The Bush administration has often vowed not to repeat the Cold War mistake of embracing useful dictators while ignoring their domestic policies, especially in Muslim states such as Uzbekistan. “With …tiny gestures the leader of Central Asia’s most populous country seeks to sway one of the most important decisions the Bush administration will make this year about its alliances in the war on terrorism. Though his tokenism could not be more transparent, the dictator’s chances of succeeding look better than they should.

Since 2001, Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic bordering Afghanistan, has hosted U.S. planes and troops and received substantial U.S. military and economic aid. Mr. Karimov, a former Soviet Politburo member who proposed and signed a ‘strategic partnership’ agreement with the Bush administration two years ago, hopes for a long-term basing arrangement. The Pentagon is considering just such a deal; Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld visited Tashkent last week and lauded ‘the wonderful cooperation we’ve received from the government of Uzbekistan.’

There’s one hitch: The partnership deal Mr. Karimov signed promised a far-reaching democratic transformation, including multiparty elections, a free press and an independent judiciary. Not only has Uzbekistan implemented none of those reforms, it hasn’t even stopped torturing prisoners. Ms. Mukadirova’s son died after prison guards pulled out his fingernails and plunged his body into boiling water…” —Washington Post editorial