PROPAGANDA CENTRAL

John Rendon: the Pentagon's information warrior

The Rendon Group's contract with the Pentagon was awarded on a no-bid basis, reflecting the government's determination to hire a firm already versed in running overseas propaganda operations. Rendon specializes in 'assisting corporations, organizations, and governments achieve their policy objectives.' Past clients include the CIA, USAID, the government of Kuwait, Monsanto Chemical Company, and the official trade agencies of countries including Bulgaria, Russia, and Uzbekistan.

Regarding Uzbekistan: US looks away as new ally tortures Islamists

Abdulkhalil, a 28-year-old farmer sentenced to 16 years in prison, was a victim of Uzbekistan's security service, the SNB. His detention and torture were part of a crackdown on Hizb-ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation), an Islamist group.
Last week his father saw him for the first time since that day on a stretcher in a prison hospital. His head was battered and his tongue was so swollen that he could only say that he had "been kept in water for a long time".
According to a forensic report commissioned by the British embassy, in August two prisoners were even boiled to death.
Muzafar Avazov died a horrible death. His body is scalded a myriad of colors from head to toe.
Human-rights activists and Avazov's mother said the wounds are proof that the 37-year-old died after being boiled alive inside Uzbekistan's notorious Jaslik prison in mid-2002. There are other signs of torture in other photographs; his fingernails and toenails apparently were all pulled out and nearly every one of his teeth is smashed.
When his mother, Fatima Mukadirova, released the photos and spoke out to foreign journalists, the 62-year-old was jailed for "anti-constitutional activity."