"This week on "Vice"..." "Ryan heads to the Philippines, where politicians are massacring each other." "Politicians here, they are just lazy dogs that they just want easy money." "And I travel to Afghanistan..." "Please show him your passport, please." "where the Taliban are adopting new and horrific terror tactics." "Since they are children Mullahs have told them, that when you blow the bomb, you will survive." "The world is changing." "Now, no one knows where it's going, but we'll be there uncovering the news..." "That's World War III." "culture... and politics and expose the absurdity of the modern condition." "That little child has a huge gun." "This scene isn't really kosher by American standards." "I was interviewing suicide bombers, and they were kids." "This is the world through our eyes." "We win or we die!" "This is the world of "Vice."" "Hi." "I'm Shane Smith, and we're here in the "Vice" offices in Brooklyn, New York, and for our first story this week, we go to the Philippines." "Now, not a lot of people know that the Philippines actually borrowed our Constitution when they were setting up their current political system, which is great, except for the fact that American politics has become highly contentious and intensely partisan." "But in the Philippines, they're taking this to a whole new level." "With more than 1,200 political assassinations in the last decade alone, the Philippines is one of the deadliest places on earth for politicians." "So we sent Ryan Duffy to follow one of the nation's most gunned-after candidates as he registers for reelection." "Politicians here, they are just lazy dogs that they just want easy money." "Lazy dogs who want money..." "Yeah." "and have a lot of guns." "That seems like a recipe for disaster." "It's election season in the Philippines, and for those bold enough to run for office, that means guns, armed convoys, and plenty of violence." "Now, the Philippines is already the most dangerous place on earth to run for political office because in a corrupt system, politicians can amass huge amounts of wealth and power if they hold top government positions." "So as a result, they arm themselves to the teeth and build private militias which, because of political infighting, turn the country's provinces into full-on war zones." "In November of 2009, Vice Mayor Mangudadatu sent a convoy of friends, family, and followers to file his papers to run for governor." "Just down there, beyond this road, they were headed off at the pass and brought up here, where all 57 of them were executed and buried together in a mass grave." "Among those killed were the governor's wife, his two sisters, and dozens of journalists." "When the police raided the property of the Ampatuans, a rival political clan they believed to be responsible for the massacre, they found thousands upon thousands of guns, enough to build their own private army." "It brings to mind the brutality of warring Mexican narco-gangs, except that these guys aren't running drugs." "They're supposed to be running the country, and now, just 3 years after the massacre, it's election season again, and Governor Mangudadatu, the same guy whose friends, family, and supporters were slaughtered," "is running for reelection." "How big is the convoy we're traveling in today?" "I think more or less, 50 cars." "15?" "Fifty." "Fifty?" "Yeah, 5-0." "5-0." "Really?" "That's your own private traffic jam." "That's a lot of cars, man." "There was all kinds of security around the governor because in a couple of days, he'd be filing the papers that would make his campaign official, which was the very thing his friends and family were trying to do when they were murdered." "That's the very darkest moment in my life." "The pain that came into my heart, and to my family." "How nervous are you, just every day, traveling?" "Because if I'll tell you the truth," "I'm a little nervous traveling with you." "And I might move cars when we stop." "Don't worry, it's bulletproof." "Oh, it's bulletproof." "Thank God." "I mean, do you think of it in the back of your mind, or you just can't?" "No." "Yeah." "And what city are we in right now?" "This is Tacurong City." "Was there an attack on one of your convoys here not too long ago, or last year?" "Yeah, yeah..." "There was." "Last year, August 15th, it was my birthday." "On your birthday?" "One of my board members, and other civilian convoys, were fatally wounded." "And it was a political rival?" "Yeah, a political rival." "And how do so many of these different clans have so many weapons?" "There are lots of loose firearms here in the Philippines." "I've noticed that, too." "Everyone has a gun, man." "Yeah." "There are guns everywhere." "Guns are a huge part of Filipino culture, and just like in the U.S., they're historically associated with the fight for independence." "But with gun ownership as high as 70% in some areas and the highest homicide rates in all of Asia, the Philippines is taking gun lust to the next level." "If you didn't think that the Philippines loved their guns, they named a machine gun after the president." "Can you imagine if I was holding a Barack Obama right now?" "So in a country where the gun has become an accepted method of political communication, it's no surprise that so many Filipinos are anxious to get their hands on one." "And when you've got assassination and mayhem in mind, you don't really want a licensed model off of the assembly line." "You want one of the untraceable weapons being crafted by an underground network of backyard gunsmiths." "Nice to meet you." "_" "_" "_" "It just looks like a lot of old scrap metal and discarded items that shouldn't be able to make a gun." "_" "Look at that." "That makes a gun." "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "In an effort to reduce political assassinations during election season, the government has issued a 150-day ban on carrying any firearms during this period." "However, one group that's openly flaunting this ban is the BIFM, an Islamic jihadist group that's fighting to secede from the rest of the Philippines-- a group, incidentally, that Governor Mangudadatu has recently targeted by offering large bounties" "for the capture of their top leadership." "These three Barretts were recovered and it is a locally made Barrett by the terrorists." "The BIFM are terrorists?" "Yeah, they are terrorists." "We'd heard plenty about the BIFM, and using homemade weapons was actually just the start." "Far more disturbing was who eventually fired those guns." "How young are the kids they're training?" "Starting from 18 and below." "Until 10 or 8." "So basically once you're 10, 11 years old, you're in military training." "Yes." "They have so many satellite camps." "It's not easy to go there, but if you want, at your own risk you can go." "No, thanks." "But of course that's exactly what we did." "What we saw when we got there was shocking." "The army seemed to be made up primarily of kids, with the odd grandfatherly general leading the way." "Hello." "Good afternoon." "How are you doing?" "Nice to meet you." "I'm Abu Misry." "Very nice to meet you." "I'm the spokesman of the BIFM, and we'll go there." "We go there?" "Yes, yes." "I really did like the handholding." "I needed that handhold right there, man." "It's just an endless procession of children with heavy artillery." "Because of hardship, maybe, and because of these good talks of these rebels, these young kids were annoyed or somewhat for adventurism, they joined this group." "They think that war is just like a film." "And do you think maybe that's why the group values the younger children so much-- that they don't really have that fear?" "Yes." "You know, kids are very adventurous and they do not think of the consequences." "And he's right." "Kids are kids-- very adventurous, not thinking of consequences, and really excited to show off." "You guys made this?" "Yeah, this gun is made from here." "This one's an RPG." "Yeah, that is an RPG." "No shit." "Wow." "The BIFM is just one of the groups that Governor Mangudadatu had to worry about back on the campaign trail, where everyone was wondering if he and his supporters were walking into a bloodbath for the second time." "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "It wasn't so much fanfare as it was a military convoy." "With at least 150 cars in tow, the governor tempted fate and headed to the Office of Elections." "So the sitting governor is going to be, obviously, filing." "Is there a chance of history repeating itself?" "Actually, we already expect that." "OK." "Not exactly the reassuring response we were hoping for." "Suddenly the convoy screeched to a halt." "We were all told, "Stay in the car and stay down"" "while guys everywhere grabbed their guns." "We finally spotted the governor, who, as it turns out... _" "Just needed to take a piss." "And at the end of the day, despite a few tense moments, the governor successfully and safely filed for candidacy." "But remember, this is just the start of a long and likely violent campaign season, and in a system where violence and assassination are rewarded with wealth and power, things probably aren't going to change anytime soon." "Because in the Philippines, he who campaigns with the most guns... wins." "This year, as America begins to wind down the war in Afghanistan-- the longest war in U.S. history-- we're seeing some very disturbing trends develop there." "The Taliban have recently refined their terror tactics in such a way as to be almost unimaginable." "So I went to Kabul to see just what impact these new tactics are having." "The most successful suicide attack of all time was 9/11." "In fact, it was so powerful that it led to the U.S. invasion of both Iraq and Afghanistan." "11 years ago, the U.S. army invaded Afghanistan with the sole purpose of getting Al Qaeda and the Taliban out." "Today, the U.S. government is entering into negotiations with the Taliban to see just how much power they will gain when our troops leave." "This is a direct result of the Taliban's successful use of terror techniques, suicide attacks, and suicide bombings." "Recently, the Taliban have adopted new strategies to ramp up suicide attacks in an effort to gain even more leverage in their negotiations." "They have discovered that using a new transportation device for their high explosives has proven very effective against the occupation." "They're using children." "_" "_" "_" "We just arrived in Kabul, and we just saw a convoy of spaceship military killing machines drive by." "And we're stuck in traffic." "The main reason for the insane amount of traffic surrounding the city center is the Ring of steel, which is a series of 25 security checkpoints manned by the Afghan police, attempting to monitor all foot and vehicle traffic into the city center." "Now, they have to do this because there have been so many suicide attacks recently that every car, truck, and individual is now subject to multiple and thorough searches." "Oh, we're getting pulled over here." "_" "But now more and more suicide attackers are just children." "They pass the checkpoints more easily and can move about virtually unnoticed through the crowded city." "We wanted to get more information on these child suicide bombers, so we went to meet the NDS, or National Directorate of Security, which is basically the Afghan secret police, whose job it is to try and stop these suicide attacks." "Turn off now." "OK." "Off!" "OK." "So we're here with Lutfullah Mashal, who is part of the NDS." "Wow." "What a problem you guys have." "How many suicide attacks are there a year in Afghanistan?" "Ah, well, in the hundreds." "In the hundreds." "In the hundreds." "80% of them teenagers." "Wow." "The reason that teenagers are selected for suicide attacks, the reason that dumb and poor and background people are because they do not have religious knowledge." "A Talib who has studied the Quran will not be ready to kill himself." "They will come and fight, and in fighting they might be killed." "But they will not tie a vest coat full of explosives around their body." "Since they are children, they do not have enough knowledge of what really happens so they are told lies." "They have the vest coat, they are not told it's explosives." "They tell them these are secret documents, you have to go and sit in front of this hotel." "He is waiting there and suddenly an American, or an ISAF, or a NATO convoy passes by." "They have the remote and they just press the button and that boy goes into pieces." "There is another kind of these teenager boys who think, "Yes, I am carrying it."" "He himself switches the button but he thinks, "I am surviving."" "This bomb around your chest is a kind of bomb that it doesn't go behind or backward." "It goes...forward." "So you will survive and the enemy will be killed." "How young can some of these..." "Well, the recent attack that happened in Paktika the boy who carried out the suicide attack was six years old." "After our interview, the NDS asked us if we wanted to talk to some of these teenage suicide bombers that they had recently apprehended just before they were able to detonate their explosive devices." "This is where they hold the serious suicide bombers, people who have been taken while attempting to be a suicide attacker." "The first kid they brought in was named Kanjar, and he was only 14." "Although from Afghanistan," "Kanjar, like many other suicide bombers, was actually trained across the border in Pakistan." "_" "_" "When you were in the Madrasas, did you see videos of other people becoming martyrs?" "_" "But in the Quran, it says not to kill other people." "But you were ready to kill people." "How or why?" "_" "_" "And why didn't you detonate the vest?" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "Despite the fact that he had been accused of heinous crimes, I found myself sitting there and feeling sorry for him." "And then the next boy, named Abdul, came in." "He seemed so terrified of the interview that he was visibly trembling." "I just want to know why he was willing to kill himself and to kill other people." "What made him want to do that?" "_" "_" "Did they ever show you any proof of people insulting the Quran?" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "And who are the infidels?" "_" "_" "_" "_" "So the Imams told you, "You have to go become a suicide bomber."" "The really scary thing here is that these two boys are not rarities or one-offs." "They were both trained in classes with hundreds of boys, and there are in turn hundreds of classes in countless Madrasas." "All willing to blow themselves up, all for the Taliban." "This is the problem with suicide bombing-- is the kids are just kids." "They're just young, illiterate kids that somebody, an authority figure, an Imam, has told them, "You'll go to Paradise." "You'll get money." "You won't die."" "But who's really bad is the Imams who are telling them that, and the Imams who are telling them that are sponsored and supported by the Taliban." "Now, we really wanted to talk to the Taliban about their continued recruitment of young boys to be suicide bombers but were told by the authorities that this would be impossible." "However, after a lot of backroom negotiations and quite frankly scary situations that we weren't allowed to bring our cameras to, we were finally granted a very rare opportunity to talk with a senior Taliban leader and try to understand why they were doing this." "So we're going to meet Akbar Agha, who was a good buddy of bin Laden's and who went to Pakistan and was arrested for kidnapping-- kidnapping U.N. people and Westerners." "And now he's back, so we're gonna go talk to him, and hopefully he's not gonna kidnap us." "We're here to do a story on the increase in suicide attacks within Afghanistan." "You know, there's more and more and more of them, and we want to know, what is the Taliban's position on suicide attacks?" "_" "_" "_" "And do you think if America stays, then the war will continue?" "_" "And suicide bombings will continue?" "But in the Quran, it says not to do suicide or kill other Muslims, but that's what's happening with suicide attacks." "How does the Taliban feel about that?" "_" "And you're a commander." "You've been a Mujahideen, a jihadist fighting the Russians." "You've commanded troops." "What do you feel personally about suicide bombings?" "_" "_" "_" "Oh, OK." "So obviously he's a cagey guy." "He just said there, "Yes, we will support suicide bombings as long as there's war."" "And then you see the effects of suicide bombing, and it's..." "I don't know." "It fucks your head up." "It's..." "One of the most tragic bombings in Kabul's history had taken place just a few months before we had arrived." "A shrine, on a holy day of atonement, had been attacked in the first instance of sectarian bombing during the occupation." "That was, actually, maybe a day that completely changed my life, you know." "I went to the chain beating and then explosion happened." "Jesus!" "Massoud!" "I just saw that a lot of people just running away from the smoke." "And then the smoke just kind of disappeared." "And suddenly I just saw myself in the big round of all dead bodies." "Children, woman, man, old man, everything." "So I start taking pictures and I just saw Tarana and she was just crying and shouting." "Her mother told me, "Can you help me?"" "Because her child was in front of Tarana." "Somebody else arrived and took the boy from the ground but there was a lot of blood coming from the head and the man told me that," ""This boy is finished,"" "and put him down on the ground and he just left." "I found out that that boy was Tarana's brother who died in that incident." "Of the 58 people killed that day, 9 were from Tarana's family." "_" "It's all shrapnel." "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "You can see all this." "Oh, yes." "Yes." "_" "_" "Why did they bomb the shrine?" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "Yesterday I was interviewing suicide bombers, and they were kids." "You know, they were shaking, they were so nervous." "And then we see the result of what they do-- young children dead, young girls injured, families destroyed, and for nobody knows for what reason." "And, you know, as a father, it's--it's, uh..." "_" "_" "_" "_" "As we were leaving Kabul, two young boys, much like the ones we had just interviewed, who because of their young age had been pardoned by the government and sent to school for reeducation, were caught with suicide vests for the second time," "trying to blow up U.S. targets." "And as we took off, I looked at my iPhone and my computer." "We have video chat, we have Facebook, and we can reach Mars, and I found myself thinking, "This is our 21st century?" ""This is our modern age?" ""Where children are used as transportation devices for dynamite.""