Arab Mobile Communication Studies

What's Baghdad like now, someone I was talking to in London asked me last week.

"Like a pressure cooker about to explode," I said.

That's how it feels.

With the announcement of the new plan to secure Baghdad, it is not just the Americans and Iraqi government gearing up for a last big push. The insurgents and militias are too. Many seem to be starting their offensive early.

The violence becomes more vicious, random and constant.

Gunfire in our part of Baghdad carries on long into the night now. The distinctive sound of mortars being fired or car bombs wake us up most mornings.

But several incidents stand out.

A gangland-style shooting at an evening groceries market in east Baghdad. Gunmen drove up and raked the stalls with machinegun rounds, leaving at least 10 people dead and many others injured.

Then there was the devastating double-bombing at Mustansiriya university in east Baghdad last week, in which 70 people were killed - most of them young students. One hundred and seventy others were injured.

First, a car bomb was set off at the university entrance. Then, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives vest in a crowd fleeing the scene.

Rescue workers arriving to retrieve the dead and wounded were greeted by the sound of dozens of mobile phones ringing amongst the wreckage, as friends and relatives tried again and again to check on the fate of loved ones.

Just as depressing now is how quickly such events are forgotten. Seventy students dead in one attack. It is an amazing figure. Anywhere else it would be a story for days.

Yet as soon as the wreckage is cleared, so too are the memories.

We still travel round the city, to try to report on what's happening. But we are being more cautious than ever.

Few are aware just how important technology has become in this conflict.

I'm not talking about American laser-guided weaponry and their all-seeing drones flying above Baghdad 24 hours a day.

Even travelling across Baghdad has become too dangerous for many

What's just as significant is the access ordinary Iraqis now have to day-to-day communication devices like mobiles and the internet. Some use it as part of their fight, others to survive.

A quiet revolution has occurred since Saddam's overthrow. You didn't have broadband under the Baath party. You do now.

Millions of Iraqis own mobiles. Despite the violence, the phone companies have gradually expanded coverage - although their security budgets are astronomical.

Even in places like Falluja, you get good reception.

A surreal moment comes to mind, when I was there with a US patrol.

My UK mobile rang. It was my credit card company, wanting to check a purchase. As I was talking, the patrol came under fire.

"I'm a bit busy now, I'll call you back," I shouted as I ducked behind a humvee.

Prevented from reaching her college because of fighting in her area, an academic friend decided to email questions to her students for their English literature exam

The camera-equipped mobile phone has a central place in Iraqi history now, thanks to the notorious video of Saddam Hussein's execution.

But for Ali, a doctor, it was also the only way he could show his parents and relatives his newborn son. It is just too dangerous for him to travel across town to where his parents live.

Insurgent groups have long used the internet and mobiles to get their message out, distributing clips of attacks on the Americans - long before any US version of events is available.

Wealthier families use internet phones to keep in touch with loved ones across the city and abroad.

Prevented from reaching her college because of fighting in her area, an academic friend decided to email questions to her students for their English literature exam.

I've mentioned her before in previous diaries. She talks more and more of leaving. But as long as she stays, she is determined to keep trying to educate her students, even if she now rarely sees them face to face.

But computers and Baghdad's dysfunctional power system are not a happy partnership.

Her area was without power for more than a week recently. The back-up neighbourhood generator had been damaged by a bomb.

Eventually they got it fixed. But then a passing US military vehicle snagged the electricity cables in her street.

Only one thing for it. She sent the questions out by text message.

Her problem now is how to gather up all the exam papers.

It will probably be one of the most bizarre press conferences I will cover, certainly the most grotesque.

Right up to the moment it started, none of us there really knew what to expect.

But the way we were searched beforehand told us something.

An unusually determined crowd of Iraqi police officers surrounded the entrance to the room.

We had to give up all our cameras, mobiles and microphones. One notebook and pen was all we were allowed. Some journalists had watches and sunglasses taken away, in case they held some kind of recorder.

The New York Times correspondent even had his hair searched.

It was the day Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam Hussein's half brother, and Awad al-Bandar, the former chief judge of his revolutionary court, had been executed.

We had had a clue that yet again, something had gone wrong.

We got word that the two men had been executed early in the morning and reported it. But then some officials started to deny they had announced the execution. The government would not confirm it had happened officially.

Eventually, by late-morning, Ali Dabbagh, the Iraqi prime minister's spokesman announced the news - and nervously added the unfortunate detail.

The head of Saddam's half brother had become "separated" from his body. The hangman had got his macabre calculations of his weight wrong and given him too much rope.

But he said no video of the event would be shown this time.

By the afternoon though, the first conspiracy theories were circulating on the streets of Baghdad. As with Saddam's execution, it was taking on sectarian overtones. Some were saying the Shias had beheaded Barzan, a Sunni.

So we journalists were called in, to try to scotch the rumours. "We want you to be eyewitnesses, as if you were there at the execution," said Ali Dabbagh. But the video will not be released, he said.

"This was an Act of God." "But please," he said, before starting the video. "No prayers or chanting in any religious way."

The first surprise once the film started was what the two men were wearing - orange jump suits of the kind that have become infamous from Guantanamo Bay.

In some ways it was no surprise. The two men were in US custody. But you would have thought someone would have seen the potential downside of having them appear on the execution stand in those clothes.

Both men appeared to be on the verge of tears - faces stretched in anguish. But there was no sound. So, even now, we do not have a full picture of what happened.

Then the final moment came. The trap doors opened beneath the feet of the two men. Almost instantaneously the rope round Barzan al-Tikriti's neck jerks upwards. And then the camera man panned down to the pit below where we saw his body and the head, still covered by a hood, lying some distance away.

There was a stunned silence in the room. But not just because of what we had seen, I think. Also because of what this meant - that the Iraqi government is so worried and insecure, it has to show videos like this.

The next steps for mobile media

By Chris Long Click reporter It is getting easier and easier to distribute your music, films and pictures around the home. But what if you want to go further afield? Using wi-fi, music can be downloaded onto music players What if you want to start using all these really small devices we are carrying in our pockets to take your data with you? Music on the move is not new. Ever since the tape cassette walkman gave way to the MP3 player it has been simple to take our songs around with us. But now we're being given even more freedom. Wireless technologies are opening up new possibilities to access music on the move. "I think you'll find 2007 is going to be an exciting year for people to take everything that they normally enjoy in the living room on the road," said Keith Washo of memory technology company SanDisk. New MP3 players and phones, for example, can access music downloads stores directly without the need for a computer or cable, whilst others can tap into internet radio channels. Both developments open up a whole new world of wireless listening. All the time we are seeing neater and funkier hand-held devices, but it is our desire to access pictures on the move that is pushing developments. A prototype device from SanDisk, shown at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, allows you to copy your video, films or home movies on to it and plug it into a friend's TV to watch. It even has its own remote control. It will be out in the next couple of months. Digital locks So as we approach the next act in this technology play, what about accessing your entertainment files while they are still on your PC at home? It can beam your media to you wherever you are, and you can receive it on anything that's got a browser Joe Costello, Orb "Today, digital media is pretty much locked up in your personal computer, and it very rarely escapes," explained Orb Networks CEO Joe Costello. "But people don't want to consume things on their personal computer, in general they want to consume it elsewhere - at work, on the laptop on the road, on their friend's PC, or their PDA, their cell phone or their TV screen." That idea is epitomised by the company's Orb program. Slingbox sends your home TV signal to any computer "Orb is a free piece of software that you download onto your home computer, wherever you put your digital media," said Mr Costello. "That software turns that machine into a little personal broadcasting system, simple as that. "It can beam your media to you wherever you are, and you can receive it on anything that's got a browser." So the question: "Can we take our home entertainment out of house?" has been answered with a resounding "Yes". But for those that do not like the environmental footprint and security implications of an always-on PC there is the Slingbox. "The straightforward concept of Sling is to be able to watch and control your home TV wherever you are. We've also recently launched a mobile product, so you can access your home TV over your mobile phone," said Slingmedia co-founder Jason Krikorian. "Ultimately it supports all of the navigation around your home TV that you're used to, so you can just press one on your keyboard and it changes the channel to BBC One." So now it is possible to view and listen to our media on the move, it begs the question - is there anything good on?

Year of the Technophiles
If ever you had a doubt, Egyptian consumers have proven it once and for all: They are, like almost everyone else across the globe, tech junkies.

By Andrew Bossone

I feel like a guy in front of a store window, jaw dropped, gawking at the newest mobile phones. I’m no longer shocked when a taxi driver pulls out his mp3 player or when I see a television screen mounted inside a car. If the last few years brought new tech toys into the country, then 2006 was the year we could finally use them. One could easily overstate the significance of all these gadgets, but the fact that technology giants, including Intel, Microsoft and Google, are sending their CEOs here means these companies respect the significance of the Egyptian market.

“If you look at the structure of the internet, Egypt is at center of one of the most important highways,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt said at a recent gathering in Cairo. “By the way, so everybody knows, it’s the Suez Canal. You thought the Suez Canal was important for boats? It’s important for fiber [cables] because the fiber goes right through it. And so the fact that [Egypt] is so central to the structure of the internet, it’s very helpful in terms of having broadband and bandwidth for the kind of technology we’re doing here.”

The Fiberoptic Link Around the Globe, or FLAG, runs from Japan through the Pacific and Indian Oceans, around the Arabian peninsula, through the Red Sea and Suez Canal, continuing through Europe before finally landing at the United Kingdom.

If you look on a diagram of global cable networks, you’ll see that Egypt is at the nexus of Asian, African and European lines, eventually connecting to the Americas through underwater cables. The Nazif government is working out new ways of capitalizing on this fact, and the biggest firms in the world know its value.

What’s more, they want to hook their wires into Egypt.

The Internet Boom

Google’s recent introduction of Arabic-language services, including web and news searches, email and translation to and from English and other languages, proves that there’s more to the country than just a global crossroads of big cables. Google rarely does anything without a reason, and it rarely takes on an endeavor before it can do the job well.

Egypt also happens to be the largest market for information technology in the Middle East and North Africa, with an estimated 5.5 million internet users, although that figure is likely low. Many subscribers to high-speed internet, via an Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), share it with neighbors, and while it is common elsewhere for three or four people in one household to share a connection, by splitting the line with neighbors that number can reach 10–12 people over two or three households. Combined with the large number of people who use internet cafés, it’s difficult to get a precise number of internet users here.

Google’s interest in both the local market — whatever the numbers — and the greater Arabic-speaking market is clear. The company’s web-based email platform Gmail has been an exclusive service since its inception. New users could only sign-up through an invitation from someone who already had an account. The company is now freeing up the service in some markets, starting with New Zealand, Australia and Japan, but Egypt is on the list as well.

Gmail, like Google’s other primary services, was offered this year in Arabic. As email addresses require Latin script and few competing email services support Arabic script, Google’s Arabic services support multiple languages at once.

Google’s most significant investment to local investors is probably its translation service (see our October 2006 article “Start Your Engines”). The company is paying particular attention to Arabic-English and Chinese-English translation, using computers to do the work instead of human translators.

Schmidt said these languages provide the “most interesting combinations,” but he also undoubtedly sees the benefit of accessing the 300 million underserved Arabic speakers and China’s population of 1.3 billion. Google’s activities in China recently received a great deal of attention from the press: Google has a policy that it does not censor information, but eventually chose to acquiesce to Chinese authorities’ demands that it restrict search results on topics sensitive to the state. It was subjected to an ad campaign by Chinese search-engine competitor Baidu, which claimed to return more results on Chinese history than Google, although Baidu’s results were also scrubbed of prohibited topics.

Trying to Hold Back the Tide

“I believe that Arab societies will benefit from the broad use of the internet,” Schmidt said. “And I understand that comes with some tolerance. Not everything on the internet is perfect. Not everything is sanitized. There are bad voices as well as good voices. But the overwhelming benefit to the Arab countries, to the governments, to the rulers, is a more globalized, a more sophisticated, and I think a wealthier population.”

The importance of personal journals published on the internet, called weblogs or blogs, has been a big topic of discussion this year, here and abroad. In the West, pundits make much of the influence bloggers have on the media, and question if they even can be considered in the same breadth as the mainstream press.

Here, on the other hand, the discussion has been about some outspoken bloggers that have managed to break a few important stories, including accusations of sexual harassment of women. A handful of Egyptian bloggers were arrested for their criticism of the government. International press-freedom non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders listed these arrests as one of the reasons for listing the country as one of 13 “enemies of the internet” in 2006.

Critics say many of the bloggers are young opportunists using the attention they gain for their own purposes. Others say their small numbers make them insignificant, although the Egyptian Blog Ring lists more than 1,450 registered blogs at press time, 59% of them published in Arabic and 22% dedicated to politics.

Schmidt suggests that the internet, with its myriad voices and opinions, is too big to control. “Betting against the internet is a bad bet. You will lose that bet because it is bigger than you, bigger than me, bigger than my company, bigger than what you are trying to do,” he said.

“If I think about it, the internet has moved from the periphery to the center of the room. The internet is the story now. Don’t try to control it. Let it happen. Encourage it. Make it successful. We’re just beginning. We only have 15% of the world’s online information on the web — maybe less.”

Access to the world’s information is growing to levels never previously seen. We cannot fully know the final impact of the internet now, but years down the road it could turn out as influential as the introduction of paper or the printing press.

The cost of a new computer is going down rapidly, with some simple units selling for around $150 (LE 855). But according to Google’s Schmidt, computers themselves will become less important for accessing the internet.

“The growth rate in terms of mobile phones is roughly twice that of personal computers, and all of the new mobile phones are internet-capable,” he said. “So it’s likely that much of your children’s use of the internet will be based on mobile phones and not personal computers.” Egyptian mobile networks currently support email and web browsing to users with internet-capable handsets on slow GPRS networks, but newer technologies including 3G, WiMax and WiFi will make mobile internet use much more convenient (see sidebar).

When third mobile operator Etisalat launches its service, scheduled for this coming February, it will offer 3G technology, which enables services like streaming audio and video. Advanced mobile phones, called “smart phones”, have already largely replaced personal digital assistants, and may soon supplant mp3 players. Mobile phone manufacturers are developing new software to satisfy diverse needs, including many Nokia and iMate phones, which have applications that will tell travelers the direction of Mecca and prayer times around the world.

Bring It On

Satyam, an outsourcing giant from India, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Egyptian government last month to open a 300-seat facility in the Smart Village. The facility will serve as a technical-development and software-support facility for the company’s Middle East customer base.

Adel Danish, CEO of Egypt’s largest call center, Xceed, welcomes Satyam’s arrival, but says the company might come across a few hurdles. “They will have many issues to resolve with the [Ministry of Communication and Information Technology], such as the percentage of Indian employees (limited by law to 10%), and they want to have a majority of Indians during the first 2–3 years,” he says.

“We don’t see [foreign investors] as a threat at all or as competition. The pie is so huge. If you look at the size of the pie outside the country, I mean the outsourcing business, the offshore outsourcing business is huge so we don’t see them as competition.”

Danish is probably right. The arrival of a company from India, where IT outsourcing first became the rage, shows confidence in the local industry. Satyam’s investment could lead to more Indian investment, perhaps on the scale of the 2,000-seat operation Satyam will open in Malaysia in 2007. For Danish, this is consistent with the same message he’s been delivering all along: What’s good for the industry and country overall outweighs any single company.

Danish is no shameless self-promoter. In fact, when he makes business trips he rarely touts Xceed’s top position in his market, but often rattles the names of competitors including Convergence, Workpro and Infosys as examples of the opportunities here.

Last year, Xceed was granted certification by the Customer Operations Performance Center (COPC) Inc., the first in the region and in near-record time. COPC, a leading provider of contact-center accreditation, also elected Danish to its standards committee. He downplays his role on the COPC standards committee, even though his company shares the distinction with some of the biggest call-center operations, including those run by Microsoft, IBM and Accenture.

Xceed was also recently granted a contract with Microsoft to provide 150 seats of technical support in English, French, Italian and Spanish for their Xbox 360 video-game console. Microsoft asked Xceed to get their operation up by the Christmas season, the biggest consumer sales period for the US-based technology giant.

Xceed will open a 2,400-seat center in Maadi and a another in the Smart Village of about 300 seats early this year, as its current 1,200-seat home has filled to capacity. A number of other call centers are growing as well, and Raya, for example, is applying for COPC certification.

As Egypt’s IT reputation spreads, Xceed and others will begin to take on more sophisticated outsourcing projects. Two of the areas Danish says will open up in the near future are insurance claims and business processes. So far, some of the services have been rather simple, and some — like product activation (when you buy a product and then call a phone number to get a code that allows you to turn it on) — can be computerized.

Business processes take more time and coordination. Order processing, for example, involves tracking shipments through several locations. Large companies often have regional distribution centers all around the world. Outsourcing centers can evaluate the entire distribution process, potentially making it more efficient.

Soft Government

Microsoft’s late 2006 release of its long-awaited and long-delayed Windows Vista operating system, as well updated versions of its Office suite and Exchange Server, was one of the biggest product launches in the short history of computer software. The company invested some $20 billion in the new software, focusing particularly on expanding capabilities for business users.

While giants like Microsoft continue to grow, the local companies aren’t doing so badly, either. ITWorx, founded by CEO Wael Amin, witnessed 40% growth in the last year. It opened an office in Saudi Arabia, expanded its building in the Nasr City free zone and will open a new facility in Dubai.

Amin says much of his company’s success has been driven by increased IT spending by Gulf countries. Some of his major clients come from the financial sector, as well as telecoms and government authorities in the two countries.

In addition to building the Egyptian e-government portal, ITWorx has made business-intelligence software for the Ministry of Health and Population. Its “decision-support system,” which is up and running in Saudi Arabia and coming soon to Egypt, will help with data mining of patient records and disease outbreaks. When epidemics like Avian Flu occur, the software can help track the incidences and finds patterns that can prevent further spread of the disease.

When it comes to health in particular, the speed at which the government can discover trends means the difference between saving lives and losing them, not to mention the money it saves on treatment and prevention. This type of software is more and more being used by governments and businesses alike to improve efficiency and expand the scope of service offerings (see related story page 34).

“The use of portals, of information-based decision making, is a great way to promote transparency in a region that has been known for opacity,” Amin says. “If you’re able to, let’s say, take the steps for a building permit, you can code that digitally, put it onto a portal that citizens can get access to. So they cannot just see what is required, but also take advantage of it and do it online and just get the permit going. So this removes the opacity and uncertainty built into the system.”

Egypt Post, the largest economic institution in the country, was able to offer new services as well as advertise its old ones through the use of computers and portals. The post office offers several hundred services, but few actually knew what they all were. Using the organization’s new portal, people can now do everything from buying stamps to getting an international money order. According to Amin, whose company created the portal, Egypt Post had always wanted to offer daily interest rates, but could only do so after it moved to digital.

Portals and business intelligence are what Amin calls the past and present of software development for large organizations. ITWorx is focusing its attention on new projects dedicated to “service-oriented architecture.” The old models of business software organized the departments of a business under a single monolithic computer structure. This gets prohibitively expensive and difficult to manage as a business grows. ITWorx’s new model will change all that by dividing the organization by services.

“Instead of having a huge [Human Resource] system, you look at just hiring or monitoring as an individual piece, so when your business model changes, you just reframe the new parts and get rid of the old, instead of dumping an entire system for a new one.”

The system allows for coordination of data between the different departments. If you asked the question, “What is the cost of acquiring a new customer?” you would see the cost displayed across different departments. If the operating cost of one of these departments changes, then the change will affect that department, leaving the rest intact.

This more flexible process takes less time because it can be reconfigured, and should be attractive to companies in sectors that change quickly or demand a quick time to market, like the mobile-phone sales industry, for example.

Amin is working with Vodafone Egypt (bt100 number 5) to integrate its billing, customer service and operations-support systems to help it prepare for the as-yet-unnamed Etisalat network, which will likely offer original offerings, as Vodafone did when it introduced pre-paid cards and completely changed the market.

The whole landscape of how we communicate and do business is changing. This year saw an increased number of netcafés popping up, from the crowded streets of Cairo to the remote outskirts of desert oases. ADSL rates dropped in half this year, bringing tons of new subscribers. An Apple showroom opened, proving the market for computer buyers is large enough to support an alternate operating system, even if the price balloons to LE 18,000 per unit. And now all the talk is of wireless internet through WiFi and WiMAX, which could connect the entire country — schools, hospitals, banks, offices and homes.

We will always have to balance issues such as privacy, security, and offensive content, but one thing is for sure: Like everywhere else, Egypt is tech crazy and we “should not bet against the internet,” because we will lose every time.

Cut the Cord!

New technologies mean internet users are no longer chained to their walls or, increasingly, their homes

Times have changed. The days of dial-up internet are dying, replaced by affordable high-speed internet. Originally only accessible through a fixed cable, now broadband internet access is available wirelessly. Mobile phones are also being upgraded: around the world — and soon in Egypt — new models allow users to do things even fully networked PCs had trouble with five years ago. Here’s a quick review of the technologies that are freeing us from our desks:

WiFi: Not a true abbreviation, the WiFi name indicates a device that can communicate with another such device without a fixed line between them. Originally used mainly to allow network access for laptops, the standard is becoming increasingly popular in setting up local area networks using desktop computers because it requires fewer cables.

A simple wireless network can be set up by hooking a WiFi access point to the network server or, in the case of a home network, into the DSL modem. The access point’s antenna sends out a signal which can then be accessed by another wireless modem, such as those that have become standard in laptop computers. The range of a typical access point can be as high as 45 meters, but the signal is weakened and often interrupted by walls. It’s advisable to encode a wireless network using Wireless Encryption Protocol or something similar, as an opportunistic neighbor can easily hop onto an unprotected network and steal bandwidth.

WiFi access points and modems are widely available for purchase, and will also be rented out by internet service providers.

WiMAX: A much sexier name than Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a wireless standard used in so-called ‘last-kilometer’ connections, the expensive phase of telecom network construction which connects a distribution hub to its many terminals. The standard operates similarly to WiFi, but has much greater range, from 6–8 kilometers in normal city conditions, to 50 or more if the endpoints have direct line of sight. Orascom Telecom Holdings (bt100 number 1) and Intel Capital, the venture-capital arm of Intel Corporation, announced last year a joint venture called Orascom Telecom WiMAX to develop systems based on the technology standard here.

WiMAX is particularly attractive to isolated communities without preexisting fixed-line access. By setting up a series of WiMAX stations, oasis cities could for instance set up broadband internet access for a cost that is much cheaper than laying cables. It can also be set up on a moving platform, which suggests shipping, military, etc. applications.

3G: Standing for third-generation mobile technology, is a system of network standards that allows the simultaneous transmission of both voice and other data. 3G networks in Europe and elsewhere allow video conferencing and significantly higher data-transfer rates than 2G networks.

Mobinil (bt100 number 6) ran into trouble with authorities when its EDGE service, which allows higher transfer rates than standard protocols, was declared too advanced for Mobinil’s license, although the company still offers the service. At press time Mobinil and Vodafone were pursuing negotiations with the National Telecommunications Regulation Agency (NTRA) to lower the price of the 3G licenses. The new mobile network to be operated by Etisalat will offer 3G services

سرقة جوالات ضباط الشرطة المصدر الرئيسي لتسريب اللقطاتمدونات تعرض فيلما جديدا لمصرية "معلقة" تعترف بالقتل تحت التعذيب
نقلا عن صحيفة "المصري اليوم"

دبي-العربية.نت
فيما شهدت الساحة المصرية جدلا واسعا بسبب لقطات فيديو تداولتها مواقع إلكترونية، تظهر وقائع تعذيب وانتهاك عرض تعرض لها مواطنون مصريون في أقسام شرطة، فجر مدونون على شبكة الإنترنت قضية تعذيب جديدة مصورة بالفيديو تظهر فيها فتاة تتعرض لتعذيب شديد كي تعترف "بجريمة قتل".
وتظهر الفتاة في اللقطات المصورة وهي مربوطة من قدميها ورجليها إلى عصا غليظة مثبتة فوق كرسيين وجسدها يتأرجح في الهواء، وتتوسل في الفيديو كليب القصير إلى شخص تلقبه بـ"الباشا" -وهو لقب عادة ما ينادى به ضباط الشرطة في مصر حاليا-، وتطلب منه أن يرحمها، ثم تقول "أنا اللي قتلته.. أنا اللي قتلته ياباشا"، ويرد شخص يبدو أنه "الباشا" الذي تقصده: "تصدقي إن التليفونات مهمة في السيكو سيكو"، بحسب ما نشرته صحيفة "المصري اليوم" الأحد 7-1-2007.
وتكمل الفتاة "إيدي ياباشا.. إيدي هاتتقطع والنبي تفك إيدي.. خلاص ياباشا". فيما لم تعرف هوية الضحية، أو هوية من يعذبها، وما إذا كانت قد وقعت في قسم شرطة أم لا.
وفي غضون ذلك، لاتزال محكمة الجنايات في القاهرة تنظر في قضيتي تعذيب تعرض في أحدهما شاب مصري يدعى عماد الكبير للتعذيب وانتهاك العرض على يد ضابط وأمين شرطة في قسم شرطة حي بولاق الدكرور الشعبي حيث يظهر في اللقطات وهو معلق من يديه ورجليه ومجرد من ملابسه وقد وضعت عصا غليظة في مؤخرته وأجبر على وصف نفسه بألفاظ جارحة، كما يتم نظر قضية أخرى ضد ضابط شرطة وزعت له لقطات وهو يوجه صفعات عنيفة إلى أحد المواطنين في قسم شرطة حي الهرم بالقاهرة فيما بدا أنها جلسة سمر مع عدد من الضباط الآخرين الذين لم يظهروا في الصورة.
وكانت مدونة مصرية شهيرة يحررها ناشط مصري هو الصحفي وائل عباس المصدر الرئيسي الذي فجر قضية "كليبات" التعذيب التي شغلت الرأي العام المصري، قبل أن تدينها 41 منظمة حقوقية وأهلية مصرية التعذيب في السجون ومقار الاحتجاز بمصر، وتطلق مبادرة من أجل التصدي للظاهرة تحت شعار "تحرير أقسام الشرطة من التعذيب والحفاظ على كرامة المصريين".
وفي حديث مع صحيفة "المصري اليوم" رجح وائل عباس أن يكون مصدر هذه اللقطات المصورة -التي يتبادلها الناس عبر البلوتوث ويقوم بنشرها في موقعه- هو سرقة جوالات ضباط الشرطة، مشيرا إلى أنه حدثت سرقة لعشرين جهاز هاتف جوال من حفلة زفاف أحد الضباط، وربما كانت بعض هذه المشاهد يتبادلها رجال الشرطة فيما بينهم أو مع أصدقائهم ثم تسربت إلى الشارع. وأضاف أنه قد تتسرب هذه اللقطات عن طريق محال صيانة المحمول إذا ما لجأ إليها بعض الضباط أو أمناء الشرطة.
وردا على سؤال أنه ليس هناك ما يدل في فيديو "الفتاة المعلقة" على أنه صور في قسم شرطة، قال عباس "الأصل أنه صور في قسم شرطة، مالم يثبت العكس، لأن صراخ الفتاة ووجهها المزرق من الألم يؤكد أن هذا ليس تمثيلا.
وأضاف "ثم استعطافها الضابط بكلمات: ياباشا.. ياباشا.. إيدي هاتتقطع، وصوت الضابط الذي يبدو أنه يصور براحته ويستخدم الزوم بل يهددها بإيحاءات جنسية، كل ذلك يؤكد صحة الفيديو، لدرجة أن الفتاة تعترف بجريمة قتل حتي تنفد بجلدها من هذا العذاب، ثم تقول إن ذلك ليس علي يد ضابط شرطة.