Watchman Newsletter

Chile Earthquake: Is Mother Nature Out of Control?

Live Science (Link) - Jeanna Bryner (February 27, 2010)

Chile is on a hotspot of sorts for earthquake activity. And so the 8.8-magnitude temblor that shook the capital region overnight was not a surprise, historically speaking. Nor was it outside the realm of normal, scientists say, even though it comes on the heels of other major earthquakes.

One scientist, however, says that relative to a time period in the past, the Earth has been more active over the past 15 years or so.

The Chilean earthquake, and the tsunami it spawned, originated on a hot spot known as a subduction zone, where one plate of Earth’s crust dives under another. It’s part of the very active “Ring of Fire,” a zone of major crustal plate clashes that surround the Pacific Ocean.

“This particular subduction zone has produced very damaging earthquakes throughout its history,” said Randy Baldwin, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

The world’s largest quake ever recorded, magnitude 9.5, occurred along the same fault zone in May 1960.

Even so, magnitude-8 earthquakes occur globally, on average, just once a year. Since magnitudes are given on a logarithmic scale, an 8.8-magnitude is much more intense than a magnitude 8, and so this event would be even rarer, said J. Ramón Arrowsmith, a geologist at Arizona State University.

Devastating Earthquake Strikes Chile

The New York Times (Link) - Alexei Barrionuevo & Liz Robbins (February 27, 2010)

A deadly, 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck central Chile early Saturday, collapsing buildings, shattering major bridges and highways across a long swath of the country, and sending tsunami warnings along the entire Pacific basin.

Chile’s TVN cable news channel reported 122 deaths less than 12 hours after the quake struck. The death toll was expected to rise, particularly around Concepción, Chile’s second-largest metropolitan area, which is roughly 70 miles from the quake’s center.

There, cars were overturned, rubble fell into the cracked streets and a 15-story building collapsed, wire services and Chilean news media reported. In the capital of Santiago, about five hours to the north and about 200 miles from the epicenter, frightened residents felt the city shake for nearly 90 seconds.

As more than two dozen significant aftershocks struck the region, President Michelle Bachelet declared a “state of catastrophe.” Major airports and seaports were reported out of operation across the central region, Chilean officials said.

The Associated Press quoted Mrs. Bachelet as saying that a huge wave had swept into a populated area in the Robinson Crusoe Island, 410 miles off the Chilean coast, but there were no immediate reports of major damage there. Those reports bore out early fears that a major tsunami was on its way across the Pacific, and the first hemisphere-wide tsunami warning since 1964 was issued all along the basin, according to monitors in Hawaii.

Iran Government Closes Evangelical Church; Nine Detained

Worthy News (Link) - Karl West (February 26, 2010)

An evangelical pastor and eight other Christians were behind bars in Iran Friday, February 26, after authorities closed their church as part of a new government crackdown on devoted Christians in the Islamic nation, rights investigators said.

Reverend Wilson Issavi and the other believers were arrested by Iranian state security agents in the city of Isfahan, some 340 kilometers (212 miles) south of the capital Tehran, explained Jeff King, president of advocacy group International Christian Concern (ICC).

“Issavi was visiting a friend’s home in [the area of] Shahin Shahr [in] Isfahan when state security raided the house unannounced,” King explained. “Reverend Issavi, his hosts and others were apprehended by the security agents and immediately taken to prison. Friends and family are deeply concerned as they are unable to contact Reverend Issavi.”

King did not reveal the names and whereabouts of the eight Christians detained with the pastor, citing security concerns. He said the location and physical condition of the nine Christians is unknown.

The ICC official described the arrest of Issavi as a “devastating blow” to Iran’s Christian community. “Reverend Issavi is known among friends as a humble and devoted servant of the church. He is considered a man of prayer who has lived a modest life to better assist those in need.”

The plot against Lady Ashton

Press Europ (Link) (February 26, 2010)

After Jose Manuel Baroso and Herman Van Rompuy, Catherine Ashton is now the European figure that everyone loves to hate. Only a few months into her much criticised mandate as the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, can she hang on? The press laments a rudderless Europe.

Just three months into her mandate as the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, and the questions begs as to whether Catherine Ashton is heading for the exit. “Simmering discontent” at her performance has “turned into outright criticism,” announces The Times. According to the London daily, this “sniping” has been initiated by France, which “wanted a strong minister of foreign affairs,” but is now spreading across the continent.

European Union heads are incensed, it seems, that she failed to attend the European defence ministers’ meeting with the NATO Secretary General in Majorca on 25 February (she was at the inauguration of President Yanukovych in Ukraine instead). French Defence Minister Hervé Morin set the tone - “Isn’t it rich that this morning, to display the ties between NATO and the EU, we have the NATO Secretary General [Anders Fogh Rasmussen) here but not the High Representative for the first meeting since the Lisbon Treaty came into effect.” However, he was joined Dutch counterpart, Jack de Vries, who quipped on Twitter that “Madame Ashton was notable by her absence”, and also Spain’s Carme Chacón, who “regretted Ashton’s absence.”

Trilateral meeting in Damascus

The Jerusalem Post (Link) (February 26, 2010)

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah met Thursday evening in Damascus along with their senior advisors, and discussed regional developments and “the Zionist threat,” it was revealed Friday.

The two were the guests of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who had dinner with the two and participated in the talks.

According to Arab media reports, the meeting was not reported upon until after it had taken place for security reasons.

On Thursday Ahmadinejad and Assad together unleashed vicious rhetoric against Israel, with Ahmadinejad declaring that the “criminal” state of Israel is doomed, and Assad charging that Israel “is capable of aggression at any point.”

Visiting Damascus, Ahmadinejad vowed that Arab nations will usher in a new Middle East “without Zionists and without colonialists.”

NATO, EU call for closer ties despite Cyprus feud

Earth Times (Link) - Deutsche Presse Agentur (February 25, 2010)

NATO and the European Union called on one another to improve their cooperation on Thursday, despite the long-standing blockade to such an improvement wielded by EU member Cyprus and NATO member Turkey. EU and NATO staff work side-by-side in countries such as Afghanistan and Kosovo, but Cyprus and Turkey have so far vetoed attempts to set up a formal relationship between the two organizations, which are based just a few miles apart in Brussels.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on the sidelines of an informal meeting of EU defence ministers on the Spanish island of Mallorca that he found it “a little absurd” that NATO and the EU operate in the same areas without being able to agree a security pact.

Spanish Defence Minister Carme Chacon, the meeting’s hostess, said that now was the “right moment” to set up permanent ties between the two organizations, since NATO is currently reviewing its overall strategy and the EU is overhauling its own one following the introduction of the Lisbon Treaty on December 1.

The two organizations should stop working with parallel structures which duplicate one another’s efforts, and instead try to work in a complementary way, she said.

Jobless claims up 12% in past 2 weeks

CNN Money (Link) - Blake Ellis (February 25, 2010)

The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance surged to just below the 500,000 level last week, and have climbed more than 12% over the past two weeks, the government said Thursday.

There were 496,000 initial job claims filed in the week ended Feb. 20, up 22,000 from a revised 474,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said in a weekly report. The prior week, there were 442,000 claims filed.

A consensus estimate of economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected new claims to fall to 460,000.

The 4-week moving average of initial claims was 473,750, up 6,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 467,750.

“This is certainly not surprising given the very adverse weather conditions for the eastern half of the country, especially in the major population areas,” said Robert Dye, a senior economist at PNC Financial Services. “Weather has a huge impact, particularly with things like construction, which remains very soft.”

The Winds of Middle East War

The Jerusalem Post (Link) - Michael Freund (February 24, 2010)

Something is stirring in the Middle East. The winds of war are blowing, picking up speed with each passing day, and the threat to Israel is growing steadily more alarming.

All around us, trouble - major trouble - appears to be brewing, and it is time we open our eyes and confront the dangers that may lie ahead.

From Beirut and Damascus in the north to Teheran in the east, and back to Gaza in the south, the “arc of hate” surrounding the Jewish state is speaking openly and brazenly of conflict and destruction.

Israel’s foes have launched increasingly fiery verbal volleys in recent weeks, in what appears to be a coordinated campaign to heighten tensions in the region.

With pressure mounting on Iran over its nuclear program, and the threat of stricter sanctions in the air, Israel needs to be on guard and alert.

Former I.M.F. Chief Recommends That E.U. Merge Its Lending

The New York Times (Link) - Stephen Castle (February 24, 2010)

The creation of a powerful new European development bank could increase the European Union’s global influence and give its foreign policy more credibility, according to the author of a report due to be published Wednesday.

Michel Camdessus, a former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said that the Union should consider merging its existing agencies into one big development bank able to spend more than €10 billion, or $13.5 billion, each year.

“Europe needs to be seen to have powerful instruments commensurate with the money Europe is ready to spend,” he said Tuesday.

The idea is likely to encounter practical objections, not least because one of the institutions involved, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, has non-European government shareholders, including the United States.

But after evaluating the external work of the European Investment Bank, Mr. Camdessus argued that a more cohesive lending program could provide vital support to E.U. foreign-policy objectives and solidify the bloc’s influence in neighboring and developing countries.

The proposals come after the introduction on Dec. 1 of the Union’s Lisbon Treaty, which is supposed to streamline Europe’s structures, placing both policy making and much external spending under the control of a new foreign-policy chief, Catherine Ashton.

Archaeologist finds Jerusalem wall matching biblical story

Haaretz (Link) - Nir Hasson (February 23, 2010)

A team of Israeli archaeologists has announced the discovery of a massive wall they say dates to the 10th century BCE in Jerusalem’s Ophel Park on the slope between the Temple Mount and the village of Silwan. The dig director, Dr. Eilat Mazar, dates the wall according to potsherds found nearby to the period of King Solomon and the major period of construction in Jerusalem in the First Temple period, as described in the Bible.

The dig is a joint project by the Hebrew University, the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.

Along with the wall, which is 10 meters high and 70 meters long, other structures were found, including a monumental gatehouse and a tower. According to Mazar, the wall is additional proof of the accuracy of the Bible’s description of the grandeur of the period of David and Solomon.

According to 1 Kings 3:1, Solomon brought his royal Egyptian wife “into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall of Jerusalem round about.”

“If we take the type of building and the finds and examine them in the light of what we know from the Bible, it certainly goes together well,” Mazar says. “It suits the biblical story and upgrades our ability to propose an association to the wall of Jerusalem that King Solomon built. It’s not wise to relate to archaeology without the biblical text. It is very possible that the Bible, like stories of dynasties, preserves a kernel of truth,” she says.

EU ministers to explore common defence strategy

EU Business (Link) (February 23, 2010)

 EU defence ministers, meeting in Spain Wednesday, will consider increased military ties authorised by the bloc’s Lisbon Treaty, but with EU diplomatic chief Catherine Ashton notable by her absence.

The two-day meeting will not be the baptism of fire which some had been predicting for Ashton, the EU’s High Representative for foreign affairs and security policy -- a post also created by the new treaty.

She cancelled her participation in the defence talks, in part to represent the European Union at the investiture ceremony of the new Ukrainian president, her spokesman said.

Some participants at the Palma meet had been hoping to hear Ashton’s intentions as the first holder of the beefed-up foreign and defence job.

“Especially as, thanks to the treaty, the opportunity is there to reinforce Europe’s defence, to give it more visibility,” as one European diplomat put it.

“Her predecessor Javier Solana didn’t miss a single meeting of this type with the defence ministers,” one European diplomatic source said, recalling the holder of the lesser pre-Lisbon foreign policy post. “Something has changed in the order of priorities,” she added.

White House ‘on board’ Palestinian unilateral statehood threat

WorldNet Daily (Link) - Aaron Klein (February 23, 2010)

Recent meetings between the Obama administration and the Palestinian Authority revealed the White House is on board a Palestinian threat to unilaterally ask the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state outside of negotiations with Israel, a senior PA negotiator told WND.

The negotiator further claimed the entire European Union leadership has backed the plot.

WND previously reported the PA’s chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, headed a team that held a series of meetings in December with members of the Obama administration in Washington to discuss the U.S. response should the Palestinians bring to the U.N. Security Council a resolution to unilaterally create a Palestinian state.

“The U.S. position is less restrained than it appears in the media,” a PA official told WND in December, referring to media claims the U.S. would veto any such resolution.

Yesterday, a senior PA negotiator stated the Obama administration still has not threatened to veto the conceptual unilateral resolution and even indicated the U.S. would support such a resolution.

“The U.S. prefers a negotiated settlement but indicated they would back the resolution if talks don’t progress,” the PA negotiator said.

‘Lebanon army should seek help from Iran, Syria’

Press TV (Link) (February 22, 2010)

A member of Lebanon’s parliament has called on the country’s military to expand its defensive capability through extensive cooperation with Iran and Syria.

“Iran and Syria are the only states willing to assist our country in building a powerful military,” Nawaf al Mousawi told lawmakers at the Lebanese Majlis.

Speaking a week after the movement’s Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah indicated a new approach toward Israeli aggression against Lebanon, al Mousawi added that “neither the United States nor Europe will provide Lebanon with what it needs to defend itself from Israel.”

Nasrallah on Tuesday warned that the movement will strike Israel’s infrastructure, including its airports and refineries, in the event of any Israeli attack on Lebanon.

“If you hit Dahiyeh, we will hit Tel Aviv. If you strike Martyr Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut, we’ll strike your Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv. If you hit our ports, we will hit your ports,” said the leader known for delivering on his promises.

“If you attack our refineries, we’ll attack your refineries. If you bomb our factories, we’ll bomb your factories. If you strike our power stations we will strike your power stations,” Nasrallah continued.

The United Nations Has Condemned the Israeli Government for Declaring Jewish Holy Sites as Part of the Heritage of the Jewish People

Prophecy Today (Link) - Jimmy DeYoung (February 22, 2010)

Recently the Israeli cabinet under Prime Minister Netanyahu declared the Machpelah Cave - burial site for the Jewish Patriarchs in Hebron - and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem as part of the heritage of the Jewish people which the United Nations has condemned. The United Nations Envoy to the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Serry, condemned this cabinet decision saying that the Jewish sites are on occupied Palestinian land and they are of great significance historically to both the Moslems and Christians as well.

The Israeli government has set up a plan for the preservation of the heritage sites of the Jewish people across the state of Israel and the United Nations envoy warned Israel this plan could undermine the highest priority for all of those who seek peace in the Middle East.

The Multi-Billion Dollar Global Warming Fraud

Intellectual Conservative (Link) - Alan Caruba (February 22, 2010)

The scientists and their environmentalist cheerleaders really botched this one. As the massive global warming fraud implodes, the one aspect of it that has not been explored in depth is the equally massive waste of billions of dollars spent by the United States and nations around the world, we were told, to avoid global warming.

Whole industries such as automobile manufacture had demands and limits put on them. Some states required utilities to buy “carbon credits” to offset their use of “fossil fuels.” The list of things attributed to global warming expanded to the point of total absurdity.

The codification of the fraud into law began with the Kyoto Protocol, an element of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change whose purpose was to fight a global warming that we now know was not happening.

The data to support the fraud came out of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that specialized in distorting climate data in every way possible to emphasize a normal warming cycle and then to minimize any indication of a new cooling cycle dating to around 1998 or earlier.

The IPCC data, released periodically in reports purporting to be the work of some 2,500 scientists from around the world, were actually based on the handiwork of a few academic centers such as the Climate Research Center (CRU) at East Anglia University in England, Penn State University, the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and climate modeling from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

Other participants in the fraud were NASA’s Goddard Institute and NOAA, both of whom produced claims, predictions, and questionable data to support “global warming.”

Arctic ice was pushed out, rather than melted

Herald Sun (Link) - Andrew Bolt (February 21, 2010)

Serial alarmist Marian Wilkinson on the ABC’s Four Corners hailed the big Arctic melt of 2007 as evidence the world was heating disastrously and man was to blame:

If you want to see climate change happening before your eyes, scientists will tell you: “Go to the end of the earth”, and that’s why we’re here, in the Arctic Circle.

Wilkinson never explained why the end of the earth we had to go to for evidence was the top, and not the bottom, where sea ice was actually increasing:

Europe wants to recognize Palestinian state now

Israel Today (Link) (February 21, 2010)

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos have launched an initiative to officially recognize a sovereign Palestinian state in 18 months, even if negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians have not concluded.

Senior European diplomats cited by Ha'aretz said Israel was informed of the initiative several weeks ago. Israeli officials confirmed that, and noted that Jerusalem has been lobbying hard against the initiative.

Israel argues that handing the Palestinians their final prize before they have fulfilled their peace obligations will nullify the peace process and lead to increased violence. It will also be seen across the region as a victory for terrorism and violent behavior, bolstering groups like Hamas and Hizballah and further destabilizing the Middle East.

Kouchner and Moratinos are said to be preparing a joint article encouraging immediate recognition of a Palestinian state. The article will be published in all major European newspapers.