US to leave Uzbekistan

Tashkent can't stand human rights critique

The always-valuable Rodger Payne notes a new development in US relations with the internal terror state of Uzbekistan:

Washington confirmed on Tuesday it would leave an Uzbek airbase. Tashkent asked it to quit after the United States criticized Uzbekistan's human rights record.

Evidently worked out by this disengagement is the hushed battle between the US Department of State and the Pentagon over the proper response to the May slaughter by US-trained Uzbek security forces of perhaps 500 unarmed protesters in the city of Andijan.