Lost in Translation

It's 12:50am here in Cairo and CNN just aired a conversation with the Egyptian Ambassador to the U.S., Sameh Shoukry, who said that President Mubarak, while still remaining the President in name, had conveyed all his presidential powers to Vice President Suleiman.  According to the Ambassador, President Mubarak remains the de jure president while Vice-President Suleiman is now the de facto president.   This means that now all powers that the president had are held by the Vice President, except for the power to dissolve Parliament which is now held by no one.

Now CNN is interviewing Mohammed ElBaradie who is saying that Vice President Suleiman is the same as President Mubarak.  In Mr. ElBaradie's opinion, this tranference of power is meaningless.