U.S. Denied Permanent Military Base Use (Uzbekistan)

[Khephra]

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan -- Uzbekistan will allow the United States to keep troops at a southern base there only as long as they are needed for the war on terror in Afghanistan, and would not allow a permanent deployment, the president said Thursday.

Islam Karimov said he is opposed to the further "militarization" of Central Asia and said Uzbekistan needs more money, not more foreign troops.

more...............

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-uzbekistan-us-forces,0,7196797.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines

[Maine-i-acs]

1. Clinton's good work down the crapper.

I guess hosting the Taliban in Texas was a bad idea. Uzbeks are smartening up. Time for another round of bribes, Shrubco?

[bluestateguy]

2. There's a wonderful "ally"

The leader of Uzbekistan throws his political enemies into cauldrons' of hot water, boiling them to death.

What a lovely human being.

[Tempest]

3. And the BushCo supports him financially

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1072313,00.html

There are over 6,000 political and religious prisoners in Uzbekistan. Every year, some of them are tortured to death. Sometimes the policemen or intelligence agents simply break their fingers, their ribs and then their skulls with hammers, or stab them with screwdrivers, or rip off bits of skin and flesh with pliers, or drive needles under their fingernails, or leave them standing for a fortnight, up to their knees in freezing water. Sometimes they are a little more inventive. The body of one prisoner was delivered to his relatives last year, with a curious red tidemark around the middle of his torso. He had been boiled to death.

But Uzbekistan is seen by the US government as a key western asset, as Saddam Hussein's Iraq once was. Since 1999, US special forces have been training Karimov's soldiers. In October 2001, he gave the United States permission to use Uzbekistan as an airbase for its war against the Taliban. The Taliban have now been overthrown, but the US has no intention of moving out. Uzbekistan is in the middle of central Asia's massive gas and oil fields. It is a nation for whose favours both Russia and China have been vying. Like Saddam Hussein's Iraq, it is a secular state fending off the forces of Islam.

So, far from seeking to isolate his regime, the US government has tripled its aid to Karimov. Last year, he received $500m (£300m), of which $79m went to the police and intelligence services, who are responsible for most of the torture. While the US claims that its engagement with Karimov will encourage him to respect human rights, like Saddam Hussein he recognises that the protection of the world's most powerful government permits him to do whatever he wants. Indeed, the US state department now plays a major role in excusing his crimes. In May, for example, it announced that Uzbekistan had made "substantial and continuing progress" in improving its human rights record. The progress? "Average sentencing" for members of peaceful religious organisations is now just "7-12 years", while two years ago they were "usually sentenced to 12-19 years".

[pinto]

4. I like maps, and think they help with a visual cue to events, here's

a couple. Didn't quite get what I wanted but you can probably see the drift....

http://www.grida.no/enrin/mapsngraphics/geor_4.htm

http://www.grida.no/caspian/maps_graphics/transp.htm

[eridani]

5. Oopsie!

The big sin--disobedience! Watch for 'The Butcher of Uzbekistan' coming to a Faux News outlet near you! Boiling people alive is peachy keen if you let Uncle Sugar have his bases--otherwise, BIG no-no.

[pinto]

6. yep, it's all relative I guess. watch for more Wolfowitz moves here

[DuctapeFatwa]

8. That's the best summary of US foreign policy I've seen in a while

Thanks!
:toast:

[Minstrel Boy]

7. oh oh! How long before we hear Bush and Blair

say that Karimov "boils his own people"?

[kodi]

9. funny, we refurbished the whole damned thing. my brother was there in 2002

we spend a lot of money to make that air base functional and now the landlord wants us out.

this is really funny how the americans were taken in by the uzbeks.

time after time the busheviks have shown how they are just a bunch of gangsters, but boy oh boy, are they second rate gangsters and they get taken in repeatedly by world class gangsters like the uzbeks.