Stephen Zunes – The Death of One of Washington’s Favorite Tyrants

The death of long-time Uzbekistan dictator Islam Karimov has brought rare U.S. media attention to the Central Asian country of 30 million. Uzbekistan is ranked among the half dozen worst countries in the world for human-rights abuses. What U.S. government officials and our media mostly ignore, however, is that American taxpayers subsidized that regime and its brutal security apparatus for most of …

TED RALL – What Obama Doesn’t Want You to Know About Uzbekistan

Death is usually a sad event. The passing of a world leader, particularly one who brought stability to a tense part of the Muslim world for several decades, is typically cause for concern. The death of Uzbekistani president Islam Karimov is not typical. For the majority of the long-oppressed citizens of Uzbekistan, the end of one of the world’s bloodiest …