"The Glorious Revolutionary Federation of Fortune 500 Killers first calls readers' attention to the following randomly selected statements about the Iraq invasion from the Bush Administration containing either the words "liberate" or "freedom."
"The Coalition will also liberate the Iraqi people from one of the worst tyrants and most brutal regimes on earth," said Mister Bush in April of 2003.
After the capture of Saddam Hussein, Mister Bush said to Iraqs: "You will not have to fear the rule of Saddam Hussein ever again. All Iraqis who take the side of freedom have taken the winning side."
With all this talk of liberation and freedom in contrast to tyranny and brutality, it is a wonder to the Federation, then, why Mister Bush continues to cozy up to the dictatorial-despotic regime of Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov.
Human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International continue to document Karimov's torture of Muslims, homosexuals, and journalists who dare express dissent with the regime.
Although it is impossible to fully consolidate the catalog of abuses at the hands of Karimov here, we excerpt the following from a recent Human Rights Watch report on prison conditions.
"Prison officials frequently beat prisoners and subject them to ill-treatment by such actions as stealing food and medicine hand-delivered by prisoners relatives, and placing them in cells with freezing temperatures without adequate clothing. Such treatment weakens prisoners' health and can lead to or compound illness, which sometimes ends with the prisoner's death. In such a case, the official cause of death is routinely given as tuberculosis, sclerosis of the liver, or septic endocarditis," reads the report.
Another excerpt describes coercive interrogation.
"At least twenty religious prisoners were reportedly raped in Kashkadaria prison in 2002 to force them to renounce their religious beliefs or affiliation. A representative from the Kashkadaria province procuracy reportedly visited the facility on March 18, 2002. The representative took the names of sixteen rape victims and met with several Muslim prisoners who had complained of rape by prison authorities. Several men who had complained earlier were reportedly kept in isolation wards during the visit. The following day, prison officials gathered the sixteen alleged rape victims and threatened them with additional abuse, including additional sexual violence, unless they withdrew their complaints. When Colonel S. Islamov of the Ministry of Internal Affairs came to inspect the facility on March 22, 2002, he allegedly announced to the 2,600 prisoners assembled, 'If someone was raped, it's in the past, it's not necessary to talk about it to everyone like sluts. We are not scared of any commissions, whether it's from the Red Cross or the U.N. We don't give a shit," it reads.
The Bush Administration's blind eye appears turned to Korimov. The Federation now presents a series of photographs with Administration officials and Korimov all looking lively.
[1] <http://www.uzbekistan.de/en/2003/Images/Bush_Karimov2.jpg> [2] <http://www.defenselink.mil/photos/Nov2001/011104-D-9880W-033.jpg> [3] <http://www.defenselink.mil/photos/Mar2002/020313-D-2987S-101.jpg>
The Federation closes with a photo from the 1980s that makes for unnerving viewing after photo [3]: <http://www.acttaos.org/rumhus-handshake.jpg> "
The Glorious Revolutionary Federation of Fortune 500 Killers is an anti-capitalist, anti-racist student insurgent group based at Columbia University. For more information, e-mail ceodeath99 at yahoo.com
