World View: The scenario is depressingly familiar: the US takes under its wing a repressive regime to serve US political and economic interests. In the 1970s it was Latin America and Africa, now it's Central Asia. The most glaring example is Uzbekistan, writes John Murray
As a result of allowing US troops to use its airspace and one of its airbases against the Taliban, a "qualitatively new relationship" has been forged between the Uzbek and US peoples, according to a joint communiqué issued last October.
The October 7th agreement, the text of which is classified, amounts to Uzbek President, Mr Islam Karimov, receiving US support in crushing Islamic opposition.
Uzbekistan is also to receive unspecified amounts of US money. The agreement represents an unprecedented level of US commitment to defend an ex-Soviet republic.
For the US, the agreement with Uzbekistan dovetails with the Bush plan to eradicate terrorism, since some of Mr Karimov's Islamic opponents are close to the Taliban and operate from Afghanistan.
More importantly, the agreement with Uzbekistan, the pivot of Central Asia, affords US energy interests powerful leverage to exploit the huge energy resources of the Caspian basin and Kazakhstan, said to equal the remaining reserves of Saudi Arabia and Iraq. If all goes to plan, Central Asia will help feed the voracious US appetite for fossil fuels.
The fiercely secular Mr Karimov has effectively been given US blessing to engage in state terrorism against his opponents, who he calls Islamic terrorists.
As one Human Rights Watch researcher based in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, put it, he will "continue this horrific campaign against peaceful independent Muslims".
Amnesty International, the UN Human Rights Committee, the Helsinki Group on Human Rights and Human Rights Watch concur in their condemnation of Mr Karimov's government.
Even the US State Department is said to have qualms about dealing with him.
While the details of the secret agreement remain under wraps, President George Bush has pledged to triple the estimated $100 million given to Uzbekistan since September 11th.
Suddenly other things are happening. Less than a week after the Uzbek-US deal was signed, the World Bank announced that Uzbekistan could now expect new loans, debt relief and further benefits from international financial institutions, and was sending a top official to the area for talks.
On November 8th Uzbek participants were admitted for the first time to a NATO council meeting in Brussels where Uzbekistan's role in the anti-Taliban operation was highly praised.
On the same day, the Asian Development Bank loaned Uzbekistan $400 million. On November 12th the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) President, Mr Jean Lemierre, on a visit to the Uzbek capital Tashkent, signed credit agreements worth €110 million.
The International Monetary Fund reportedly sent a delegation to Tashkent in December to reopen lending talks, despite pulling out of the country in April in frustration over Uzbek reluctance to implement its reforms.
Meanwhile, US troops will stay in Uzbekistan, and a blind eye will be turned to President Karimov's awful and deteriorating human rights record.
Since the Uzbek-US agreement was signed, a stream of high-level US delegations has visited Uzbekistan. Apart from trips by Mr Colin Powell, US Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfield, and Gen Tommy Franks, numerous US Senate and Congress delegations have all paid their respects to President Karimov, arguably the region's most bloody dictator.
Few would argue that President Karimov's rule since 1990 has been anything other than the machinations of a Stalinist-style strongman to keep himself in power at all costs.
Briefly, Mr Karimov was the Communist Party boss of Uzbekistan as the then Soviet republic became independent in 1991.
He soon set about silencing all opposition to his leadership.
Having already banned the Uzbek nationalist movement Birlik (Unity) in 1990, within a month of becoming president in 1991 he banned the democratic opposition party, Erk (Freedom).
Since then, by means of sham elections, the 63-year-old autocrat has extended his tenure as president twice, most recently with a 91 per cent vote last month (January 27th).
His current mandate runs out in 2007, though most believe he intends to stay in office until he dies.
An estimated 7,600 political prisoners are currently languishing in Gulag-style prisons, most on trumped-up charges of Islamist extremism.
Confessions are routinely forced from suspected political or religious subversives by means of the most gruesome tortures.
Widespread poverty is the root cause of popular discontent. After independence, a system of so-called privatisation serving the interests of the old Soviet elite was established, leaving the local population reportedly worse off than under Soviet rule.
Not surprisingly, a number of clandestine Islamic movements have emerged, most notably the Hizb-ut-Tahir (Party of Liberation), a non-violent radical Islamic movement, and the militant Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), close to the Taliban and responsible for exploding five car bombs in 1999 in Tashkent in a plot to assassinate Mr Karimov.
Part of the October deal with the US was to include the IMU in the US list of 29 "designated foreign terrorist organisations".
Another part was to drop Uzbekistan from the list of "countries of particular concern" on the State Department's annual report.
Had the country appeared on the list, it could have faced US economic sanctions under the 1998 International Religious Freedoms Act.
The US State Department spokesman, Mr Richard Boucher, said in November that "there is essentially no religious freedom there".
The US military presence in Central Asia - Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are also presently hosting US troops, and Kazakhstan will do so soon - is causing serious disquiet in Russia, the region's Big Brother since its conquest by the tsars in the 19th century.
The Kremlin sees Central Asia as its backyard. A recent report by the official Russian news agency, RIA, noted that most Russian view the US presence as "a tragic event signifying . . . the end of centuries-long Russian influence in central Asia".
Dr John Schoeberlein, head of the Harvard Central Asian Studies forum has predicted "a major confrontation . . . between Russia and the central states, if they decide to go with the US".
And by extension, he might have added, between Russia and the US.
John Murray lectures in the Department of Russian in Trinity College, Dublin.