President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan is a refreshingly old-fashioned despot.  

He favours one-party rule, a police state based on fear, secret surveillance, summary arrest and interrogation of anyone too religious, rubber truncheons, electroshock treatment, needles under the fingernails, and, at least once, the boiling alive of a recalcitrant witness.  

Meanwhile, he makes long speeches to his parliament about how all opposition is treason and his enemies must be dismembered: "I'm prepared to rip off the heads of 200 people, to sacrifice their lives, in order to save peace and calm in the republic; if my child chose such a path, I myself would rip off his head." 

Since 2002, Mr. Karimov has been an ally of the U.S. in the "war on terror."  His website shows him in the company of George W. Bush and leading members of the Bush administration.  

Ever since he gave the U.S. control of his Khanbad military base in March, 2002, money, generals and congressmen have all poured in. 

Terrifying Ally Against Terror