Azerbaijani donkey bloggers jailed

The US has said it "regrets" the jailing of Azerbaijani bloggers Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli, on what human rights organisations consider a trumped-up charge of "hooliganism". The pair are described by Amnesty International as "well-known youth activists who have used online networking tools, including YouTube, Facebook and …

[shay mclachlan]

Oil

"He concluded by saying that the US "remains committed" to working with Baku on democratic reforms"

As in they have lots of oil so lets not piss them off too much.

[Hermes Conran]

Pretty mild condemnation....

Couldn't be anything to do with the huge deposits of natural gas under Azerbaijan could it? The sooner we lose our dependancy on despots like these the better!

[Anonymous Coward]

Since when....?

Committed to working on democratic reforms??

Since when??

Between dodgy electoral systems and political dynasties whose families have ruled for 50 years, the USA scarcely knows what democracy means internally - they rarely tolerate it in their vassal states (including the UK) - and certainly never where America commercial and military interests are involved.

[Adam White]

Democratic reforms:

Newspeak for "the neo-liberal corporate takeover of the local infrastructure, natural resources, economy and media".