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TechnoratiCables Reveal Background of Pro-Dictator U.S. Policy
NEW YORK--After the Soviet collapse in 1991 U.S. policy toward Central Asia was transparently cynical: support the dictators, screw the people.
As the U.S. stood by and watched, corrupt autocrats looted the former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Dissidents were jailed, massacred--even boiled.
Well, actually, the U.S. was anything but passive. They negotiated deals for oil and gas pipelines. They rented airbases after 9/11. They poured in tens of millions of American tax dollars--all of which wound up in secret bank accounts belonging to the dictators and their families. Meanwhile, average citizens lived in abject poverty.
During trips to Central Asia the locals constantly ask me: "Why doesn't America stop supporting [insert name of corrupt dictator here] so we can kill him and free ourselves?"
Poor, naïve people. They believe our rhetoric. They think we like democracy. Actually, we're all about the looting. Dictators are easier to deal with than parliaments. One handshake and a kickback, that's all you need with a dictator.
Central Asia only had one democratically elected president, Askar Akayev of Kyrgyzstan. George W. Bush ordered the CIA to depose him in a coup.
Americans who care about human rights have long wondered: Is the State Department stupid and/or naïve? Or did the diplomats in Tashkent and other capitals of unspeakable misery understand the brutal and vile nature of Central Asia's authoritarian leaders?
An examination of the WikiLeaks data dump answers that question: Yes.
Hell yes.
Like those from concerning more prominent countries, the WikiLeaks cables on the Central Asian republics can be funny. President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, a U.S. "ally in the war on terror" who seized power in a palace coup following the death of Saparmurat "Turkmenbashi" Niyazov, is described as "the 'decider' for the state of Turkmenistan." This is true. Turkmenistan is an absolute dictatorship in which millions starve while Berdimuhamedov's inner circle feasts on the profits from the world's largest reserves of natural gas.
A December 2009 cable describes America's pet autocrat as "vain, suspicious, guarded, strict, very conservative, a practiced liar, 'a good actor,' and vindictive."
According to an unnamed source, the outwardly conservative dictator has a Russian mistress named Marina, with whom he has a 14-year-old daughter. Though Berdy's power may be limitless, his intellect is not. "Berdimuhamedov does not like people who are smarter than he is," says the cable. "Since he's not a very bright guy, our source offered, he is suspicious of a lot of people."
No one's perfect. Least of all America's allies in Central Asia.
On the other side of the steppe in Kazakhstan, President Nursultan Nazarbayev presides over the world's largest oil reserves with an iron fist. Among his greatest hits: the convenient "suicides" of his top two political opponents a few months before a presidential "election." The two men apparently shot themselves in the back of the head, then bound their own hands behind their backs and dropped into a ditch outside Almaty.
Needless to say, Nazarbayev is another valuable U.S. ally in the war on terror.
But that doesn't stop American gossip. Nazarbayev's defense minister, says an embassy staffer in Astana, "appears to enjoy loosening up in the tried and true 'homo sovieticus' style--i.e., drinking oneself into a stupor." But alcoholism isn't illegal. Graft is--and the president is public enemy number one.
"In 2007, President Nazarbayev's son-in-law, Timur Kulibayev, celebrated his 41st birthday in grand style," explains an April 2008 cable. "At a small venue in Almaty, he hosted a private concert with some of Russia's biggest pop stars. The headliner, however, was Elton John, to whom he reportedly paid one million pounds for this one-time appearance." How did he come up with all that coin? "Timur Kulibayev is currently the favored presidential son-in-law, on the Forbes 500 list of billionaires (as is his wife separately), and the ultimate controller of 90% of the economy of Kazakhstan," states a January 2010 missive.
Membership has its privileges. The U.S. has never spoken out against corruption or human rights abuses in Kazakhstan.
So it's clear: American diplomats have no illusions about their brutal allies. Interestingly, Central Asia's overlords have a dismally accurate view of corruption in the U.S. government.
"Listen, almost everyone at the top [of the Kazakh regime] is confused," First Vice President Maksat Idenov told the U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan early this year. "They're confused by the corrupt excesses of capitalism. 'If Goldman Sachs executives can make $50 million a year and then run America's economy in Washington, what's so different about what we do?' they ask."
No response was provided.
47 Comments so far
Show AllThe US loves brutal dictators so much they finally got around to 'electing' their own... starting with G.W. Bush.
Non Serviam - I will not serve.
Obama is a Dubya protege in this respect.
He was, but the student has now become the teacher.
A Yiddish proverb, "choose your enemies well for you will become like them" and the USG doesn't even know to choose its enemies, much less choose them well choosing only the most disgusting despicable enemies and now we are surprised why we've ended up like them. Bush and ObomberBush along with the so called "leaders" in Congress, the military, Businesses and the pretend christians[biblical harlots].Another proverb by Desmond Tutu, "we must not become like those we oppose" all the while the USG is becoming more Soviet like, using the Soviet model of failed empire, as its own.The definition of a failed empire is when the cost of the colonies exceeds the benefit which is what the USG IS DOING. The Soviet model was the wealth of the Russian Republic was used to prop up its colonies,the other Soviet Republics.
I see that the obomber just gave on the pretense of Palestine peace.
Gave in to the Jewish lobby, and said it too hard to stop the building of
Jewish settlements in Palestine. Too bad he can't do hard work or any work for that
matter. You know the President of the usa does have a key to the wood shed if he was man enough to use it. We, the amerikan tax payer pay the bills for Jewish aggression, there for we can if
we wish tell them when to jump and how high.
Mean while poor folks around the world die to support the American lie.
The US media promotes the notion that Assange's serious and sexual sin is a variation of rape while failing to notice that US tax dollars are paying for dancing boys favored by our allies in Afghanistan.
It has been a long time since I have seen a report like this.
War puts the truth behind bars where the War Makers belong.
Actually it was Wikileaks, not Julian that released the information. Why is it inside the USA when a corporate wrong doer is investigated it is the company involved that is investigated not those who run the company initially. Not surprisingly the USG DoJ has just created stalking horses and named them Julian Assange to initiate an investigation for unnamed crimes yet to be determined. Wikileaks isn't even located in the USA and Assange not being an American citizen ios not subject to treason charges while his murderous detractors go unchallenged in what could be complicit to a conspiracy to commit murder or attempted murder.Of course the message to the world being that everyone in the world is subject to U.S. laws and are subject to assassination by the POTUS.
Kazakh Vice President Maksat Idenov nails it perfectly when he brought up how incompetent Wall Street types can ruin the World economy and then get bonuses.
The implicit unstated though looming question is, 'what is the difference between a Central Asian autocrat & Wall Street banksters?'
"No response was provided." None was needed.
You can get to the cable with the perfect Idenov quote through the Google Cache.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:OrJ4gtdGhJYJ:cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2010/0...
Cables Reveal Background of Pro-Dictator U.S. Policy?
Ted, did you miss this:
Nobel Lecture - Literature 2005
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture-e.html
Pinter lays out the history.
wake up world.
And the rest of the story is that the oil and gas of Central Asia will be transported to Asian markets via proposed pipelines through Afghanistan with the help of the U.S. corporate puppet, Karzai.
But thus far all the imperialists have accomplished by the occupation of Afghanistan is to waste a $Trillion U.S. tax dollars and kill a lot of innocent people.
well, they've managed to corner the world's heroin market...
that's worth $omething...
and some people try to bullshit you by saying that the leaked cables are boring, LOL.
of course, the parasitic manipulators from wall street want confused and brutish idiots as their puppet henchmen, if they can't put themselves in power.
here and abroad alike.
reagan, GW Bush, and ohbummer come to mind.
C'mon Ted, the U.S. has been supporting dictatorships around the world for decades - this is nothing new. If a target country has a resource the U.S. needs or wants it is goodbye democracy, hello dictatorship, with "our guy" in charge. Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa - hell, the U.S will support dictatorships everywhere. The list of countries, past & present, who were single entity governments (monarchies, dictatorships and so on) and supported by the U.S. is extraordinary and very, very lengthy. Dealing with governments like these is just plain easier for business.
Ted, Turkmenistan does NOT have the world's largest reserves of natural gas (they are #4) and Kazakhstan does NOT have the world's largest reserves of oil (they are #9).
Get caught smoking a joint by a cop in the heart of America and you will find out faster than you would like that the systems of pain and control we demonize all over the world are nestled just outside of most cities you live in.
Newt Gingrich just labeled Ted Rall an "enemy combatant."
As da sheeple shleep.
Some day the American people may get beyong the warm, fuzzy rhetoric of patriotism, equality, the home of the free, America the greatest country in the world, God bless America, and all that other garbage--and realize that it's all about money and power, the true and only American gods for the elite. Yes, Virginia, there really is a class war in America, and our foreign policy is what brings in the oil and money.
Boy, sure glad we got rid of them commies though! This is obviously working much better! (insert sarcasm tag here)
t_g
They were evil, the present crop of marionett dictators are evil too. All dictatorships are evil, no matter the colour. Don't tell me, that there is a measure of "evilness", red is more evil than black, Stalin was more evil than Hitler. The pox on all dictators, including the present bastard in your big white building on Pennsylvania Ave
Ted Rall is a genuine hero.
He could just as easily jsut kept putting out his biting cartoon strips from the comfort of home. But instead he has frequently traveled to Afghanistan and Central Asia, at considerable risk to his life, to see for himself, and honestly report to his readers, the incredible violence of US foreign policy.
Well, Ted Rall's cartoon artistry *does* bite, I'll grant you that much.
He is a cartoonist, not Andrew Wyeth.
I am increasingly impressed by the work of Ted Rall. Several years ago I started reading his cartoons faithfully. He can cut through the flesh of hypocrisy, greed, and lies with a sharpness rarely seen in today's toady world.
Thanks Ted for even more proof that the US empire is IN BED with ruthless, evil people. While Julian Assange is in jail for having waked up a woman for a little sex, and not wearing a condom (he should have known better! bad decision.)
The most fascinating thing about all this to me is that tho we come to know all about the corruption (and many of us have known the truth about US foreign policy in all its gory glory ever since Nixon) there seems to be sweet bugger all we 'the people' can do about it! Capital and the 'jobless economy' rule. When governments wake up and demand taxation on the buying and selling of stocks and currency then we can once again begin to provide the public services we all need. Until that day, all the income tax that ordinary waged workers pay goes straight to military & prison budgets. There is nothing left for human needs. This doesn't seem to bother the ruling elite one whit. I guess they think the revolution will just be another reality TV show right outside their windows or some abstract video game. They certainly don't act as if they care about people killing themselves because they see no hope for themselves or their families. It's all too cruel. Oh, yes, and merry christmas.
Dear Elizabet:
This is all making me very crazy and quite exhausted. I have decided to move Christmas to spring where there is a chance of new life, unless the oil and coal companies and Mother Nature kill us by then. Were JFK , RFK, and MLK all hype? Was there ever a real America? Although, I suppose that that depends on what it always does, race. age, ethniticy.
It would seem that if none of that was ever true, then king John probably only agreed to the the Magna crapa. I am very depressed and now believe that even Diogenes would have difficulty finding an honest person. It has come down to 2 groups of people:
1) to the manner born
2) to the manner shorn.
The first is evil, the second is unacceptable. While this may seem odd, I have spent some time with cows.When they turn, and stare with no expression, it is very unnerving.I suppose to keep my blood warm ,that when I see a group of the "born," I will just stop, turn and stare, with no expression. Sometimes going bovine can be very psychologically pro-active.
stardust; I love it!!! Tony
Death, Debt, Taxes, War empirePie December 8th, 2010
Death, Debt, War and Taxes
We sure do love our freedom's boots
the zero sum is in our roots
for 'rational' means not to give a hoot
since others don't have mothers ....
just a home to loot ......
the bounty of forever war
Death, Debt, Taxes, War
We live to make it grow ... with more
Death, Debt, Taxes, War
A zero sum, a hidden hand
Max the profit, Trash the land
Death, Debt, Taxes, War
The new Rome stakes us for the garnish of it's pot
simmering in black gold and stolen toil
as puppets from the catacombs call out: "Let's roll,
Lets roll"
Regrettably, this is nothing new.
Read "Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions since World War II" by William Blum. It's all spelled out there.
Jim Shea
kw
If Wikileaks releases cables with the current speed it will take 20 years to go through the pile. Assange might be the only daring politician amongst a crows of hacker buraucrats.
What are they waiting for? I am already falling asleep.
Assange isn't a politician, he's a journalist. Quite a difference.
Billionaires as a whole seem pretty stupid. How can they think that they can continue to berserk forever? Isn't it a matter of time before the armed downtrodden figure out that oligarchs are public enemy number one and begin to pick them off?
t_g
I don't think they are stupid. How else could they have made all their money? They are well educated, well connected and unscrupulous. So don't wish for revolution, you'll be crushed, "the power is (not) with you", mate
"I don't think they are stupid. How else could they have made all their money?"
Most of them inherited it. Making endless amounts of money is smart? Only if you think you can be happy and immune to all the rising poverty, crime, resource depletion, wars, pollution, overpopulation, species extinctions, plagues and other bad shit that concentrating money-power causes.
The super-rich are well connected and unscrupulous, but acting so stupidly doesn't say much about their education.
I wish for a peaceful revolution in our thinking. No more bloodshed.
They don't care about forever, their only concern is the quarterly financial statements and how to doctor it up for their bonuses.
They don't care about forever, their only concern is the quarterly financial statements and how to doctor it up for their bonuses.
How do we fight this? What can we do? Where are the governments that we can trust in a fight? Who controls the gang? When do we act? Why are we letting this criminality continue? Is it all true?
You're asking question you already know the answer to. Let's all Stop bogging ourselves down with the details and look at the big picture.
Think positively. Act positively.
Find Balance in your life.
Don't feed the beast. Boycott...
Thank you. We can't see the obvious because this is all most of us have ever known.
How many people go to the store, and if what you want is unavailable, you leave without buying anything? It's a small step but it's a start.
When you have done that a few times, and you are on the point of buying something ask yourself: Do I need this? How many times will I use this? Where will this be stored when I have finished using it? How many hours did I have to work for the money to buy this? Are there things I need more than this? Do I even have the money to buy this without incurring more debt?
Try it. Make your own questions.
t_g
After the disintegration of the Warsaw Pact and of course the great CCCP/USSR we've all rejoiced: freedom! We'll all live like the free world, like people in the USA and/or Western Europe! Well, it was freedom all right: free for all. Just take it, if you can. And whoever had the possibility or the balls to go for it, they had more than they could ever dream of.
In my old country, Hungary, there were all those shady ex-party apparatchiks, who bought up whole factories/hotels/whole buildings/whatever was there to take - for virtually nothing. Then there were all those shady black marketeers, who were smuggling all kinds of contrabands from the West in and antiques, gold, silver, various precious metals and stones out - they had the money and the connections to buy anything and anyone they fancied. All the others got... bugger all.
And all the while everyone was hoping for democracy. During the ex-Yugoslavia wars, when the US troops were garrisoned in Hungary, some of the "ordinary folk" made a pittance from trading with the Yankees, but all in all, it didn't prove a bonanza for anyone but whoever bought the troops in. All was left was poisoned wells (fuel, waste, etc.) and rubbish all around and some unwanted babies.
If this happened in the middle of Europe, what do we expect in all those "...istan's"?
Wherever the US interests want to go in, they just need a strong regime, who keeps their populace in check and as long as the US pays the kick backs, it'll be all right, they can cart away all the riches of the country. The one bastard who rules the country with his clique will be all right too and really, just bugger the plebs...
Folks...
Isn't it about time we renamed this country the Fascist States of America and get it over with already!
'First Vice President Maksat Idenov told the U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan early this year. "They're confused by the corrupt excesses of capitalism. 'If Goldman Sachs executives can make $50 million a year and then run America's economy in Washington, what's so different about what we do?' they ask."'
Nothing!
God Bless America!
Mercy