I just want to gather attention to the small but controversial state of Turkmenistan. Why is it important? The country borders Afghanistan and Iran and sits on-top one of the largest natural gas reserves in the world. The country's government is attempting to trade valuable fossil fuels with it neighboring country. It even plans to build a pipeline through Afghanistan (good luck with that) to India. The Russians are interested in this country and so is the United States. How is the US interested in Turkmenistan? It has official diplomatic communications setup complete with an embassy. The US provides several million dollars worth of aid to Turkmenistan including education. Some United States' businesses communicate with Turkmenistan in the The US-Turkmenistan Business Council . It represents 60 American companies. Finally, Turkmenistan is mentioned as a relatively safe nation with very little to no problems with terrorism. The country seems separated from the giant quagmires of the Middle East. Perhaps the US may have some of the natural gas? http://www.us-tbc.org/ Whats wrong? Turkmenistan is a dictatorship. Since its independence from the Soviet Union, the country was ruled by an insane dictator called Saparmurat Niyazov. At one point, the man tried to replace (or at least diminish) the importance of the Quran with his own writings. He also damaged the country's education system permitting only one university. He quickly formed a personality cult around him. His successor provided minor improvements to the country's freedom and helped dismantle Niyazov's personality cult but is now widely regarded as another dictator. There are many political prisoner's in the prison system with many reports of abuse and horrid conditions. The Red Cross and press cannot search the prisons to verify their conditions. Several minorities among the state are being persecuted. Finally, the strange economic policies of Niyazov (That mirrored Muammar Gaddafi policies in several ways) has stunted the economic growth of Turkmenistan. And the problem is...? The United States has a some-what snug relationship with Turkmenistan. While it states multiple times that the country's government fails to give it's citizen's freedom, there is very little opposition or punishment for the government's oppression. I don't think the US is extracting oil or other resources from Turkmenistan yet (or at least on a large scale. If they are, they are turning their back on a dictatorship that the US is supposed to be very opposed to. I am a little suspicious of some of America's activities there but for it doesn't seem like an obvious issue. It might be in the future though. I would say everyone should be informed on Turkmenistan and keep on guard if the US does something outrageous there.
