Links 1-4 August 2012

Still on holiday mode...

• Adam Curtis Blog: IF YOU TAKE MY ADVICE - I'D REPRESS THEM
  Curtis on the British origins of repression in Bahrain
• The Kurds: Hedging their Syrian bets | The Economist
• An elusive quest for consensus | Egypt Independent
  Michael Hanna
• MEI Editor's Blog: Multiple Takes on Syria
• Washington's Seamless Transition in Syria is an Illusion -- and Bad Policy
  Aronson: "The regime and its opponents are locked into a race to the bottom"
• The Case for Expanding Assistance to the Syrian Opposition | RAND
  RAND reason #2 for US intervention in Syria.
• Al Qaeda's War for Syria | RAND
  RAND reason #1 for US intervention.
• How the urbanism of small cities helped shape the Arab uprisings | The Global Urbanist
• Pussy Riot: The Punk Band That Isn't And The Concert That Wasn't
  Fascinating.
• Fight club: A concise guide to the controversies over Egypt's new constitution - Ahram Online
  Bassem Sabry.
• The Mirage State of Egypt - Daily News Egypt
  Sandmonkey - good piece on absence of governance.
• Hague judges give go-ahead for Hariri trial - FT.com
  Rather irrelevant now.
• Egypt court defers constitution decision - FT.com
• Syria’s top UK diplomat quits - FT.com
• Inside Aleppo: Rebels repulse Syrian tanks, civilians dodge shells (+video) - CSMonitor.com
  Scott Peterson in Aleppo.
• كشف تحولات نجيب ساويرس | المصري اليوم، أخبار اليوم من مصر
  Alaa Aswani takes down Sawiris - in a paper partly owned by Sawiris.