Watchman Newsletter

Taiwan Hit by 6.4 Magnitude Earthquake, Aftershocks

Bloomberg (Link) - Tim Culpan (December 19, 2009)

A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck Taiwan today at 9:02 p.m. local time, with its epicenter about 145 kilometers (90 miles) south of Taipei, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site.

Buildings shook in Taipei and at least five aftershocks measuring more than 4.2 struck within about one hour after the initial tremor, Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau reported on its Web site. The Taiwan authority registered the primary earthquake at magnitude 6.8.

Taiwan’s high-speed rail line and Taipei City’s subway system were halted while phone companies reported temporary interruptions, Radio Taiwan International reported on its Web site without saying where it obtained the information.

Taiwan is regularly hit by earthquakes, usually causing little or no damage. On Sept. 21, 1999, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck in the center of the island, toppling buildings, killing more than 2,000 people and causing an estimated $9 billion in damage.

There'll be nowhere to run from the new world government

Telegraph UK (Link) - Janet Daley (December 19, 2009)

There is scope for debate – and innumerable newspaper quizzes – about who was the most influential public figure of the year, or which the most significant event. But there can be little doubt which word won the prize for most important adjective. 2009 was the year in which “global” swept the rest of the political lexicon into obscurity. There were “global crises” and “global challenges,” the only possible resolution to which lay in “global solutions” necessitating “global agreements.” Gordon Brown actually suggested something called a “global alliance” in response to climate change. (Would this be an alliance against the Axis of Extra-Terrestrials?)

Some of this was sheer hokum: when uttered by Gordon Brown, the word “global,” as in “global economic crisis,” meant: “It's not my fault.” To the extent that the word had intelligible meaning, it also had political ramifications that were scarcely examined by those who bandied it about with such ponderous self-importance. The mere utterance of it was assumed to sweep away any consideration of what was once assumed to be the most basic principle of modern democracy: that elected national governments are responsible to their own people – that the right to govern derives from the consent of the electorate.

The dangerous idea that the democratic accountability of national governments should simply be dispensed with in favour of “global agreements” reached after closed negotiations between world leaders never, so far as I recall, entered into the arena of public discussion. Except in the United States, where it became a very contentious talking point, the US still holding firmly to the 18th-century idea that power should lie with the will of the people.

‘Lukewarm’ climate change deal in Copenhagen

Times Online (Link) - Simon Alford (December 19, 2009)

The UN climate conference in Copenhagen today approved a deal to tackle global warming proposed by world leaders, after an accord Barack Obama brokered with China, India, Brazil and South Africa.

But the UN Secretary General today admitted the non-binding agreement at the conclusion of the conference was not “everything everyone had hoped for,” as he confirmed a deal had finally been done.

Delegates have agreed to “take note” of the American-led Copenhagen Accord, despite criticism that there are no long-term targets to cut emissions and it is not a legally-binding treaty.

Obama had brokered the agreement with China, India, Brazil and South Africa to tackle global warming, which included a reference to keeping the global temperature rise to just 2C - but the plan does not specify greenhouse gas cuts needed to achieve the 2C goal.

Prime minister Gordon Brown said the Accord was a “necessary first step” but those in opposition to it described it as “weak” and “meaningless.” 

Ayalon: EU won’t cut our ties with Jerusalem

YNet News (Link) - Roni Sofer (December 19, 2009)

Jerusalem continues to be at heart of dispute between Israel, European Union: Foreign diplomats will not be able to sever Israel’s special connection with its capital, Jerusalem, Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon said Saturday, in response to earlier remarks by a top European official.

Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, referred to the Israeli capital as “occupied territory” at a speech given earlier this week, prompting Ayalon to state that “just as the Romans failed to severe Israel’s ties with Jerusalem, so will the EU’s and UN’s diplomats.”

Saturday’s comment by Ayalon also addressed the prospects of the Swedish initiative – declaring east Jerusalem the capital of the future Palestinian state – coming to pass despite the motion’s rejection by Israel.

“If any unilateral decisions are made it would be crossing a red line and Israel will no longer be obligated by any post–Oslo deals,” he said. Israel will also see such a move “as legitimizing unilateral moves on its part.”

As for Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, Ayalon said that “Abbas knows he can’t get anything else out of the current government and apparently, he’s not really interested in peace.

“He is trying to blame Israel for his refusal to progress towards peace,” Ayalon said.

‘If EU declared J’lem as Palestinian capital, it would be destructive’

The Jerusalem Post (Link) (December 19, 2009)

If the EU were to declare Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, Israel would consider it a radical, destructive action, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said during Saturday’s weekly Shabbatarbut session in Beersheba.

Ayalon stressed that such a declaration would change the rules of the game and annul Israel's commitment toward agreements and understandings signed since the Oslo Accords, paving the way for unilateral actions.

Terror group plotting takeover of strategic, Biblical territory

WorldNet Daily (Link) - Aaron Klein (December 18, 2009)

The Hamas terrorist organization is working to establish a military wing in the strategic West Bank, according to Jordanian intelligence officials speaking to WND.

The Obama administration has backed a Palestinian Authority-led state in the West Bank. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this month announced a 10-month freeze of Jewish construction in the territory in an attempt to jumpstart talks aimed at creating a West Bank PA state, a move that would first see an Israeli retreat from the area.

Following Israel's evacuation of the Gaza Strip in 2005, Hamas seized the coastal territory, forcibly expelling the U.S.-trained security forces of PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Now, Jordanian intelligence officials say, Hamas is attempting to set the stage for an eventual West Bank takeover.

The officials disclosed that the PA in recent months discovered millions of dollars in cash with Hamas militants in key Fatah controlled cities, such as Ramallah and Nablus. Upon interrogation, the Hamas members admitted the funds were to be used to aid in the establishment of a military wing in the West Bank, the security officials said.

PA security officials previously told WND a recent Fatah investigation discovered Hamas attempted with some success to establish a military wing in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, a longtime Fatah stronghold, although the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad terror group also has a presence there.

UFO pyramid reported over Kremlin

Telegraph UK (Link) (December 18, 2009) Video

A giant pyramid which appears to be a UFO hovering over the Kremlin has caused frenzied speculation in Russia that it is an alien spacecraft.

The object has been compared to an Imperial Cruiser in the Star Wars films and witnesses estimated it could be up to a mile wide.

Two film clips exist which appear to show the same object and footage has been repeatedly playing on Russian television news channels.

The shots, one taken at night from a car and one during the day, were both filmed by amateurs.

The ‘craft’ was said to have hovered for hours over Red Square in the Russian capital.

The clips of the ‘invasion’ have gone to the top of the country’s version of YouTube.

The identity of the shape has not been confirmed. Russian reports ruled out a UFO but police refused to comment.

Column One: Reconsidering the Suez Campaign

The Jerusalem Post (Link) - Caroline Glick (December 18, 2009)

It is hard to seize the initiative. The consequences of acting are frightening. It is always better to let others go first. But sometimes that is impossible. Today it is becoming clear that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has no choice but to lead.

The stakes have never been higher. Every day we are beset by an avalanche of evidence that Iran is on the verge of becoming a nuclear armed state. From the secret uranium enrichment facility in Qom, to Iran’s solid fuel missile test this week to the disclosure that Iran is developing a trigger device to detonate nuclear bombs, it is clear that Teheran is building a nuclear arsenal and that - at a minimum - it is determined to use it to force the nations of the Middle East to bend to its fanatical will.

Until now, as Israel faced this growing threat, it has tried to avoid leading by seeking to convince the US to act against Iran. Since US President Barack Obama took office 11 months ago, Israel’s desire to convince the US to act against Iran has driven Netanyahu to take drastic steps to appease the White House.

Cancer treatment takes a giant step forward as scientists crack code

Times Online (Link) - Mark Henderson (December 17, 2009)

The complete genetic codes of two human cancers have been mapped for the first time. The move could herald a medical revolution in which every tumour can be targeted with personalised therapy.

The exhaustive genetic maps, which catalogue every DNA mutation found in two patients’ tumours, will transform treatment of the disease. It has been described as the most significant milestone in cancer research in more than a decade.

Scientists predict that by about 2020 all cancer patients could have their tumours analysed to find the genetic defects that drive them. This information would then be used to select the treatments most likely to work.

Insights from the genomes will also lead to the development of powerful drugs to target DNA errors that cause cancer and highlight ways in which the disease can be prevented. Cancers would be diagnosed and treated according to their genetic profiles rather than their position in the body.

“The pace at which genomics is moving is probably the most exciting thing that’s gone on in cancer research in more than a decade,” said Professor Sir John Bell, President of the Academy of Medical Sciences. “These cancer genome projects are a major landmark, as significant as the sequencing of the human genome itself.”

Jerusalem: EU foreign policy chief’s remarks ‘cast a pall’ over relations

Haaretz (Link) - Akiva Eldar (December 17, 2009)

Government officials in Jerusalem harshly criticized the new European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, for her scathing remarks about the “Israeli occupation” in her maiden speech.

The British stateswoman told the members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg that, in the EU’s view, “East Jerusalem is occupied territory, together with the West Bank.”

Ashton demanded that Israel immediately lift its blockade on the Gaza Strip, and reiterated that the union opposes the existence of the West Bank separation fence, along with evictions of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem.

The government officials in Jerusalem said they were surprised, dissatisfied and concerned that such a senior figure had expressed criticism before visiting Israel and learning the facts. They said the remarks cast a pall over relations with the European Union, and that they were particularly angry that she had not welcomed the settlement construction freeze, as had her European colleagues.

U.S. National Debt Tops Debt Limit

CBS News (Link) - Mark Knoller (December 12, 2009)

The latest calculation of the National Debt as posted by the Treasury Department has - at least numerically - exceeded the statutory Debt Limit approved by Congress last February as part of the Recovery Act stimulus bill.

The ceiling was set at $12.104 trillion dollars. The latest posting by Treasury shows the National Debt at nearly $12.135 trillion.

A senior Treasury official told CBS News that the department has some “extraordinary accounting tools” it can use to give the government breathing room in the range of $150-billion when the Debt exceeds the Debt Ceiling.

Were it not for those “tools,” the U.S. Government would not have the statutory authority to borrow any more money. It might block issuance of Social Security checks and require a shutdown of some parts of the federal government.

Live At Copenhagen: U.N. Official Admits Copenhagen Conference “is Not a Climate Change Negotiation”

The Heritage Foundation (Link) - Steven Groves (December 16, 2009)

As the developed and developing worlds continue to spar here in Copenhagen over the terms of a comprehensive climate change treaty, a key United Nations official let the actual truth slip out as to what this conference is really about.

Janos Pasztor—the Director of U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-moon’s Climate Change Support Team—was characterizing the nature of the talks between the rich and poor nations of the world when he said the following: “This is not a climate-change negotiation … It’s about something much more fundamental. It’s about economic strength.” The nations at the negotiation, he added, “just have to slug it out.”

That is a remarkable statement, and may turn out to be the most truthful comment made during this entire two-week conference.

All 192 nations negotiating here in Copenhagen know Mr. Pasztor’s characterization to be true, but none say so. They speak of the United States’ “climate debt” owed to the rest of the world and that the U.S. and other developed nations owe “climate reparations” to the developing world to the tune of $100 billion a year.

Mr. Pasztor is correct—what is going on in Copenhagen this fortnight is anything but a climate change negotiation. It is an international political debate over global redistribution of wealth and control of energy resources, masquerading as an environmental conference.

The Dollar Bill Goes High-Tech

Fox News (Link) - John Brandon (December 16, 2009)

Counterfeiting has never been easier. All it takes these days is a fairly inexpensive color printer, some graphic design software and a willingness to spend a few decades in jail if you get caught.

But desperate times call for desperate measures, so criminals struggling in a tough economy and savvy with advanced printing equipment have figured out how to replicate bank notes. Some bleach $1 bills and print $100 bills; others use holographic wrapping paper available at any dollar store. And it's not just the little guy. The big guys — the major crime syndicates — have set up complex printing operations to print illegal tender in large quantities.

Fake bills look remarkably similar to the real McCoy, with intaglio (textured printing) and holographic markings.

“Internationally, we have seen a marked increase in counterfeiting in the last five years,” says Bonnie Schwab, a consultant who worked for the Bank of Canada and has advised the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group. “Causes are improvement in technology available to the general public and to the traditional counterfeiters. More and more people with little skill in design and printing are able to download images and print to desktop printers.”

A Shaky Start for the ENP

International Relations and Security Network (Link) - Valentin Misteli (December 16, 2009)

Moving the European Neigbourhood Policy to a new portfolio has made its adaptation to post-Lisbon institutions even more difficult, hindering the new EU High Representative in unleashing its potential.

To establish a brand new office and build a new, potentially long-lasting institution from a “blank sheet of paper” is an invaluable privilege. Baroness Catherine Ashton, the EU’s first High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, however, has not started with a clean slate.

Before Ashton took office, the EU member states agreed on the guidelines of the European External Action Service (EEAS) and picked who would chair the foreign ministers’ Council meetings in her absence. It will be the foreign minister of the country holding the Council presidency and not a fellow commissioner.

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso has not been very supportive, either, and has shifted the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) from the External Relations to the Enlargement portfolio given to Czech Commissioner-designate Štefan Füle. By doing so, Barroso has hampered Ashton in proving the advantage of the double-hatted role as High Representative and Commission Vice President with regard to the one policy that should be the prime example of combining supranational with intergovernmental instruments.

Barroso’s move – cushioned by a “without prejudice” caveat – is all the more deplorable, given that the ENP is in need of a pillar-bridging makeover, as it lacks a ‘second pillar’ related institutional framework that would provide for close political association.

Iran Medium-Range Missile Test Condemned

Sky News (Link) - Alex Watts (December 16, 2009)

The improved Sejil 2 missile can reportedly hit targets 1,250 miles away - putting it in reach of Israel as well as US bases in the Gulf, and south-east Europe.

The US said the move, which follows earlier testing in May, only worked to “undermine Iran's claims of peaceful intentions.”

National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said: “Such actions will increase the seriousness and resolve of the international community to hold Iran accountable for its continued defiance of its international obligations on its nuclear programme.”

Gordon Brown immediately condemned the missile test and warned Iran it faced tougher sanctions.

The Prime Minister discussed the development when he met UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at climate change talks in Copenhagen.

He said: “This is a matter of serious concern to the international community and it does make the case for us moving further on sanctions.

“We will treat this with the seriousness it deserves.”

20,000 evacuated as Philippine volcano oozes lava

Associated Press (Link) - Jim Gomez (December 15, 2009)

Authorities moved thousands of villagers from harm’s way near the Philippines’ most active volcano Tuesday after it oozed lava and shot plumes of ash, and said they probably would spend a bleak Christmas in an evacuation center.

State volcanologists raised the alert level on the cone-shaped, 8,070-foot (2,460-meter) Mayon volcano overnight to two steps below a major eruption after ash explosions and dark orange lava fragments glowing in the dark trickled down the mountain slope.

Nearly 50,000 people live in a five-mile (eight-kilometer) radius around the mountain, and authorities began moving thousands of them in case it erupts, Albay provincial Gov. Joey Salceda said.

More than 20,000 people were evacuated to safety by nightfall Tuesday, Salceda said, adding he has placed central Albay province, where Mayon is located, under a “state of imminent disaster,” which will make it easier for him to draw and use emergency funds.

“Whatever the volcano does, our target is zero casualty,” Salceda told The Associated Press.

Albay province lies about 210 miles (340 kilometers) southeast of Manila.

Abbas names 1967 borders as precondition for talks

YNet News (Link) - Ali Waked (December 15, 2009)

PLO Central Committee convenes in Ramallah to discuss plan aimed at resolving its political crisis. Palestinian president clarifies he will not seek another term and slams building freeze, which he says ‘is not considered a halt of settlement activity.’

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas demanded Tuesday that the international community recognize the 1967 borders as the borders of a new Palestinian state, and stated that this was a condition for the resumption of peace talks with Israel.

“We will renew negotiations if the settlements are completely halted and the 1967 borders recognized as the borders of the Palestinian state,” he said in Ramallah.

Speaking before the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s Central Committee, Abbas commended the European Union on a proposal to declare east Jerusalem the future capital of a Palestinian state.

Here Comes The Sun

Investors Business Daily (Link) (December 15, 2009)

Drip by drip, like a glacier melting in the sun, the claim that man is changing the climate is dissolving into irrelevance. The recent findings of Swiss researchers expose another hole.

Former Vice President Al Gore has for years warned that man-made global warming is melting the world’s glaciers — a tactic commonly used by alarmists who want to whip up hysteria. Swiss researchers, however, have presented evidence that weakens the argument.

Scientists at Zurich’s Federal Institute of Technology have found that solar activity caused Alpine glaciers to melt in the 1940s at rates faster than today’s pace, even though it’s warmer now.

The study found that the sun in the 1940s was 8% stronger than average and far more powerful than it is today. It also concluded that solar activity was weaker from the 1950s to the 1980s, an era in which the glaciers advanced.

The Swiss researchers are spinning their own work, saying that the evidence doesn’t mean the public can stop worrying about man-made warming. But their finding validates other researchers who have said solar activity has a far greater impact on temperatures than human CO₂ emissions.

Hamas: All Islamist groups will unite with Iran if Israel attacks

Haaretz (Link) - Reuters (December 15, 2009)

Hamas leader Khaled Meshal warned on Tuesday that Islamist militant groups would back Iran if the Islamic Republic was attacked by Israel, Iranian state television reported.

“All Islamist militant groups will form a united front with Iran against Israel if it attacks Iran,” Meshal told a news conference.

Israel and the United States have not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the row over Iranian nuclear work that the West suspects is aimed at making bombs.

The Hamas leader added: “We are all parts of the same body... We all should fight against the mutual enemy. But how, the leaders will decide based on our capacities.”

He further said that Israel was a danger for the Middle East region.

Climate Change is Natural: 100 Reasons Why

Daily Express (Link) - the European Foundation (December 15, 2009)

HERE are the 100 reasons, released in a dossier issued by the European Foundation, why climate change is natural and not man-made:

1) There is “no real scientific proof” that the current warming is caused by the rise of greenhouse gases from man’s activity.

2) Man-made carbon dioxide emissions throughout human history constitute less than 0.00022 percent of the total naturally emitted from the mantle of the earth during geological history.

3) Warmer periods of the Earth’s history came around 800 years before rises in CO₂ levels.

4) After World War II, there was a huge surge in recorded CO₂ emissions but global temperatures fell for four decades after 1940.

5) Throughout the Earth’s history, temperatures have often been warmer than now and CO₂ levels have often been higher – more than ten times as high.

6) Significant changes in climate have continually occurred throughout geologic time.

7) The 0.7C increase in the average global temperature over the last hundred years is entirely consistent with well-established, long-term, natural climate trends.

8) The IPCC theory is driven by just 60 scientists and favourable reviewers not the 4,000 usually cited.

Javier Solana joins ESADE Business School

ESADE (Link) (December 15, 2009)

Javier Solana, who for the last ten years has been the European Union's High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, has chosen to join ESADE Business School as President of its new Centre for Global Economics and Geopolitics, in the new year.

Having left academia to pursue his political career, during which he has been Minister of Culture, Minister of Education and Science, and Minister of Foreign Affairs in Spain, Secretary General of NATO and held a number of high ranking positions in the EU, Javier Solana will take on a research and teaching role in ESADE.

The new ESADE Centre for Global Economics and Geopolitics, over which Javier Solana will preside, will focus on the evolution of global society, analysing the global economy, corporate leadership and good practice in public policy, among other areas. "In joining ESADE, I am becoming part of an institution of excellence and academic rigor" says Solana, "we hope to set up what will become an international reference for the generation of new ideas essential for the future of global society as a whole." Solana also commented that he aims to establish relationships with other international centres of excellence that will support this goal.

Fastest Food Inflation Since Riots Means Milk Up 39%

Bloomberg (Link) - Alan Bjerga, Madelene Pearson and Yi Tian (December 14, 2009)

Falling production in commodities from rice to milk is bad news for just about everyone except investors.

Rice may surge 63 percent to $1,038 a metric ton from $638 on Philippine imports and a shortage in India, a Bloomberg survey of importers, exporters and analysts showed. The U.S. government says nonfat dry milk may jump 39 percent next year, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. forecasts a 25 percent gain for sugar. Global food costs jumped 7 percent in November, the most since February 2008, four months before reaching a record, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

Farm prices this year lagged behind copper futures that doubled and oil’s 57 percent increase. A recovery from the worst recession since World War II would spur food demand and boost costs for buyers of commodities including milk processor Dean Foods Co. while increasing the number of hungry people that the UN says now exceeds 1 billion.

“Agricultural commodities will be a great investment in the next three to five years,” said Oliver Kratz, who manages $10 billion as head of Global Thematic Strategy investments at Deutsche Bank AG’s DB Advisors in New York, including $3 billion in agriculture. For those who can’t afford to pay more for food, there’s the “painful” risk of hunger, he said.

Is the Middle East about to go apocalyptic?

Prophecy Depot (Link) - Bill Salus (December 14, 2009)

While world leaders met in Copenhagen for the United Nations 2009 Climate Change Conference, Damascus, Syria hosted a war tribunal with high level delegations from Iran and the Hezbollah. Concurrently, about five-hundred prophetically minded Christian’s fellowshipped at the annual 2009 Pre-Trib Rapture conference in Dallas, hosted by Dr. Tim Lahaye and Dr. Thomas Ice.

Among the eschatologists in attendance were, Dr. David Reagan, Dr. Mark Hitchcock, Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Jimmy DeYoung, Jimmy DeYoung Jr., Dr. Chuck Missler, Bill Koenig, Pastor Chuck Smith, Dr. Ed Hindson, Dr. Randall Price, Mike Gendron, Dr. Thomas Horn, Al Gist, Don McGee, Terry James, Todd Strandberg, Gary Fisher, Phillip Goodman, Wilfred Hahn, Jerry Robinson, Nathan Jones, Don Perkins, Daymond Duck, Gordon Peterson, Don Mercer, Ray Gano, Mike Hile, yours truly and many more.

The revived Roman Empire, trend toward Globalism, coming Mideast War, absence of America in Bible prophecy, and soon return of Jesus Christ weighed heavy on our hearts and minds at the conference. Although not all Christians worldwide agree as to when or whether Jesus Christ comes to take millions of believers out of this world, many of them are troubled by the rapidly developing dangerous events in the Middle East.