As Kirgizstan's president, Askar Akaev (once optimistically hailed as Central Asia's Thomas Jefferson because of his democratic words), becomes increasingly despotic, local people grumble that the Americans have boosted his power by buying fuel from businesses close to the seat of power.

ECONOMIST: Will intervention foster democracy?

The prolific Mr. Hitchens author of the bestselling polemic against organized religion, "God is Not Great, " as well as books on Thomas Jefferson and Mother Teresa writes an average of 1, 000 words a day and says he has never missed a deadline.

WSJ: Christopher Hitchens: Memoir Musings