Uzbekistan formally gives U.S. the boot; Iraq obtains Abu Ghraib prisoner release

item: when the u.s., in an uncharacteristically firm and direct response to the uzbek government's oppressive crackdown on protests in may when it was estimated that hundreds were killed and more imprisoned, called for an international investigation, the uzbek government decided at the end of july it didn't want the u.s. karshi-khanabad air base, known as K2, on their soil... a vote in the uzbek senate yesterday upholding that decision was unanimous...

item: it was announced today, over speculation that the request was an outcome of the iraqi constitutional process, the u.s. released over 1000 prisoners from abu ghraib at the request of the iraqi government...

you can be sure that the iraqis are not unaware of the situation in uzbekistan... you can also be sure that, floating in the back of every iraqi's mind, is the awareness of u.s. plans to build and maintain permanent military bases in iraq... my take, for what it's worth...? the prisoner release request is a feeler, a precedent, if you will, in the direction of full national sovereignty... everyone involved in the constitutional process - shia, kurd, or sunni - has to know that allowing permanent u.s. military presence in iraq would be the death of credibility with their middle east neighbors... however, they must also be under enormous u.s. pressure to make sure the constitution has nothing in it to exclude that presence... it's interesting but not at all surprising that nothing on the subject is appearing in the msm...

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