YOUR TAXPAYER DOLLARS SUPPORT TORTURE IN UZBEKISTAN

British diplomat Craig Murray tells a horrifying tale of his days as ambassador to Uzbekistan. When Bush rails against "Islamic fascists" that "fear democracy" and "hate our freedoms," he betrays himself as the worst of hypocrites. Uzbekistan is one of the most repressive tyrannies in the world today, but it's our "friend" because the government celebrates torture and feeds the CIA the results of that torture. Forget that the intelligence is nonsense; it provides a pretext for American actions and stokes the fears of the voting public.

Read the article. You'll see what I mean.

It was clear by the time I arrived in Tashkent a few months later that the United States was handsomely rewarding Karimov's cooperation. Hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid were flowing to the country -- after the U.S. government, evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, repeatedly certified that the Uzbek government was making progress on human rights and democracy. According to a press release distributed to local media by the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent in December 2002, the Karimov regime received more than $500 million in U.S. aid that year alone. That included $120 million for the Uzbek armed forces and more than $80 million for the re-branded Uzbek security services, successor to the KGB.

In other words, when the prisoner was boiled to death that summer, U.S. taxpayers had helped heat the water.

Tags: Uzbekistan, Bush administration