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The media will spend the next ten years with their heads up their sphincters trying to determine motive. Hmmm ..... what could it be now? For those of us in the media who have not surrendered to jihad (all three of us), we have noticed a decided uptick in this activity. Arrests in the US are weekly now, sometimes daily. Nothing to see here, folks, keep it moving until the next catastrophe. And then the enemedia and Hamas-CAIR operatives in DC will blame ...... counter jihadists. :) Colorado man arrested on terrorism AP (hat tip Ken) AURORA, Colo. (AP) —...

KABUL, Afghanistan—Operators ran the first train down Afghanistan's first major railroad Wednesday, clearing the way for a long-awaited service from the northern border that should speed up the U.S. military's crucial supply flow and become a hub for future trade. A cargoless train chugged into a newly built station in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif on Wednesday after a 47-mile (75-kilometer) trial run from the border with Uzbekistan, said Deputy Public Works Minister Noor Gul Mangal, who was on hand for the arrival. The new rail line is the first stage of an ambitious plan to link landlocked Afghanistan to...

Fur-lined underwear has been banned in Uzbekistan after authorities deemed it too sexy I could have guessed why the big shots in Uzbekistan did not like those furry undies. I would like to make you guys familiar with the situation we have had in Uzbekistan since several years. As you probably know the most popular TV channels are still russian ORT, RTR, STS etc. Erotic movies and films with adult content are shown very often. The uzbek authorities are very strict regarding nudity on the TV screens, that is why the viewers in Uzbekistan can watch the movies but when...

Obama Congratulates Karimov, Military Aid May Soon Follow -- The United States appears to be willing to strengthen the regime of Uzbek leader Islam Karimov in order to secure the northern supply route for its forces in Afghanistan. The U.S. Senate may consider a bill backed by the administration of President Barack Obama that would allow restrictions on military aid to Uzbekistan to be lifted, EurasiaNet reports. The new, closer ties between Washington and Tashkent were brought home by Obama's congratulations to Karimov on the occasion of Uzbekistan's 20 years of independence. Following a letter in early September, Obama called...

US finds new friend in Uzbekistan after Pakistan fallout President Obama has asked Uzbekistan to expand its role in resupplying troops in Afghanistan as Washington tries to reduce its dependence on Pakistan. By Rob Crilly, Islamabad and James Kilner in Astana 5:05PM BST 30 Sep 2011 The past fortnight has seen relations between Islamabad and Washington sink to new lows over allegations that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency was working with the Haqqani network to direct attacks on American targets in Afghanistan. The crisis, the latest in a turbulent year, has seen both countries scrambling to build up alternative regional alliances....

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A federal grand jury today indicted an Uzbek national for threatening the life of President Barack Obama and illegally possessing weapons. The indictment was announced by U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance; FBI Special Agent in Charge Patrick J. Maley; Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Roy Sexton; Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Raymond R. Parmer Jr.; and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Special Agent in Charge Glenn N. Anderson. The indictment filed in U.S. District Court charges ULUGBEK KODIROV, 21, of Uzbekistan, with four counts of threatening the president...

The 17th century English philosopher, Francis Bacon, once observed that, “knowledge is power. So, here’s some power knowledge that the West has overlooked, but may well contain critical information for jumpstarting Western interest in solar power. It’s based upon more than five decade’s worth of solar research by the sole 20th century competitor to the U.S. for global influence, the USSR. In 1965 the Uzbek Academy of Sciences began publishing the “Geliotekhnika” ("Applied Solar Energy") quarterly journal the former Soviet Union's sole scientific publication devoted to solar power. Topics covered ranged from solar radiation, photovoltaics and solar materials to direct...

A new railroad in Uzbekistan, used extensively as part of the U.S.'s transportation network shipping military cargo to Afghanistan was built using low-quality steel and goes through such mountainous terrain that when the train gets to the bottom of the mountain crossing, the wheels are glowing red from the friction of so much braking. That's according to a new U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks and the Washington Post. The Post published a story today on this transportation system, the Northern Distribution Network, and while readers of this blog won't find much new in it, the Post did publish a...

KABUL, Afghanistan (June 28, 2011) – A combined Afghan and coalition security force captured a senior Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan leader and two associates during a nighttime security operation in Kunduz district, Kunduz province, yesterday. The leader, who also supported the Taliban network, was responsible for planning attacks against the Afghan National Police. He also facilitated suicide bomb operations and coordinated attacks against other Afghan security forces. The Afghan-led security force, following several tips, located the leader at a compound in the district. The leader attempted to disguise himself as a female by wearing a burka, which is an all-enveloping...

One day in a spring, an elderly man walked alone on a stone road lined by young willows in Xuzhou in East China's Jiangsu Province. At the end of the road was a museum that few people have heard of. A Chinese theology professor says the first Christmas is depicted in the stone relief from the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220). In the picture above a woman and a man are sitting around what looks like a manger, with allegedly "the three wise men" approaching from the left side, holding gifts, "the shepherd" following them, and "the assassins" queued...

This remarkable record of the fact that Christianity flourished in medieval China is a huge stone about ten feet high. Carven dragons and a cross adorn its summit, and its main shaft is completely covered with some two thousand Chinese characters. It stands now in the Peilin or "Forest of Tablets" in Sian-fu, this Peilin being a great hall specially devoted to the preservation of old historic tablets. Up to a few years ago the ancient stone stood with other unvalued monuments in the grounds of a Buddhist monastery, exposed to all the assault of the elements. Only European...

Christian Designs Found in Tomb Stones of Eastern Han Dynasty [2002-08-02] Studies show that as early as 86 A.D., or the third year under the reign of "Yuanhe" of Eastern Han, Dynasty Christianity entered into China, 550 years earlier than the world accepted time. When studying a batch of stone carvings of Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 A.D.) stored and exhibited in the Museum of Xuzhou Han Stone Carvings, Christian theology professor Wang Weifan was greatly surprised by some stone engravings demonstrating the Bible stories and designs of early Christian times. Further studies showed that some of these engravings were made...

Heading East Excavations several years ago at an ancient cemetery in Mongolia uncovered a man's skeleton, including this skull, that has yielded genetic evidence of Indo-Europeans reaching eastern Asia at least 2,000 years ago.Kim, et al. Dead men can indeed tell tales, but they speak in a whispered double helix... DNA extracted from this man's bones pegs him as a descendant of Europeans or western Asians. Yet he still assumed a prominent position in ancient Mongolia's Xiongnu Empire, say geneticist Kyung-Yong Kim of Chung-Ang University in Seoul, South Korea, and his colleagues... the Xiongnu Empire -- which ruled a vast...

Ancient European remains discovered in Qinghai www.chinaview.cn 2004-07-06 15:32:53 XINING, July 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Archeologists confirmed that the human skeletons discovered this May in northwest China's Qinghai Province belonged to three Europeans who lived in China over 1,900 years ago. "The physical characteristics of the bones showed it is a typical European race," said Wang Minghui, an expert with the archeological institute under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The skeletons were spotted at Zhongchuan Town of the province's eastern most Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County. Since 2002, archeologists have unearthed nine tombs of Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD)...

Roman descendants found in China? By Richard Spencer in Liqian, north-west China Last Updated: 1:33am GMT 02/02/2007 Sound and vision: Richard Spencer visits the village of Liqian, China(Click at site) Residents of a remote Chinese village are hoping that DNA tests will prove one of history's most unlikely legends — that they are descended from Roman legionaries lost in antiquity. Villager Cai Junnian with his green eyes and ruddy complexion Scientists have taken blood samples from 93 people living in and around Liqian, a settlement in north-western China on the fringes of the Gobi desert, more than 200 miles from...

Cai Junnian's green eyes give a hint he may be a descendant of Roman mercenaries who allegedly fought the Han Chinese 2,000 years ago Genetic testing of villagers in a remote part of China has shown that nearly two thirds of their DNA is of Caucasian origin, lending support to the theory that they may be descended from a 'lost legion' of Roman soldiers. Tests found that the DNA of some villagers in Liqian, on the fringes of the Gobi Desert in north-western China, was 56 per cent Caucasian in origin. Many of the villagers have blue or green...

Experts at the newly established Italian Studies Center at Lanzhou University in Gansu province are looking into the possibility that some European-looking Chinese in Northwest China are the descendants of a lost army from the Roman Empire. They will conduct excavations on a section of the Silk Road, a 7,000-kilometer trade route that linked Asia and Europe more than 2,000 years ago, to see if a legion of Roman soldiers settled in China, said Yuan Honggeng, head of the center, reports China Daily... Before Marco Polo's travels to China in the 13th century, the only known contact between the two...

1,700-year-old 'Roman Glass' Discovered in East China Glass remains over 1,700 years old, possibly imported from ancient Rome, have been discovered in an ancient tomb located in east China's Anhui Province, local cultural relic department said on Sunday. The tomb was found during the latest road project in Zhulong Village of Dangtu County in Anhui. Archaeologists believed the tomb was built in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317 - 420). Covered with white mantlerock, the glass remains seem to have ancient Roman shapes and craftwork. According to the local cultural relic department, the owner of the tomb was possibly from an...

Roman-style column bolsters Han Dynasty tomb Archeologists excavate near a Roman-style column in a newly found Han Dynasty tomb (202 BC - 220 AD) in Xiao County, east China's Anhui Province, April 3, 2007. (newsphoto) Nearby villagers look on at the stone entrance of a newly found Han Dynasty tomb (202 BC - 220 AD) in Xiao County, east China's Anhui Province, April 3, 2007. (newsphoto) An archeologists cleans carved stones in a newly found Han Dynasty tomb (202 BC - 220 AD) in Xiao County, east China's Anhui Province, April 3, 2007. (newsphoto)

Roman legion founded Chinese city Survivors of Crassus's routed army said to have built town (ANSA) - Florence, July 25 - Roman soldiers who disappeared after a famous defeat founded a city in eastern China, archaeologists say . The phantom legion was part of the defeated forces of Marcus Licinius Crassus, according to the current edition of the Italian magazine Archeologia Viva . The famously wealthy Crassus needed glory to rival the exploits of the two men with whom he ruled Rome as the First Triumvirate, Pompey the Great and Julius Caesar . Crassus decided to bring down the Parthian...

This is a discovery that has received little to no examination, much less validation, from the realm of mainstream archaeology, no doubt in part because Marx is not a Ph.D. archaeologist. Scouring the web for more information about this finding, I did find a reference to the discovery in an article from Dr. Elizabeth Lyding Will, an expert on Roman amphoras (clay vessels used to store and ship goods during the Roman era). Dr. Will apparently has a piece of an amphora recovered from Marx's Brazil discovery. Of it, she says: The highly publicized amphoras Robert Marx found in the...

This idea was first proposed by Homer Hasenphlug Dubs, an Oxford University professor of Chinese history, who speculated in 1955 that some of the 10,000 Roman prisoners taken by the Parthians after the battle of Carrhae in southeastern Turkey in 53 B.C. made their way east to Uzbekistan to enlist with Jzh Jzh against the Han. Chinese accounts of the battle, in which Jzh Jzh was decapitated and his army defeated, note unusual military formations and the use of wooden fortifications foreign to the nomadic Huns. Dubs postulated that after the battle the Chinese employed the Roman mercenaries as border...

It all started in 1957 when... Homer H Dubs published a paper entitled: 'A Roman City in Ancient China'... he stated that captured soldiers from the battle of Carrhae had been settled and used as mercenaries (and even formed a town!) in North Western China, in what is now the Gansu province... there is a Chinese record, called 'History of the former Han Dynasty'... the story of a territorial battle between the Huns and the Chinese in a place called ZhiZhi, identified today as Zhambal, Uzbekistan, in the year 36 BC... A general in command of the Chinese was a...

The United States has signed a deal with Bhutan giving US citizens in the country immunity from prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC), the State Department said Tuesday. The deal with Bhutan brings to 34 the number of countries with which the United States has signed so-called "Article 98" agreements exempting US citizens from the court's jurisdiction, said Lynn Cassel, a department spokesman. Bhutan and Bosnia-Herzegovina both agreed to the pacts on May 16 but the deal with Thimphu was not announced until Tuesday. Washington refuses to support the ICC, arguing that it could become a forum for politically...

PRESS RELEASE SNIPPET - QUOTE: HP-1313 Washington, DC--The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated three members of a German Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) cell under Executive Order 13224 (E.O. 13224), which targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism. "We commend the vigilant and effective work of German authorities in apprehending this terrorist cell before it could carry out its brutal and horrifying attack plans," said Adam Szubin, director of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control. "In concert with this important law enforcement action, United Nations global sanctions provide a tool of unparalleled scope to...

On 14 October the Atlantic Council hosted an extraordinary event, a “Roundtable on Providing Security and Stability in Afghanistan: Uzbekistan’s View” as part of its Eurasia Discussion Series. Tashkent deployed its top diplomats to the event, including former ambassadors to the U.S. Abdulaziz Kamilov, now First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Sodiq Safaev, currently Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs. Rounding out the trio was Dr. Doniyor Kurbanov, Deputy Director of the Institute of Strategic and Interregional Studies. Their mission? To explain to Washington’s elite Uzbekistan’s “6+3” proposal for peace in Afghanistan. As Operation Enduring Freedom enters...

Three suspected Al Qaeda members were arrested Thursday morning in what Norwegian and U.S. officials said was a terrorist plot linked to similar plans in New York and England. The three men, whose names were not released, had been under surveillance for more than a year. Two of the men were arrested in Norway and one in Germany, according to Janne Kristiansen, head of Norway's Police Security Service. She declined to give further details of the locations. Kristiansen said one of the men was a 39-year-old Norwegian of Uighur origin, who had lived in Norway since 1999. The other suspects...

The recent crisis and instability in Kyrgyzstan, highlighted the fragility of security and the potential weakness of the political systems throughout the region and exposed new dimensions in the conduct of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy that may well prove pivotal for US energy interests in the Caspian Sea region. These complexities, often disguised or downplayed by the national governments in the region, attest to the deep political fault lines running through Eurasia as well as the potential for events in one state to ignite potential cross-border discontent and instability elsewhere. Indeed, an analysis of the nuances in approach, media coverage, and...

ALMATY, Kazakhstan — Authorities in Uzbekistan have restricted the country's doctors from freely traveling abroad to international medical conferences, a think tank in the Central Asian nation said. Limiting Uzbek doctors' exposure to foreign expertise is likely to further hinder the authoritarian country's troubled health care system, which has struggled to deal with outbreaks of HIV and tuberculosis. The Expert Working Group, an independent think tank in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent, said Friday that a recently approved government decree had created strict requirements for medical personnel wishing to leave the country, even if only for personal reasons. Sukhrobjon Ismoilov,...

The criminal enterprise involved illegal aliens working in 14 states, including employees at hotels in the Kansas City, MO, area and in Branson, MO. Kansas City, MO - infoZine - Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that an Uzbekistan national pleaded guilty in federal court to his role in a criminal enterprise involving illegal aliens working in 14 states, including employees at hotels in the Kansas City, Mo., area and in Branson, Mo. Jakhongir Kakhkharov, 30, a citizen of Uzbekistan, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Ortrie D. Smith this afternoon to the charge...

Asian prints are having their big moment again! In 2008, ikats, handmade-and-dyed prints, which originated among the weavers of the Ferghana Valley in Uzbekistan, and involve “a great amount of precision of tying and dyeing silk yarn in order to achieve a desired pattern…” conquered the fashion world, thanks to the efforts of Oscar de la Renta.

In 1965, a mural was discovered in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, when local authorities decided to build a road in the middle of the Afrasiab tepe. A tepe is a mound marking an ancient site, in this case pre-Mongol Samarkand. When it was found, the mural was weathered and its images obscured. But those who discovered it had the foresight to make a drawing of it, from which replicas have been made. A replica of this mural is now being shown as part of the exhibit "The Crossroads of Civilizations: The Asian Culture of Uzbekistan" until September of next year at the...

The recent revelations of a International Energy Administration whistleblower that the IEA may have distorted key oil projections under intense U.S. pressure is, if true (and whistleblowers rarely come forward to advance their careers), a slow-burning thermonuclear explosion on future global oil production. The Bush administration’s actions in pressuring the IEA to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves have the potential to throw governments’ long-term planning into chaos. Whatever the reality, rising long term global demands seem certain to outstrip production in the next decade, especially given the high...

Here is an interesting tidbit of information from the charge sheet against David Coleman Headley, the US jihadi indicted for plotting attacks in Denmark. Headley traveled to North Waziristan and afterward offered his view on the number of al Qaeda and other foreign jihadis in the tribal agencies' largest towns (in response to a think tank survey that said a significant number of people in the northwest approved of the Predator attacks against al Qaeda):

Pakistani forces say they have seized control of the town of Kaniguram in South Waziristan, one of the Taliban's key regional strongholds. The army said it had full control of the town, the latest capture in an offensive against militants that began in South Waziristan on 17 October. The offensive has sparked a string of suicide bomb attacks. About 35 people were killed in an attack in Rawalpindi and seven were injured on the outskirts of Lahore. Rewards offered Military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas, in the capital Islamabad, said that the Kaniguram area had been "completely cleared of terrorists"....

SNIPPET: "A year after the events in Nookat shone a spotlight on the role of women in Hizb ut-Tahrir, a new report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) indicates that the Islamic organization might have thousands of women members in Kyrgyzstan. In its recent report, "Women and Radicalization in Kyrgyzstan," the ICG states that Hizb ut-Tahrir "may have up to 8,000 members" in the country, "perhaps 800 to 2,000 of them women."" SNIPPET: "Hizb ut-Tahrir first emerged in the region in the 1990s with the recruitment of members in Uzbekistan. Today the movement is banned in all of the countries...

Several parents - named as victims in the indictment against three Baptist Union leaders now on trial in Tashkent - have told the court that statements that their children were taught the Baptist faith against their wishes were fabricated or dictated by Investigator Anatoli Tadjibayev, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. The head of Uzbekistan’s Baptist Union Pavel Peichev and two colleagues went on trial on 24 September accused of teaching religion illegally to children at church-run summer camps and evading tax on profits from the camp. They deny all the charges - which carry punishment of up to three...

AFGHANISTAN: PRESIDENT CLAIMS ISLAMIC MILITANTS USING HELICOPTERS TO MOVE INTO NORTHERN AREAS " Islamic militants operating in northern Afghanistan are being dropped in by helicopter, Afghan President Hamid Karzai says. The provincial governor of Kunduz added separately the fighters are members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. According to Karzai, militants used unidentified helicopters to move fighters into position along the border with Tajikistan over the past five months. The same technique may be used to transport men to the north-western frontier with Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, he added."

Note: Photos included. SNIPPET - QUOTE: Name: www.furqon.com Address: 94.75.240.140 Host: IHS Telekom Inc. Istanbul, Turkey Network access provider: LeaseWeb, Amsterdam, Netherlands This site is distributing a new video from the IMU, featuring the "German" jihadi Abu Askar and his Great Big Knife™ which I assume makes up for some sort of anatomical deficit: Finally, I note that among the sites featured in their list of links is the following: The Network of Ethiopian Muslims in Europe

Uzbekistan: Believers Arrested On Aug. 23, seven church members belonging to the registered Donam Protestant church were arrested and Christian literature confiscated when more than 20 police officers raided a church service in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, according to Forum 18 News. Members of the Anti-Terror Police claimed the service was “unauthorized” and although three men were released on the same day, four, including the pastor, Vladimir Tyo, were sentenced to 15 days in prison. They have been charged with “violation of the procedure for organizing and conducting meetings.” The judge ordered the confiscated literature be destroyed. This is the latest of...

Note: The following text is a quote: YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Warden Message: Tashkent (Old City), Uzbekistan Security Notice CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS South / Central Asia - Uzbekistan 30 Aug 2009 U.S. Embassy Tashkent issued the following Warden Message on August 30: Several local sources report that on the evening of Saturday, August 29th Uzbek police forces clashed with unknown armed assailants in the “Old City” area of Tashkent. The Embassy has confirmed that there has been a substantial increase in police activity in this part of town. Because of ongoing police...

TASHKENT CITY, Uzbekistan (ABP) -- Authorities in Uzbekistan cracked down on Baptists after a government-sponsored news agency ran articles alleging illegal religious activity at a summer camp for children. Forum 18, a Norway-based news service that monitors alleged violations of religious freedom, reported July 28 that Pavel Peichev, head of the Union of Evangelical Christian Baptists of Middle Asia, faces criminal charges of unlawfully teaching children religion and misusing resort facilities. Local Baptists fear huge fines, confiscation of the property, imprisonment or some combination of penalties if Peichev is convicted

July 23, 2009 "THREE MILITANTS SEIZED IN TAJIKISTAN" SNIPPET: "AFP reports the capture in Tajikistan of three Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan activists recently arrived from Afghanistan."

TASHKENT -- Uzbekistan is warning against a Russian plan to open a military base near the Uzbek border in southern Kyrgyzstan, RFE/RL's Uzbek Service reports. Uzbek Senator Surayo Odilhodjaeva told RFE/RL that the proposed new base -- reportedly near the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh -- would not contribute to the security of Central Asia. "I think the less military bases we have in the region, the better," she said. Uzbek political commentator Sanobar Shermatova said Tashkent's objection to an increased Russian military presence close to its borders is natural. "Tashkent wants to maintain a balance of power," Shermatova said....

SNIPPET - QUOTE: July 04, 2009 MATERIALS ON RELIGIOUS-EXTREMIST ORGANIZATION "HIZB UT-TAHRIR", WITH PROOFS OF ITS PARTICIPATION IN TERRORIST ACTIVITY. [Editorial note: This is the text of a document found on the website of The General Consulate of the Republic of Uzbekistan in Athens. It is presented here without editing - the English is a little non-standard, but the meaning is clear. It presents the Uzbeckistan government's analysis of Hizb ut-Tahrir and why Uzbeckistan considers the Hizb ut-Tahrir to be a terrorist organization. Of note are the allegations of inter-linkage between Hizb ut-Tahrir and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.]

SNIPPET: "The Turkic peoples have until now played a fairly peripheral role in global jihadism. They have not attracted much academic attention, and apart from the 2003 Istanbul bombings and the 2008 American Consulate attacks, operations carried out by Turkics have gained little attention. The Waziristan-based group Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) seems to be trying to change this (as Jihadica has suggested before). The IJU broke off from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in 2001, and went for a while under the name Islamic Jihad Group. When the name changed in 2005, the group also assumed a new strategy, one...

Note: The following text is a quote: YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Warden Message: Uzbekistan Suicide Bombing CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS South / Central Asia - Uzbekistan 27 May 2009 Printer Friendly Email Article RELATED REPORTS 3 Apr 2009 UZBEKISTAN 2009 CRIME & SAFETY REPORT U.S. Embassy Tashkent issued the following Warden Message on May 27: Uzbek officials today confirmed recent media reports of a suicide bombing in the city of Andijan in the Ferghana Valley region of Uzbekistan and an assault on a border post near the town of Khanabad on the Uzbek-Kyrgyz...

Note: The following text is a quote: Eight Uzbekistan Nationals Among 12 Charged with Racketeering, Human Trafficking & Immigration Violations in Scheme to Employ Illegal Aliens in 14 States Twelve defendants, including eight Uzbekistan nationals, have been charged in a 45-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo., on May 6, 2009, on RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) charges related to labor racketeering, forced labor trafficking and immigration and other violations in 14 states. Abrorkhodja Askarkhodjaev, 30, Nodir Yunusov, 22, Rustamjon Shukurov, 21, citizens of Uzbekistan residing in Mission, Kan.; Ilkham Fazilov, 44, Nodirbek...

WASHINGTON, March 31, 2009 – A meeting of chiefs of defense here re-emphasizes the shared commitments of Central Asia and the United States to security and stability in the region, the commander of U.S. Central Command said here today. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus told the defense chiefs from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan that the meeting will help all involved better address their common interests. Combating extremism and the spread of extremism from Afghanistan and Pakistan is at the top of the list of priorities, the general said. “[This means] that all of us have to...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19, 2009 – Kyrgyzstan’s parliament voted today to close Manas Air Base, a key logistics hub for the U.S. military, but a senior Pentagon official said the base closure would not affect operations in Afghanistan. “[Manas Air Base] is an important base for operations in Afghanistan, but it’s not irreplaceable,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters here today. “If it’s not available to us, we’ll find other means.” Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev still must sign the bill for the eviction to be official. If he signs the bill, troops will have 180 days to withdraw, based on...