Watchman Newsletter

Video: Hacker war drives San Francisco cloning RFID passports

Engadget (Link) - Thomas Ricker (February 2, 2009)

Think of it this way: Chris Paget just did you a service by hacking your passport and stealing your identity. Using a $250 Motorola RFID reader and antenna connected to his laptop, Chris recently drove around San Francisco reading RFID tags from passports, driver licenses, and other identity documents. In just 20 minutes, he found and cloned the passports of two very unaware US citizens. Fortunately, Chris wears a white hat; his video demonstration is meant to raise awareness to what he calls the unsuitability of RFID for tagging people. Specifically, he's hoping to help get the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative -- a homeland security project -- scrapped. Perhaps you'll feel the same after watching his video posted after the break.

Read -- Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative
Read -- RFID passports cloned

Obama 'guarantees' West Bank withdrawal

WorldNet Daily (Link) - Aaron Klein (February 2, 2009)

The Palestinian Authority received a guarantee from President Obama's administration that understandings reached with Israel during U.S.-backed negotiations while President Bush was in office would be utilized as starting points for current and future talks with the Jewish state, top PA officials told WND.

With new general Israeli elections scheduled for next week, the move could limit the incoming Israeli prime minister, since the PA can point to points of agreement during previous talks between Bush and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

The PA officials, speaking on condition their names be withheld, said they were enthusiastic about the new tone of the White House and about recent meetings with Obama's Mideast envoy, former Democratic Sen. George Mitchell. They said they believe that under Obama the Palestinians can extract from Israel concessions reaching "much further" than during talks held under the previous administration.

Signs of the Times Part 1: Global Governance

News With Views (Link) - Debra Rae (February 2, 2009)

Where’s the Hope in 2009?

With a flurry of inaugural balls behind him, President Obama faces an inherited plateful of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, stateside and abroad. Geo-political tumult and a mere glimpse at our unimaginably shrinking bank and investment accounts drive home this point.

Feeling betrayed by her leadership, our war-weary nation has taken solace in flawless transfer of governmental power so that, now, the U.S. and the world at large share a curious mix of fear and uncertainty coupled with hope for change that rides the cleansing wave of yes-we-can rhetoric.

No Need for Chrystal Ball-Gazing

Many embrace the notion Qui sera, sera, whatever will be, will be; but “it ain’t necessarily so.” Those who are duly vigilant and rightly armed for action need not be victimized by chance. After all, the Bible answers humanity’s age-abiding question, “What does the future have in store?” All who have ears to hear are invited to participate in what promises to be an incredible preface to the wrap-up of history—but certainly not without its woes.

About six hundred years before Christ, Daniel’s apocalyptic visions accurately anticipated and characterized major world governments to follow the Babylonian Empire—specifically, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome and Rome revived. While the rest is history, a new Rome, once fully revived, will resemble the ancient counterpart with respect to its universal belief system, global impact and eventually its destined collapse. A product of the Bilderberg Group behind globalism, the European Community is what some theologians consider to be old Rome revived.

Indeed, in 1918, Russian Communist Leon Trotsky wrote, “The task of the proletariat is to create a U.S. of Europe as foundation for the U.S. of the World.” NAFTA, NAFTA Corridors, the Union of the Americas and proposal of the amero—all flesh out Trotsky’s global vision.

Clearly, the notion of global governance is not new to secularists. In 1928, former Fabian Socialist H.G. Wells published The Open Conspiracy: Blue Prints for a World Revolution. In Wells’ view, before the shadowy new order’s character is “plainly displayed,” existing governments first must be “weakened, effaced, incorporated and superseded.” To this end, Democratic Socialists of America insist that “now is the time to press for the subordination of national sovereignty” (Eco-Socialist Review, Summer 1991).

Count on it. Collective consciousness has become all the rage. With increasing resolve, America’s once rugged individualism (now labeled selfish imperialism) is taking back seat to well-being of “the global village.” As capsulated in the 1994 U.N. Report on Human Development, the one-world premise is simple enough: Given that mankind’s problems no longer can be solved by national governments, world government is necessary. And—be sure—world government is upon us.

"Citizens Solutions" For the New Era - Barbara Marx Hubbard (Video)

Lighthouse Trails Blog (Link) (February 1, 2009)

New Age leader and activist Barbara Marx Hubbard has played an instrumental role with Marianne Williamson in efforts to bring about a Department of Peace in Washington, DC. Warren Smith discusses Marx Hubbard's work and the "selection process" to prepare the world for a new era of consciousness in his online book, Reinventing Jesus Christ Hubbard's book, Happy Birthday Planet Earth, she states:

Christ-consciousness and Christ-abilities are the natural inheritance of every human being on Earth. When the word of this hope has reached the nations, the end of this phase of evolution shall come. All will know their choice. All will be required to choose..... All who choose not to evolve will die off; their souls will begin again within a different planetary system which will serve as kindergarten for the transition from self-centered to whole-centered being. The kindergarten class of Earth will be over. Humankind's collective power is too great to be inherited by self-centered, infantile people." (Quoted by Let Us Reason)

Pastor Joe Schimmel, in his article "The Coming Persecution" explains:

New Age leader, Barbara Marx Hubbard has stated, "people will either change or die," for "that is the choice." According to those who would concur with Hubbard, Christians will need to be more open minded so they too can receive the mark of the Antichrist. If they will not join with the global community and its agenda, they will be killed by the "opened minded" New Agers. She states that, "This act is as horrible as killing a cancer cell. It must be done (or the sake of the future of the whole. So be it; be prepared for the selection process which is now beginning. We, the elders, have been patiently waiting until the very last moment before the quantum transformation, to take action to cut out this corrupted and corrupting element in the body of humanity. It is like watching a cancer grow; something must be done before the whole body is destroyed.... The destructive one fourth must be eliminated from the social body."

Mashaal to meet Ahmadinejad in Teheran

The Jerusalem Post (Link) - Reuters (February 1, 2009)

Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal arrived in Iran early Sunday morning, Reuters reported. Mashaal, along with a high-level Hamas delegation, will reportedly meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in an effort to garner support for his group in the Middle East.

According to the report, the other five delegation members were also part of the Hamas politburo, which Mashaal heads.

Last week, meanwhile, Mashaal called on the world to engage in dialogue with the Islamic group. "For three years, [the world has] been trying to rid themselves of Hamas, they imposed a blockade on Gaza. The time has come to talk to us," Mashaal said during a speech in Damascus.

Mashaal described the recent IDF campaign in Gaza, which targeted Hamas terrorists, as the "first real war that our people have won," stressing that "Hamas and the resistance movements played an honorable role."

MI: Hamas Upholding Truce; Others Aren't

The Jerusalem Post (Link) (February 1, 2009)

"Hamas have internalized the extent of the physical and moral blow inflicted upon it. Unlike arrogant statements sounded in the media, the organization is conducting serious soul-searching on its strategic mistakes and operational failures," Military Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin said Sunday in the weekly cabinet meeting.

"Two weeks after the cease-fire began, terrorists not belonging to Hamas are challenging the organization and carrying out attacks in order to bring on another escalation. Hamas is deterred and respecting the cease-fire, but not doing enough to discourage the others," he continued.

"Operation Cast Lead improved Israeli deterrence and brought radical factions to lesson-learning processes... Hamas sees the rehabilitation efforts as an opportunity for inner Palestinian reconciliation, which would enable them to realize their ambition to take over the PLO, bringing an end to the two-state notion," Yadlin added.

Earlier in the meeting, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the cabinet that Israel would respond firmly to Sunday morning attacks on Israel, in which four rockets fired from Gaza pounded the South.

"The cabinet's position from the outset was that if there is rocket fire at residents of the South, there will be a response that will essentially be disproportionate," he said.

Two children should be limit, says green guru

Times Online (Link) - Sarah-Kate Templeton (February 1, 2009)

Couples who have more than two children are being “irresponsible” by creating an unbearable burden on the environment, the government’s green adviser has warned. Jonathon Porritt, who chairs the government’s Sustainable Development Commission, says curbing population growth through contraception and abortion must be at the heart of policies to fight global warming. He says political leaders and green campaigners should stop dodging the issue of environmental harm caused by an expanding population.

“I am unapologetic about asking people to connect up their own responsibility for their total environmental footprint and how they decide to procreate and how many children they think are appropriate,” Porritt said. “I think we will work our way towards a position that says that having more than two children is irresponsible. It is the ghost at the table. We have all these big issues that everybody is looking at and then you don’t really hear anyone say the “p” word.”