Friday, July 4, 2014
Islamic State 'seizes key Syria oil field'
Video shows armed men outside what they said was the entrance to al-Omar oil field [YouTube]
Fighters from the Islamic State group have seized control of Syria's largest oil field on the Iraqi border, forcing the withdrawal of rival fighters, Syrian activists say.
The Nusra Front, which has controlled al-Omar oil field since late last year, abandoned the facility on Thursday without firing a bullet, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Al Jazeera cannot independently verify the Syrian Observatory's statement due to reporting restrictions inside Syria.
By seizing the al-Omar oil field, Islamic State, previously called the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), now controls most oil and gas fields in the eastern province of Deir Az Zor and the surrounding countryside.
"Islamic State took control of the al-Omar oil field" located north of Mayadeen, the Syrian Observatory said, adding that the strategic town also was under the Islamic State's control since dawn on Thursday.
A video uploaded to YouTube shows a man identified as Commander Hammam saying: " We took it [the oil field] over without any fighting. They fled like rats."
Al Jazeera cannot independently verify the authenticity of the video.
Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting from Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon, said the Islamic State now controlled "a huge expanse of land about five times the size of Lebanon" and oil assets that could produce 35,000 barrels a day.
Al-Omar field has changed hands several times in the course of Syria's three-year conflict.
Nusra Front and several other allied factions captured it from forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in November.
Nusra Front fighters also withdrew from two towns in Deir Az Zor on Thursday, according to the Syrian Observatory.
Nusra pulled out of Mayadeen and Shuhail, its regional stronghold, while local tribal fighters had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
Most of the border province is now under the control of advancing forces of the Islamic State.
Earlier this week the Islamic State seized the town of Albu Kamal on the Iraqi frontier from Nusra, securing both sides of the border crossing.
Credit to Al Jazeera
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Judge Rejects Kentucky’s ‘Gay Marriage’ Ban, Says Constitution is Above God
Only satan and his followers want to be more than God
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A federal judge appointed by former president George W. Bush rejected Kentucky’s ban on ‘same-sex marriage,’ declaring that the U.S. Constitution is the final authority on marriage, not its author, God.
U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II ruled Tuesday against Kentucky’s constitutional amendment that sought to protect marriage as being between one man and one woman and banned so-called marriage between members of the same-sex.
The preamble of Kentucky’s state constitution written in 1891 states, “We, the people of the Commonwealth of Kentucky are grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberties we enjoy, and invoking the continuance of these blessings, do ordain and establish this Constitution.”
Voters in 2004 passed a referendum to protect the biblical definition of marriage within the state.
“Only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Kentucky. A legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized,” reads Kentucky Constitutional Amendment 1 of 2004, which was overwhelming approved by 75% of voters.
In his decision, Heyburn took a shot at those who hold to the historical and biblical belief that marriage comes from and is defined by God and those who voted for the amendment, expressing that such beliefs do not rise above the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.
“In America, even sincere and long-held religious beliefs do not trump the constitutional rights of those who happen to have been out-voted,” Heyburn declared in his ruling.
Heyburn also criticized Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) for arguing that the ban preserves the state’s birth rate, and therefore contributes to the economic stability of Kentucky.
“These arguments are not those of serious people,” Heyburn concluded.
Earlier this year, Heyburn ruled that Kentucky must recognize so-called “gay marriages” performed in other states.
Heyburn has stayed his ruling pending an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.
Kentucky has a long history of acknowledging God.
In March of 2002, the Kentucky Legislature enacted a law declaring, “The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God,” which later was amended in 2006 to require the Executive Director of the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security to “[p]ublicize the findings of the General Assembly stressing the dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth” by including its provisions in its “training and educational materials,” and by “prominently displaying a permanent plaque at the entrance to the state’s Emergency Operations Center,” stating the text.
In February of 2011, a Kentucky Court of Appeals upheld the law in a 2-to-1 decision, and further appeals by a group of self-styled atheists were unsuccessful in attempting to overturn the mandate.
Credit to Christian News Network
The BRICs Are Morphing Into An Anti-Dollar Alliance
While numerous massively indebted administrations around the world hope to divert the attention of what's left of their struggling middle class away from its daily impoverished existence and distract it with flashing lights and glitzy animations showing another all time market high on a daily basis, a significantly more important shift taking place behind the scenes is appreciated by very few: the ongoing de-dollarization of the world. For the latest example of how increasingly more countries are setting the stage for the final currency war, we go again to Russia where VOR's Valentin Mândr??escu explains that slowly but surely the BRICS - that proud Goldman acronym which was conceived to perpetuate the great American way of life by releasing trillions in US-denominated debt in heretofore untapped markets - are morphing into an anti-dollar alliance.
BRICS is morphing into an anti-dollar alliance, From VOR
Before the crucial visit to Beijing next week, the governor of the Russian Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina met Vladimir Putin to report on the progress of the upcoming ruble-yuan swap deal with the People's Bank of China and Kremlin used the meeting to let the world know about the technical details of its international anti-dollar alliance.
On June 10th, Sergey Glaziev, Putin's economy advisor published an article outlining the need to establish an international alliance of countries willing to get rid of the dollar in international trade and refrain from using dollars in their currency reserves. The ultimate goal would be to break the Washington's money printing machine that is feeding its military-industrial complex and giving the US ample possibilities to spread chaos across the globe, fueling the civil wars in Libya, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine. Glaziev's critics believe that such an alliance would be difficult to establish and that creating a non-dollar-based global financial system would be extremely challenging from a technical point of view. However, in her discussion with Vladimir Putin, the head of the Russian central bank unveiled an elegant technical solution for this problem and left a clear hint regarding the members of the anti-dollar alliance that is being created by the efforts of Moscow and Beijing:
“We've done a lot of work on the ruble-yuan swap deal in order to facilitate trade financing. I have a meeting next week in Beijing”, she said casually and then dropped the bomb: “We are discussing with China and our BRICS parters the establishment of a system of multilateral swaps that will allow to transfer resources to one or another country, if needed. A part of the currency reserves can be directed to [the new system].” (Prime news agency)
It seems that Kremlin chose the all-in-one approach for establishing its anti-dollar alliance. Currency swaps between the BRICS central banks will facilitate trade financing while completely bypassing the dollar. At the same time, the new system will also act as a de facto replacement of the IMF, because it will allow the members of the alliance to direct resources to finance the weaker countries. As an important bonus, derived from this “quasi-IMF” system, the BRICS will use a part (most likely the “dollar part”) of their currency reserves to support it, thus drastically reducing the amount of dollar-based instruments bought by some of the biggest foreign creditors of the US.
Skeptics will surely claim that a BRICS-based anti-dollar alliance will not manage to deprive the dollar of its global reserve currency status. Instead of arguing against this line of thought, it is easier to point out that Washington is doing its best to enlarge the ranks of the enemies of the dollar. Asked by the Russia 24 channel to comment on Nabiullina statements, Sergey Kostin, the president of the state-owned VTB bank and one of the staunchest supporters of anti-dollar policies, offered an interesting perspective on the situation in Europe:
“I think the work on ruble-yuan swap line will finalized in the nearest future and the way for ruble-yuan settlement will be open. Moreover, we are not the only ones with such initiatives. We know about the statements made by Mr. Noyer, chairman of the Bank of France. As a retaliation for what Americans have done to BNP Paribas, he opined that the trade with China must be done in yuan or euro.”
If the current trend continues, soon the dollar will be abandoned by most of the significant global economies and it will be kicked out of the global trade finance. Washington's bullying will make even former American allies choose the anti-dollar alliance instead of the existing dollar-based monetary system. The point of no return for the dollar may be much closer than it is generally thought. In fact, the greenback may have already past its point of no return on its way to irrelevance.
Credit to Zero Hedge
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