Aug. 2005: KAZAKHSTAN QUESTIONS U.S. MILITARY ROLE IN CENTRAL ASIA

(Since the story tonight about Clinton and a rich dude and a Kazakhstan dictator and uranium came out, thought I'd check out what has been happening over there with the Bush regime.

Clinton was over there with his rich buddy about a month after this story came out.)

Tuesday, August 16, 2005


Kazakhstan's delicate foreign policy, predicated upon balancing its relations among China, Russia, and the United States, has come under increased pressure both from its involvement in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the growing tendency within the region to question the long-term strategic role of the U.S. military in Central Asia. The SCO's request that Washington set a deadline for its military presence in the region has exposed Astana's foreign policy paradigm to a severe test. Equally, senior and well-placed Kazakhstani analysts have raised objections to the need for a sustained U.S. military presence in the region and praised President Nursultan Nazarbayev's efforts to avoid basing American forces in Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan has developed a close bilateral defense relationship with the U.S. and deepened its commitment to NATO's Partnership for Peace (PfP). Its open demonstration of supporting the war on terror has been shown by steadfast adherence to the deployment of elements of its peacekeeping unit (KAZBAT) in Iraq. There are no tangible signs that Astana is considering backtracking on any of these steps; it has no need to do so. Nevertheless, Kazakhstan's support for the SCO's call for the U.S. to think in terms of a timetable for getting out of Central Asia has been explained by reference to pressure from China and Russia. General Richard Myers, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, has reportedly interpreted the position of the Central Asian members of the SCO in precisely this manner.

However, the Kazakhstani media has presented an alternative interpretation. According to Delovaya nedelya, the driving force behind Astana's strategic choice in favor of the SCO is rooted in its fear of the potential spread of "color revolutions." Such fears predispose the Nazarbayev regime to open a more constructive dialogue on the region's future with Beijing and Moscow. Simultaneously, the same article argues the existence of the link between Britain's support for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the recent London bombings, pointing to the level of risk to Kazakh security taken in its current deployment of KAZBAT in Iraq. Such articles are not anti-American, as they also offer the other side of Kazakhstan's dilemma: falling hostage to China and Russia (Delovaya nedelya, July 22).

Bolat Sultanov, director of Kazakhstan's Institute for Strategic Studies under the Kazakh president, has gone much further in his opposition to any continued American military presence in Central Asia. He objects that it undermines Russian and Chinese security. Convinced that the United States must withdraw its military personnel, he argues that the spirit of the SCO is contravened by the presence of foreign military bases. "I am categorically against the presence of the military bases in Central Asia because any military base is an occupation base. By the way, I cannot understand Central Asian countries' euphoria about the military bases. Everywhere there are military bases people are demanding that the bases be pulled out. Look at Europe, South Korea, and Japan," explained Sultanov (Interfax-Kazakhstan, August 10). Sultanov's position is not entirely new, having previously postulated such ideas, but what is unclear is the role and influence his open and public hostility towards the U.S. military presence will have on domestic public opinion and, perhaps more significantly, within the Nazarbayev regime itself.

more...

http://www.jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2370152

I am flattered!

BTW, Hillary regrets being tricked into invading Iraq. So, did she not get that invading Iraq means she supported the Bush "WAR ON TERROR?"

It appears that Kazakhstan is a favored Bush nation on his WAR ON TERROR. So why is Bill kissing their dictator's arse for dollars?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazakhstan-United_States_relations

http://www.keionline.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=110

Pretty bad goings on.

Why is Bill hanging out with these Bushites?

And this visit was after the murders of reporters and others for speaking out about human rights, elections, etc. What a shame.

2005 September 6. Nazarbayev Meets former President Clinton in Almaty


http://www.homestead.com/prosites-kazakhembus/090705.html


President Nursultan Nazarbayev met former U.S. President Bill Clinton in Almaty September 6 and discussed aid for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, fighting HIV/AIDS, and political and economic developments in Kazakhstan.

At the end of the meetings in Almaty, President Clinton and Kazakhstan’s Minister of Healthcare Yerbolat Dossayev signed an agreement admitting Kazakhstan into the Clinton Foundation’s HIV/AIDS Initiative Procurement Consortium. . .

At the news conference, the former U.S. President praised Kazakhstan’s denuclearization saying he was "especially grateful to Nursultan Nazarbayev for nuclear disarmament." He believes this was "a difficult decision" which helped pave the way for denuclearization of other countries of the former Soviet Union and is still important today. "given the new wave of terrorism and our understanding that terrorists have fewer chances to get nuclear weapons." "Only now do we understand how wise that decision was," he said. . .

This was the eighth meeting between Nazarbayev and Clinton in as many years. Their first meeting in 1994 produced the bilateral Democratic Partnership Charter and a strong commitment to nuclear disarmament and wide ranging economic cooperation between the countries.

Speaking at a news conference, Clinton said he was "very pleased to witness economic progress in Kazakhstan." He added, "I am glad that as U.S. President I helped economic reforms in your country, and today we see the results of those reforms." . .

Clinton commended President Nazarbayev’s commitment to "opening up the social and political life of your country." Referring to the Kazakh leader’s statement earlier this month on his commitment to ensure "free, fair and transparent" presidential election, Clinton said, "It’s important that you made these statements before the election at the end of this year and I believe it will be quite influential in what I hope will be a successful bid to be the leader of the OSCE in 2009. I think it’s time for that to happen, it’s an important step, and I’m glad you’re willing to undertake it."

Kazakhstan is seeking the rotating chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2009. The decision will need to be made by the 55-member organization, which includes the U.S., by December 2006. At the news conference, Clinton noted: "My wife visited your country when I was President and told me a lot about the visit." The then First Lady Hillary Clinton visited Kazakhstan in 1996. While in Almaty, Clinton also met representatives of the Kazakh opposition.

eeek

??

I seemed to remember reading a few years ago that it was hosting runways for the US to attack Afghanistan ...for oil ...really sick stuff. Why, oh why, is Bill involved with these people. For the love of MONEY.

and Unocal and their Condoleeza super tanker and Unocal consultant Karzai as Afghanistan President. Every hot spot in the world is tangled up with oil or gold or some "US interest" in the local resource.

and it looks like Kazahkstan was the first Asian country to step up for the US after 9-11 to offer help in dealing with Afghanistan ...jeez ...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/09/25/world225.xml

Thank you, again, for the timeline link.


this part was also an eye opener:

2005 November 14. Murder of Zamanbek Nurkadilov.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/14/news/stan.php
Andrew E. Kramer, “Kazakhstan opposition member slain,” The New York Times. A former minister in the government of President Nursultan Nazarbayev who had said he would speak publicly about high-level corruption has been found shot to death, according to the police and an opposition leader. The killing Saturday night comes three weeks before a presidential election in this oil-rich former Soviet state. Zamanbek Nurkadilov, 61, was a member of the leading opposition group, For a Fair Kazakhstan. He was fired from his post as minister of emergency situations in 2004 after saying that Nazarbayev should answer allegations that Kazakh officials had accepted millions of dollars in bribes from an intermediary for American oil companies during contract talks in the 1990s. The leading opposition candidate in the presidential race, Zharmakhan Tuyakbai, said in an interview Sunday that Nurkadilov had recently said he would go public with information about corruption in Nazarbayev’s government. . . Nurkadilov was shot twice in the chest and once in the head, Musin said, adding that the police had recovered a pillow pierced by bullets that may have been used as a silencer.

2005 November 29. “Kazakh Opposition Figure’s Death Ruled Suicide,”

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/11/55e307fe-ebd7-4d80-b9f0-be332e4ae583.html
RFE/RL. The official investigation into the shooting death of Kazakh opposition figure and former Emergency Situations Agency head Zamanbek Nurkadilov has concluded that he committed suicide. The investigative team found that Nurkadilov first shot himself twice in the chest before putting the gun to his head and firing a bullet into his brain.

2005 December 4. Nazarbayev wins reelection with 91.15 precent of vote.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazakhstan_presidential_election,_2005

2005 December 7. Clinton congratulation of Nazarbayev on his reelection.

http://www.kazakhembus.com/120705.html

I just have a horrible feeling all this stuff will continue with Hillary. I don't know that Obama will be able to get us on a different course instantly, but I'm hopeful that his promise to talk to our enemies and his concern for places like Darfur means he is going to put an end to this stuff.

when she voted for the Iraq war that this country was the first one to stop up to the plate to support invading Afghanistan ...FOR OIL!