Watchman Newsletter

Iran, Syria sign mutual defense pact

The Jerusalem Post (Link) (December 12, 2009)

Iran and Syria signed a defense agreement on Friday, according to an Iranian Press TV report.

The document, signed by Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi and his Syrian counterpart Ali Mohammad Habib Mahmoud, aimed to face “common enemies and challenges,” the report said.

Vahidi praised Syria’s great potential in the defense and military fields and said that “it is natural for a country like Syria - which has an inhumane and menacing predator like Israel in its neighborhood - to be always prepared [against possible foreign aggression].”

His visit to Syria comes a week after Saeed Jalili, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, also visited Damascus.

Iran’s treaty with Syria comes just as Western countries are warning Teheran that if it fails to respond to overtures intended to make its nuclear program transparent, it will face sanctions.

Van Rompuy plans shake-up of EU summits

EU Observer (Link) - Honor Mahony (December 11, 2009)

The new EU president, Herman Van Rompuy, is planning to shake up the regular gatherings of EU leaders to make them less formulaic so that they result in decisions that have immediate relevancy.

The summits, which take place at least four times a year in Brussels, will have their attendance streamlined and will produce conclusions which are “operative” and contain a message which is “readable and visible” for the European public.

Until now, summits have been numerically weighty affairs - involving over 50 people including foreign ministers, and often resulting in impenetrable conclusions the length of a short novel.

This is partly due to the fact that the post-meeting statements are carefully pre-written by ambassadors before being passed up the political food chain and partly as a result of the EU increasingly feeling obliged to take note or react to certain political situations beyond its borders as a matter of rote.

Speaking about future meetings of EU leaders, which he will start to chair from 2010, Mr Van Rompuy on Thursday evening (10 December) said: “We have to constitute a group, a club, that gets on, that works for the same cause, namely the European Union.”

The Frightening Rise Of Christian Persecution: Christians Around The World Are Being Shot, Burned, Hanged, Tortured And Stuffed Into Metal Shipping Containers

This Is The End of the World As We Know It (Link) (December 11, 2009)

There is a widely quoted statistic that more Christians died for their faith in the 20th century than in the 19 centuries leading up to it.  But as bad as the 20th century was, the 21st century is starting to make that look like a Sunday picnic.  In every corner of the globe, Christians are being shot, burned, hanged, tortured and even stuffed into metal shipping containers.  Christian clergy are being marked for assassination around the world, hundreds of churches are being burned to the ground along with scores of homes and businesses owned by Christians.  Dozens of nations across the globe have now passed strict anti-conversion laws in an attempt to stifle the spread of Christianity.  In the countries where Christians are not yet facing physical persecution, they still must deal with open discrimination, lawsuits and increasing ridicule.  Christianity is now the most hated and most persecuted religion on the plant.  The reality is that the words that Jesus spoke in John 15:18 ring truer today than ever: "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first."

Keep those words in mind as you read the following shocking reports of Christian persecution from all over the world....

Importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Lamb & Lion Ministries (Link) - Nathan Jones (December 11, 2009)

What exactly are the Dead Sea Scrolls and why are they important?

In 1947, Bedouin goat-herders were searching the cliffs along the Dead Sea for (supposedly) a lost goat and came upon a cave containing ancient jars filled with manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts made their way to scholars, spurring a great archaeological race.

Eleven caves produced some 825 manuscripts and thousands of scroll fragments, dating from approximately 200 B.C. to 68 A.D. The writings included copies in the original Hebrew and Aramaic languages of the Old Testament (all but Esther), hymns, prayers, and Jewish writings. Much of the writings pre-date Jesus, so there is no direct mention of him. The strict Qumran community called the Essenes hid their writings in the caves before a Roman invasion killed them.

What makes these manuscripts so amazingly important to archeologists is that before 1947 the oldest copy available of the Old Testament was from 1008 A.D. Scholars could finally take our most modern Hebrew and Aramaic copies and compare them to the older Dead Sea Scrolls and try to find potential differences. What they found were accurate copies.

Temple model to open this Hanukkah

YNet News (Link) - Tzofia Hirschfeld (December 11, 2009)

Aish HaTorah center in Jerusalem to open 1.2 ton model of Second Temple to visitors this Hanukkah. Model, built out of original materials, including gold, marble, stone, faces Temple Mount.

The Second Temple will be open to visitors next week. Albeit in a different location, and a smaller size, not allowing much room for people to enter. Still, it is certainly the next best thing at the moment.

This Hanukkah the Aish HaTorah Jewish studies center in Jerusalem will inaugurate the largest model of the Second Temple to be built to date. The model, which was built on a scale of 1:60, and weighs 1.2 tons, is made of the original materials, namely, real gold, marble and stone, and was placed on the third floor of the center's building, facing the Western Wall.

The model was placed facing the Temple Mount in hopes of giving the visitors a feeling as close as possible to that felt by visitors back in the days when the structure, described as one of the most beautiful of its period, was standing. The place where the Jewish heart once stood, and, with its destruction, became a site of constant longing.

"We knew that our building was in the most beautiful place, and that you can see the entire Temple Mount from it," Aish HaTorah director Ephraim Shore said, "It was clear to us that such a place should be used to illustrate the experience of being there.

The Environmental Shakedown

Real Clear Politics (Link) - Charles Krauthammer (December 11, 2009)

In the 1970s and early ’80s, having seized control of the U.N. apparatus (by power of numbers), Third World countries decided to cash in. OPEC was pulling off the greatest wealth transfer from rich to poor in history. Why not them? So in grand U.N. declarations and conferences, they began calling for a “New International Economic Order.” The NIEO’s essential demand was simple: to transfer fantastic chunks of wealth from the industrialized West to the Third World.

On what grounds? In the name of equality -- wealth redistribution via global socialism -- with a dose of post-colonial reparations thrown in.

The idea of essentially taxing hard-working citizens of the democracies in order to fill the treasuries of Third World kleptocracies went nowhere, thanks mainly to Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher (and the debt crisis of the early ’80s). They put a stake through the enterprise.

But such dreams never die. The raid on the Western treasuries is on again, but today with a new rationale to fit current ideological fashion. With socialism dead, the gigantic heist is now proposed as a sacred service of the newest religion: environmentalism.

European Union presses IMF to consider Tobin tax

Telegraph UK (Link) - Reuters (December 11, 2009)

The European Union increased pressure on the International Monetary Fund on Friday to consider a global tax on financial transactions to limit the risk of another economic crisis.

In a draft statement expected to be approved on the second day of an EU summit, the bloc’s leaders also underlined the need for “sound and effective” financial sector pay but did not specifically back British calls to tax bankers’ bonuses heavily.

The leaders were also discussing on the final day of the summit how much money to give developing countries in the next three years to help them fight the effects of global warming.

“The European Council (of EU leaders) emphasises the importance of renewing the economic and social contract between financial institutions and the society they serve and of ensuring that the public benefits in good times and is protected from risk,” they said in a draft statement obtained by Reuters.

“The European Council encourages the IMF to consider the full range of options including insurance fees, resolution funds, contingent capital arrangements and a global financial transaction levy in its review.”

The IMF is considering how to limit risk in the financial system following the economic crisis.

The 10 Nations: Still Going Strong — What Holly Thinks

Fulfilled Prophecy (Link) - Holly Pivec (December 10, 2009)

FP has a very active discussion board, and everyday I try to check in on some of the conversations taking place. Recently, I noticed a question some of our board members asked about if the Western European Union was still made up of 10 nations or if it had expanded to 27 nations.

I knew it was still made up of 10 nations, but didn’t weigh in on the discussion because I was confident one of the board members would find out the answer and share it with the others. I was right. One of our members e-mailed the question directly to the Assembly of the Western European Union. He received a reply from the assembly’s press officer, Corine Caballero-Bourdot.

I wanted to reprint the answer here because I think it shows a couple of important things. First, it helps clear up confusion about the alliance by explaining the difference between the WEU (the 10-nation military alliance) and the Assembly of the WEU (a 27-nation parliamentary assembly that oversees the work of the WEU). The WEU remains a 10-nation military alliance that has risen out of the ashes of the old Roman Empire, and, as such, should continue to be watched by students of prophecy.

Second – and most fascinating – the answer reveals that the 10-nation alliance is still going strong. It hasn’t been dissolved by the Lisbon Treaty and, in fact, appears to have no intention of being dissolved any time soon. Note how the press officer calls the treaty that created the 10-nation alliance “the most binding mutual defence treaty in the West” – even surpassing NATO.

More U.S. Christians mix in ‘Eastern,’ New Age beliefs

USA Today (Link) - Cathy Lynn Grossman (December 9, 2009)

Going to church this Sunday? Look around. The chances are that one in five of the people there find “spiritual energy” in mountains or trees, and one in six believe in the “evil eye,” that certain people can cast curses with a look — beliefs your Christian pastor doesn’t preach.

In a Catholic church? Chances are that one in five members believe in reincarnation in a way never taught in catechism class — that you’ll be reborn in this world again and again.

Elements of Eastern faiths and New Age thinking have been widely adopted by 65% of U.S. adults, including many who call themselves Protestants and Catholics, according to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released Wednesday.

Syncretism — mashing up contradictory beliefs like Catholic rocker Madonna’s devotion to a Kabbalah-light version of Jewish mysticism — appears on the rise.

And, according to the survey’s other major finding, devotion to one clear faith is fading.

Democrats to lift debt ceiling by $1.8 trillion, fear 2010 backlash

Politico (Link) - David Rogers (December 9, 2009)

In a bold but risky year-end strategy, Democrats are preparing to raise the federal debt ceiling by as much as $1.8 trillion before New Year’s rather than have to face the issue again prior to the 2010 elections.

“We’ve incurred this debt. We have to pay our bills,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told POLITICO Wednesday. And the Maryland Democrat confirmed that the anticipated increase could be as high as $1.8 trillion — nearly twice what had been assumed in last spring’s budget resolution for the 2010 fiscal year.

The leadership is betting that it’s better for the party to take its lumps now rather than risk further votes over the coming year. But the enormity of the number could create its own dynamic, much as another debt ceiling fight in 1985 gave rise to the Gramm-Rudman deficit reduction act mandating across-the-board spending cuts nearly 25 years ago.

Already in the Senate, there is growing pressure in both parties for the creation of a novel bipartisan task force empowered to force expedited votes in the next Congress on deficit reduction steps now shunned by lawmakers.

Failed Russian missile visible over Northern Norway

Barents Observer (Link) (December 9, 2009) Video

UPDATED: This unique photo taken in Northern Norway shows a Russian intercontinental missile flying into a spiral before it exploded in the atmosphare early Wednesday morning. The missile was most likely yet another failed test launch of a Bulava missile from the Typhoon submarine “Dmitri Donskoy” in the White Sea area.

The giant spiral shaped light that could be seen in the eastern sky for several minutes on Wednesday morning was probably caused by a failed missile launch from the White Sea, several Norwegian space and defense experts believe.

Interviewed by the Norwegian TV2, an anonymous Russian military source says it was failed launch of a Bulava missile from a submarine in the White Sea Wednesday morning.

Researcher at the Tromsø Geophysical Observatory Truls Lynne Hansen is certain that the light was caused by a missile launch:

The missile has probably come out of control and exploded. The peculiar spiral shaped light pattern comes from reflection of the sun in the leaking fuel, he said to Aftenposten.

VeriChip’s Merger With Credit Monitoring Firm Worries Privacy Activists

Wired (Link) - Penn Bullock (December 9, 2009)

Remember VeriChip, the Florida company that once dreamed of injecting its human-implantable RFID microchips in everyone from immigrant guest workers to prison inmates?

We haven’t heard much from the company since a dipping stock price nearly got it delisted from the NASDAQ in March. But it’s still alive, and in November it pulled off a seemingly incongruous acquisition. Now called PositiveID, the new company is a merger between VeriChip and Steel Vault, the people behind NationalCreditReport.com.

With a human-implantable microchip maker now running a credit-scoring and identity-theft-protection website, privacy activists are worried again. “The attraction to investors is the potential for synergies,” says Mark Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. “You have to anticipate over time there will be an attempt to integrate the services.”

“Sci-fi wise, you could have a chip read by a scanner that determines your credit-worthiness,” says Evan Hendricks, editor of Privacy Times. “Or you could have a credit card implant.”

Open Letter to UN Secretary-General

Copenhagen Climate Challenge (Link) - Tom Harris (December 8, 2009)

His Excellency Ban Ki Moon
Secretary-General, United Nations
New York, NY
United States of America

December 8, 2009

Dear Secretary-General,

Climate change science is in a period of ‘negative discovery’ - the more we learn about this exceptionally complex and rapidly evolving field the more we realize how little we know. Truly, the science is NOT settled.

Therefore, there is no sound reason to impose expensive and restrictive public policy decisions on the peoples of the Earth without first providing convincing evidence that human activities are causing dangerous climate change beyond that resulting from natural causes. Before any precipitate action is taken, we must have solid observational data demonstrating that recent changes in climate differ substantially from changes observed in the past and are well in excess of normal variations caused by solar cycles, ocean currents, changes in the Earth's orbital parameters and other natural phenomena.

We the undersigned, being qualified in climate-related scientific disciplines, challenge the UNFCCC and supporters of the United Nations Climate Change Conference to produce convincing OBSERVATIONAL EVIDENCE for their claims of dangerous human-caused global warming and other changes in climate. Projections of possible future scenarios from unproven computer models of climate are not acceptable substitutes for real world data obtained through unbiased and rigorous scientific investigation.

Europe accused of dirty tricks in Copenhagen

EU Observer (Link) - Leigh Phillips (December 8, 2009)

Europe, the US and other advanced nations have been accused of pressuring developing countries to pull experienced negotiators and excluding them from access to draft documents in an effort to undermine their position at the bargaining table.

Ahead of the UN climate talks in Copenhagen that opened on Monday (7 December), Bernaditas Muller, co-ordinator for the G77 and China group of countries was suddenly dropped from the Philippine delegation without explanation.

“The exclusion of Bernarditas Muller, a long-time diplomat, is a cowardly acquiescence to the US, EU, Japanese, Canadian and Australian pressures to eliminate vocal defenders of developing countries’ interests from the negotiations,” read a joint statement of almost 40 environmental and development NGOs including Oxfam, the WWF, Christian Aid and Greenpeace condemning the move.

Turkey To Israel: Cross Our Airspace To Bomb Iran & We Will Respond Like An Earthquake

Political Theatrics (Link) (December 8, 2009)

The following has been translated from its original Arabic by the site administrator. (See link above for original source)

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan stated that if Israel crossed over into Turkey’s airspace in order to bomb Iran then their answer to Israel shall be like that of an “earthquake.”

Erdogan’s response was due to a question, in an interview with Lebanese newspaper “Al Safir,” over information indicating that Israel had violated Turkish airspace in the process of spying against Iran.

Erdogan continued, saying that certainly “the information [stating that Israel was using their airspace to spy on Iran] is incorrect,” but he stated that, “if Israel did so, they will receive a response equal to that of an earthquake.”

He also said it was not reasonable that Israel went to Gaza and “swept” the population and later had the audacity to believe that they would still be permitted to train with Turkish defense forces after they have wrought havoc on the Gaza Strip.

EU tries to breathe life into Middle East peace talks

EU Observer (Link) - Andrew Rettman (December 8, 2009)

The EU has attempted to breathe new life into Middle East peace talks by calling for Israelis and Palestinians to share the sacred city of Jerusalem.

“If there is to be a genuine peace, a way must be found through negotiations to resolve the status of Jerusalem as the future capital of two states,” EU foreign ministers said in a joint statement on Tuesday (8 December).

Formal peace talks ground to a halt last year with the fate of East Jerusalem at the heart of the problem.

East Jerusalem is home to over 200,000 Muslims and the third holiest site in Islam, the Al-Aqsa mosque. But it is also home to sacred sites in Judaism and a growing community of more than 180,000 Jews. It has been under Israeli occupation since 1967, with Israel claiming it as part of its “indivisible” capital.

The EU statement on Tuesday is less provocative than earlier drafts put forward by the Swedish EU presidency, which had called for East Jerusalem to be handed to a new Palestinian state.

It contains Israeli-friendly language, such as taking “positive note” of an Israeli decision to freeze expansion of some settlements on occupied land.

New Obama plans: ‘spend our way out’ of downturn

Breitbart (Link) - AP (December 8, 2009)

President Barack Obama outlined new multibillion-dollar stimulus and jobs proposals Tuesday, saying the nation must continue to “spend our way out of this recession” until more Americans are back at work.

Without giving a price tag, Obama proposed a package of new spending for highway, bridge and other infrastructure projects, deeper tax breaks for small businesses and tax incentives to encourage people to make their homes more energy efficient.

“We avoided the depression many feared,” Obama said in a speech at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. But, he added, “Our work is far from done.”

For the third time in a week, Obama sought to focus on job creation, noting that the unemployment rate was still at 10 percent in November, though down slightly from its 10.2 percent peak. He said “a staggering” 7 million Americans have lost jobs since the recession began two years ago.

Beneficial CO2 molecule nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize

Gore Lied (Link) (December 7, 2009)

On the same day that the EPA is set to falsely accuse the atmosphere’s CO₂ molecules of being an “endangerment”, I hereby unofficially nominate the humble CO₂ molecule for the Nobel Peace Prize. Hey, it makes more sense than calling this beneficial trace gas an “endangerment.” In his own Nobel acceptance/lecture, Al Gore has went so far as to call CO₂ “global warming pollution,” and insisted that man’s emissions of it were akin to treating our atmosphere like an “open sewer.” He couldn’t be more wrong.

When it comes to molecules that are necessary for life to exist on earth, with the possible exception of H₂O, you’d be hard-pressed to find one more beneficial than good old carbon dioxide.

America’s Most important Ally—Germany!

The Trumpet (Link) - Ron Fraser (December 7, 2009)

Whatever happened to the “special relationship” that has existed between the United States and Great Britain over the past century?

Only four years ago the Wall Street Journal published a Harris Poll showing that during the midst of the Bush administration, Great Britain was regarded by America as being its closest ally, its greatest friend.

“Great Britain’s standing as an ally of the U.S. is near the highest level it’s been over the past decade, according to a Harris interactive poll. Harris has asked Americans which countries are the greatest friends of the U.S. each year since 1993. Great Britain has polled higher than this year only once, in 2001” (Wall Street Journal, Sept. 21, 2005).

Just nine months ago, Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown declared:

[T]here is no international partnership in recent history that has served the world better than the special relationship between Britain and the United States.

It is a relationship that has endured and flourished because it is based not simply on our shared history but on the enduring values that bind us together …. Winston Churchill described the joint inheritance of Britain and America as not just a shared history but a shared belief in the great principles of freedom and the rights of man.

One of Barack Obama’s first symbolic actions when taking office as president of the United States was to remove the bust of Sir Winston Churchill from the Oval Office and send it packing back to Britain. Those who doubted the symbolism of this gesture should now think again.

If that bronze bust has found its way back into No. 10 Downing Street, perhaps Mr. Brown is contemplating the symbolic gesture of President Obama and wondering, “What really happened between the time when the ‘special relationship’ was all that stood between the ongoing freedom of the world and global tyranny just seven decades ago, and today?”

On December 1, the day that the Lisbon Treaty/European Constitution came into force—the same day that Germany’s highest court reinforced the law that underpins Rome’s Sunday as the national day of worship on which all domestic trade must cease—the U.S. ambassador to Germany publicly declared that Germany is “Washington’s most important ally!”

America’s Debt: A Hopeless Situation

Bible Prophecy Today (Link) - Todd Strandberg (December 7, 2009)

Concern over America’s national debt has seen a sharp rise. According to a recent Rasmussen Report, 42 percent of Americans now say that cutting the deficit should be the president’s first important priority. I’ve had dozens of news articles forwarded to me in the past week that focus on this subject.

Some folks are predicting total chaos will come to the financial markets.

“We have predicted for at least the past two years that the primary collapse of the U.S. economy would occur in 2010. We stand by that prediction.” - Neithercorp Press.

I don’t know if 2010 is a magic year, but things look very dire for America’s future. A report by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) seems to extinguish any hope of us being able to climb out of this debt trap.

The OMB is usually the branch of government responsible for issuing the most optimistic forecasts of our national budget. In the past, these forecasts would say that we are on track to balance the budget in three years. When we reach that point, our federal deficit is still in the hundreds of billions.

A little over a week ago, the OMB came out with a report that said even if things improve dramatically, we are still headed for bankruptcy. In nine years, the tab for servicing the interest on our debt will exceed $700 billion a year. We currently pay $200 billion in interest. The national debt, which is now $12 trillion, will at that time nearly double in size.

Shalit deal motivates more kidnappings and strengthens Hamas

Palestinian Media Watch (Link) - Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik (December 6, 2009)

As both Arab and Israeli sources report that an impending prisoner exchange will trade kidnapped Israeli hostage Gilad Shalit for Palestinian terrorists serving life sentences for murder, Palestinian sources report that this move will increase the motivation to kidnap Israeli soldiers. PMW has reported similar statements in the past in response to earlier prisoner exchanges.

In addition, the deal will improve the position of Hamas internationally and internally: Internationally, because Israel’s demand that the world boycott Hamas will be weakened as Israel itself has negotiated this release with Hamas; and internally, because Hamas will be strengthened among the Palestinian population as the movement that succeeded in releasing prisoners.