it just gets worse

Senator John McCain of Arizona is obviously still a bit upset about being snubbed last time he came to Tashkent. On Wednesday he was one of the leaders in the Senate who pushed for the United States to refuse to pay for the use of the Karshi-Khanabad Air Base in Uzbekistan. To say this further strains US-Uzbek relations would imply that there still were relations between the two. McCain also made an interesting statement, saying that, "Paying our bills is important, but more important is America standing up for itself... avoiding cash transfers to the treasury of a dictator just months after he permanently evicts American soldiers from his country." Let us apply this on a local level. Next time your shady landlord comes by and tries to evict you for any number of reasons from your apartment, tell him or her that, while it is important to pay your bills, America needs to stand up for itself and avoid paying money to those shady people who would evict us. Better yet, send a letter to your credit card company explaining how your non-payment is just America standing up for itself against high interest rate charges. See how far either of these tactics get you.

McCain exclaimed that the Uzbek government "has terminated counterterrorism cooperation with the United States," and has taken "actions so alarming that one would think this body [the Senate] would be considering sanctions." Does this just mean that the US can no longer send its prisoners to be tortured, I mean questioned, in Uzbekistan? Maybe he is really just upset that they can't outsource their dirty work. It is widely known that for some time the United States has been flying its prisoners to places it considers to have poor human rights records to get around those pesky human rights regulations. [more info on US terror flights]

Let's face it, Bush would never allow an independent international investigation of anything to do with the United States. So why exactly does the US government think that Uzbekistan should do the same? How many international monitors do you hear about walking around Camp X-ray? While an international investigation of what happened in Andijan is not officially being allowed, the Uzbek government seems to have been more than tolerant of organizations like OSCE crawling around the country and doing just that, investigating.

The reporting in the West is so one sided that it is just as bad as the Uzbek propaganda. There are some elements of truth coming from both sides. Somewhere in the middle you can discern a blurry picture of what really happened in Andijan. After having talked to people who lived through it, I can tell you for sure that neither side is telling the whole story.