Links 5-9 October 2011

I won't take up your time with yet another commemoration of Steve Jobs, but I wanted to say this: pretty much everything on this site, including the software that started me blogging, is made with products he conceived. He created wonderful things — and I keep thinking that is Steve Jobs had grown up in, say, Syria, none of it would have seen the day. Also, you have to watch the video at the end of this.

• Ahmad Chalabi: humiliated in Beirut
• Mubarak’s Odious Debts - Saifedean Ammous - Project Syndicate
• I think this argument is wrong, most of Egypt's debt is not foreign.
• WINEP: desperate for the token Arab
  Very desperate indeed.
• Death sparks welfare debate in Gulf state - FT.com
• 6 October 1981: The day a dictator was killed
  Hossam's recollection.
• The King’s Speech
  On King Abdullah granting Saudi women the right to vote.
• Secret panel can put Americans on "kill list" | Reuters
• Turmoil hits Egypt’s foreign currency reserves - FT.com
  A third of reserves eaten up by probably pointless defense of the LE.
• 'No-fly zone' over Syrian border with Turkey & Jordan
  Lieberman advocates.
• Saudi Security Force Ramps Up
  With US arms and training, for counter-revolution.
• MEI Editor's Blog: Could Arabs Win TWO Nobels This Year?
• "friday-lunch-club": Guardian: 'Qatar supporting Islamists & instability in Libya!'
  As opposed to…?
• In Egypt, a dreamer continues lonely protest - The Washington Post
  Profile of the wonderful Rasha.
• An Algeria Reading List « The Moor Next Door
• Katatni Criticizes US Policies in Middle East in Meeting With American Officials
  Senior MB met with White House official.
• Shia attack Riyadh’s crackdown pledge - FT.com
  Blaming Iran, of course.
• Palestinian leaders lose faith in Blair - FT.com
  Top PLO officials say Blair should resign.
• On October 6 let's make a clamour for peace
  By getting Congress to end the wars and cut military spending.
• Donald Rumsfeld, Al Jazeera's Abderrahim Foukara Have Incredibly Contentious Interview (VIDEO)
• Zaynab `Umar Al-Husni appears on Syrian TV
• This is how the website of Al-Arabiyya reported on the clashes in Saudi Arabia
  Saudi propaganda
• EBRD shareholders back Arab expansion
  Quite significant.
• Political powers split over when to schedule demonstrations
  A headline that sums up Egypt's parties.
• Mideast Brief: U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria was vetoed by China and Russia
• A third of a century and counting…
  of Yemen's Saleh.
• Can you spell 'supine'?
  Stephen Walt on the US Congress and that lobby.
• Rioting in Saudi Arabia
• ".. I will need not more than 6 hours to transfer hundreds of rockets and missiles to the Golan Heights to fire them at Tel Aviv!"
  Assad's threat to the Turks
• Turkey Threatens Syria Sanctions Despite UN Resolution Veto