links for 2009-12-30

• ‘Egyptian policy leads to the brothers becoming the enemy’ – The National Newspaper
  – The usual BS:
  – "He [Zionist bitch and all-round weasel, Abul Gheit] added that the Rafah border crossing will be open only between January 3 and 6. “The Egyptian state and people paid a very high price and paid with their blood for more than 50 years in support of the Palestinians. No one should compare himself with what Egypt did and is still doing for the Palestinians.”"
  – Wait ONE FUCKING MINUTE!
  – 48 was an Arab cause, not a Palestinian one. There was no state of Palestine.
  – 56: we nationalized the canal, they attacked. nothing to to with Palestine
  – 67: We were dumb enough to walk into that shit with a third of our army in Yemen and the huge budget drains of "export the revolution" BS.
  – 73: We were fighting for OUR land that we were dumb enough to lose in the first place.
  – Since then we've been on a steady track towards Zionist Allies. – 50 years my fucking ass. Sure, the Egyptian people have suffered BECAUSE the regime has been on the wrong side of history for 30 years.
  (tags: egypt gaza apartheid palestine policy zionist)
• Get Elected; or, al-Baradei Tryin’ (Part 2 of 6?) « THE BOURSA EXCHANGE
  part 2/2 of translation of part 1/3 of the shorouk interview
  (tags: ElBaradie egypt politics elections)
• Code That Protects Most Cellphone Calls Is Deciphered – NYTimes.com
  – "A German computer engineer said Monday that he had deciphered and published the secret code used to encrypt most of the world’s digital mobile phone calls, saying it was his attempt to expose weaknesses in the security of global wireless systems.

  The action [..] aimed to question the effectiveness of the 21-year-old G.S.M. algorithm, a code developed in 1988 and still used to protect the privacy of 80 percent of mobile calls worldwide. [..]

  “This shows that existing G.S.M. security is inadequate,” Mr. Nohl, 28, told about 600 people attending the Chaos Communication Congress, a four-day conference of computer hackers that runs through Wednesday in Berlin. “We are trying to push operators to adopt better security measures for mobile phone calls.”"
  – Of course:
  – "The G.S.M. Association, the industry group based in London that devised the algorithm and represents wireless companies, called Mr. Nohl’s efforts illegal and said they overstated the security threat to wireless calls."

• Op-Ed Columnist – The Big Zero – NYTimes.com
  – "But from an economic point of view, I’d suggest that we call the decade past the Big Zero. It was a decade in which nothing good happened, and none of the optimistic things we were supposed to believe turned out to be true."
  [..]
  – "So here’s what Mr. Summers — and, to be fair, just about everyone in a policy-making position at the time — believed in 1999: America has honest corporate accounting; this lets investors make good decisions, and also forces management to behave responsibly; and the result is a stable, well-functioning financial system.

  What percentage of all this turned out to be true? Zero.

  What was truly impressive about the decade past, however, was our unwillingness, as a nation, to learn from our mistakes"

  (tags: economy economics krugman politics united-states society)
• US Embassy Update #Gaza #Gfm – Ali Abunimah
  Bottom line: USG supports the siege of Gaza, offers excuses & stonewalling. During meeting political officer Greg Logrefo confirmed that US Army Corps of Engineers is providing technical assistance to build underground wall.
  (tags: gaza GFM egypt united-states politics zionist)
• Op-Ed Contributor – Search, but You May Not Find – NYTimes.com
  Today, search engines like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft’s new Bing have become the Internet’s gatekeepers, and the crucial role they play in directing users to Web sites means they are now as essential a component of its infrastructure as the physical network itself. The F.C.C. needs to look beyond network neutrality and include “search neutrality”: the principle that search engines should have no editorial policies other than that their results be comprehensive, impartial and based solely on relevance.
  (tags: google internet netneutrality ICT)
• ElBaradei Drops A Bomb | The Arabist
  (tags: ElBaradie egypt elections politics)
• Get Elected; or, al-Baradei Tryin’ (Part 1 of ???) « THE BOURSA EXCHANGE
  translation of shorouk interview (part 1)
  (tags: Egypt politics ElBaradie elections law constitution)
• Arab Times :: بسبب ( اكبر زب ) … توتر في العلاقات بين الباكستان ودول مجلس التعاون الخليجي
  وكانت الحكومة الباكستانية قد قررت تعيين ( اكبر زب ) سفيرا في الامارات ولكن طلبها قوبل بالرفض .. فحاولت تعيينه في البحرين فرفض طلبها ولما بعثت تستمزج السعودية في احتمال تعيينه سفيرا لها لدى ال سعود جاء الرفض السعودي مثل الاماراتي والبحريني غير مبررا ولم يوضح الاسباب مما دفع الحكومة الباكستانية الى الاعتقالد ان هناك ضغوطا امريكية تحول دون تعيين ( اكبر زب ) سفيرا لدى دول مجلس التعاون الخليجي
  (tags: GCC arab news pakistan politics comedy)
• Egypt State Security Spies On Presidential Candidates
  The are translations of purported leaked documents from State Security, reporting on the steps enacted to monitor three pres candidates and their families and associates: ayman nour, baradie, and hamdeen sabbahi
  (tags: egypt security politics elections AymanNour opposition)