Outposts of tyranny

Six outposts of tyranny around the world were identified by Condoleezza Rice, President George W. Bush's newly confirmed Secretary of State, hinting "at the direction of future US foreign policy," according to the UK's BBC, January 19, 2005.

According to the full text of Rice's January 18, 2005, remarks:


 * "To be sure, in our world there remain outposts of tyranny and America stands with oppressed people on every continent ... in Cuba, and Burma, and North Korea, and Iran, and Belarus, and Zimbabwe. The world should apply what Natan Sharansky calls the 'town square test': if a person cannot walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm, then that person is living in a fear society, not a free society. We cannot rest until every person living in a 'fear society' has finally won their freedom."

Condoleezza Rice's use of the phrase outposts of tyranny during her confirmation hearing is not original. In the April 3, 1999, "Pastors for Castro," Mark Tooley of the Institute on Religion and Democracy wrote:


 * "Fidel Castro’s circle of open admirers has drawn increasingly slim. But a New York-based Baptist minister and his fellow Pastors for Peace continue to sustain their faith in the Cuban dictator. Despite his open affection for Cuban communism, the Rev. Lucius Walker, Jr. has become a respected partner in the lobbying campaign for full U.S. relations with our hemisphere’s last major outpost of tyranny."

The phrase outpost of tyranny appeared again in an October 12, 2003, Arab News editorial about U.S.-controlled detention at Guantanamo Bay:


 * "Guantanamo Bay may be a place of legal limbo for 680 detainees, but clearly US laws apply to US personnel overseeing the suspects being held there. A US Army chaplain and two translators, all of them Muslim, have been charged with spying. The chaplain and one of the translators are accused of handling classified information and the second translator is allegedly guilty of espionage and aiding the enemy. At this point, it is entirely inappropriate to suggest that any of the three are guilty.


 * "But if they are, what is surprising is that not more individuals from a country which sets such great a store by human rights, justice and equality before the law have not already broken rank. That the land of the free has created a small, hidden outpost of tyranny is becoming ever clearer."

Charles V. Pena, in the February 22, 2002, "Axis of Evil: Tilting at Windmills" for the Cato Institute, said that:


 * "Iran was actually cooperative with the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan and played a key role in the Bonn meetings that resulted in the post-Taliban government in Afghanistan. Plus Iran is one of the few Muslim countries in the world actually showing signs of possible democratic and cultural reform. Again, that seems like progress in the right direction. Furthermore, the terrorist organizations that Iran does support - such as Hezbollah, HAMAS, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command - do not currently focus their attacks against the United States. So why go out of the way to give them reason and motivation to put the United States squarely in their sights? ...


 * "The bottom line is that North Korea, Iran, and Iraq are comparatively weak nations, both economically and militarily. They have, in fact, become less of a threat - unless the United States insists on intervening in their respective regions."

Outposts of Tyranny

 * Cuba (BBC Cuba Profile).
 * Belarus (BBC Belarus Profile).
 * Zimbabwe (BBC Zimbabwe Profile).
 * Iran (BBC Iran Profile).
 * Burma (BBC Burma Profile).
 * North Korea (BBC North Korea Profile).

Related SourceWatch Resources

 * Axis of evil
 * civil war in Iraq
 * Imperial terror in South America
 * Iraq
 * Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the prime training ground for foreign terrorists
 * Libya
 * Nuclear weapons
 * Pax Americana
 * Pax Americana, Africa
 * U.S. military presence in Paraguay
 * preemptive war
 * regime change in Syria
 * rogue nation
 * Saudi Arabia
 * stay the course
 * violence in the Middle East
 * war in Iran
 * war on terrorism
 * weapons of mass destruction