The way Johnson looked Kennedy up and down when they were seated at the morning banquet at 9:00 am in Fort Worth was disgusting. Johnson had the look that said, “ You sorry sap. You’re going to be dead in 3 and a half hours and you don’t have a clue.” Johnson was a POS.

 

 

That GHWB knew Malcolm “Mac” Wallace from Yale is especially stunning.  ”Mac” Wallace was LBJ’s personal hit man and murdered as many as a dozen persons for Lyndon, including one of his own sisters, who was talking too much about his business to allow her to continue to speak.  There is substantial proof that LBJ was involved in the assassination, where his life had been dedicated to becoming “the president of all the people”.  As Phil Nelson, LBJ: Mastermind of JFK’s Assassination (2nd revised edition, 2011) documents, he was relentless in its pursuit.  Madeleine Duncan Brown, Texas in the Morning (1997), Barr McClellan, Blood, Money & Power (2003), and Billy Sol Estes, A Texas Legend (2004), have also identified LBJ as the pivotal player, which has been confirmed by E. Howard Hunt, “Last Confessions” (2007), who identified LBJ, Cord Meyer, David Atlee Phillips, William Harvey and David Sanchez Morales as in “the chain of command”. Even Jack Ruby, who was in the position to know, asserted that, if someone else had been Vice President, the assassination would never have occurred.  McClellan concluded that Texas oil men, such as Clint Murchison and H. L. Hunt, had provided financing for the assassination in order to preserve the oil depletion allowance at 27.5%, which remained unchanged under LBJ.  Over 100 conversations with Madeleine Duncan Brown, who began an affair with Lyndon in 1948 and bore him a son, Steven, in 1950 (who was not his only child out of wedlock but was his only male offspring), who told me about their rendezvous at the Driskill Hotel in Austin, TX, on New Year’s Eve, only six weeks after the assassination, when she confronted him with rumors that he had been involved, since no one stood to gain more personally, whereupon Lyndon blew up and told her that the CIA and the oil boys had decided that JFK had to be taken out.  And that Mac Wallace was involved is not in serious doubt. Wallace went to work for Harry Lewis and L & G Oil. In 1970 he returned to Dallas and began pressing Edward Clark for more money for his part in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. According to Barr McClellan it was then decided to kill Wallace. “He had to be eliminated. After driving to see his daughter in Troup, Texas, he went by L & G’s offices in Longview, Texas. There his exhaust was rigged for part of it to flow into his car.”On 7th January, 1971, Malcolm Wallace was killed while driving into Pittsburg, Texas. He appeared to have fallen asleep and after leaving the road crashed his car. Wallace died of massive head injuries. Soon afterwards Clifton C. Carter died aged 53. 1971 was also the year Billie Sol Estes was due to leave prison. According to Clint Peoples, a Texas Ranger based in Austin, Billie Sol Estes had promised to tell the full story of the death of Henry Marshall when he obtained his freedom. On 9th August, 1984, Estes’ lawyer, Douglas Caddy, wrote to Stephen S. Trott at the U.S. Department of Justice. In the letter Caddy claimed that Wallace, Billie Sol Estes, Lyndon B. Johnson and Cliff Carter had been involved in the murders of Henry  Marshall, George Krutilek, Harold Orr, Ike Rogers, Coleman Wade, Josefa Johnson, John Kinser and John F. Kennedy. Caddy added: “Mr. Estes is willing to testify that LBJ ordered these killings, and that he transmitted his orders through Cliff Carter to Mac Wallace, who executed the murders.” This is consistent with Billy Sol’s interview with French investigative reporter, William Reymond, during which he explained that Lyndon had sent his chief administrative assistant, Cliff Carter, down to Dallas to make sure that all the arrangements for the assassination were in place, which he reaffirms in A Texas Legend (2004).  Billy Sol knew both Cliff Carter and “Mac” Wallace personally, inferring their involvement from personal conversations. A copy of email correspondence between John Simkin of The Education Forum and Douglas Caddy may be found on amazon.com, which substantiates Lyndon’s use of Cliff Carter to convey instructions to “Mac” Wallace to commit those crimes.  Therefore stunned to discover that GHWB and “Mac” Wallace were both members of Skull & Bones at Yale. George H.W. Bush Coordinated the Dal-Tex Hit Team GHWB at the TSBD: a Houston oil man by Richard Hooke George H.W. Bush was working for the CIA at least as early as 1961; more than likely he was recruited in his college days, at Yale, when he was in the Skull and Bones Society. He and his wife Barbara moved to Houston where he ran an offshore oil drilling business, Zapata Offshore Co., which was a CIA front company with rigs located all over the world, making it very convenient for him to vanish for weeks at a time on CIA business where one would suspect what he was doing. Bush was a major organizer and recruiter for the Bay of Pigs invasion, which was codenamed Operation ZAPATA. Col. Fletcher Prouty, former Pentagon high ranking official, who was the basis for the “Col. X” character in Oliver Stone’s “JFK”, obtained two Navy ships for the operation that were repainted to non-Navy colors and then renamed HOUSTON and BARBARA. George H.W. “Poppy” Bush is one of the few who could never recall where he was or what he was doing when JFK was assassinated; as a matter of fact, for over 20 years, he could not recall any details at all. He was 39 years old at the time and chairman of the Harris County (Houston) Republican Party and an outspoken critic of JFK. But on 21 November 1963, GHWB was staying at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Dallas and spoke that very evening to the American Association of Oil Drilling Contractors. Some time later, he was reportedly at “the ratification meeting” at the home of Clint Murchison, Sr., receiving last minute instructions and toasting JFK’s murder the night before it happened. [NOTE: Madeleine Duncan Brown has written about this event in her book, Texas in the Morning (1997). It was corroborated by Nigel Turner in Part 9, "The Guilty Men", of "The Men who Killed Kennedy".] YouTube - Veterans Today - Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig reported to Jim Garrison he knew of twelve arrests made in Dealey Plaza that day. One, in particular, was made by R.E. Vaughn of the Dallas Police Department, was of a man coming out of the Dal-Tex Building, who said he was “an independent oil operator from Houston, Texas.” The prisoner was taken from Vaughn, by Dallas Police detectives, and that was the last he saw of him:  no mug shot, no interview, no fingerprints, or name is in existence of this mystery man. “Independent oil operator from Houston” was always George Bush’s (CIA) cover. Exactly why was he arrested? Garrison reported the man came running out of the Dal-Tex building and authorities could hardly avoid arresting him because of the clamor of onlookers. He was taken to the Sheriff’s office for questioning, although there is no record of it. Afterward, two officers escorted him out of the building to the jeers of the waiting crowd. They put him in a police car and he was driven away; presumably right back to Dealey Plaza, because that is where he was photographed with USAF Gen. Ed Lansdale. Indeed, he was identified walking past “the three tramps” (center) by no less authorities than L. Fletcher Prouty, the liaison between the Pentagon and the CIA for covert activities–who was the basis for the figure, “Col. X”, in Oliver Stone’s “JFK”, and Victor Krulak, former Commandant of the Marine Corps, both of whom knew him well. As for the identity of GHWB, we have these observations from Ralph Cinque, a professional chiropractor, who is an expert in dealing with person’s bodies and clothing, “The case for George HW being there is cinched. What’s the serious alternative? That a simply amazing coincidence occurred in which a man who  looked strikingly like him just happened to be there? How many times does V (for Vendetta in the film, “V for Vendetta”) have to tell us that he, like God, does not play dice and does not believe in coincidences? Neither do I or any other serious student of murder,  especially not when it involves the JFK assassination.” We have a photo of him standing in front of the Texas School Book Depository; we have photos of Ed Lansdale in Dealey Plaza at the time; and we have yet another in which Lansdale, who was famous for arranging assassinations around the world, waiting to speak to him.  In this case, it may justifiably be said that “pictures really are worth more than a thousand words”. The Phony Alibi The next we hear of George H.W. Bush on 22 November 1963 is an FBI Memorandum according to which GHWG, having been cut loose from his anonymous interrogation at the Dallas Sheriff’s Office, called into SAC Graham W. Kitchel of the FBI Office in Houston alleging was establishing a phony alibi in saying he recalled hearing, in recent weeks, a man named James Parrott talking of killing the President when he came to Houston. Shortly after Bush made this call, FBI agents were dispatched to the Parrot house. In another FBI memo Parrot’s mother said James, who was not home when the FBI arrived, had been home all day helping her care for her son Gary. Mrs. Parrot advised that shortly after 1 PM a Mr. Reynolds came by and talked to her son about painting some signs at Republican Headquarters on Waugh Drive. The net effect was Kerney Reynold’s, George Bush’s assistant, gave Parrot an alibi and Parrot was Bush’s alibi; everyone’s ass was covered. A bogus phone call reporting a would-be assassin who was one of Bush’s Republican Party sign-painters; who himself is also freed by an alibi from one of Bush’s buddies, really doesn’t cut it; this is CIA Alibi 101. This type of stuff cannot be allowed to stand in history; if Bush was so concerned about his sign painter, why didn’t he call in to alert the FBI before President Kennedy came to Dallas? Bush has handed us his head on a silver platter with this memo; that’s why he always said he didn’t remember what his was doing on 11/22/63; he was hoping this incredibly stupid memo never surfaced. Bush was worried he had been seen and subsequently panicked and stupidly called the FBI, thinking he was being clever by providing evidence that it wasn’t him that was arrested in front of the Dal-Tex building that day. It seemed like a good idea, at the time, but he was actually creating a permanent record of his involvement. The memo identifies Bush as an oil man from Houston placing a long distance call from Tyler, Texas. Bush was trying to establish he was not in Dallas during, or shortly after, the assassination. He must had been worried that someone would identify him as the oil man detained running out of the Dal-Tex building and being ushered in and out of the Dallas Sheriff’s office. This FBI memo, dated 22 November 1963, states that Bush called from Tyler, Texas but there is no proof he was actually there. For over 20 years after the assassination, Bush said he did not remember where he was when the assassination took place at 12:30 PM in Dallas.  The only other person of whom I hae heard such a story was Richard Nixon, who flew out of Love Field just two hours before JFK flew in. Conspicuously, this FBI memo fails to provide an answer to where George Bush actually was. The memo, however, does tell us that the first moment Bush was free to create a phony alibi was at 1:45 PM. Bush was staying in downtown Dallas at the Sheraton Hotel, just few blocks from Dealey Plaza, yet he’s trying to tell us he was in Tyler, Texas at 1:45 PM. George Bush’s CIA assignment was obviously in Dallas, that’s why he was staying there, so what would he have been doing in Tyler? JFK had just been shot at 12:30 PM. Would  Bush not have been in Dallas at 12:30 PM as well, like everyone else, which was presumably the reason for him having been in town at the Dallas Sheraton Hotel? Would Bush not have driven down the road to Parkland Hospital, to check on the President’s condition; like everyone else? Except Bush was being interrogated at the Sheriff’s Office. The FBI Memorandum Bush appears to be a candidate for prosecution for treason: his alibis for 22 November 1963 are fabricated and we have evidence that shows he was there. An FBI memo of a call from Tyler Texas does not prove his location, except that he had concocted a textbook CIA alibi, that he was lying and probably was an accessory to JFK’s murder. Bush maintained for over twenty years after the assassination that he simply did not remember what he was doing at the time of the assassination. As a matter of fact, he had no explanation even in his autobiography; and then, all of a sudden, he concocted a story that he was speaking in Tyler, Texas to The Rotary Club. Aubrey Irby said Bush was speaking when the bellhop came over and informed Aubrey that JFK was dead. Mr. Aubrey passed the info on to Mr. Wendell Cherry Irby, who passed it onto Bush, who stopped his speech. According to Irby, Bush explained he thought a political speech was inappropriate under the circumstances, concluded speaking and simply sat down. It is inconceivable that George Bush could not have remembered this event for over twenty years. Walter Cronkite’s announcement to the world that JFK was dead came on TV at 1:38 PM. Does anyone think that Bush was making a speech at that time, in Tyler Texas to the Rotary Club, after the President and Governor Connally were known to have been shot at 12:30 PM? President Kennedy had been scheduled to give a speech for lunch at the Dallas Trade Mart, after he passed through Dealey Plaza. Everyone who was anyone around Dallas was going to attend that speech; and after JFK was shot, most rushed to Parkland Hospital to find out the latest news concerning the gravely wounded President and Governor. A speech being given in Tyler Texas, inside a building owned by right wingers, to a group of Republican JFK haters, hardly qualities as evidence Bush was not in Dallas, where the available evidence suggests that he was on assignment for the CIA and was supervising the Dal-Tex hit team, from which three shots appear to have been fired with a Mannlicher-Carcano, which appears to have been the the only non-silenced weapon that was used: Bullet hole/Doorway Man/Dal-Tex window/Danny Acre and Johnny Rosselli(?) Next, George Bush can be seen in photos of Dealey Plaza, next to the TSBD doorway and Ed Lansdale, shortly following the assassination (see below). These photos, unmistakably George Bush, tell us where he went after he left the Dallas Sheriff’s Office: back to the crime scene to get an update on all that he had missed. He must have made his call to the FBI reporting James Parrot from the Dallas Sheriff’s Office, at 1:45 PM, because Bush is seen in Dealey Plaza with Lansdale, who would leave the plaza at about 2 PM and walked past the three tramps toward the parking lot. Bush obviously had to go straight back to Dealey Plaza to be photographed with Lansdale who remained around Dealey Plaza until Oswald was arrested at the Texas Theater at 1:50 PM. If Lee had not been arrested, then Lansdale as “Plan B” might have framed the three tramps–Charles Rogers, Charles Harrelson and Chauncey Marvin Holt (often misidentified as E. Howard Hunt)–who had been directed to go to a boxcar and the assassination have been blamed on them. Holt (CIA), the tramp with the hat, reported that they were found in the box car and taken through the plaza right after Oswald was arrested, which he knew because he was listening in, on a CIA provided radio concealed inside the paper bag that he is carrying in the familiar photos. An Incriminating Memorandum An FBI Memo from director J. Edgar Hoover (to the right), discovered by John McBride in 1988 but written just seven days after the assassination, provides verification George H.W. Bush was an officer of the CIA in 1963 and was provided updates on the anti-Castro Cubans. George Bush has said this memo was referring to another “George Bush” because he wasn’t in the CIA at the time.  But while there was another man by that name, he was a file clerk and would not have been receiving a memorandum about the Bay of Pigs operation.  And other information has surfaced showing the George Bush in the document was indeed George H.W. Bush and had his same address. In 1976, President Ford appointed George Bush as the Director of the CIA, replacing William Colby. Bush served in this role for 357 days, from 30 January  1976 to 20 January 1977. Bush falsely testified before Congress that he had never worked for the CIA, and it was widely reported that this was the first time that a civilian would be appointed to run the agency.  But that was more poppycock from Poppy. George Bush appears to have been a CIA lifer, probably recruited right out of Yale. George H.W. Bush (CIA) was also a close friend with George De Mohrenschildt (CIA), including they were both members of the Dallas Petroleum Club. After De Mohrenschildt was found shot to death the day before he was to be questioned by Gaton Fonzi for the HSCA reinvestigation of the deaths of JFK and MLK in the late 1970’s, Bush’s name and address were found in De Mohrenschildt’s address book: “Bush, George H.W. (Poppy) 1412 W. Ohio also Zapata Petroleum Midland.” CIA documents reveal that during the planning of the Bay of Pigs Operation (Operation Zapata), De Mohrenschildt made frequent trips to Mexico and Panama and gave reports to the CIA. His son-in-law also told the Warren Commission that he believed De Mohrenschildt was spying for the planned Cuban invasion. George De Mohrenschildt, notably, was Lee Harvey Oswald’s best friend and appears to have been his handler after Oswald was brought to Dallas in the fall of 1963 and would find work at the TSBD. Was Bush in the Window? In The Killing of a President (1994), Robert Groden observes that a dark-complected man was seen in the window, whom James Richards has identified to me as having been Nestor “Tony” Izquierdo, for whom there is a statue in Freedom Park of “Little Havana”, Miami, Florida.  He was an anti-Castro Cuban, whom GHWB may have known from the Bay of Pigs.  I have built upon the prior research of Duncan MacRae, “Dal-Tex Shooter 2nd floor”, which provides the most suggestive interpretation of the location from which three rifle shots appear to have been fired: Given that Bush was in the building at the time, I infer that he was there in the background, inside the window of a broom closet of a uranium mining company on the second floor of the Dal-Tex building (which was a CIA asset). My interpretation is that someone with GHWB’s preppy haircut, large left ear, tall height, body language (head tilt), hairline part and forehead profile, was supervising the Dal-Tex hit team (see collage below). He was in Dallas for a reason, which was not to watch the presidential motorcade, and appears to have been a supervisor rather than a shooter, were it is very likely he was communicating using a radio device with a spotter. That spotter may have been Danny Arce (CIA), who can be seen speaking into a walkie-talkie, out on Houston Street (in the Altgens6 photo above), standing next to Johnny Roselli (CIA/Mafia). Arce was talking with someone as multiple shots were fired. Ruth Ann (CIA) was reported (by complicit witness Loy Factor) to have been counting down a cadence and to have been receiving information by walkie-talkie from the 6th floor of the TSBD. Umbrella Man’s assistant, probably Orlando Boshe (CIA), was not talking on his radio as limousine passed the Stemmons Freeway sign and the Umbrella man pumped his umbrella up and down, which appears to have been a signal to “keep firing” because the target was still alive.  [NOTE: It was at a location that was visible from all of the shooting locations that I have identified above.] Chauncey Holt (CIA), the oldest of the tramps, said he had a CIA supplied radio, concealed in his brown paper bag that kept him updated on events even from inside the Rock Island Railroad boxcar. Holt had delivered 15 sets of fake Secret Service ID and left them in a red pick-up truck parked in the lot behind the  grassy knoll, which was used by the Dallas Police Department, earlier that morning, facilitating the escape of the grassy knoll shooters. And Lee Bowers, the railway tower switchman, also testified to the Warren Commission that he observed strange people driving behind the picket fence and noticed one using a walkie-talkie. Proof Sketch GWHB was there (1) The FBI report (memo) Bush called in at 11/22/63 1:45 PM identified him as an oil business man from Houston, Texas and the FBI office he called was the Houston office. (2) The man arrested running out of the Dal-Tex building at approximately 12:35 PM on 11/22 was said (per Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig) to have identified himself as an oil man from Houston. Bush was arrested by R.E. Vaughn of the Dallas Police Department. (3) Bush called his FBI warning about James Parrot by long distance to his friend, FBI Special Agent Graham W. Kitchel, at the FBI office in Houston. (4) James Parrot had no history as a subversive and was a sign painter for George Bush’s Republican Senate campaign. (5) James Parrot was quickly provided an alibi by another friend, who was also an assistant of Bush, Kerney Reynolds. (6) George Bush was staying in Dallas at the downtown Sheraton Hotel and had spent the previous night (of the 21st) there. (7) There are at least two photos of George Bush (CIA) in Dealey Plaza speaking with police shortly after JFK was shot at 12:30 PM. (8) One of those photos has Bush (CIA) standing next to Ed Lansdale (CIA). (9) One of the photos shows Bush near the TSBD doorway in a zone police had cordoned off, which would have taken special ID (CIA). (10) The photo next to Lansdale most likely was taken between 1:45 PM, when Bush called in his bogus FBI memo, and 2 PM, when Lansdale is pictured exiting the plaza passing the three tramps. The tramps were taken from the boxcar at approximately 1:50 PM, when Oswald was arrested at the Texas Theater. (11) For over 20 years George H. W. Bush said he did not remember what he was doing during the assassination, then he suddenly remembered he was giving a speech to the Rotary Club in Tyler at 1:38 PM, while his FBI call reporting James Parrot was placed at 1:45 PM. (12) His attendance with Malcolm “Mac” Wallace at Yale, when “Mac” was LBJ’s personal hit man and his attendance at the ratification meeting at the home of Clint Murchison, Sr., are powerful circumstantial evidence of his complicity in the assassination of JFK. POSTSCRIPT Remarkably, there is a figure (in the DCA film) walking off the corner of Houston & Elm and toward the Dal- Tex building, where “the oil man from Houston” (George H.W. Bush) had been arrested minutes earlier, who looks a great deal like his son, 17 year old George W. Bush.  This figures ear, nose (where a crude effort to change the nose has been made in the second of these three images), bridge indent and jawline are a very close match to George W. Bush, where the preppy loafers and white sox he’s wearing are cheerleader appropriate.  It looks like W. was there, too. Johnson's deceitful speech of Aug. 4, 1964, won accolades from editorial writers. The president, proclaimed the New York Times, "went to the American people last night with the somber facts." The Los Angeles Times urged Americans to "face the fact that the Communists, by their attack on American vessels in international waters, have themselves escalated the hostilities." An exhaustive new book, The War Within: America's Battle Over Vietnam, begins with a dramatic account of the Tonkin Gulf incidents. In an interview, author Tom Wells told us that American media "described the air strikes that Johnson launched in response as merely `tit for tat' -- when in reality they reflected plans the administration had already drawn up for gradually increasing its overt military pressure against the North." Why such inaccurate news coverage? Wells points to the media's "almost exclusive reliance on U.S. government officials as sources of information" -- as well as "reluctance to question official pronouncements on `national security issues.'" Daniel Hallin's classic book The `Uncensored War' observes that journalists had "a great deal of information available which contradicted the official account [of Tonkin Gulf events]; it simply wasn't used. The day before the first incident, Hanoi had protested the attacks on its territory by Laotian aircraft and South Vietnamese gunboats." What's more, "It was generally known...that `covert' operations against North Vietnam, carried out by South Vietnamese forces with U.S. support and direction, had been going on for some time." In the absence of independent journalism, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution -- the closest thing there ever was to a declaration of war against North Vietnam -- sailed through Congress on Aug. 7. (Two courageous senators, Wayne Morse of Oregon and Ernest Gruening of Alaska, provided the only "no" votes.) The resolution authorized the president "to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression." The rest is tragic history. Government releases complete Pentagon Papers for first time today... after 40 years of secrecy about the Vietnam War era Hero: Daniel Ellsberg, in file photo, was a government analyst when he leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971 Forty years after the explosive leak of the Pentagon Papers, a secret government study chronicling deception and misadventure in U.S. conduct of the Vietnam War, the report is released in its entirety. The 7,000-page report was the WikiLeaks disclosure of its time, a sensational breach of government confidentiality that shook Richard Nixon's presidency and prompted a Supreme Court fight that advanced press freedom. Prepared near the end of Lyndon Johnson's term by Defense Department and private foreign policy analysts, the report was leaked primarily by one of them, Daniel Ellsberg, in a brash act of defiance that stands as one of the most dramatic episodes of whistleblowing in U.S. history. The National Archives and presidential libraries released the report in full Monday, long after most of its secrets had spilled. The release is timed 40 years to the day after The New York Times published the first in its series of stories about the findings, on June 13, 1971. The papers showed that the Johnson, Kennedy and prior administrations had been escalating the conflict in Vietnam while misleading Congress, the public and allies. As scholars pore over the 47-volume report, Mr Ellsberg says the chance of them finding great new revelations is dim. Most of it has come out in congressional forums and by other means, and Mr Ellsberg plucked out the best when he painstakingly photocopied pages that he spirited from a safe night after night, and returned in the mornings. He told The Associated Press the value in Monday's release was in having the entire study finally brought together and put online, giving today's generations ready access to it. Press freedom: Katharine Graham (with Bobby Kennedy in 1968) led The Washington Post through the Pentagon Papers era At the time, Mr Nixon was delighted that people were reading about bumbling and lies by his predecessor, which he thought would take some anti-war heat off him. But if he loved the substance of the leak, he hated the leaker. He called the leak an act of treachery and vowed that the people behind it 'have to be put to the torch'. He feared that Mr Ellsberg represented a left-wing cabal that would undermine his own administration with damaging disclosures if the government did not crush him and make him an example for all others with loose lips. It was his belief in such a conspiracy, and his willingness to combat it by illegal means, that put him on the path to the Watergate scandal that destroyed his presidency. Mr Nixon's attempt to avenge the Pentagon Papers leak failed. First the Supreme Court backed the Times, The Washington Post and others in the press and allowed them to continue publishing stories on the study in a landmark case for the First Amendment. Then the government's espionage and conspiracy prosecution of Mr Ellsberg and his colleague Anthony J. Russo Jr. fell apart, a mistrial declared because of government misconduct. The judge threw out the case after agents of the White House broke into the office of Mr Ellsberg's psychiatrist to steal records in hopes of discrediting him, and after it surfaced that Mr Ellsberg's phone had been tapped illegally. Battled: President Richard Nixon at first supported release of the Pentagon Papers, then decided to aggressively stop the leak That September 1971 break-in was tied to the Plumbers, a shady White House operation formed after the Pentagon Papers disclosures to stop leaks, smear Mr Nixon's opponents and serve his political ends. The next year, the Plumbers were implicated in the break-in at the Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate building. Mr Ellsberg remains convinced the report - a thick, often turgid read - would have had much less impact if Mr Nixon had not temporarily suppressed publication with a lower court order and had not prolonged the headlines even more by going after him so hard. Mr Ellsberg said, 'Very few are going to read the whole thing. That's why it was good to have the great drama of the injunction'. The declassified report includes 2,384 pages missing from what was regarded as the most complete version of the Pentagon Papers, published in 1971 by Democratic Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska. But some of the material absent from that version appeared - with redactions - in a report of the House Armed Services Committee, also in 1971. In addition, at the time, Mr Ellsberg did not disclose a section on peace negotiations with Hanoi, in fear of complicating the talks, but that part was declassified separately years later. Mr Ellsberg served with the Marines in Vietnam and came back disillusioned.

Anti-war protests in the United States. New York: pacifist protesters march and demonstrate against the United States involvement in the Vietnam War from the Central park to the UN headquarters building. Masses of people including doctors,teachers and businessmen on streets. People dressed in different costumes as they protest. Martin Luther King, an African American civil rights activist walks with other officials advocating peace. Policemen drag a protester. San Francisco : 50000 people carry banners as they protest and march to the Kezar Stadium for a mass assembly. People push each other during the protest. A huge crowd gathered at a stadium. Location: United States. Date: April 18, 1967. Vietnam protesters at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco during one of many rallies around the country as part of the April 1967 "Spring Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam."

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Eight Out Of Ten Against Extra Judicial Killings of Duterte

A Country, A Race, A Nation

Hosts to heroes long since departed,

Mark the revolutions.

The governments, who left dry tokens

Of their sojourn here

On the pearl of the Orient Seas,

Any broad alarm of the hastening doom

Is lost in the gloom of crimes against its people.

But today, the Country cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,

Come, you may stand upon my

Back and face your distant destiny,

But seek no haven in my shadow.

I will give you no retiring place down here.

You, created only a little lower than

The guardians, have crouched too long in

The bruising darkness,

Have lain too long, Face down in feudal ignorance.

Your minds spelling rancor

Armed for slaughter.

The country cries out today, you may stand on me,

But do not hide behind false constitution.

Across the hall of nations,

A poor people cries for justice, Come rest here by my side.................ASC

Mortuary workers cram the bodies of Filipinos killed in President Duterte’s crime crackdown into makeshift tombs as shocked families watch on

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT

Dead bodies lay unclaimed in Manila morgue as families struggle to cope with death toll of the drug war

Photos taken in capital's morgue show workers living among victims of extrajudicial killings in shanty town

President Duterte was elected in landslide last year after vowing to stop the use of drugs by killing thousands

Some 6,000 people have been killed in the war since July and Catholic Church has now condemned murders

Hundreds of dead bodies lay unclaimed in the morgues of Manila as families struggle to cope with the death toll of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs.

Horrifying photos taken inside the capital's makeshift morgue show workers and their children living among the dead and cramming bodies into mass graves as the city fails to cope with the number of victims of extrajudicial killings.

The killings have become so prevalent that the cemetery has now become a shanty town.

Duterte was elected in a landslide in June last year, after vowing to eradicate the use of illegal drugs in the country by killing tens of thousands of people.

More than 6,000 people have been killed during the drug war since it started last July and Duterte has now threatened to impose martial law in his drive against users and dealers.

The radical leader insists he is not a killer, despite the streets being littered with dead bodies, and seems undeterred by international condemnation of his actions.

Police have reported killing 2,250 drug suspects in the past six months. Another 3,710 people were murdered by unknown vigilantes who left signs at the crime scenes accusing their victims of being drug dealers or addicts.

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Morgue workers in Manila are pictured carrying an unclaimed body of a victim of an extrajudicial killing as children look on

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The cemetery has now become a shanty town for people searching for missing relatives, morgue workers or those left homeless by the murder of a family member

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Horrifying photos taken inside the capital's makeshift morgue show workers living among the dead and cramming bodies into graves as the city fails to cope with the volume of victims of extrajudicial killings

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Many children stay in the cemetery. The smell in the cramped morgue is foul as bodies start to decompose before workers have time to bury them

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Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte was elected in a landslide in June last year, after vowing to eradicate the use of illegal drugs in the country by killing tens of thousands of people

Duterte has made no apologies for the killings, saying he would be happy to 'slaughter' three million drug addicts to stop the Philippines from descending into a 'Latin American-style narco state'.

The Catholic Church, counting eight out of every 10 Filipinos among its flock, has now come out against the killings.

Jerome Secillano, public affairs chief for the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said: 'The Church right now is asserting its influence, that's why in the coming months the Church will be at the forefront in leading against extrajudicial killings. (The drug war) is not any more in accord with the legal processes, and the moral norms are being violated and so now is the time for the Church to speak up.'

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More than 6,000 people have been killed during drug war since it started last July and Duterte has now threatened to impose martial law in his drive against users and dealers

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The radical leader insists he is not a killer, despite the streets being littered with dead bodies, and seems undeterred by international condemnation of his actions

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Many children have been left homeless by the war on drugs and their parents and relatives lie dead in the cemetery

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Police have reported killing 2,250 drug suspects in the past six months. Another 3,710 people were murdered by unknown vigilantes

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Many of the unknown vigilante killers left signs at the crime scenes accusing their victims of being drug dealers or addicts

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The dead are crammed into graves at least two at a time as the morgue struggles to cope with the number of unclaimed bodies

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Human rights activists have placed the Philippines in the forefront of their concern as thousands of extrajudicial killings continue since the campaign against illegal drugs began in July last year

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Masked morgue workers prepare to bury two bodies, wrapped in an American flag, together as children who now called the shanty town home look on

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Duterte has made no apologies for the killings, saying he would be happy to 'slaughter' three million drug addicts to stop the Philippines from descending into a 'Latin American-style narco state'

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The public cemetery and mortuary has become a makeshift shanty town and rubbish clutters the 'streets' surrounding the dead bodies

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The Catholic Church, counting eight out of every 10 Filipinos among its flock, has now come out against the killings

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A young child is pictured hanging from one of the graves as more victims are brought to the mortuary by the van load

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Bodies wrapped in an American flag are carried to their burial site. In July, 60,000 Filipino drug addicts surrendered themselves to the government after the President urged citizens to 'go ahead and kill' drug dealers and users But the death toll has continued to rise

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President Duterte has made it clear he would pardon police if they were charged with human rights violations for carrying out his merciless orders. Pictured: Morgue workers spray decomposing bodies with chemicals

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Thousands of victms, many of them parents to young children, are thought to have been gunned down by vigilante groups, who are paid in cash for each confirmed kill

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The vigilante groups are a key part in Duterte's pledge to kill 100,000 drug users and dealers and fill Manila Bay with their bodies

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

THE KILLING FIELDS

Duterte's back-street butchers: Bodies pile up as crackdown claims 5,900 lives in five months and president declares 'You want me to stop? Then stop taking drugs'

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs has sent the death toll to 5,927 in the five months he's been in office

Radical leader insists he is not a killer despite the country's streets being littered with bodies in crackdown

He has insisted the operation will continue having previously urged citizens to 'go ahead' and kill drug dealers

Less than half of deaths - 2,086 - are linked to police operations with the rest believed to be vigilante killings

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs has sent the death toll to 5,927 in five months and has said the way to stop the slaughter is to stop taking drugs.

The radical leader insists he is not a killer, despite the country's streets being littered with dead bodies due to his crackdown on illicit drugs.

President Duterte said he is not about to pull the plug on his operation, but would happily allow citizens to enjoy Christmas and New Year in peace if people stopped taking drugs.

A poem, my lamentations about the country, and our people crying out for justice...ASC

Rain pours onto the body of Romeo Torres Fontanilla, who was gunned down, witnesses said, by two unknown men on a motorbike, in the Pasay district of Manila, Philippines

The basketball court at the Quezon City Jail, which has become a sleeping area, in the Philippines

Police investigators near the body of Michael Araja, 29, who neighbors said was killed by two men riding by on a motorbike, in the Pasay district of Manila, Philippines

The bodies of Frederick Mafe, 48, and Arjay Lumbago, 23, who were riding together on a motorbike when they were killed by a pair on another motorbike, in Quezon City, Philippines

Police investigators hunched over the body of Romeo Torres Fontanilla, who was gunned down, witnesses said, by two unknown men on a motorbike, as it rains in the Pasay district of Manila, Philippines

Jimji, 6, cries out in anguish, saying 'Papa' as workers move the body of her father, Jimboy Bolasa, 25, for burial, in Manila, Philippines

He told the Phil Star: 'They say there have been a lot of killings, executions and extrajudicial killings. You want these to end?

'It's simple. You drug users should stop.

'Stop it and there will be a peaceful New Year and Christmas.'

His national police released figures on Monday stating there had been 5,927 deaths linked to the war on drugs in the Philippines since July 1, according to CNN.

Part of President Duterte's manifesto was to crack down on illegal drugs and he was elected to office in May.

In July, 60,000 Filipino drug addicts surrendered themselves to the government after the President urged citizens to 'go ahead and kill' drug dealers and users.

But the death toll has continued to rise, with 2,086 killed in police operations and 3,841 in extra-judicial or vigilante-style killings.

More than 40,000 suspects have been arrested, but President Duterte has made it clear he would pardon police if they were charged with human rights violations for carrying out his merciless orders.

Duterte has repeatedly denied that police are carrying out extra-judicial killings, which involve victims' faced being taped up, but in September said he would be 'happy to slaughter' three million drug addicts.

Many are thought to have been gunned down by vigilante groups, who are paid in cash for each confirmed kill, with many leaving cards labelled pushers next to bodies to prove the hit.

These groups are a key part in Duterte's pledge to kill 100,000 drug users and dealers and fill Manila Bay with their bodies.

An unidentified body that was found with his head wrapped in packing tape, his hands tied behind his back and a cardboard sign that read, 'A pusher who won't stop will have his life ended,' on a street in Manila, Philippines

Bodies stacked up at a funeral parlor as the families of victims like Danilo Deparine, whose body lay on a metal stretcher on the floor, struggle to pay for burial, in Manila, Philippines

Inmates at a Manila police station watch as drug suspects are processed after their arrests in the Philippines

The funeral of Benjamin Visda, 43, who had left a family birthday celebration to get something from a convenience store when he was snatched off the street and killed, according to relatives, in Manila, Philippines

Four men arrested for possession of drugs cover their faces from the camera in Manila, Philippines

Nellie Diaz hunches over the body of her husband, Crisostomo, a drug user who had surrendered but still ended up dead, in Manila, Philippines

Duterte, 71, won elections in a landslide on a pledge to kill tens of thousands of criminals to fight narco-politics in the Philippines.

Since he took office the crackdown has claimed thousands of lives, but told Phil Star: 'I won't hold back and abandon my job. Somebody has to be sacrificed for it. That's OK with me. It's part of the territory to be disliked.

'I do not offer any excuses or apologies. I will answer God when I face him.'

Some have accused him of crimes against humanity, human rights abuses and mass executions, but Duterte maintains his campaign will transform the country.

'I cannot explain every death in this country,' he added.

But if you tell me to hold back, I cannot because I cannot afford it.

'I cannot now stop the momentum with the four million drug addicts spread all throughout the country.'

People visit the tombs of their loved ones on All Saints Day at the Barangka cemetery in the Marikina area of Manila, Philippines

Relatives overcome with grief at the site where the bodies of Frederick Mafe and Arjay Lumbago lie sprawled in the middle of a street in Manila, Philippines

Funeral parlor workers carry away Edwin Mendoza Alon-Alon, 36, who was shot in the head outside a 7-Eleven store, in the Paranaque area of Manila, Philippines

The blood of Florjohn Cruz, 34, stains the floor in his family's living room, next to an altar displaying images and statues of the Virgin Mary, among other items, in Manila, Philippines

Police at the scene of Ronald Kalau's death, in Manila, Philippines

The busy Tondo neighborhood of Manila, the Philippines where President Rodrigo Duterteís brutal anti-drug campaign rages

Roel Scott, 13, inspects the bloodied spot where his uncle, Joselito Jumaquio, 52, was killed by the police, in Manila, Philippines

Family and friends attend the funeral of Joselito Jumaquio, who was slain by a mob of masked men, in Manila, Philippines

Night vision goggles show a police drug raid in Philippines

Duterte said he is overwhelmed by the seriousness of the drug problem in the country and has vowed to fight on.

He said the drug industry had infiltrated government, with more than 2,000 officials and local executives involved in the narcotics trade, according to Phil Star.

Despite coming in for criticism, the President is hopeful billionaires would support his campaign, citing the Chinese real estate tycoon Huang Rulun, who helped pay for the rehabilitation facility in Nueva Ecija.

China is ready to give the Philippines weapons to help wage his controversial war on drugs, the Chinese ambassador to Manila said.

More gruesome images have emerged of suspected drug dealers lying dead in the streets of Manila as the Philippine government intensifies its brutal war on narcotics.

Nearly 1,000 people have been killed by police or vigilantes since President Rodrigo Duterte came to power and embarked on a bloody campaign against illegal drugs.

Pictures emerged on Monday of slain drug dealers and users on the streets of Manila, investigators taking photographs of the corpses and placing them into body bags.

A police investigator takes pictures of the corpse of a suspected drug pusher and victim of a vigilante-style execution with his hands tied and head wrapped with tape on a street in Manila

The corpse of a suspected drug pusher lies outside a house after he was shot dead following a police operation at a slum area in Manila

Police investigators find an empty bullet shell next to the corpse of a suspected drug pusher after he was shot dead following an encounter with police

Duterte has publicly named hundreds of politicians, military and police personnel, and other influential people allegedly involved in the drug trade and has ordered them to surrender or be hunted down.

The president won a landslide election victory in May, a victory that was largely based on a pledge to kill tens of thousands of criminals.

'These sons of w****s are destroying our children. I warn you, don't go into that, even if you're a policeman, because I will really kill you,' the president told an audience during a speech in Manila.

He vowed on one occasion during the election campaign that 100,000 people would die, and so many bodies would be dumped in Manila Bay that the fish there would grow fat from feeding on them, according to the South China Morning Post.

The latest images emerge after a man was pictured lying bloodied and motionless on the streets of Manila after he reportedly fought back during a drug bust operation. It is thought he died at the scene.

Nearly 1,000 people have been killed by police or vigilantes since President Rodrigo Duterte came to power and embarked on a bloody campaign against illegal drugs

Workers from a funeral parlour load into an ambulance a corpse collected from the Paranaque city jail, where a grenade blast killed 10 inmates, 8 of whom were awaiting trial for drug-related cases

Duterte has made it clear he would pardon police if they were charged with human rights violations

Graphic images show a suspected drug dealer lying dead in the streets of Philippine capital Manila after he resisted arrest

President Duterte has made it clear he would pardon police if they were charged with human rights violations for carrying out his merciless orders.

The continuing bloodshed in the Philippines has begun to inflame diplomatic tensions, with the US embassy warning the Duterte government military aid allotted to the country was tied to adherence to the rule of law, due process and respect for human rights.

'We are concerned by reports regarding extrajudicial killings of individuals suspected to have been involved in drug activity in the Philippines,' the embassy said.

'We strongly urge the Philippines to ensure its law enforcement efforts are consistent with its human rights obligations,' the embassy added.

A man lying bloodied and motionless on the streets of Manila after he reportedly fought back during a drug bust operation

Mr Duterte said he would pardon police if they were charged with human rights violations for carrying out his orders

Two women cry in grief after armed assailants in a motorcycle shot their loved one in a main thoroughfare on July 23, in Manila

A Philippine foreign department statement said that Manila was focused on the eradication of drugs in society.

'Nevertheless, while pursuing this objective, the Philippine government is committed to the rule of law, and the protection of human rights for all.

'We do not condone any unlawful killings and Philippine authorities have been instructed to immediately look into these incidents and bring the perpetrators to justice.'

One of the nation's top human rights lawyers, Jose Manuel Diokno, warned that Duterte had 'spawned a nuclear explosion of violence that is spiralling out of control and creating a nation without judges'.

Night vision goggles show a police drug raid in Philippines

A crime scene shows where an alleged drug dealer was killed last month. Philippine police said they had killed 550 drug suspects while arresting nearly 8,000 others since the May election

A young alleged drug dealer pictured in July with his hands and feet bound and his head wrapped in tape besides a road

A man in a blood soaked white t-shirt lays curled up on the ground next to a handgun

Top Philippine drug war critic arrested, but defiant

Philippine Senator Leila De Lima (C), a top critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, is escorted by police officers and her lawyer Alex Padilla (R) after her arrest at the Senate in Manila on February 24, 2017The highest-profile critic of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's brutal drug war was arrested on Friday on charges she said were meant to silence her, but she vowed to keep fighting the "sociopathic serial killer".Speaking to journalists minutes before armed police in flak jackets detained her, Senator Leila de Lima insisted she was innocent of the drug trafficking charges that could see her jailed for life."It is my honour to be imprisoned for the things I am fighting for. Please pray for me," De Lima, 57, said outside her Senate office where she had sought temporary refuge overnight after an arrest warrant was issued on Thursday."They will not be able to silence me and stop me from fighting for the truth and justice and against the daily killings and repression by the Duterte regime."De Lima also recorded a polemical video just before her arrest as she called for ordinary Filipinos to show courage and oppose Duterte's drug war, which has seen more than 6,500 people killed since he took office eight months ago.

+4Philippines drug war"There is no doubt that our president is a murderer and a sociopathic serial killer," she said in the 10-minute video that was posted on her Facebook page.De Lima, a former human rights commissioner, also said her arrest was an act of revenge for her decade-long efforts to expose Duterte as the leader of death squads during his time as mayor of southern Davao city.Duterte first raised allegations in August that De Lima had been running a drug trafficking ring with criminals inside the nation's biggest prison when she was the justice secretary in the previous government."I will have to destroy her in public," Duterte said then as he began a campaign to tarnish her reputation, including by making unsubstantiated allegations about her sex life."De Lima is not only screwing her driver, she is also screwing the nation."De Lima was last week charged with three counts of drug trafficking.- 'People are afraid' -

+4Senator Leila de Lima has called on ordinary Filipinos to stand up in opposition to President Rodrigo Duterte's drug war, which has seen more than 6,500 people killed since he took office eight months agoShe and her supporters insisted that Duterte orchestrated the charges not just to crush her opposition, but also to intimidate anyone else who may want to speak out against the president or his drug war."People are afraid," Father Robert Reyes, an activist priest who spent the night at the Senate with De Lima and other supporters, told AFP after her arrest."If the government can arrest a powerful person like her, what more the little man? That is the implied message of her arrest."Vice President Leni Robredo, a member of De Lima's opposition Liberal Party and elected separately from Duterte, described the arrest as "political harassment".Amnesty International said Thursday that it would regard De Lima as a prisoner of conscience."The arrest of De Lima is a blatant attempt by the Philippine government to silence criticism of President Duterte and divert attention away from serious human rights violations in the 'war on drugs'," it said.

Philippine Senator Leila De Lima, a top critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, sits in the senate in Manila on February 23, 2017Duterte's aides insisted they had a strong case against De Lima and said her arrest showed even the most powerful people would be brought to justice if they broke the law."The war on illegal drugs targets all who are involved and the arrest of an incumbent senator demonstrates the president´s strong resolve to fight pushers, peddlers and their protectors," presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said.Duterte, 71, won the presidential election last year after promising during the campaign to eradicate drugs in society by killing tens of thousands of people.He launched the crackdown immediately after taking office in June and police have reported killing 2,555 drug suspects since then, with about 4,000 other people murdered in unexplained circumstances.Amnesty has warned that police actions in the drug war may amount to crimes against humanity.Duterte has variously denied and acknowledged his role in death squads in Davao. As president he has repeatedly urged police to kill drug addicts as well as traffickers.But Duterte's aides insist he has never broken any laws.Fierce Duterte critic arrested on drug trafficking charges

Sen. Leila de Lima's arrest came a day after the Regional Trial Court in Muntinlupa city in the Manila metropolis issued the warrant for her arrest along with other officials who have been charged by state prosecutors for allegedly receiving bribes from detained drug lords.

De Lima has denied the charges, which she said were part of an attempt by Duterte to muzzle critics of his crackdown, which has left more than 7,000 drug suspects dead. She questioned why the court suddenly issued the arrest order when it was scheduled Friday to hear her petition to void the three non-bailable charges.

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FILE - In this Feb. 21, 2017 file photo, Philippine Senator Leila de Lima gestures during a postponed news conference at the Philippine Senate in suburban Pasay city, south of Manila, Philippines. De Lima, a Philippine opposition senator and leading critic of President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly anti-drug crackdown was arrested Friday, Feb. 24 on drug charges but professed her innocence and vowed she would not get cowed by a leader she called a "serial killer." (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez, File)

"If they think they can silence me, if they think I will no longer fight for my advocacies, specially on the truth on the daily killings and other intimidations of this Duterte regime, it's my honor to be jailed for what I've been fighting for," she said before policemen took her into custody at the Senate.

A police convoy, trailed by media vans, took de Lima to the main police camp, where officers will take her photograph and fingerprints before her detention.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella called de Lima's arrest "a major step forward in the administration's anti-drug war."

When de Lima headed the government's Commission on Human Rights, she tried unsuccessfully to have Duterte prosecuted when he was mayor of Davao city for allegedly unlawful deaths that occurred during an anti-drug crackdown in the city. No witnesses came forward then to testify against the mayor, human rights officials said.

Duterte expanded the crackdown nationwide after becoming president last June, and de Lima has continued to criticize him after winning a Senate seat last year.

In one of her strongest statements against the president this week, de Lima called Duterte a "sociopathic serial killer" who has not been made to answer for more than 1,000 deaths during his crackdown in Davao city as its mayor and now for the thousands of drug suspects killed in his national fight against illegal drugs.

She urged Duterte's Cabinet members to declare him unfit to serve as president. Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II warned that such remarks were seditious, but de Lima replied that Aguirre and Duterte are "the rebels and inciters against a constitutional order that values life and due process above everything else."

Prosecutors allege that de Lima, while she was justice secretary under former President Benigno Aquino III, received bribes from detained drug lords to finance her senatorial campaign, and they say some of the drug lords would testify against her. The bribes were allegedly solicited by her former driver and lover, who was also charged and arrested Thursday in northern Pangasinan province.

Duterte has lashed out at de Lima with foul language, calling her a sex-crazed immoral woman whose election opened "the portals of the national government ... to narco politics."

De Lima said the case against her might be the "wakeup call" the country needs, referring to the absence of a public outcry in the country over the killings in the anti-drug campaign.

Philippines Sen. Leila de Lima, one of the fiercest critics of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs, was arrested in Manila on drug-related charges.

De Lima headed a commission investigating extra-judicial killings under the war on drugs, which has left more than 7,000 dead since Duterte took office in June. She surrendered to the Philippine National Police on Friday morning at her Senate office on charges of organizing a drug trafficking operation out of Manila’s notorious New Bilibid Prisonwhile she was justice secretary from 2010 to 2015. She is also accused of using drug money to fund her 2016 senatorial campaign.

In a video statement posted to her Facebook page before her arrest, de Lima accused Duterte of being the mastermind of the charges, which she called manufactured and politically motivated.

“My arrest is an appalling sign of the return of a power-hungry, morally bankrupt and abusive government,” she said.

In a plot she called “revolting,” de Lima noted that the evidence against her is based on the testimony of convicted criminals who received special privileges in prison and were cleared of charges in exchange for testifying. “The Filipino people know your style, Mr. President,” she said. “To put the rule of law in your hands, silence your critics, and destroy those who will go against your caprices.”Senate supporters of de Lima also spoke out against the arrest. Senators from the Liberal Party, of which de Lima is a member, released a statement condemning the arrest as a political attack.

“The Liberal Party reiterates that it condemns the political persecution of brave administration critic Senator Leila de Lima,” the statement read. They also expressed fear for her safety under police custody, citing the recent high-profile kidnap and murder case of South Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo at the hands of police.

Human rights groups also blasted the arrest.

Duterte backs off claim he tossed man from helicopter — sort of

James Taylor cancels Philippines gig to protest murderous anti-drug policy

Duterte's controversial drug war: 6 months, 6,000 deaths in the Philippines

“What we’re seeing is nothing less than a political vendetta in which President Duterte is targeting his highest-profile critic and challenger of his abusive war on drugs,” said Phelim Kine, deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch.

“This is a sad day for the Philippines,” Kine said. “The judiciary has been hijacked to enable Duterte to effectively silence his political opponents.”

Duterte was a vocal critic of de Lima while she was chair of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, which was investigating the surge in killings linked to the war on drugs. In August, as drug allegations began to mount against her, Duterte told reporters he thought de Lima should commit suicide: “If I were de Lima, ladies and gentlemen, I will hang myself,” Duterte said.

In September, de Lima was ousted as chair in a vote by other members of the committee.

Last week, Duterte said de Lima had to "face the music. There were a number of witnesses, it took two months to develop the case,” Duterte added.

If convicted, de Lima faces 12 years to life in prison. In the Philippines, legislators are only immune from arrest for crimes punishable by fewer than six years in prison.

The campaign against de Lima and her arrest sends a message to Duterte’s critics, said Human Rights Watch’s Kine. “If you challenge the government’s narrative, you will suffer and suffer greatly,” he added.

Another Philippine Mayor Accused of Drug Crimes by Duterte Is Killed

A young child is pictured hanging from one of the graves as more victims are brought to the mortuary by the van load

Bodies wrapped in an American flag are carried to their burial site. In July, 60,000 Filipino drug addicts surrendered themselves to the government after the President urged citizens to 'go ahead and kill' drug dealers and users But the death toll has continued to rise

President Duterte has made it clear he would pardon police if they were charged with human rights violations for carrying out his merciless orders. Pictured: Morgue workers spray decomposing bodies with chemicals

Thousands of victms, many of them parents to young children, are thought to have been gunned down by vigilante groups, who are paid in cash for each confirmed kill

The vigilante groups are a key part in Duterte's pledge to kill 100,000 drug users and dealers and fill Manila Bay with their bodies

SavePhotoRolando Espinosa Sr., left, with the national police chief, Ronald dela Rosa, in the Manila suburb of Quezon City after turning himself in to the authorities in August. CreditMark R. Cristino/European Pressphoto Agency

MANILA — A Philippine mayor who had been accused of drug trafficking by President Rodrigo Duterte was shot and killed by police officers in his jail cell on Saturday, the police said.

The mayor, Rolando Espinosa Sr. of Albuera, a town in Leyte Province in the central Philippines, had been arrested in October, several weeks after Mr. Duterte included him in a list of about 150 Philippine officials who he said were involved in narcotics. Mr. Espinosa, who had denied any wrongdoing, is the second politician on the list to have been killed by police officers in a little more than a week.

The Leyte provincial police said Saturday that Mr. Espinosa and his cellmate, identified as Raul Yap, had been killed in a “firefight” with police officers, who woke them at dawn while searching their cell. The provincial police chief, Juvy Espinido, told a Manila radio station that both men had “resisted” the police but said he could not provide further details.

Later, the police said they had recovered two handguns from the jail cell. Bags containing what was believed to be methamphetamine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia were also found inside the cell, the police said.

Calls to spokesmen for the national police in Manila were not returned.

Gwendolyn Pimentel-Gana, a member of the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, an independent government body, said the deaths “raise serious questions on the responsibility of the state to protect persons deprived of liberty, especially in relation to the primordial right to live of every human being.”

Ms. Pimentel-Gana called on the police to “hold the people responsible for the deaths accountable.”

Mr. Espinosa died just eight days after Samsudin Dimaukom, another mayor accused of drug crimes by Mr. Duterte, was killed by police officers in the southern Philippines. Mr. Dimaukom, who also denied being involved in narcotics, was gunned down at a police checkpoint along with nine men traveling with him; the police said people in Mr. Dimaukom’s party had fired on officers.

In August, Mr. Duterte read on television his list of officials allegedly involved in drugs, warning them to surrender to the authorities. He offered no evidence of their guilt and later said some names might have been put on the list by mistake.Since taking office in June, Mr. Duterte has embarked on a bloody campaign against drugs — particularly shabu, a cheap form of methamphetamine — that has left about 2,000 people killed by police officers, and hundreds of others by vigilantes. Human rights groups and Western governments have criticized the campaign, but it has been popular in the Philippines.

Mr. Espinosa, who was accused by Mr. Duterte along with his son, Kerwin Espinosa, turned himself in to the police in Manila, while his son went into hiding. The son has since been detained in Abu Dhabi, and Philippine officials said they were seeking to have him returned.

While Rolando Espinosa was in detention, the police raided his home and killed six of his bodyguards. They said they had found about 24 pounds of shabu on the property. Nevertheless, he was later freed, only to be arrested again in October and charged with illegal possession of drugs and firearms.