Mr. Karimov, an inaccessible and aloof autocrat, has long been criticized for persecution of opponents, intolerance of freedom of religion and expression, and the use of the police and torture, including the sexual assault and boiling of suspects.

no doubt it sucks to be boiled. but being boiled by someone who is "aloof" is perhaps the ultimate insult.

"I am prepared to rip off the heads of 200 people, to sacrifice their lives, in order to save peace and calm in the republic," he told reporters in 1999, after a bus hijacking ended with a shootout that left nine people dead. "If my child chose such a path, I myself would rip off his head."

There has also been evidence that the United States has used the country for interrogations of terrorist suspects seized elsewhere.