Duterte elected in the Philippines

[11B4V]

Obama should let the CIA topple his government, just to do it.

I'm sure we've got the handbook around somewhere.

It is what their good at. Topple a government, then have no plan after. Then withdraw with mission accomplished.

[HVC]

Obama should let the CIA topple his government, just to do it.

I'm sure we've got the handbook around somewhere.

It is what their good at. Topple a government, then have no plan after. Then withdraw with mission accomplished.

it makes things interesting.

[CountDeMoney]

Of course it is.  "But you didn't tell us to do that."

[Zanza]

"The budget for the follow-on mission was not approved."

[grumbler]

"The budget for the follow-on mission was not approved."

"The follow-on mission is unnecessary, because they will greet us with flowers."

True story.

[Syt]

Apparently there's a senate hearing on Duterte's previous activities. But of course it's all useless without evidence.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/15/philippines-president-drug-dealers-rodrigo-duterte-extrajudicial-killings-crocodile

Philippines president ordered murders and killed official, claims hitman

Spokesman for Rodrigo Duterte rejects accusations of extrajudicial killings – which include feeding man to crocodile

The Philippines president, Rodrigo Duterte, ordered members of a death squad to kill criminals and opponents and even personally "finished off" a justice department employee with a submachine gun, a self-confessed former assassin has testified.

Edgar Matobato, 57, told a nationally televised senate committee hearing that he had heard Duterte order some of the assaults that left around 1,000 people dead from 1988 to 2013 in Davao city, where Duterte was mayor for more than two decades.

The inquiry is being led by senator Leila de Lima, a staunch critic of Duterte's anti-drug campaign that has left more than 3,000 suspected drug users and dealers dead since he assumed the presidency in June.

Duterte, who is known as both "the Punisher" and "Duterte Harry" for his bloody stance on fighting crime, has previously denied involvement in extra-judicial killings, but also made contradictory statements that he either condones or is even part of the vigilante group known as the Davao Death Squad.

The presidential spokesman Martin Andanar rejected Matobato's accusation on Thursday, saying the government had investigated Duterte's time as mayor. "I don't think he's capable of giving a directive like that. The Commission on Human Rights already investigated this a long time ago and no charges were filed," he said. The justice secretary, Vitaliano Aguirre, called the allegations "lies and fabrications".

Matobato told the senate hearing that he had carried out about 50 of the killings, including that of a man who was fed to a crocodile in 2007. "I didn't kill anyone unless ordered by Charlie Mike," he said, telling the senate it was the vigilante squad's code name for the then-mayor.

Matobato said he also was part of a group that in 1993 were stopped on a road by an agent from the justice department's National Bureau of Investigation, leading to a shootout. Duterte arrived at the scene, Matobato said, and killed the man.

"Mayor Duterte was the one who finished him off. Jamisola [the justice department official] was still alive when he [Duterte] arrived. He emptied two Uzi magazines on him."

"Our job was to kill criminals, rapists, [drug] pushers and snatchers. That's what we did. We killed people almost on a daily basis," he added.

Matobato said the killings started in 1988 and continued to 2013, when he tried to leave the death squad. His associates then attempted to implicate him criminally in one killing, he added.

The victims included petty criminals and opponents of Duterte's family, including a billionaire hotelier from central Cebu province who was killed in 2014. Matobato said that man was murdered because he had a feud with Duterte's son over a woman.

Duterte's son, Paolo Duterte, said Matobato was "a madman" and described his testimony as "mere hearsay".

Matobato said he had also killed and chopped up another victim, a suspected foreign terrorist who he said was buried in a quarry in 2002. Another victim was a Duterte critic and radio commentator, Jun Pala, who was killed by motorcycle-riding gunmen while walking home in 2003.

Following the bombing of a Roman Catholic cathedral in 1993, Matobato said, Duterte ordered him and his colleagues to launch attacks on mosques in Davao.

He said some victims were dropped into the sea with their stomachs cut open so the fish would eat them. "They were killed like chickens," he said.

Matobato has since entered a government witness-protection program but left when Duterte became president, fearing he would be targeted. The hearing was at one point halted briefly so senators could discuss how to provide Matobato safety following his statement.

The shocking testimony led to senator Alan Peter Cayetano, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for vice-president as Duterte's running mate, to accuse Matobato of being part of a plot to overthrow the president.

De Lima eventually told Cayetano, who was not a member of the committee, that he was abusing the time allotted to him.

The months-long hearing has mostly focused on Duterte's time as head of state this year, revealing that more than 1,000 people have died in police operations since his election.

In the face of public criticism, Duterte accused De Lima of involvement in illegal drugs, alleging that she used to have a driver who took money from detained drug lords. She has denied the allegations.

In the run-up to the May election that he won with significant margins, Duterte said the Philippines should build funeral parlours, not prisons, to cope with drug pushers in his time in office.

In 2009, Human Rights Watch released a report calling for the Philippines to dismantle highly organised vigilante gangs it said were directly linked to government officials and police in Davao, a city of 1.5 million where Duterte has been elected mayor seven times.

Duterte warned as mayor that criminals were a "legitimate target of assassination", and Human Rights Watch said some victims had been killed after the mayor announced their names on local television.

[Syt]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/30/rodrigo-duterte-vows-to-kill-3-million-drug-addicts-and-likens-himself-to-hitler

Rodrigo Duterte vows to kill 3 million drug addicts and likens himself to Hitler

'If Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have ...,' the president said, pointing to himself

Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines president, appears to have compared himself to Hitler, saying he would be "happy to slaughter" millions of drug addicts in his bloody war on crime.

During a press conference in his home city of Davao, the former prosecutor told reporters that he had been compared to a "cousin of Hitler" by his critics.

"If Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have...," he said, pausing and pointing to himself.

"Hitler massacred three million Jews ... there's three million drug addicts. There are. I'd be happy to slaughter them."

More than six million Jews were killed by the Nazis and their collaborators before and during the second world war, according to historians.

Duterte has spent his first three months in office running a campaign to kill all involved in the rampant drugs trade, including alleged addicts, causing outrage from rights groups and foreign governments.

More than 3,500 alleged drug dealers and addicts have been killed, about a third of them in police operations but the majority by armed vigilante militias. Duterte has publicly encouraged civilians to kill addicts and said he will not prosecute police for extrajudicial executions.

"You know my victims. I would like (them) to be all criminals to finish the problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition," he said during the press conference early on Friday.

[HVC]

I would have said he erred, but Asian counties seem to have a weird relationship with Hitler.

[garbon]

His only misstep is that if he keeps getting bad press in the West, people will be less and less likely to want to invest in his country. Perhaps not a winning strategy for a war on crime.

[Syt]

I would have said he erred, but Asian counties seem to have a weird relationship with Hitler.

I don't know what you mean 

[viper37]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/30/rodrigo-duterte-vows-to-kill-3-million-drug-addicts-and-likens-himself-to-hitler

Rodrigo Duterte vows to kill 3 million drug addicts and likens himself to Hitler

'If Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have ...,' the president said, pointing to himself

Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines president, appears to have compared himself to Hitler, saying he would be "happy to slaughter" millions of drug addicts in his bloody war on crime.

During a press conference in his home city of Davao, the former prosecutor told reporters that he had been compared to a "cousin of Hitler" by his critics.

"If Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have...," he said, pausing and pointing to himself.

"Hitler massacred three million Jews ... there's three million drug addicts. There are. I'd be happy to slaughter them."

More than six million Jews were killed by the Nazis and their collaborators before and during the second world war, according to historians.

Duterte has spent his first three months in office running a campaign to kill all involved in the rampant drugs trade, including alleged addicts, causing outrage from rights groups and foreign governments.

More than 3,500 alleged drug dealers and addicts have been killed, about a third of them in police operations but the majority by armed vigilante militias. Duterte has publicly encouraged civilians to kill addicts and said he will not prosecute police for extrajudicial executions.

"You know my victims. I would like (them) to be all criminals to finish the problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition," he said during the press conference early on Friday.

finally!  A war on drugs that will work!

[alfred russel]

When people have commented to me that the wars on drugs never work, I've brought up that isn't true--the chinese under Mao made significant progress reducing opium use by shooting opium users.

Gets me odd looks.

[CountDeMoney]

I give this guy less than 24 months before a couple generals in the army decide, "OK, that will be enough of that."

[jimmy olsen]

Korean buisnessman kidnapped by the police, held for ransom, then killed.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-businessmans-murder-in-the-philippines-unmasks-a-web-of-violent-police-1492180075?mod=e2fb

[Duque de Bragança]

When people have commented to me that the wars on drugs never work, I've brought up that isn't true--the chinese under Mao made significant progress reducing opium use by shooting opium users.

Gets me odd looks.

Probably because you stole this line from a Schwarzenegger movie. 
Red Heat.