Surprises and Sanctuary
August 29th, 2006If anyone needed further proof that the President’s beliefs don’t run as deep as his conviction is portrayed in the media, the White House was happy to provide it.
President Bush launched an initiative this month to combat international kleptocracy, the sort of high-level corruption by foreign officials that he called “a grave and corrosive abuse of power” that “threatens our national interest and violates our values.” The plan, he said, would be “a critical component of our freedom agenda.” Three weeks later, the White House is making arrangements to host the leader of Kazakhstan, an autocrat who runs a nation that is anything but free and who has been accused by U.S. prosecutors of pocketing the bulk of $78 million in bribes from an American businessman. Not only will President Nursultan Nazarbayev visit the White House, people involved say, but he also will travel to the Bush family compound in Maine.
Nazarbayev’s upcoming visit, according to analysts and officials, offers a case study in the competing priorities of the Bush administration at a time when the president has vowed to fight for democracy and against corruption around the globe. Nazarbayev has banned opposition parties, intimidated the press and profited from his post, according to the U.S. government. But he also sits atop massive oil reserves that have helped open doors in Washington. Nazarbayev is hardly the only controversial figure received at the top levels of the Bush administration. In April, the president welcomed to the Oval Office the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, who has been accused of rigging elections. And Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hosted Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the president of Equatorial Guinea, who has been found to have millions of dollars stashed in overseas bank accounts.
But the Kazakh leader has received especially warm treatment, given that the same government that will host him next month plans to go to trial in federal court in January to prove that he was paid off in the 1990s by a U.S. banker seeking to influence oil rights. Although the banker faces prison time, Nazarbayev has not been charged and has called the allegations illegitimate.
It doesn’t surprise me. It’s hard, on one hand, to ignore every despot just because they’re despots because in certain situations we have to team with them (Roosevelt to Stalin to Churchill, for instance) but I think it’s disgraceful to curl in bed with a Dictator for money and oil. Is George W. Bush a grease monkey prostitute or the President?
Given that I’m in Chicago, I know that some of you must be surprised by my lack of comment on Elvira Arellano. Arellano is an illegal immigrat with a son who is a US Citizen. She was served a deportation order, but ran into a Church, claimed sanctuary, and has been there ever since. I do think she’s right in objecting to her deportation when her child is a citizen. Is she supposed to abandon her child and his country because she’s been served a deportation notice? Where’s the righteousness in that?
The only thing about this entire situation that gives me pause is the Sanctuary. I haven’t heard of someone claiming sanctuary in years, and I do hope that it doesn’t become a trend. That’s my sole concern.