"The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on Washington and New York have invigorated national security strategists inside and outside the government who favor using nuclear arms to deter and respond to chemical or biological attacks.
Conservatives outside the administration have been calling on the administration to make an explicit threat to use nuclear weapons to respond to a biological or chemical attack. This would change a long-standing U.S. policy of refusing to rule in or rule out use of nuclear weapons in the event of such an attack."(from The Washington Post)
Uzbekistan! Our Glorious Allies!....
"President Karimov declared in April 1999 that fathers would be punished for the supposed wrongs of their sons. Brothers too are often arrested together and even tortured in each other's presence, again, both as a form of coercion, but also as punishment. Women are not exempt from the relentless state campaign. Female relatives of independent Muslim men are subjected to "hate rallies," detained and interrogated by police, and sometimes themselves are arrested. One woman, Rahima Akhmedalieva, was unlawfully taken into police custody in March 2001, held hostage by police who insisted the would not release her until her husband, an imam, returns to Uzbekistan where he is wanted on charges of "anti-state activities." She was later sentenced to seven years of imprisonment on charges of undermining the constitutional order." (from Human Rights Watch).
This is all getting a bit serious and worthy; I promise to find some trivia in a bit.
