Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law Tuesday in the southern region of Mindanao, after deadly clashes between security forces and Islamic State group-linked militants in a major city there.
The announcement, made by his spokesman at a press conference in Moscow where Duterte was on an official visit, fulfills an often-repeated warning by the president that he would enforce military rule to quell security threats. "As of 10:00pm Manila time (1400 GMT) Duterte has declared martial law for the entire island of Mindanao," spokesman Ernesto Abella said in the nationally televised briefing. Abella said martial law would be in place for 60 days, in line with constitutional limits on the use of military rule.
Martial law is particularly sensitive in the Philippines because it was used by dictator Ferdinand Marcos to remain in power during his two-decade reign, which ended in 1986 with a "People Power" revolution.
Mindanao is made up of a large island of the same name, plus smaller islands, and the region of about 20 million people makes up roughly one third of the mainly Catholic country.
[...] The announcement came after security forces battled dozens of IS-linked gunmen in a built-up area of Marawi, a city of about 200,000 people in Mindanao, on Tuesday.
Source: Yahoo! News
In the Philippines, concerns are mounting over the proliferation of Islamic State affiliates on the southern islands of Mindanao. Jihadist groups in the region have been coalescing under the extremist group's flag since the head of Abu Sayyaf, Isnilon Hapilon, declared his allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2014. Less than a decade earlier, Mindanao's various Islamic State affiliates were a jumble of local gangs engaged in criminal activity under the dubious banner of jihad.
By adopting the Islamic State's moniker and mimicking some of its tactics, Hapilon and other jihadist leaders in the Philippines have gained legitimacy, along with notoriety, as part of a well-known, transnational movement. But beyond that, the benefits of taking up the Islamic State banner have been marginal.
Source: Stratfor article published earlier this year.
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When you meet an assassin who has killed six people, you don't expect to encounter a diminutive, nervous young woman carrying a baby. "My first job was two years ago in this province nearby. I felt really scared and nervous because it was my first time." Maria, not her real name, now carries out contract killings as part of the government-sanctioned war on drugs. She is part of a hit team that includes three women, who are valued because they can get close to their victims without arousing the same suspicion a man would.
Since President Duterte was elected, and urged citizens and police to kill drug dealers who resisted arrest, Maria has killed five more people, shooting them all in the head. I asked her who gave the orders for these assassinations: "Our boss, the police officer," she said.
[Continues...]
Obama Cancels Meeting with Philippine President Duterte
President Obama has cancelled a planned meeting with Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte after Duterte described Obama as a "son of a bitch" in comments made to reporters. Obama will instead meet with South Korean President Park Geun-hye, presumably to discuss North Korea's latest missile tests. Here is our previous article about Duterte.
G20 Summit in China: U.S.-China Tensions, North Korea, and Low-Cost Steel
The Group of 20 summit is now underway in Hangzhou, China. Before the summit even began, tensions between the U.S. and China were reflected by shouting matches between Chinese and American officials on the tarmac and at the West Lake State House where President Obama and President Xi Jinping met. Security guards also attempted to prevent foreign media from covering Obama's departure from Air Force One, and in a departure from protocol, no rolling staircase was provided for the President. When questioned about the incidents the next day, President Obama said that Americans "don't leave our values and ideals behind when we take these trips" but dismissed the incidents:
[Continues...]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @04:28PM (13 children)
Show 'em how it's done and make Allah's Martyrs out of every single one of them.
Happy Ramadammadingdong, Abu!
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @04:55PM (3 children)
Come on, Trump! Rodrigo is making the Philippines great again! We want to Make America Great Again, too!
Trump! Trump! Trump!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @06:04PM (2 children)
Damn it, don't give him ideas!
He can only hold on to two or three at a time, anyway.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Friday May 26 2017, @06:27PM (1 child)
Don't worry. He doesn't listen to ideas unless they come from Fox News.
The ideas must fit into 140 characters in order to be important enough to be worthy of his attention.
Every performance optimization is a grate wait lifted from my shoulders.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @11:46PM
Worked for John Oliver, it can work for SoylentNews too! :)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @05:35PM (8 children)
The sad part is I can't tell if this is sarcastic or serious...
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Friday May 26 2017, @05:42PM (7 children)
I'd lean towards serious, because the name "ISIS" will basically break some people's brains and they'll instantly drop any facade of supporting democracy or rule of law or even human decency.
They can't even fathom that they're supporting someone who is, in pretty much every respect, almost as bad as ISIS to their own citizens, who will happily brand any political dissident a terrorist for convenience sake, and has already murdered thousands of his own citizens in completely unrelated military crackdowns to this one.
Because "Strong man make bad guys die" appeals to the child psyche of certain people.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday May 26 2017, @08:23PM (2 children)
Well, naming yourself after an Egyptian goddess is a bit of a giveaway, and renaming yourself after the 'net notice that is a bigger giveaway.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 27 2017, @04:29PM (1 child)
Giveaway of what?
PS, they never named themselves ISIS. They named themselves, "ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah fī 'l-ʿIrāq wa-sh-Shām."
Its only westerners who have decided to call them ISIS (or ISIL)
Buuuut, I get the feeling that facts don't really matter to you, do they?
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday May 27 2017, @08:07PM
> "ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah fī 'l-ʿIrāq wa-sh-Shām."
The guys who make perfect propaganda beheading videos hollywood style decided to use such a name as trademark? Interesting.
> Its only westerners who have decided to call them ISIS
well, you create it, you get to name it.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @11:00PM (2 children)
These "ISIS" are scum and doesn't belong in a civilized society. Instead they do anything to attack decent people and because of that the number of people that want to treat them decently declines rapidly. Now even whole countries turn on them.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Saturday May 27 2017, @03:11PM (1 child)
Do you think the disagreement I have with you is that I think ISIS isn't a predominantly backwards group with feudal-era ethics?
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday May 27 2017, @08:16PM
feudal era ethics?
Feudal era had people going to war in the proper way. It was monsieur Napoleon who started messing with etiquette.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 27 2017, @08:42AM
We will lose democracy if we fail to defend it. That means we must vote (democracy) for laws (rule of law) that get rid of people who are toxic to democracy.
If this fails, which is likely, then we get into a desperate situation. Nobody will care about democracy when their family members are being raped, thrown from roofs, shot, and beheaded. We'll choose to end democracy if the invaders don't do it for us, and then we will fight for our lives and probably lose.
This is how our civilization ends.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Friday May 26 2017, @04:58PM (7 children)
Turkey, Russia, Philippines, US, China, UK ... who's next? We need our critical mass of authoritarians and nationalists, people, or this global war ain't gonna start itself!
A bit more effort, we're almost there!
(Score: 3, Informative) by ikanreed on Friday May 26 2017, @05:45PM (5 children)
China is kinda unfair to include in that list, because before Jinping Xi, there was another authoritarian technocrat appointed by the Communist Party of China, whose policies were only really distinguishable by name and not form.
What's different between "Glorious Harmony" and "great revival of the Chinese nation"? Who knows.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday May 26 2017, @06:05PM (3 children)
I added China when I re-read before posting, because they are poking at their neighbors (and not-so-close ones) on territorial disputes.
But yes, their nationalism is not traditionally war-expansionist, as long as you don't live in Lhasa.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Friday May 26 2017, @06:16PM (2 children)
Or China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Philippines, Mongolia, etc. Keep in mind that China is at its current cultural extent and under the thumb of Communism presently because of a lot of past war-expansionism. And this is one of the many areas where past performance is not indicative of future results.
(Score: 3, Informative) by bob_super on Friday May 26 2017, @06:28PM (1 child)
At least, when the Chinese build a border wall, they tend to stay on their side of it, instead of "settling" the other side anyway.
Their recent expansionism has been buying land in cheap fertile places, arguably more civilized than the old tradition of just walking a few million spare citizens into someone else's place (which they could quite easily).
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday May 26 2017, @08:19PM
Their wall building phase tends to come after their war-expansionist phase. And there's not much history of serious wall builders colonizing the other side. Nazi Germany and the Siegfried line is the only example I can think of.
Most parties with any interest in offense operations over a long border used forts or military bases set back from the boundary as the primary defensive structures. For example, the Roman Empire guarded most of its land borders with series of forts. The Austrian Empire (prior to their defeat by Prussian in 1866) had a set of four fortress cities, the Quadrilatero [wikipedia.org] in northern Italy. Each military network provided defense against military powers of the day, but they also could serve as staging areas for raids or invasions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @11:24PM
Maybe it seems that way from the outside, but not on the inside. Xi has centralized a lot of power in himself under the guise of fighting corruption. Power that was previously distributed across the government. Real life isn't black and white, there are degrees of authoritarianism and China had been making progress under Hu. They had a long way to go, but under Xi progress has been reversed.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday May 26 2017, @06:30PM
Wars are profitable to the US military industrial complex, and indirectly to congress critters.
Every performance optimization is a grate wait lifted from my shoulders.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by NewNic on Friday May 26 2017, @06:16PM (13 children)
Who was it here that was arguing that Republicans (and specifically Trump supporters) are not supporters of authoritarian leaders?
Trump congratulated this guy for what he is doing. Duterte is killing for more people than the people he is fighting.
I predict that in 10 years, the Philippines will effectively be a dictatorship (like Turkey or Venezuela), and Trump will continue cheering on the progress to dictatorship in the Philippines.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday May 26 2017, @06:23PM (6 children)
Dictators are good for U.S. interests 😎💰💰💰💰
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by NewNic on Friday May 26 2017, @06:44PM (5 children)
Only in the short term.
Take Iran for example. We are now dealing with a country that hates us, in part because western nations helped to overthrow a democracy then install and prop up a dictator.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @08:25PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday May 26 2017, @11:43PM
The problem:US is running out of taxable population,need to reduce health/social spending and environment protection costs to continue feeding the MIC.
Won't take long to get to weak population, incapable to sustain the complex anymore. The most likely outcome: fully declared fascism (with other name, of course).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday May 26 2017, @08:56PM (2 children)
The shah was already in power; the U.S. didn't install shit.* Their government was falling apart due to the British being dicks about oil. Go back and read the history.
Then in the revolution years later, the guy who came out on top promised democracy and then "oops backsies we're a theocracy now."
*The shah actually constitutionally had the power to dismiss the PM, but of course he didn't like that. And the PM had recently dissolved parliament so blaming us for "overthrowing democracy" is, if not an outright lie, incredibly misleading.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#Final_months_of_Mossadegh.27s_government [wikipedia.org]
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 4, Informative) by butthurt on Friday May 26 2017, @09:51PM (1 child)
> Their government was falling apart due to the British being dicks about oil.
Yes, exactly: the British feared that Iran's oil industry would be nationalised, and decided to destabilise Mr. Mossadegh's government to prevent that. From your linked Wikipedia article:
The British called upon the Americans, who agreed to assist in destabilising Mossadegh's government. From an article linked from the Wikipedia article (emphasis mine):
In case you can't open the National Security Archive page, it is archived at:
https://www.webcitation.org/6ql0FDJpD [webcitation.org]
The summary from the CIA's internal report, which is titled "Overthrow of Premier Mossadeq of Iran: November 1952 - August 1953," tells the story quite plainly.
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB28/summary.pdf [gwu.edu]
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Sunday May 28 2017, @02:43AM
> From an article linked from the Wikipedia article [...]
I meant to provide a link:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/19/cia-admits-role-1953-iranian-coup [theguardian.com]
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @06:33PM (2 children)
Probably the same mental giant who was arguing that conservatives care more about LGBT people than liberals.
These people have the mental capacity of a goldfish.
I take that back. It's an insult to goldfish.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @06:40PM (1 child)
Your compelling ad hominem non-arguments were so persuasive that you have completely changed my mind!
Tell me: does falling down to the floor, screaming at the top of your lungs, while kicking your legs in the air produce similar satisfactory results?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @07:01PM
No. Only ad hominem arguments do. Thank you for asking, however.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Friday May 26 2017, @07:15PM (2 children)
Trump is a piece of shit that won't live 10 years more though. He's highly irrational, permanently irritable, which translates into very high levels of stress, and it's all combined with an atrocious diet.
The only thing we ever got about his health were lies from a doctor that looks and acts like a back alley surgeon, and Doctor OZ in a purely impartial manner going over test results on live TV. At the same time, we see this 70 year old needing a button for a high fructose corn syrup infused soda pop, and an unending love for fast food. Not to mention his favorite meal is steak with ketchup. Is he overweight? Yep. Holding on to 50-60lbs at least.
People like that don't live very long lives, and I'm incredibly surprised that Trump has lasted that long. My own grandfather was somewhat similar in disposition, smoked, drank little, but also lived for fast food and terrible diets. He never made 80.
I'm incredibly curious what is going to be said when this tinpot dictator gets looked over by real medical personnel that are typically charged with the care of the Presidents. My money is that he doesn't survive this term, assuming he can escape impeachment.
I was worried about Bernie Sanders surviving a term, and he's in much better health than Trump. People forget just how old some the candidates were, and in the end, it seemed like the oldest ones were the choices.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 3, Funny) by fritsd on Friday May 26 2017, @08:13PM (1 child)
Hey, if Grace Mugabe [wikipedia.org] publicly stated: "Robert Mugabe can continue to govern even after he's dead!", then I'm sure that the Disney animatronics magicians can create a good simulacrum for America's Numero Uno! Nobody'd spot the difference and live.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday May 26 2017, @09:59PM
Oh, God...
I just had a vision of a dystopia, set hundreds of years in the future, where an authoritarian class rules using the remains of a 75ft tall animatronic Trump that rises from a swamp in the remains of Universal Studios. Angry as ever, but now with Gollum-like features :)
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Friday May 26 2017, @09:04PM
"A police chief Duterte claimed was beheaded in Marawi siege says he's safe"
-- http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/05/26/1703813/police-chief-duterte-claimed-was-beheaded-marawi-siege-says-hes-safe [philstar.com] (archived: https://www.webcitation.org/6qjzQDh48 [webcitation.org])
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @11:34PM (7 children)
Dutuerte is from Mindanao. He made his bones as a mini-authoritarian running the region, frequently in conflict with these same muslim rebels. Who themselves have been fighting against the government since decades before Marcos was kicked out. They pretty much want their own self-governing country because the rest of the philippines is hyper-catholic, like more catholic than the Pope. A couple of years ago one of the biggest rebel factions made peace with government, they had a great name to - the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF [wikipedia.org]). But shit is complicated and kind of, sort of, like the UK peace with the IRA not everybody was in agreement for a variety of reasons, some idealistic some corrupt. So here we are.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by cubancigar11 on Saturday May 27 2017, @02:40AM (6 children)
That might be true in this case, but there is no place in the world where Muslim minorities with local majority are not in armed conflict with rest of the country. It is true all over the world. Having said that, I am not a big fan of the catholic Filipinos either and precisely because I know their extremist Catholicism all very well. Still, it is always the Muslims who fail to find a peaceful solution.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 27 2017, @03:07AM (5 children)
lolwut?
You getting your talking points from breitbart?
Being from India myself I can say you are full of shit.
Mozambique, Tanzania, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, etc too.
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Saturday May 27 2017, @07:50AM (4 children)
And have you actually talked to anyone from those countries? Because I have and what I said still holds true. I have stopped reading western publications for a number of years but apparently "Being from India" still cannot make you fathom that, or stop you from invoking Brietbart-reader boogeyman.
Anyway, the north and middle African nations are notoriously home to armed conflict because of multitude of reasons, and religion being one of them. Their boundary was established by western colonists under whose rule land-owning christians and poor muslims were drafted into one nation, and land-owning muslims and poor christians were drafted into another, on historical racial basis and without taking into account of the present reality. If you talk to educated Africans they will right out blame the divide-and-rule policy of western colonizers. But for the purpose of this discussion - what I wrote is still demonstrably correct.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 27 2017, @12:51PM (1 child)
WTF? Did you just try to eurosplain to me about muslims in India?
Clue for you mister dumbfuck — I am a muslim from india.
As for your hand-waving about africa, WTF? None of what you wrote in anyway creates organized conflict by minority muslim populations in the listed countries.
Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you? You were totally fucking wrong, own it.
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Saturday May 27 2017, @06:09PM
WTF indeed. Please try to tell me where I am talking about Muslims in India. Ever heard about the Kashmir conflict? Kashmir is the only state of India where the minority Muslims are in local majority. Ever heard of Assam? What I am saying, you know it very well, being a Muslim in India. Guess what, Islam does have a problem of not being able to check its extremists. Own it, fix it.
And I don't know what is "eurosplain". The point a logical person would read into - the point I was trying to make - was that conflicts can have non-religious beginnings, but only Islam has a problem of constantly giving into armed conflicts.
And one advice - start talking like a mature person and not like a triggered harpies on twitter. Here is what I wrote: "Muslim minorities with local majority". You brought up Africa as peaceful countries with minority Muslim population. I told you that among those countries, wherever Muslims are in local majority they are in armed conflict. I also showed you that it may not be because of religious differences, but that doesn't change the FACT.
I don't care about your emotions. HTH
I was totally fucking right and you need to cut down on rhetoric if you want me to say something otherwise.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 27 2017, @04:23PM (1 child)
Lol! Did you just try to tell an indian that you know more about India than he does?
And then did you just claim that you know more about africa because you do not read but you once talked to a black guy?
And why bring up all that colonalism? It sounds like you are blaming any conflict in africa on westerners, not muslims. But in the end you pretend nothing you wrote matters and that it really is all the muslims fault. Logic!
Maybe you aren't reading breitbart, but you sure channeling their bullshit.
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Saturday May 27 2017, @05:57PM
No :| Such stupidity, much reading comprehension failure!
No? English motherfucker, do you speak it?
Where are you reading all this? Sometimes, you know, if it "sounds" like it, it is probably your mind playing games.
I know the word - triggered! That's what you are. Get going to your safe space before you say something even more stupid.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 27 2017, @12:36AM
The screeching never stops when the man says he's going to do a million times over. I'm beginning to think those screaming "authoritarian" are deliberately taught wrong, and will only approve something if it includes fluffy PR sound bites. The idiots worry more about PR than fixing the problem, probably because they're narcissists.
Fuck those mass murderers from the Southern Philippines, they kidnap tourists, invade neighboring countries, board fishing vessels, lie and cheat in the agreements, they've been making the region hell since the 70s, I hope all of them gets string up and gutted. Fuck the soft PR bullshit, it's the reason why they've been able to operate there so long, end them once and for all.
For the record, yes, I live close to the Philippines and I have no respect for the foreign invaders.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 27 2017, @12:43AM (2 children)
Due to births, the number killed in conflict can eventually exceed the population. It will, if neither side deals a fatal blow to the other.
Sucks... but such is life. Accept reality. Slay them all.
Even the Thai Buddhists, nearly the most peaceful people in the world, are fighting Muslims. Kill or be killed; there is no alternative.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 27 2017, @05:10AM (1 child)
The Rohingya are a good example of this. Move many people into a country, breed, establish the foothold needed for conquest, then try to take over the country. These people are "peaceful". They will just let us slaughter them, take their lands and wealth and women. We have the right as allah declared it so. All must submit to islam.
But it all went wrong.
These muslims failed to kill enough kafir. The kafir fought back and won.
Now there are 2 million of them spreading around the world with the aim to try again.
They do not tolerate kafir.
So, what is the humane option?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 27 2017, @12:53PM
Genocide victim blaming is about as nazi as it gets.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 27 2017, @02:41PM
Burn those towelheads to the ground. Every last one of them.