Comments on: Former-SNB Agent Seeks Asylum

By: Michael Hancock

Michael Hancock — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:00:05 +0000

The few SNB people I met were all quite young, actually. But the Peace Corps gossip was that, yes, they had strong family ties. That being said, you needed a bit of intelligence, it seemed. The truly ignorant seemed doomed to become road police, immigration police, or [shudder] train conductors [provodniks].
It seemed similar for Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, as far as rumors and hearsay go.

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 07:44:50 +0000

As far as being recruited to the SNB at an early age, has anyone considered if he has powerful family connections that got him his job so early? Does the SNB operate with such patronage, or is it much more professional than the regular police?

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 07:42:47 +0000

As far as the drug trafficking and prostitution rings, considering how powerful the security services are I think it would be very surprising if the government were NOT somehow complicit in it.

By: Joshua Foust

Joshua Foust — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:50:19 +0000

Just how dumb was the truck? And can you keep count if you’re manhandling 1500 corpses?

By: Gene Daniels

Gene Daniels — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 07:52:08 +0000

Might want to be careful about dismissing all his allegations out of hand. I heard the number of 1500 Adijion deaths directly from a police officer who helped load bodies in a dumb truck. And as for Karimov and leukemia, I heard the same thing 2 years ago from a Uzbek who formerly worked in the SMB but now advises the US state department as a “researcher.”

So, while being sceptical of the whole package, down be quick to dismiss it all.

By: Oldschool Boy

Oldschool Boy — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 04:58:32 +0000

Rakhat Aliyev must be very jealous

By: Christian

Christian — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 04:23:16 +0000

You may have the London Bridge plus Juma Namangani’s all-female sniper brigade for one cheap price.

By: Michael Hancock

Michael Hancock — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 03:08:22 +0000

Would that person in Iraq happen to have information about the London Bridge? Because I’m bullish on purchasing rights.

By: Christian

Christian — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:58:14 +0000

It’s remarkable that Karimov has such a high level of trust in Khudoberdiev, a Lakay commander from Tajikistan who has been dead for seven years and an embarrassing miserable failure since 1998.

Yakubov has done a good job of recycling all the “funnest” bazaar mish-mish. If anybody believes all that Yakubov says then I’ve got a good source from Iraq who has in depth knowledge of Saddam’s WMD programs.

By: Michael Hancock

Michael Hancock — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:39:16 +0000

This is amazing. But as one with too much experience reading similar reports, what does Yakubov have to gain, besides a bounty put on his head and no hope of seeing his homeland again [or at least while Karimov lives]?

Thanks for the news break, Nathan!