards, Mojtaba Zolnour.

It came hours before Iran launched what it described as "huge" war games intended to "promote [the] military power of the armed forces against any attack," according to a Brigadier General Ahmad Mighani quoted in Iranian television.

The verbal threats and military exercises comprise the latest saber rattling on the part of the Muslims in Tehran - a leadership that regularly denies the Holocaust even as it prepares to perpetuate another once against Israel.

Instead of forcefully confronting the genocidal government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the United States and European Union have done nothing more effective than repeatedly threaten sanctions.

Iran has made full use of the space afforded it by this appeasement approach to race ahead with its efforts to achieve nuclear capability.

In the words of a Christian Zionist who served for many years as a tank commander in Israel's Armored Corps - the international community is nearly ready to allow a second Holocaust to take place.

"Israel has become a thorn in the flesh of the world," he said. The sooner it is erased from the Middle East the happier mankind will be.

Large Hadron Collider progress delights researchers

BBC News (Link) - Paul Rincon (November 22, 2009)

Researchers working on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) say they are delighted with the progress made since the machine restarted on Friday.

One official said the collider had done more in a few hours than it did in five days of operations last year.

The LHC is being used to smash together beams of protons in a bid to shed light on the nature of the Universe.

Housed in a 27km-long circular tunnel under the Franco-Swiss border, it is the world's largest machine.

During the experiment, scientists will search for signs of the Higgs boson, a sub-atomic particle that is crucial to our current understanding of physics. Although it is predicted to exist, scientists have never found it.

“It's all been pretty positive so far... Now, [the team] is knuckling down to the hard work” | James Gillies, Cern

The machine was heavily damaged when an electrical fault caused a tonne of liquid helium to leak into the tunnel just nine days after it was first launched in September last year.

Herman Van Rompuy: Europe's first president to push for 'Euro tax'

Telegraph UK (Link) - Bruno Waterfield, Justin Stares and Colin Freeman (November 22, 2009)

Within days of taking office in January, the former Belgian prime minister will put his weight behind controversial proposals already floated by the commission's head, José Manuel Barroso, for a new "Euro tax".

He will add credence to Mr. Barroso's plans, to be formally tabled in the New Year, by arguing for a Euro-version of a "Tobin Tax" – a levy on financial transactions already floated by Gordon Brown as a solution to the international banking crisis. It would result in a stream of income direct to Brussels coffers, funding budgets that critics say are already rife with waste and overspending.

Mr. Van Rompuy, 62, who was appointed to the newly-created £320,000-a-year post at last week's special EU summit, set out his stall on direct Euro-taxes during a private speech at a recent meeting of the Bilderberg group of top politicians, bankers and businessmen. The group officially meets in secret, but when selected details of his remarks leaked out, his office was forced to issue a public statement on his behalf.

"The financing of the welfare state, irrespective of the social reform we implement, will require new resources," he said. "The possibility of financial levies at European level needs to be seriously reviewed."

The End of a Theory? — What Holly Thinks

Fulfilled Prophecy (Link) - Holly Pivec (November 22, 2009)

Last week — after 10 years as the EU foreign minister — Javier Solana was replaced by a successor, signaling what appears to be his inevitable exit from this powerful post. Is this news the death knell of my father’s theory?

It could be. With Solana out of the picture, it would appear that the European Neighbourhood Policy — which he crafted — would be disqualified as the fulfillment of the prophecy about the Antichrist’s confirmation of a “covenant with many” nations (Daniel 9:27). This would mean that my father — and all of us who followed his research — may have been barking up the wrong tree.

Yet the question remains: Is Solana really out of the picture?

It’s too early to dismiss him just yet. The person appointed to succeed Solana is the EU Trade Commissioner British Catherine Ashton. Ashton, however, still needs the approval of the EU Parliament — which is in no way guaranteed. Many Europeans have criticized her lack of qualifications for the influential post.

Until she is approved, Solana will continue in his role.