Jeremy Scahill, Alex Emmons & Ryan Grim, The Intercept: Trump called Rodrigo Duterte to congratulate him on his murderous drug war: "You Are Doing An Amazing Job"
Part 1
It was enormously controversial that President Trump placed a friendly call to Philippine strongman Duterte on April 29. Now, we can read what they said.
IN A PHONE CALL from the White House late last month, U.S. President Donald Trump heaped praise on Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, one of the world’s most murderous heads of state, for doing what Trump called an “unbelievable job” in his war on drugs. Trump offered an unqualified endorsement of Duterte’s bloody extermination campaign against suspected drug dealers and users, which has included open calls for extrajudicial murders and promises of pardons and immunity for the killers.
“You are a good man,” Trump told Duterte, according to an official transcript of the April 29 call produced by the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs and obtained by The Intercept. “Keep up the good work,” Trump told Duterte. “You are doing an amazing job.”
Trump began the call by telling Duterte, “You don’t sleep much, you’re just like me,” before quickly pivoting to the strongman’s drug war.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: This is not the first time that President Trump has called Philippine President Duterte where he praised him for his war against drugs (see above video). As for the transcript that has been leaked to The Intercept that records their second and more recent call .... it is from a Philippine source .... so its accuracy and validity is open for debate. But I read the transcript (it is here) .... and my read is the following. There are numerous grammatical errors, but President Trump definitely sounds like Trump in this transcript. He opens up by being polite to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte .... and he praises him for his drug war. This was/is definitely a poor choice of words .... Duterte's war against drugs has been condemned by every human rights groups in the world ,,,, and with cause. But President Trump does get Philippine President Duterte to open up on what was probably the main reason why he called him .... North Korea .... What Trump and Duterte said privately about North Korean nuclear threat. In this conversation the tone changes completely, and President Trump is clearly hoping that Duterte will assist him with China to curtail North Korea. In short .... the Philippine drug war is not what President Trump is focused on .... it is North Korea. Now that this transcript has been leaked to the press President Trump is going to be condemned for this .... and rightly so. But dealing with dictators and murderous authoritarian leaders when you have to is always a difficult exercise .... you have to go down to their level to win their trust. But if this transcript is accurate .... I can confidently say that President Trump definitely knows how to flatter these people to win their trust.
WNU grew up in a country that had been devastated by WW2 and was more homogenous than the U.S.
ReplyDeleteMy spouse grew up in a country that made Duterte look like a piker. Look at the films. It is hard to watch. They killed drug addicts faster than the French could use a guillotine. In that country they still kill drug dealers. They do not shoot them in the heart. They shoot them in the head and tear the top of their head off. If is very hard to watch. If that country had not done that would they be strong or still be a weak man?
As gruesome as the country seems I also know my spouse was able to as a 6 or 7 year old take public transportation from one end of the largest metropolitan areas in the world to the other and great there, no problems. I have seen that in Japan. However Japan is a very homogenous country, where convicts are given hard labor and many people are executed. It is just not widely disseminated.
Human Rights Watch and the other bananas are as effective as crap.
any effectiveness they have is occasionally getting a western government to do their bidding while they keep their hands pristine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_25zgKdqI0
Encyclopedia Galactica
Interesting interview with Duterte. https://youtu.be/rHjlCmdyesY
ReplyDeleteWe need to keep our allies, hes a wild card and he will be gone in a few years, Trump is being smart
ReplyDelete