WP: Crackdown Muddies U.S.-Uzbek Relations (US Base in Uzbekistan)

[Pirate Smile]

Crackdown Muddies U.S.-Uzbek Relations
Washington in Talks on Long-Term Use of Base

By Ann Scott Tyson and Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, June 4, 2005; Page A01

The United States is negotiating long-term use of a major military base in Uzbekistan to expand the global reach of American forces, despite a brutal government crackdown on protests there last month, Bush administration officials said.

The talks have gone on behind the scenes for several months but have become more awkward for the administration since last month's unrest, which produced the heaviest bloodshed since the Central Asian country left the Soviet Union in 1991. Human rights advocates argue that a new pact would undermine the administration's goal of spreading democracy in the Islamic world.

The U.S. military has relied heavily on Uzbekistan since 2001 in operations in Afghanistan, but on a temporary basis. U.S. Special Operations Forces, intelligence and reconnaissance missions, and air logistics flights all use the Karshi-Khanabad (K2) airfield in southeastern Uzbekistan, according to an official report on U.S. basing.

Now, as the Pentagon carries out a repositioning of U.S. forces overseas, the Bush administration finds itself pursuing the strategic and geopolitical benefits of the Uzbekistan base even as it expresses deep concern about the country's political repression and worries about the risk of American troops caught in widening civil unrest.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/03/AR2005060301655.html

[Tempest]

1. Is there any doubt

On which side Bush is going to come down on?

Bush would sell his daughters into slavery if it meant getting his war on.

[Pirate Smile]

2. Oh, no. This isn't good:

"U.S. officials are concerned that U.S.-trained military units might have participated in the Uzbekistan government's suppression of unrest in Andijan on May 13. U.S. senators including Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and human rights advocates say they are pressing the administration to investigate that possibility -- and to stop any talks on military basing until Uzbekistan agrees to an international probe of the killings. Uzbek security forces opened fire on crowds in Andijan that included anti-government demonstrators, Islamic militants and prisoners freed in a jail break.

Pentagon and State Department officials said yesterday that they do not know which Uzbek units were involved in the incidents. The U.S. military has trained some Uzbek special forces and border guard units.

An investigation would most likely show that Uzbekistan authorities "used a level of force that was completely unjustified and they killed many innocent civilians," said Sen. John E. Sununu (R-N.H.). Sununu, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Lindsay O. Graham (R-S.C.) visited Uzbekistan this week but were denied meetings with the government. Based on reports of U.S. Embassy officials there who gathered eyewitness accounts, Sununu believes between 500 to 1,000 people were killed in the unrest and that Uzbekistan Special Forces and regular security forces were involved."

[xray s]

3. where did John Sununu get a conscience?

certainly not his old man. must get it from his mom.

[expatriot]

4. There is no qualms with it in freeperville.

We are at Holy War against Islam... that is their view and the only good Muslim is a dead one.

[wookie294]

5. The U.S. government has no problem with Uzbek oppression

It's a shame the Post thinks the American government is against torture and oppression.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. kick