US government said some timid things about democracy in the Middle East last year, while still arming its client dicatorships. When those clients asserted their tight to oppress, kill, and torture, the US backed off. And its Middle East reform plan became a mere invitation to open up Middle East markets to greedy multinational corporations. That passes as reform in the Age of Bush/Clinton. When Powell met with the Middle East foreign ministers in Morocca last week, did he congratulate the pro-American governments on their torture techniques, I wonder? Especially that those techniques are consistently used on whomever US surrenders to those governments.