Uzbekistan is one of the Bush administration’s closet allies in Central Asia despite the country’s notorious human rights record. President Bush, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld have all personally met with the Uzbek president. A year ago Rumsfeld traveled to Uzbekistan where the US runs a strategically placed military base and “I am delighted to be back in Uzbekistan.” Following the mass killings on Friday, the Bush administration appeared to blame the demonstrators for what happened. White House spokesperson Scott McClellan said “We have had concerns about human rights in Uzbekistan, but we are concerned about the outbreak of violence, particularly by some members of a terrorist organization that were freed from prison.” Before the shooting took place, protesters had overrun a jail freeing as many 2000 prisoners. The Uzbek government as well as the Bush administrators has portrayed the demonstrators as Islamic terrorists. But according to the BBC the protests were largely made up of people calling for an end to poverty and injustice. According to Human Rights Watch torture and police brutality are widespread in Uzbekistan. The country has no independent political parties, no free and fair elections, and no independent news media. In December President Bush decided to keep giving aid to Uzbekistan despite the country’s failure to meet U.S. conditions on human rights.