Watchman Newsletter

The Egyptian Unrest: A Special Report

Stratfor Global Intelligence (Link) (January 29, 2011)

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak remains the lifeblood of the demonstrators, who still number in the tens of thousands in downtown Cairo and in other major cities, albeit on a lesser scale. After being overwhelmed in the Jan. 28 Day of Rage protests, Egypt’s internal security forces — with the anti-riot paramilitaries of the Central Security Forces (CSF) at the forefront — were glaringly absent from the streets Jan. 29. They were replaced with rows of tanks and armored personnel carriers carrying regular army soldiers. Unlike their CSF counterparts, the demonstrators demanding Mubarak’s exit from the political scene largely welcomed the soldiers. Despite Mubarak’s refusal to step down Jan. 28, the public’s positive perception of the military, seen as the only real gateway to a post-Mubarak Egypt, remained. It is unclear how long this perception will hold, especially as Egyptians are growing frustrated with the rising level of insecurity in the country and the army’s limits in patrolling the streets.

There is more to these demonstrations than meets the eye. The media will focus on the concept of reformers staging a revolution in the name of democracy and human rights. These may well have brought numerous demonstrators into the streets, but revolutions, including this one, are made up of many more actors than the liberal voices on Facebook and Twitter.

Without Egypt, Israel will be left with no friends in Mideast

Haaretz (Link) - Aluf Benn (January 29, 2011)

The fading power of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s government leaves Israel in a state of strategic distress. Without Mubarak, Israel is left with almost no friends in the Middle East; last year, Israel saw its alliance with Turkey collapse.

From now on, it will be hard for Israel to trust an Egyptian government torn apart by internal strife. Israel’s increasing isolation in the region, coupled with a weakening United States, will force the government to court new potential allies.

Israel’s foreign policy has depended on regional alliances which have provided the country with strategic depth since the 1950s. The country’s first partner was France, which at the time ruled over northern Africa and provided Israel with advanced weaponry and nuclear capabilities.

After Israel’s war against Egypt in 1956, David Ben-Gurion attempted to establish alliances with non-Arab countries in the region, including Iran, Turkey and Ethiopia. The Shah of Iran became a significant ally of Israel, supplying the country with oil and money from weapons purchases. The countries’ militaries and intelligence agencies worked on joint operations against Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s rule, which was seen as the main threat against Israel and pro-Western Arab governments.

Egypt Releases Military on Citizens as Rioters Storm Gov’t Buildings

The Blaze (Link) - Jonathon M. Seidl (January 28, 2011)

Egypt’s military deployed on the streets of Cairo to enforce a nighttime curfew as the sun set Friday on a day of rioting and chaos that was a major escalation in the challenge to authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule.

Thousands defied the night curfew in the capital Cairo and were trying to storm two major government buildings – the state TV and the Foreign Ministry. Others were praying on the streets of Cairo after nightfall.

Flames rose up across a number of cities from burning tires and police cars. Even the ruling party headquarters in Cairo was ablaze in the outpouring of rage, bitterness and utter frustration with a regime seen as corrupt, heavy-handed and neglectful of grinding poverty that afflicts nearly half of the 80 million Egyptians. Some protesters were looting television sets and electric fans from the burning headquarters.

One protester was killed, bringing the death toll for four days of protest to eight.

Iran Sees Rise of Islamic Hard-Liners

The New York Times (Link) - William Yong (January 28, 2011)

Hopeful that the protests sweeping Arab lands may create an opening for hard-line Islamic forces, conservatives in Iran are taking deep satisfaction in the events in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen, where secular leaders have faced large-scale uprisings.

While the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad confronted its own popular uprising two years ago — and successfully suppressed it — conservatives in Iran said they saw little similarity between those events and the Arab revolts, and instead likened the recent upheavals to Iran’s own 1979 Islamic revolution.

“In my opinion, the Islamic Republic of Iran should see these events without exception in a positive light,” said Mohammad-Javad Larijani, secretary general of the Iranian High Council for Human Rights and one of the most outspoken figures among Iran’s traditional conservatives.

He made it clear that he hoped that the “anti-Islamic” government of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who was ousted in Tunisia, would be replaced by a “people’s government,” meaning one in which conservative Islamic forces would gain the upper hand, as they did when Iranian people overthrew Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, establishing a quasi-theocracy.

“I Will Set Egyptians Against Egyptians”

Prophecy News-Stand (Link) - Bill Salus (January 28, 2011)

These are the days when the Bible is its own best commentary. Imagine Isaiah the prophet standing on the streets of Cairo today speaking in front of a mainstream news camera declaring:

The burden against Egypt. Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud, And will come into Egypt; The idols of Egypt will totter at His presence, And the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst. “I will set Egyptians against Egyptians; Everyone will fight against his brother, And everyone against his neighbor, City against city, kingdom against kingdom. The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst; I will destroy their counsel, And they will consult the idols and the charmers, The mediums and the sorcerers. And the Egyptians I will give Into the hand of a cruel master, And a fierce king will rule over them,” Says the Lord, the LORD of hosts. (Isaiah 19:1-4, NKJV)

Like a swift moving cloud, Isaiah predicts the rapid deterioration of events in Egypt. Civil unrest causes Egyptians to fight against each other. This fighting spreads from household to household and grows into a kingdom war. Probably quoting Isaiah 19:2, Christ warned kingdoms would rise against each other in Matthew 24:7. Unlike nation coming against nation, which alludes to world wars, “kingdom against kingdom” refers to regional conflicts. Christ taught these prophecies would come upon the world like birth pains. Like a woman about to deliver her newborn, these events are foretold to come with increased frequency and intensity each building upon the other.

Russia and Iran to mount joint operations

The Voice of Russia (Link) - Zakharov Ivan (January 28, 2011)

Russia and Iran are to join efforts to prevent unlawful action at sea, such as poaching and smuggling.

A few days ago, the Russian Justice Ministry handed over drafts of documents containing the legal basis of both countries’ future cooperation at sea, to Tehran. The papers deal with issues like cooperation agreement between the Russian and Iranian Justice Ministries, an agreement on the extradition of detainees, as well as on Consular Convention. Cooperation in the work of lawyers and Notaries is also being proposed and in addition, Russia has equally promised to help train legal personnel for Iran, at Russian higher educational institutions. The agreements are due to be signed during the visit to Tehran by Alexander Konovalov, the Russian Justice Minister, toward the end of this year.

There are problems on which cooperation between Russia and Iran is extremely vital, and one of them is the fighting of the Afghan illegal drug trade. By virtue of their location, Russia and Iran lie at the crossroads of the distribution of Afghan illegal drugs. Both countries have recently signed a memorandum on the war on illegal drugs from Afghanistan, but to make their cooperation more effective, there is a need to work out a single legal basis, says Vasily Likhachev, the Russian deputy Justice Minister, who led a delegation of Russian lawyers who visited Tehran recently.

Iran cleric: Mideast unrest replay of our 1979 Islamic revolution

Haaretz (Link) - DPA (January 28, 2011)

The “aftershock” of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution was now rocking Egypt and other Arab states, a senior ayatollah said in the Friday prayer ceremony in Tehran.

“I herewith proclaim to those (Western leaders) who still do not want to see the realities that the political axis of the new Middle East will soon be Islamic rulership and a democracy based on religion,” Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said.

“All these protests in Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan and Yemen are inspired by Iran’s Islamic revolution and these countries are de facto rocked by the aftershock of the Iranian revolution,” the ultra-conservative cleric added.

The ayatollah said that the era of “Western-backed dictators” in the Arab world was over and the people have entered the scene with the slogan of Allaha Akbar (God is Great), which Khatami said.

A surge of popular protests over police and government repression and poverty swept Tunisia earlier in the month and sent their veteran leader from power, sending a chill through unpopular authoritarian governments across the Arab world. This first ousting has led to a wave of protests throughout the Arab world, with citizens holding anti-government demonstrations and demanding reform. Protests continued in Egypt for the fourth day, despite at least 5 protesters being killed in clashes with police since the protests began. †

Davos 2011: Nicolas Sarkozy ‘will not let euro fail’

BBC News (Link) (January 27, 2011)

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said France and Germany will never let the euro fail.

He acknowledged concerns about the future of the euro following bail-outs of Greece and the Irish Republic, as he addressed the World Economic Forum.

“Whether it be [German] Chancellor Merkel or myself, never will we turn our backs on the euro. Never will we abandon the euro,” he said.

He added that those who bet against the euro should watch out for their money.

“The euro spells Europe. The euro is Europe and Europe has spelled 60 years of peace on our continent, therefore we will never let the euro go or be destroyed,” he insisted.

France currently holds the presidency of the G20 and Mr Sarkozy was speaking about his vision for the group.

Muslims post death threats on doors of Christian homes

WorldNet Daily (Link) (January 27, 2011)

Officials in the south Ethiopian city of Besheno are looking the other way as Muslim mobs in the city put death threats on the doors of Christian villagers, according to organizations that work in the area.

The door-mounted death threats are only the latest incidents in a series of acts of intimidation that include taking away church property, beating evangelists and killing family members.

International Christian Concern’s Jonathan Racho says the list of violent acts against Christians is growing.

“Christians in the southern Ethiopian city of Besheno are being harassed and physically abused after Muslims posted notices on the doors of the Christian homes, warning the Christians that they had to convert to Islam, leave the city or face death,” Racho stated.

“This is a very serious threat against Christians where the majority in this city are Muslims,” Racho added.

“There are approximately 30 evangelical Christians living in that city,” Racho explained. “The rest have moved away.”

Lightning and fire: Japan on alert after volcano’s biggest eruption in 50 years

Daily Mail UK (Link) (January 27, 2011) See photos at link

A one-mile cordon has been established around a volcano on Mount Kirishima after it erupted scattering rocks and ash across southern Japan and sending smoke billowing 5,000ft into the air.

The Meteorological Agency raised the volcanic alert to level 3 as ash today continued to spew from Shinmoedake on Japan’s southernmost main island of Kyushu, and residents have been banned from going within a mile of the volcano following its worst eruption in 50 years.

Agency volcanologist Sei Iijima said the eruption did not pose a threat to nearby cities, and a major eruption was not imminent. But he added: ‘You can never say never with a volcano, although the lack of magma movement beneath the surface leads us to believe that this activity won’t lead to a large-scale eruption,’ he told ABC News.

Social Security posting $600B deficit over 10 years

Yahoo! News (Link) - AP - Stephen Ohlemacher (January 27, 2011)

Social Security will post nearly $600 billion in deficits over the next decade as the economy struggles to recover and millions of baby boomers stand at the brink of retirement, according to new congressional projections.

This year alone, Social Security is projected to collect $45 billion less in payroll taxes than it pays out in retirement, disability and survivor benefits, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday. That figure swells to $130 billion when a new one-year cut in payroll taxes is included, though Congress has promised to repay any lost revenue from the tax cut.

Last year, Social Security posted its first deficit since the program was last overhauled in the 1980s. The CBO said at the time that Social Security would post surpluses for a few more years before permanently slipping into deficits in 2016.

But the new projections show nothing but red ink until the Social Security trust funds are exhausted in 2037.

Lebanon Braces for a New Hizbullah-friendly Government

The Media Line (Link) - David E. Miller (January 26, 2011)

Lebanon’s new prime minister, billionaire Najib Mikati, spent his first day in office Wednesday seeking to assuage doubts among Lebanon’s non-Shiite population and the West.

But observers said Mikati was starting a difficult assignment as leader of a religiously fractured country beset by foreign interference and deep divisions over whether to cooperate with a United Nations investigation into the 2005 assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Mikati’s chief asset is that he was nominated for the post by Hizbullah, the Shiite movement that brought down the last government and commands a militia that outguns Lebanon official army. But Makiti will have to convince the U.S. and the West he isn’t leading Lebanon into the arms of Iran and Syria, Hizbullah’s backers. He will also have to convince Lebanon’s Sunni Muslim and Christian communities he is a leader for the entire nation.

Jordanian head of Mediterranean Union quits

Expatia (Link) - AFP (January 26, 2011)

The Mediterranean Union’s first leader, Jordan’s Ahmad Masa’deh, has quit the job after one year in office, saying conditions for the post had changed.

A statement from his office on Wednesday said “the general conditions against which he accepted to assume the job have changed.”

He would “continue his support for a professionally sound and politically empowered secretariat...,” the statement added.

Masa’deh, 41, a lawyer, who was an ambassador to the European Union and NATO in Brussels, took office with the 43-nation, Barcelona-based union in January 2010.

Launched at a Paris summit in July 2008, the Mediterranean Union groups all 27 EU member states, with countries in North Africa, the Balkans, the Arab world as well as Israel in a bid to foster cooperation in one of the world’s most volatile regions. †

Breakthrough promises $1.50 per gallon synthetic gasoline with no carbon emissions

Gizmag (Link) - Mike Hanlon (January 26, 2011)

UK-based Cella Energy has developed a synthetic fuel that could lead to US$1.50 per gallon gasoline. Apart from promising a future transportation fuel with a stable price regardless of oil prices, the fuel is hydrogen based and produces no carbon emissions when burned. The technology is based on complex hydrides, and has been developed over a four year top secret program at the prestigious Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford. Early indications are that the fuel can be used in existing internal combustion engined vehicles without engine modification.

According to Stephen Voller CEO at Cella Energy, the technology was developed using advanced materials science, taking high energy materials and encapsulating them using a nanostructuring technique called coaxial electrospraying.

“We have developed new micro-beads that can be used in an existing gasoline or petrol vehicle to replace oil-based fuels,” said Voller. “Early indications are that the micro-beads can be used in existing vehicles without engine modification.”

“The materials are hydrogen-based, and so when used produce no carbon emissions at the point of use, in a similar way to electric vehicles”, said Voller.

The technology has been developed over a four-year top secret programme at the prestigious Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford, UK.

The development team is led by Professor Stephen Bennington in collaboration with scientists from University College London and Oxford University.

Professor Bennington, Chief Scientific Officer at Cella Energy said, “our technology is based on materials called complex hydrides that contain hydrogen. When encapsulated using our unique patented process, they are safer to handle than regular gasoline.” †

Today’s ‘Christianity’ - Nothing More Than Feelings

News With Views (Link) - Paul Proctor (January 26, 2011)

This may come as a shock to most Christians, but if you do a search of the less contemporary translations of scripture, the word “feelings” is virtually nonexistent. Where it does appear, it is cited as more of a superficial, even negative attribute than a positive; and yet, as we watch and listen to many from today’s churches, be they leaders or laymen, not only do we see a clear fixation on feelings, both physical and emotional, we notice that those feelings have by and large become a replacement for faith.

In fact, if you substitute the word “feelings” wherever you see the word “faith” in those older Bible versions, it will become clear to you what motivates and guides the average “Christian” today – point being: most of us are not following the Living Word of God by faith, we’re simply following our feelings and calling it “faith.”

This doesn’t require a Bible.

When one considers the sobering words of the prophet Jeremiah, who said: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked…” it should cause us to take a discerning look at what moves us. If our worship and service to Jesus Christ is measured by mood, then may I suggest our “Christianity” is more theatrical than theological?

Google Comes Under Fire for ‘Secret’ Relationship with NSA

Yahoo! News (Link) - PC World - Grant Gross (January 25, 2011)

Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group largely focused in recent years on Google’s privacy practices, has called on a congressional investigation into the Internet giant’s “cozy” relationship with U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration.

In a letter sent Monday, Consumer Watchdog asked Representative Darrell Issa, the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, to investigate the relationship between Google and several government agencies.

The group asked Issa to investigate contracts at several U.S. agencies for Google technology and services, the “secretive” relationship between Google and the U.S. National Security Agency, and the company’s use of a U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration airfield in California.

Federal agencies have also taken “insufficient” action in response to revelations last year that Google Street View cars were collecting data from open Wi-Fi connections they passed, Consumer Watchdog said in the letter.

Digging completed on tunnel under Old City walls in East Jerusalem

Haaretz (Link) - Nir Hasson (January 25, 2011)

The Israel Antiquities Authority has completed an archaeological dig of a tunnel that will enable visitors to cross under the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, not far from the Temple Mount.

The tunnel, which was uncovered during excavations conducted over the past few months, was formerly used for drainage and dates back to the Second Temple. It links the City of David in Silwan with the Archaeological Park & Davidson Center, which is located near the Western Wall.

The Antiquities Authority stressed that the newly uncovered tunnel does not come near the Temple Mount and that it has no plans to dig in that direction.

The digging had been going on for seven years and was delayed for about a year by order of the High Court of Justice, after Silwan residents filed a petition claiming the dig was damaging their homes.

Israelis gird for violent spillover of Lebanon crisis

The Miami Herald (Link) - McClatchy Newspapers - Sheera Frenkel (January 25, 2011)

Security officials in Israel closely monitored the “day of rage” in Lebanon on Tuesday amid fears that political violence there could spill over into a new conflagration with Israel.

As hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Lebanon to protest the naming of a Hezbollah-backed politician as prime minister, Israel beefed up security along its northern border.

Since the 2006 Second Lebanon War, tensions have remained high between Israel and Hezbollah, a militant group that operates in southern Lebanon close to the Israeli border.

Hezbollah has issued numerous statements calling for the destruction of Israel - while Israeli officials have repeatedly called Hezbollah a terrorist organization that poses a “direct threat to the Jewish State.”

The nomination of Hezbollah-backed Prime Minister Najib Mikati this week was seen as a victory for the Shiite group, while followers loyal to outgoing premier Saad Hariri, a U.S. ally, took to the streets to protest.

Hezbollah-backed Mikati set to lead Lebanon government

Reuters (Link) - Mariam Karouny (January 24, 2011)

Hezbollah and its allies won support on Monday to nominate their candidate for Lebanon’s prime minister, giving them the upper hand in attempts to form a government and sparking accusations of a pro-Iranian coup.

Telecoms tycoon Najib Mikati, backed by a Hezbollah-led coalition, looked set to be asked to form a government after the first of two days of consultations among Lebanese politicians.

Caretaker Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, whose government collapsed earlier this month, said he and his group would not serve in an administration dominated by Hezbollah, and Hariri supporters in north Lebanon called for a “day of anger.”

“As for the coup that Hezbollah is carrying out, it is an attempt to put the office of prime minister under the control of Wilayat al Fakih (Iran’s clerical authority),” Hariri loyalist Mustafa Alloush said in the northern city of Tripoli.

The end of credit cards is coming

CNN Money (Link) - Blake Ellis (January 24, 2011)

Credit cards may soon be as outdated as vinyl records. (Remember those?) And this is the year that the slow, steady march to oblivion begins.

You can already use your iPhone, Droid or BlackBerry to buy a hotdog at the ballgame, buy your Starbucks latté, or give a friend a few bucks by Bumping phones. But by the end of the year you may not even think twice about reaching for your phone to pay at the register instead of fumbling for your credit card.

“Your plastic card hasn’t changed since the age of the vinyl records,” said Michael Abbott, CEO of Isis, a new mobile payment network. “This is the chance to bring payments forward from the plastic age and the vinyl records age to the digital age.”

While companies have been experimenting with contactless mobile payments for years, 2011 is expected to be the year the technology really takes off. That’s because millions of phones capable of making contactless payments are expected to be shipped out in 2011.

As a result, this pay-by-phone market is forecast to make up $22 billion in transactions by 2015, up from “practically none” last year, according to research firm Aite Group.

Al-Jazeera to publish huge cache of Palestinian documents

The Jerusalem Post (Link) - Herb Keinon (January 24, 2011)

With the Palestinian Authority making an international incident over every plan to build in Jewish Jerusalem neighborhoods beyond the Green Line, a cache of some 1,600 documents – mostly from the Palestinian Negotiating Unit – shows that in 2008, the PA was willing to recognize eventual Israeli control over all those neighborhoods, with the exception of Har Homa.

In dramatic fashion, both Al-Jazeera and the Guardian published excerpts Sunday night of what they are calling “The Palestine Papers,” providing details – through the eyes of Palestinians involved in the negotiations – of nearly a decade of talks.

According to the Guardian, the documents were leaked over a period of months to Al-Jazeera and shared with the British newspaper, which said it had authenticated the bulk of the documents.

According to the paper, the documents, which will be published in the coming days, will show the “scale of Palestinian concessions,” including on Jerusalem and on the issue of refugees; the level of Israeli and Palestinian covert security cooperation; how Israeli leaders “privately asked for some Arab citizens to be transferred to a new Palestinian state;” and how British intelligence played a key role in drawing up a plan to crush Hamas.

In addition, the Guardian reported, the documents – not a part of the WikiLeaks dump of US diplomatic cables – will also show that the PA was tipped off about Operation Cast Lead. †

Crop warning over China drought

BBC News (Link) (January 24, 2011)

A prolonged dry spell in parts of northern, central and eastern China is threatening both crops and water supplies, Chinese state media says.

Shandong province is experiencing its driest weather for 60 years.

Half the wheat-growing land there is affected, while almost a quarter of a million people face drinking water shortages, the China Daily said.

Beijing has also been experiencing its longest dry spell for more than 30 years, another state daily said.

The Chinese capital has had no significant rainfall for three months, the Beijing Times reported.

Analysts say this drought is likely to put further pressure on food prices, which have been rising sharply for months.

Ground Zero imam: ‘Apostates against Islam must be jailed’

WorldNet Daily (Link) - Aaron Klein (January 23, 2011)

Those who leave Islam and preach against the Muslim religion must be jailed, declared the imam who has become the new face of the proposed Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero in New York City.

“If someone leaves the din, leaves the path privately, they cannot be touched. If someone preaches about apostasy, or preaches their views, they’re jailed,” stated Imam Abdallah Adhami in a November lecture obtained and reviewed by WND.

Adhami was discussing the Quranic view of apostasy, or Muslims who decide to leave the Islamic religion.

According to Shariah, or Islamic law, the consensus view in Sunni Islam is that a male apostate must be put to death unless he suffers from a mental disorder or converted against his will.

There are, however, differing views on the subject, with some contemporary Islamic scholars differentiating between public and private apostasy and arguing for actions ranging from death to nothing.

Adhami, speaking to a non-Muslim audience, claimed Islamic law only calls for punishment for public apostates and that most Islamic scholars demand only that public apostates be jailed as opposed to killed.

Brazil flood deaths top 800 with 400 still missing

BBC (Link) (January 23, 2011)

Officials in Brazil say more than 800 people are now known to have died in floods and landslides in the south-east of the country this month.

More than 400 people are still missing after torrential rain caused whole hillsides to collapse.

The Brazilian government has said it will set up an early warning system to alert communities of impending danger.

The flooding is considered the worst natural disaster Brazil has ever experienced.

According to figures compiled by the newspaper O Globo, about third of all victims were children and adolescents.