By Haaretz and Nir Hasson

A Hamas spokesman said Monday that the closure of Jerusalem's Mughrabi Bridge, which leads from the Western Wall Plaza to the Temple Mount, is an attack against Muslim holy sites, AFP reported.

"This is a serious step that shows the Zionist scheme of aggression again the Al Aqsa mosque," Fawzi Barhum told AFP.

"This is a violent act that amounts to a declaration of religious war on the Muslim holy places in Jerusalem."

The Jerusalem Municipality ordered the closure of the wooden bridge due to fears it may collapse or catch fire. There are 15 gates leading into the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, 10 of which are in use.

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http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hamas-israel-declaring-war-on-muslim-holy-sites-with-closure-of-jerusalem-bridge-1.401007

Author: Sibel Edmonds Boiling Frogs Post

Sunday, 11. December 2011
Sibel Edmonds Boiling Frogs Post

Report: Foreign Troops Begin to Spread Near the Villages of Al-Mafraq

Update 1: Today at 12:00 P.M. we contacted DOD Press Office via two voicemail messages and one e-mail asking for comment(s) on this story. As of 6:00 P.M. EST we have not heard back.

Update 2: Another journalist with a major mainstream media publication was told by his editors that there would be no coverage or follow up on these developments.

According to first-hand accounts and reports provided to Boiling Frogs Post by several sources in Jordan, during the last few hours foreign military groups, estimated at hundreds of individuals, began to spread near the villages of the north-Jordan city of “Al-Mafraq”, which is adjacent to the Jordanian and Syrian border.

According to one Jordanian military officer who asked to remain anonymous, hundreds of soldiers who speak languages other than Arabic were seen during the past two days in those areas moving back and forth in military vehicles between the King Hussein Air Base of al-Mafraq (10 km from the Syrian border), and the vicinity of Jordanian villages adjacent to the Syrian border, such as village Albaej (5 km from the border), the area around the dam of Sarhan, the villages of Zubaydiah and al-Nahdah adjacent to the Syrian border.

Another report received from our source in Amman identified an additional US-NATO Command Center in “al-Houshah,’ a village near Mafraq.

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Http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2011/12/11/bfp-exclusive-developing-story-hundreds-of-us-nato-soldiers-arrive-begin-operations-on-the-jordan-syria-border/

Comment: Lots of unnamed sources for this report but throwing it out here and watching for other related developments.

Democratic leaders in the U.S. Senate are hardening their opposition to a House Republican measure that would extend the payroll tax cut for workers while restructuring unemployment compensation and speeding approval of a Canadian oil pipeline.

Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat, said lawmakers must cover the cost of extending a payroll tax cut for workers with new revenue. Republicans have blocked Democratic proposals in the Senate to pay for the payroll tax cut by imposing a surtax on income exceeding $1 million a year.

“If we do pay for it, it’s going to be paid for with a revenue source, such as the millionaire’s tax,” Durbin said in an interview today. “It’s not going to be paid for with spending cuts.”

Durbin’s comments underscore the differences that exist between congressional leaders over how to extend the payroll tax cut. If Congress doesn’t act by Dec. 31, employees will begin paying a 6.2 percent tax on their first $110,100 in wages in January, up from 4.2 percent this year.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-12/payroll-tax-cut-extension-measure-sets-up-dueling-votes-in-u-s-congress.html

U.S. economic data are outperforming expectations by the most in nine months, a trend Federal Reserve officials may incorporate into their policy statement tomorrow.

The Citigroup Economic Surprise Index, a daily measure of whether economic data is better or worse than economists’ projections, improved to 85.7 on Dec. 2, the highest since March 9, after the Labor Department reported an unexpected drop in the jobless rate. The index is calculated on a three-month rolling basis and weighted for the importance of the indicator.

“Most of the economists are missing the underlying strength” in the world’s largest economy, said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors, Inc. in Holland, Pennsylvania. The Fed will “modestly upgrade the economic outlook but change little else.”

November unemployment at the lowest level in more than two years and manufacturing running at the fastest pace in five months are among data that may dissuade Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and fellow central bankers from pursuing a third-round of large scale asset purchases. At the same time, the Fed may still see “significant downside risks” for the economy as Europe’s financial crisis evolves.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-12/forecasters-miss-by-most-in-nine-months-amid-improving-u-s-data-economy.html

By F. Michael Maloof

Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and now Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is a shining example of why U.S. policy in the Middle East is in shambles.

In a recent interview with a Jewish cable channel, Gingrich said that while the Palestinians are “invented” and have no right to a future state, the Jewish people “have the right to have a state.”

His pathetic comments about Palestinians is an unfortunate effort to show his support for the “state of Israel” while dismissing the historical entitlement Palestinians have for what is Occupied Palestine.

Gingrich, who brags about his credentials as an historian, said that in the early 20th century, when the British declared its support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people,” the occupants of that territory, namely the Palestinians, didn’t have a legitimate claim to the land.

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http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=37746&cid=31&fromval=1&frid=31&seccatid=81&s1=1