US govt: Duterte behind the Davao Death Squad

by YEN MAKABENTA

Presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte is finally getting the recognition that he’s been seeking – that he is what he is, a tough guy, maybe even a killer. He is now squarely in the radar of the US government.

According to US State Department documents released by Wikileaks, the US government has “solid evidence” that Duterte is responsible for the extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances in Davao City.

When fellow presidential candidate Grace Poe announced on April 14 that she would appoint Duterte as crime czar if she won the presidency, Washington took notice. “I want to offer to him the position as crime czar because of what he said that he will finish the problems of criminality in six months,” Poe said. This prompted officials and journalists to check their files and dossiers on Duterte.

Solid evidence vs Duterte
What they found was jaw-dropping. Poe’s crime czar is most likely a criminal. Duterte is considered a criminal by the US government. Based on “solid evidence,” the State Department has established that “Mayor Duterte of Davao City is clearly behind a group called the Davao Death Squad.”

This is the shocking revelation of a global investigation outfit, Open Source investigations (ISI), which has specialized in the disclosure of information on important political issues and political personalities, since the group was publicly announced in Sept. 2015 and opened its Facebook page on Dec. 2.

This revelation surpasses in gravity the earlier controversy stirred by Duterte with his vile remarks about the Australian lay missionary rape victim in Davao.

The Open Source report said the US State Department is convinced that Duterte “supports” and “encourages” the extra-judicial killings in Davao City. He is the one who decided “to green light” the Davao Death Squad (DDS).

It was Mayor Duterte himself who privately “acknowledged his active support of the DDS group.” He made the admission during a 2003 meeting with political officers of the US Embassy in Manila. And he did it again, two years later during a conversation with an official from the Embassy of Australia in Manila. Duterte told the Australian officer that “killings were what criminals understood” and that this was “the way things are done here.”

The State Department has “documented evidence of hundreds of vigilante-style killings of civilians in Davao City” since the late ‘90s.

The DDS, a vigilante group “formed by the mayor,” carried out many of the killings. DDS is an underground network made up of former criminals and militants, perpetrating killings in exchange for payment. Victims are “usually street children and petty criminals.”

The State Department said that Duterte should be brought to justice. In its assessment, local police failed to investigate the crimes and protect witnesses. In fact, the Davao police, “who are controlled by the Mayor,” support the killings. The investigations of the Philippine National Police (PNP) have been of no avail and the killings have been spreading to other localities

The US has deplored the Davao killings and has privately urged the Philippine government to undertake a thorough investigation.

“A separate investigation into Mayor Duterte’s connection to the killings” should be opened, the US recommended.

Open Source background     
Open Source Investigations (OSI) describes itself as an independent initiative that aims to connect common people with the reality behind open scene of politics.

On its sleek-looking site, which appears well-funded, the group claims that it is composed of “investigative journalists, researchers, fact-checkers, activists, and data experts, who have teamed up to provide in-depth research behind political stories.”

“By supplying non-partisan and precise analyses and investigations, OSI Group website is a source of information that makes citizens more aware of how politics affects their lives,” it said.

Rodrigo Duterte is not alone in attracting the interest and investigative zeal of OSI.

Grace Poe has gotten considerable attention as well.

Biggest secret of Grace Poe’s husband
The latest post of Open Source on Ms. Poe concerns her husband, Teodoro Misael “Neil” Llamanzares.

It disclosed that Neil Llamanzares’ biggest secret is that he is a former contractor of the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the Central Intelligence Agency.

The report said: “Neil Llamanzares, the potential First Gentleman of the Philippines, is not only an American military man, but also a former US Intelligence contractor. As an employee of the largest private intelligence service in the world, SAIC, Grace Poe’s husband was doing specialized work for NSA, CIA and DIA: tracking foreign communications on the internet, feeding disinformation to the foreign press, integrating classified information gathered by the major US intelligence agencies worldwide.

“At least from 2004 to 2006, as long as he worked for SAIC, the state of the Philippines was one of Neil Llamanzares’s targets.”

The report averred that there was “a partial truth in Grace Poe’s web of lies.”

“Neil Llamanzares did stay in the US until May 2006. He did sell their million-dollar mansion. And he did have very important projects to finish. But both Grace Poe and her husband kept the nature of those important projects secret.

“And that is because the Philippine presidential candidate’s husband is a former US Intelligence contractor.

“Neil Llamanzares stayed in the US to work for the largest private intelligence services in the world, Scientific Applications International Corporation (SAIC). SAIC has a symbiotic relationship with the National Security Agency (NSA). For years, SAIC was NSA’s largest contractor, earning the nickname “NSA West” inside the intelligence community.

“SAIC also does a huge amount of work for the CIA, where it is among the top five contractors, and is deeply involved in the operations of all the major US intelligence agencies (Defence Intelligence Agency – DIA, Office of the Director of National Intelligence – ODNI, National Reconnaissance Office – NRO).

“In March 2007, Donald Barlett and James B. Steele published a profile of SAIC in Vanity Fair. Two-time Pulitzer Prize winners, Barlett and Steele are two of the most important investigation journalists in the history of American media.”

The title of the Barlett-Steele article, “Washington’s $8 Billion Shadow,” shows that SAIC is a very big deal in the intelligence business.

Take a second look at Neil
To the Filipino intelligentsia, Grace Poe may look like a rank amateur, who is out of her depth in running for the presidency. But her husband is no amateur; he is a professional.

When some politicians and journalists suspect Sen. Chiz Escudero of being the puppeteer behind Grace Poe, they are mistaken. There is a better man at the controls. And he knows his stuff.

Talk about Grace Poe being a Manchurian candidate is not a mere fantasy of people who have seen too many movies.

When you look at the shadow of Neil Llamanzares behind Grace Poe, the nation would be foolhardy not to take a second and careful look.

yenmakabenta@yahoo.com
    
Group says Duterte faces arrest if he visits US
Written by Mario J. Mallari, Monday, 25 April 2016
PDP-Laban presidential candidate Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte will likely be arrested if he travels to the United States, an online foreign investigative group said, citing State Department documents released by Wikileaks.

source:  Manila Times