The Oobleck Hits the Fan

Uzbekistan updates:

Gateway Pundit has a news roundup.

Hey Dude Whoa is publishing e-mails from the front.

The Washington Post talks to a baffled political prisoner.

The Independent has a dispatch from Korasuv, the town that liberated itself and then was retaken by government troops. The BBC reports that the locals are still restless.

Russian apologist John Laughland says the revolution is a western conspiracy. Justin Raimondo, heretofore inclined to endorse Laughland's arguments, says it isn't.

Johann Hari suggests an oil connection.

Scraps of Moscow continues to translate relevant articles from the Russian press, as well as offering its own analysis.

Comments

[carabinieri]

FT editorial comment: "President Islam Karimov, the Uzbek leader, clearly hopes to profit from his tough approach to the recent protests in the town of Andizhan. The west must make sure that he does not. If Mr Karimov survives the crisis with his authoritarian regime intact, undemocratic leaders everywhere will see that brutality pays."

in other words, karimov can be seen as another saddam hussein; the parallels are strong in this one...

like on PBS last nite

...the U.S. has a lot at stake in Uzbekistan and they traditionally have tried to work behind closed doors and put pressure on the Karimov government to try to make changes, and they feel that that can work better in the long run than it can by merely coming out and denouncing the government.

And, moreover, they have a very important air base, Khanabad, in Uzbekistan which is the largest air base in all of central Asia, and if the U.S. lost that air base, we'd have to resort to the Arabian Gulf.

I mean, we have no other alternatives for this type of important base that can provide major humanitarian relief operations to Afghanistan, which is also still unstable, and as well as Kyrgyzstan, a neighboring country to the east.

more on the korasuv uprising, "it wasn't extremist zeal that drew most people to Saturday's rally and the subsequent burning of buildings and police cars, several local residents said;" for wont of a footbridge...

[Thomas Paine's Goiter]

This best not spill over into Kazakhstan. I've got stock in PKZ and don't need rebellion in the land of my biggest holding.

[Lyndon]

Thanks for mentioning my coverage of the situation in Uzbekistan. However, I have to point out that the best blog coverage, analysis-wise, of the Andijan events and aftermath, is available at http://registan.net - the author has been covering Central Asia for some time and has informed people in the region writing in with intelligent comments, which raises the level of the discussion.

[Fact Checker]

Why on earth would one take the word of a self-confessed -- and I use the word with full awareness of how strong it is -- liar such as Raimondo on such matters? He was forced to admit that he knowingly presented as authentic a phony memo (allegedly from the American Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan) that he knew at the time was a forgery. The details are here:

http://www.tomgpalmer.com/archives/020997.php

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Raimondo is not only remarkably ill informed about events in Eurasia; he deliberately and knowingly misleads his readers when it will serve whatever party line he's promoting.