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Today's
Stories
October
30 / 31, 2004
Winslow
T. Wheeler
Spartacus Tells
October
29, 2004
Harry
Browne
No Justice for Peace Activist in County
Clare
October
28, 2004
Forrest Hylton
"The Gas is Ours:" Bolivia's
Ghosts of October
Col. Dan Smith
Rebellion
in the Ranks
Alan Maass
Jon Stewart v. the Pundits
Ron Jacobs
Ecstasy
in Red Sox Nation
Alexander
Cockburn
Kerrycrats and the War
October
27, 2004
Jules
Rabin
Crammed with Distressful Politics
Dave
Lindorff
Bulgegate: the Lies Continue
Katherine
Van Tassel
On the Home Front: Both Parties
Ignore Working Parents
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Bi-Partisan Politics of Oil
October 26,
2004
Brian Cloughley
Three
Weddings and Lots of Funerals: Atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan
William Blum
Fear
Factors
Lenni Brenner
The
1964 Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Lessons for 2004
Ben Tripp
The
Chicken Salad Election
Fidel Castro
After the Fall
Greg Bates
The Nation's Flawed Calculus
Walter Brasch
Gag the Public: the War on Dissent
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
An Open Letter to Pat Buchanan
Mickey Z.
Rumble in the Jungle at 30: Ali, Foreman and the Congo
Amir Taheri
The Boom in Conspiracy Theories
Alexander Billet
Say It Ain't So, Bruce!: the Boss Endorses Kerry
Doug Giebel
The Religion of G.W. Bush
Kathleen Christison
Why
I Liked Thomas Friedman's Latest Column Before I Didn't
October 25,
2004
Ralph Nader
Letter
from a Minnesota Highway
Werther
West
Texas Wahabbism
Dave Zirin
Boston's Killer Cops: Death of a Fan
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Oregon Revokes Dr. Leveque's License
Omar Barghouti
Executing Another Child in Rafah
William J. Nottingham
Lori Berenson's Story
John Chuckman
A Foolish Consistency
Uri Avnery
On
the Road to Civil War
October 22
/ 24, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
You
Can't Blame Nader for This
Rev. William Alberts
On Bended Knee: Faith-Based Deceptions
Willliam A.
Cook
Killing for Christ
Saul Landau
George W. Bush: a Man of His Words?
Bill Quigley
I Held the Bullet in My Palm: Masked Haitian Police Shoot Children
While Arresting Priest
Christopher Brauchli
Seal It With a Frown: What Compassionate Conservativism Really
Means
William S.
Lind
Fallujah and the Moral Level of War
Sharon Smith
Guilt Trippers for Kerry
Greg Bates
Kerrynomics: "Hurt the Ones Who Vote for Us"
Justin E.H. Smith
Is Lesser Evilism a Compromise with Evil?
Rebecca Evans
Tarnished Legacy: Pinochet and the Chilean Military
Mike Whitney
Al Hurra TV: the Second Invasion
M. Junaid Alam
Purchasing Individuality in America
David Krieger
Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Examining the Policies of Bush and
Kerry
David J. Ledermann
The Emperor's New Crumbs
Lawrence Reichard
Same Old FBI Story
Website of
the Weekend
Lie Girls: the Real Coalition of the Willling
October 21,
2004
Ben Tripp
The
Undecided Voter Examined
Joshua Frank
Kerry
and the Environment:
It's Not Easy Pretending to be Green
Stan Cox
What
the Left Doesn't Get About Small Businesses
Bill Martinez
State
Depart and Cuban Visas: Only Anti-Castro Agitators Need Apply
Mark Engler
The War and Globalization
Lina Britto
and Lucia Suarez
Bolivia:
a Year After the October Insurrection
Website of the Day
Two Pampered Children of Wealth
October 20,
2004
Yitzhak Laor
"Did
You Two Squabble?": a Bullet Fired for Every Palestinian
Child
Jason Leopold
Sinclair
Broadcasting's Air War: a Long History of Journalistic Deception
Jesse Sharkey
A
Teacher's Account of How Military Recruiters Prey on High School
Students
Col. Dan Smith
Choking
Free Speech About the Draft
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Using My Religion
David Vest
If
Bush Wins, Blame Me
Jack Random
The Jackson 17: Reflections on a Mutiny
Ron Jacobs
Time
to Kick It Up a Notch
James Brittain
Plan Patriota and the FARC: a Change in the Countryside?
Christopher
Dols
Bombing Madison: Michael Moore's Fright Fest
Dave Lindorff
First They Came for the Nurses...
Website of
the Day
Banana Republican Catalogue
October 19,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Party
Favors: the Political Business of Terry McAuliffe
Jeff Taylor
Confessions
of a Swing State Voter
Matt Vidal
American
Myopia: "More Money in Your Pocket"
Victor Kattan
"It's Not Who You're Against; It's Who You're For":
Palestine Takes Center Stage At Euro Social Forum
William Loren
Katz
What Goes Around Comes Around
Sean Carter
O'Reilly Should Shut Up About Extortion Claiims
CounterPunch Wire
Who's Really in Bed with Republican Funders: Kerry or Nader?
October 18,
2004
Saul Landau
Facts
and Lies; Slogans and Truth
Dave Lindorff
Bulletin
on the Bush Bulge
Diane Christian
Sheep
and Goats: On the Language of Goodness
Greg Bates / Dave Lindorff
Betting on War: a Wager on the Fallout of a Kerry Presidency
Uri Avnery
Ariel
Sharon's Philosophy
Peter LaVenia
Leaving the Greens So Soon? a Response to Josh Frank
Mike Whitney
O'Reilly at the Whipping Post
Elaine Cassel
The Other War: Civil Liberties Three Years After 9/11
October 16
/ 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
No More Bush Girls
October 15,
2004
Paul Craig
Roberts
Where
Did These "Conservatives" Come From?: The Brownshirting
of America
Laura Carlsen
Wal-Mart
vs. the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon
Greg Bates
Empire of Insanity: Kerry's Iraq Troop Numbers
Michael Donnelly
News from a Swing State: Does Anyone Here Have a Spine?
Katherine Lahey
The Venezuelan "Threat": Why Do Kerry and Bush Fear
Hugo Chavez?
Robert Jensen
/ Pat Youngblood
Election Day Fears
Leah Caldwell
From
Supermax to Abu Ghraib: the Masterminds of Torture and Abuse
Website of
the Day
An Anti-Billionaire Policy? Why That Would Be Economic Racism
October 14,
2004
Darcy Richardson
The
Other Progressive Candidate: the Lonely Crusade of Walt Brown
Willliam A.
Cook
Turning
Myths into Truth
Laura Santina
Water, Women and War
Evelyn Pringle
Free Speech Banned by Big Pharma: What You Can't Say About Drug
Importation
Alan Farago
Lessons
from Nature
Rep. Maxine Waters
A Letter to Colin Powell on Haiti
Nicole Colson
Maimed
for Oil and Empire
October 13,
2004
Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton and Bill Quigley
Aftermath
of a Coup: The Other Disaster in Haiti
Sharon Smith
Barak
O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran
Christopher Brauchli
God and the Bush Administration
Mike Whitney
The Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: a False Beacon?
Website of
the Day
Operation
Truth
October 12,
2004
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
"Indian
Country"
Greg Bates
The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters
in Swing States
Steven Conn
Progressives as Pawns: Kerry's War on Nader
Jason Leopold
Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from
UN Oil-for-Food Program
Security Scholars
for a Sensible Foreign Policy
Time for a Change of Course
Timothy J. Freeman
Dying for a Mistake
Pierre Tristam
Deconstructing Bush
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The 2nd Debate: the Blurring of Act and Audience
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Israel as Sideshow
Website of the Day
John Kerry's Personal Off-Shore Tax Shelters
October 11,
2004
Robert Fisk
Iraq:
Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises
Kevin Pina
The
Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti
Patrick Gavin
Rethinking
Columbus Day
Chris Floyd
Tribes with Flags in the New Afghanistan
Daniel Wolff
Radioactive Money: Entergy, Political Cash and America's Most
Dangerous Nuclear Plant
Walter Brasch
The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and
40% of All Americans
Mike Whitney
The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink
Ari Shavit
"He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day": an Interview with
Sharon's Lawyer
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Debates and the Big Lie
Website of the Day
Dylan's Greatest Recording?
October 9 /
10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
"There
Are No Innocents"
Paul de Rooij
Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry
Adams
M. Shahid Alam
Making Sense of Our Times
Laura Carlsen
Protest and Populism in Latin America
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court
Col. Dan Smith
Bush's Credibility Gap
Paul Craig
Roberts
Faith-Based Economics
Greg Bates
What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand?
Joshua Frank
Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left
Felice Pace
Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable
Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement
Walter A. Davis
Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium
William A.
Cook
The Agony of Colin Powell
Phyllis Pollack
Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later
Poets' Basement
Klipschutz, Albert, Ford
Website of the Weekend
Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes
October 8,
2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
The
Israeli Invasion of Gaza
Moshe Adler
Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities
David Swanson
Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition
to Iraq War
Dave Zirin
CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team!
Rep. Ron Paul
The Draft is a Form of Slavery
William S. Lind
Keeping Our SA Up
Samar Assad
Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine
Jim Ingalls
and Sonali Kolhatkar
The Elections in Afghanistan
October 7,
2004
Dave Lindorff
All
Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air
Masha Hamilton
Fear in Kandahar
Christopher
Brauchli
Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush?
Bruce K. Gagnon
Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida
Meredith Kolodner
Where
is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge
October 6,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
"Please,
Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah
Ron Jacobs
Going
Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives
Michael Colby
The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead?
Tarif Abboushi
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates
Matthew Behrens
Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood
Mike Whitney
Rethinking WMDs
John Pilger
Stealing Diego Garcia
Ben Tripp
Kerry's "Triumph"
Kevin McKiernan
Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target
Patrick Cockburn
Elections
Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq
Website of the Day
Is There an Islamic Problem?
October 5,
2004
Anthony Loewenstein
Rupert
Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes"
Mark Clinton
and Tony Udell
The
Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran
Greg Bates
Trading
Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman
Dave Lindorff
What's
the Frequency, Karl?
Norm Dixon
Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers
Larry Kearney
God Talk and Burning Children
Bill Linville
Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government
Gary Leupp
What
Edwards Should Ask Cheney
Website of
the Day
A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate
October 4,
2004
Diane Christian
The
Gates of Hell
Joshua Frank
An Interview with David Cobb
Doug Giebel
Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie?
John Chuckman
Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump
Ramzy Baroud
Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage
Julia Stein
Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM
Sean Donahue
Outsourcing
Terror: Kerry and Special Forces
Website of
the Day
Mapping
Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
Kathleen and Bill Christison
An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris
Kathie Helmkamp
My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill
Phillip Cryan
Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia
Lenni Brenner
The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel"
Ron Jacobs
It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia
Ben Tripp
Sticker Shock
William S.
Lind
The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces
Dave Zirin
The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC
Dave Lindorff
Lies from the Great Debate
Luscon Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway
Zoe Moskovitz
& Sasha Kramer
Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti
Nelson P. Valdes
Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned
Cuban Academics
Alan Farago
The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades
Nancy Haley
What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us?
Alex Billet
Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years
Steve Fesenmaier
Save and Burn: The War on Libraries
Poets' Basement
Smith, Holt, Albert
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
Weekend Edition
October 30 / 31, 2004
Dictators of
the World Agree...
Uzbekistan
and Bush Hypocrisies
By
BRIAN CLOUGHLEY
It isn't often you can have a real belly-laugh
about testimony to the US House International Relations Committee.
Most of these depositions are pompous and boring and almost
nobody reads the material, anyway. But the testimony to the
Subcommittee on the Middle East in July by Mira R Ricardel, Acting
Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy
was different. It was pompous, of course ; but some of the
detail was far from boring.
The subject of Ms Ricardel's
sworn statement was the country of Uzbekistan, and she produced
a travesty of morality that at first reading might seem to be
satire : perhaps an exuberant and very funny caricature of what
House Committee testimony so often is. Alas, it wasn't intended
to be a parody. But why should one of Rumsfeld's people be
testifying to the House about a country in Central Asia?
The Bush administration declares
Uzbekistan to be vital to US security because it hires out an
enormous military base to US military forces. In consequence,
Ms Ricardel enthused in her written deposition that it is "a
valued partner and friend of the United States", no less.
This is certainly the case, but the unpleasant fact is that
Uzbekistan is a crude and merciless dictatorship without any
pretence of abiding by civilized standards of decency. Bush
gives its ruler total support in spite of the State Department
reporting in 2003 that Uzbekistan "has no independent judicial
or legislative system, no legal opposition, and no free media",
while the regime "continued to commit numerous serious
abuses", and "both police and the NSS [National Security
Service ; the former KGB under almost the same management] routinely
tortured, beat, and otherwise mistreated detainees to obtain
confessions or incriminating information".
But the State Department was
ordered to be realistic and to get on board the administration's
pro-Uzbekistan boat. Suddenly, in the 2004 State Department
Report on Uzbekistan, things changed. Oh dear me, they changed.
It couldn't be a complete whitewash, of course, as that might
have attracted unfavorable attention and derision, as happened
when the figures of terrorist incidents were falsified for Bush
in the first version of the 2004 Report on Patterns of Global
Terrorism. But there has been massaging and manipulation, and
the new edition announces brightly that "The United States
values Uzbekistan as a stable, moderate force in a turbulent
region. The United States urges greater reform to promote long-term
stability and prosperity. Registration of independent political
parties and human rights non-governmental organizations would
be an important step. The government registered the Independent
Human Rights Organization of Uzbekistan in March 2002. One year
later, in March 2003, the government registered a second human
rights organization, Ezgulik. Enforcement of constitutional safeguards
ensuring personal, religious, and press freedom and civil liberties
also is needed."
This is the type of intellectually
dishonest fudging that the talking glove-puppet Mira R Ricardel
supported in front of the House Subcommittee. She was effusive
about the place to a truly wondrous degree. "Uzbekistan
is making significant progress reforming its Soviet-style military.
Indeed, in many areas it serves as a model for other countries
in the region. Alone among Central Asian states, Uzbekistan has
appointed a civilian defense minister and has established firm
civilian control of the military. Under the leadership of Defense
Minister Gulamov [sic; his name is Qodir Ghulomov], the Uzbek
Ministry of Defense has initiated defense reform plans for training,
equipping, and utilizing its forces along NATO lines."
In August 2002, Human Rights
Watch recorded over 6,500 religious and political prisoners in
the country. The ruling clique is decadent, corrupt and repressive.
The legal code is a farce, and the population suffers draconian
repression by an evil autocracy whose stated commitment to human
rights is an obscene mockery of the truth.
The owner of Uzbekistan is
a corrupt and vicious ruffian called Islam Karimov. He is not
a Muslim, in spite of his first name, and was First Secretary
of the Uzbek Communist Party Central Committee. When the USSR
finally collapsed he ditched communism and declared independence.
Then he achieved leadership in a contest in which opposition
parties were either not permitted to take part or were criminally
persecuted by the police and other thugs.
In 1992 he banned the main
opposition parties and imprisoned their leaders, following which
his former communist organization, risibly renamed the People's
Democratic Party, won elections. Karimov's leadership term was
extended to five years by referendum in 1995, and in 2000 in
an equally crooked ballot he was 're-elected' president. (Independent
observers described the performance as "neither free nor
fair", which is diplomat-speak for being as well-rigged
as a Baltimore Clipper.) The man is a racketeering tyrant with
blood on his hands.
So naturally he was invited
to the White House. Following his meeting with Bush and Rumsfeld
he visited Congress. According to the media release, "When
Islam Karimov entered, the senators stood and applauded him for
a long time. They noted that relations of Congress to Uzbekistan
changed sharply because of Uzbekistan's early support of the
anti-terrorist coalition, no longer limited to supporting its
role in regional security, but in defending principles of democracy
and freedom."
A malign, rotten, barbaric
dictator who permits "no independent judicial or legislative
system, no legal opposition, and no free media" was honored
by Bush and given a standing ovation by people who couldn't find
his country on a globe ("Ooze Becky Where?") because
he provided a base for the invasion of Iraq. He can do no wrong
in the eyes of Bush, and, thrusting aside all the evidence to
the contrary, Washington professes to believe he is "defending
principles of democracy and freedom".
This shamefully distorted picture
of Uzbekistan was faithfully conveyed in testimony to the House
Subcommittee by Ms Mira R Ricardel. She should have a place
in the Hall of Fame as a craven apologist for a regime that places
no value on truth, decency or the rule of law. And the really
funny thing is that Ms Ricardel was formerly vice president for
programs at Freedom House
which describes itself as "a non-profit, nonpartisan organization"
that is "a clear voice for democracy and freedom",
and accordingly produces reports on the progress of democracy
and freedom around the world.
The Freedom House report of
April 2004 concluded that Uzbekistan is among the most politically
repressive states in the world, having perpetrated "gross
violations" of human rights and religious freedoms. Three
months later, that former luminary of Freedom House, Ms Mira
R Ricardel, declared proudly that "We have been working
closely with the Ministry of Defense to support Uzbekistan's
objectives of Westernizing its military . . . [it] is making
significant progress in reforming its Soviet-style military.
Indeed, in many areas it serves as a model for other countries
in the region." Like in rigging elections, torturing its
citizens, banning newspapers and persecuting political opponents.
It is amazing how principles vanish when the tantalizing scent
of career-enhancement is sniffed by toadying humbugs.
The British Foreign Office
stated (September 28, 2004) that "Uzbekistan's human rights
record is poor . . . opposition political parties are banned
or prevented from registering . . . Torture is a particular
concern . . . The UN Special Rapporteur for Torture visited
Uzbekistan . . . and said it was 'systematic'. " But then
it, too, changed its tune and in October sacked the ambassador
who had reported that torture was prevalent and that it was carried
out with the encouragement of the Bush administration. (The ambassador
was targeted by a campaign of evil vilification of the type that
Tony Blair's lackeys are poisonously expert in carrying out.
It's an art form, really, in a squalid sort of way. The allegations
against him were trumped-up rubbish, but the muck stuck. Brilliant
stuff.) (I might add that I have no time for the fellow, who
should never have been an ambassador in the first place ; but
he was treated disgustingly and sacrificed on Blair's altar of
loyalty to Bush.)
But none of this matters to
Bush Washington if the dictator Karimov is happy to host US military
bases in his feudal territory, which was the point of a grubby
charade during which Karimov was feted by Bush in a manner denied
to many heads of democracies.
The leaders of France and Germany
were elected in an open and legal process. Their governments
do not practice torture. (Karimov's thugs actually boiled two
people alive, according to a British official report.) They
have opposition political parties and their media is totally
free. But they are not welcome in the White House because they
dared disagree with some policies of a US president whose moral
values are so grossly perverted that evil autocrats are praised
while democratic leaders and their nations are reviled and insulted.
"You are with us or with the terrorists", says Bush,
and if tyrants do his bidding unconditionally then they and
other brutal blackguards will be welcome in freedom's halls,
no matter how many people they boil alive. Bush is a born-again
confrontationist, but he won't confront oppressive dictators
if they are pro-Bush.
Uzbekistan has a treaty with
America that is couched in such dazzlingly surreal terms as to
make us wonder if it is really a majestic joke. The 'Declaration
on the Strategic Partnership and Cooperation Framework Between
the United States of America and the Republic of Uzbekistan'
is an absurd document : a bizarre hotchpotch of humbug, predicated
on circumstances that do not exist.
In the usual lofty style it
pontificates that "both Sides reaffirm their commitment
to the legal objectives and principles of the United Nations
Charter . . . as well as the principles of international law
and human rights". This is grotesque. Even the Bush administration
cannot possibly believe that the murderous torturer Karimov has
the tiniest "commitment to principles of human rights".
And then the treaty declares that "both Sides expect
concrete progress" in "enhancing democratic institutions
. . . establishing a genuine multi-party system . . . ensuring
fair and free elections . . . [and] ensuring the independence
of the media."
This twaddle was signed in
March 2002. Do you know what has happened in terms of advancing
democracy or creating media independence or anything decent in
Uzbekistan since then? Of course you do : Zero. Zilch. Human
Rights Watch states that "Media in Uzbekistan operate under
tight government restrictions. Freedom of the press is severely
limited by an unofficial censorship regime . . . No independent
local media outlets exist". Freedom House reports that
"Critical journalists frequently experience harassment,
death threats, and physical violence." This is a situation
that meets with the entire approval of Bush and the Pentagon
and obviously of Ms Mira Ricardel, formerly of Freedom House
and now Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for International
Security Policy, who declares that "Uzbekistan is a valued
partner and friend of the United States", while its leader,
Karimov (a "stable, moderate force"), continues to
repress the people of his country with savage enthusiasm.
Karimov is a stinking, vicious
crook who uses torture and murder as instruments of state policy,
but he isn't stupid. He is the richest person in Central Asia,
and knows exactly where his support comes from, which is not
the citizens of Uzbekistan. He can commit any crime in the book
and Bush will pay and protect him, provided that the Pentagon
can keep its military base in his country.
At the last US-Uzbekistan 'Joint
Security Cooperation Council Meeting' in Washington it was declared
that "the Uzbek side reaffirm[ed] its commitment to democratic
transformation of society", which is utter garbage.
And Bush said in his State
of the Union address that "freedom is the right of every
person and the future of every nation", which was also
meaningless claptrap. When it suits him he ignores torture
and repression, and the result is that the murderous dictator
of Uzbekistan is enjoying the lucrative patronage of the Pentagon.
Bush is an arrogantly mendacious hypocrite, and his international
message is clear: Dictators of the world, vote Bush for your
survival and personal prosperity.
Brian Cloughley writes on military and political affairs.
He can be reached through his website www.briancloughley.com
Weekend
Edition Features for October 22 / 14, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
You
Can't Blame Nader for This
Rev. William Alberts
On Bended Knee: Faith-Based Deceptions
Willliam A.
Cook
Killing for Christ
Saul Landau
George W. Bush: a Man of His Words?
Bill Quigley
I Held the Bullet in My Palm: Masked Haitian Police Shoot Children
While Arresting Priest
Christopher Brauchli
Seal It With a Frown: What Compassionate Conservativism Really
Means
William S.
Lind
Fallujah and the Moral Level of War
Sharon Smith
Guilt Trippers for Kerry
Greg Bates
Kerrynomics: "Hurt the Ones Who Vote for Us"
Justin E.H. Smith
Is Lesser Evilism a Compromise with Evil?
Rebecca Evans
Tarnished Legacy: Pinochet and the Chilean Military
Mike Whitney
Al Hurra TV: the Second Invasion
M. Junaid Alam
Purchasing Individuality in America
David Krieger
Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Examining the Policies of Bush and
Kerry
David J. Ledermann
The Emperor's New Crumbs
Lawrence Reichard
Same Old FBI Story
Website of
the Weekend
Lie Girls: the Real Coalition of the Willling
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