Bringing Light Into Darkness - News & Analysis

Is US Drone Warfare an Illegal & Immoral Extension of a Bellicose US Foreign Policy that Demands Ethical Accountability?

Our guest Nick Mottern is a Vietnam veteran and has worked as a reporter, researcher, writer, and political organizer over the last 30 years. He manages a website devoted to education and organizing to stop drone warfare and surveillance www.KnowDrones.com. He was director of the 2012 national ‘Know Drones Tour’ and was an organizer of the 2013 April Days of Action and 2014 Spring Days of Action, and he publishes “The Drone Organizers Bulletin”. He provides stunning revelations & concerns.

Our show focus includes the immorality of drone warfare, the psychological trauma associated with drone operators, and the US public that is so abstracted from the realities of the victims and communities worldwide that are subject to such attacks.

The Afghan War our guest argues would have been over a long time ago if it had not been for drones.

The prosecution and inhumane conditions now facing Daniel Hale who despite the presiding judge recommendation resulted in him being sent to a supermax Marion prison. The prison conditions he faces is not commensurate with his ‘crime’.

Daniel Hale is a whistleblower who did not put at risk US national security by releasing ‘confidential’ papers. He revealed to the US public:

1. for the first time the “kill chain,” the bureaucratic process by which targets are selected to be summarily executed.

2. information that helped to expose the existence of the secret programs & that drone strikes killed many more innocent people than their supposed “targets”, &

3. that US citizens have been killed extrajudicially by drone strikes in violation of their constitutional rights to a trial.

The reason Hale cited for pleading guilty is because the Espionage Act charges prevent a public interest defense. In other words, Hale’s lawyers were barred from arguing that the need of the public to be made aware of the criminal activities of the US government was more important than his obligation not to disclose classified information to anyone. Essentially Hale was forced to plead guilty in order to avoid potentially spending decades in federal prison. Whistleblowers are gagged from explaining their actions. Defense attorneys are barred from uttering the words “whistleblower” or “First Amendment” within earshot of the jury. Since all that matters for sustaining a conviction is that a defendant gave classified information to someone not entitled to receive it, that’s all the jury is allowed to hear. The result is often absolutely no accountability of US foreign policy crimes against humanity.

Pgatos [email protected] 10/25/2021

Deconstructing the US Manufactured False Perceptions About US Foreign Policy in Syria & its 10-year Military Conflict

A history of US foreign policy in Syria and our media complicity in generating false US public perceptions surrounding Syria are challenged. Special guest and award-winning investigative journalist Mile Whitney joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to deconstruct the following premises and accusations.

1. The unchallenged premise that Assad started the conflict in 2011 as a result of Assad’s repression of democratic protests ln 2011 and that the US only then got involved in its foreign policy efforts to replace the Syrian government

2. That Assad was gassing his own people in March 2013 at Khan al Assal and again just months later in the August 21, 2013, much more deadly El Ghouta gas attacks that Secretary of State John Kerry claimed with absolute certainty was executed by Assad government.

3. That the Syrian conflict was a civil war between Syrians, and

4. we were supporting moderate rebels within that context

5. that Assad was profoundly unpopular, and the majority Syrian population wished him to be replaced. And only through repression does Assad stay in power.

Instead, what we detail, and document is shocking. Namely that the backbone of military resistance to Assad were not Syrians but terrorist foreign fighters organized and armed by US and its Gulf monarchy allies. That we had never prioritized a war on terror but instead have enabled and enlisted terrorists as our allies in the pursuit to overthrow Assad. That the Syrian public knows that and supports Assad. All of this which is documented by polling we share during the show. That we started it, not Assad when it comes to how US foreign policy has been interfering in the internal affairs of Syria decades before the 2011 protests and in contradiction to what President Obama words in his 2015 UN General Assembly speech suggest.

Don’t be played any longer when it comes to Syria. Tune in tonight and find out how we have been getting played.

Pgatos [email protected] 10/11/2021

Deconstructing the US Manufactured False Perceptions About US Foreign Policy in Syria & its 10-year Military Conflict

A history of US foreign policy in Syria and our media complicity in generating false US public perceptions surrounding Syria are challenged. Special guest and award-winning investigative journalist Mile Whitney joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to deconstruct the following premises and accusations.

1. The unchallenged premise that Assad started the conflict in 2011 as a result of Assad’s repression of democratic protests ln 2011 and that the US only then got involved in its foreign policy efforts to replace the Syrian government

2. That Assad was gassing his own people in March 2013 at Khan al Assal and again just months later in the August 21, 2013, much more deadly El Ghouta gas attacks that Secretary of State John Kerry claimed with absolute certainty was executed by Assad government.

3. That the Syrian conflict was a civil war between Syrians, and

4. we were supporting moderate rebels within that context

5. that Assad was profoundly unpopular, and the majority Syrian population wished him to be replaced. And only through repression does Assad stay in power.

Instead, what we detail, and document is shocking. Namely that the backbone of military resistance to Assad were not Syrians but terrorist foreign fighters organized and armed by US and its Gulf monarchy allies. That we had never prioritized a war on terror but instead have enabled and enlisted terrorists as our allies in the pursuit to overthrow Assad. That the Syrian public knows that and supports Assad. All of this which is documented by polling we share during the show. That we started it, not Assad when it comes to how US foreign policy has been interfering in the internal affairs of Syria decades before the 2011 protests and in contradiction to what President Obama words in his 2015 UN General Assembly speech suggest.

Don’t be played any longer when it comes to Syria. Tune in tonight and find out how we have been getting played.

Pgatos [email protected] 10/11/2021

The Pandora Papers: The Wealth Defense Industry & its Methods to Protect Hide & Expand Wealth Inequality

What type of political economic system during economic downturns produces as its initial and most consistent response, policies that rescue and compensate the losses of its most wealthy 1% while largely neglecting the interests of the 99% which include tens of millions of Americans on the brink of losing their jobs and their homes?

Special guest, author, investigative journalist, and Director of Inequality.org Chuck Collins joins Bringing Light Into Darkness tonight to discuss the Pandora Papers and to unveil the hidden wealth system and its techniques of hiding and protecting that wealth from proper taxation. The impact is that the rest of the public picks up that tab. The 'Pandora Papers' are a trove of some 12 million records, revealing and exposing the finances of the world’s wealthy elite. Chuck Collins is author of the book, The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions.

Gross wealth inequality arguably is the greatest poison to democracy everywhere and it is one of the most underreported news items within our mainstream media, whose job it seems is to distract attention from this profound unfairness. Our guest shares the fact that 70% or more of US citizens support the concept that the richest should pay their fair share of taxes yet it does not happen. We discuss how such levels of wealth disparity distorts any chance of democracy in such a way that the majority interest and will is overwhelmed and trumped by the power of wealth in such a way that the political system becomes incapable of implementing the will of the majority population. It shows how much the power of wealth can block democratic change.

Our guest describes this profoundly undemocratic reality this way, “I think part of the pickle we are in is as wealth concentrates in fewer hands, those wealthy people deploy their power, their wealth and power to rig the rules to get more wealth and power. It becomes kind of a vicious cycle.”

This show unveils how wealth translates into power as well as the tools the ‘wealth defense industry’ has at its disposal, and how this hidden wealth system acts against the popular will and best interest of the majority population. This profoundly negative impact on democracy is realized by increasingly blocking opportunities for everyone else.

Pgatos [email protected] 10/11/2021

The Pandora Papers: The Wealth Defense Industry & its Methods to Protect Hide & Expand Wealth Inequality

What type of political economic system during economic downturns produces as its initial and most consistent response, policies that rescue and compensate the losses of its most wealthy 1% while largely neglecting the interests of the 99% which include tens of millions of Americans on the brink of losing their jobs and their homes?

Special guest, author, investigative journalist, and Director of Inequality.org Chuck Collins joins Bringing Light Into Darkness tonight to discuss the Pandora Papers and to unveil the hidden wealth system and its techniques of hiding and protecting that wealth from proper taxation. The impact is that the rest of the public picks up that tab. The 'Pandora Papers' are a trove of some 12 million records, revealing and exposing the finances of the world’s wealthy elite. Chuck Collins is author of the book, The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions.

Gross wealth inequality arguably is the greatest poison to democracy everywhere and it is one of the most underreported news items within our mainstream media, whose job it seems is to distract attention from this profound unfairness. Our guest shares the fact that 70% or more of US citizens support the concept that the richest should pay their fair share of taxes yet it does not happen. We discuss how such levels of wealth disparity distorts any chance of democracy in such a way that the majority interest and will is overwhelmed and trumped by the power of wealth in such a way that the political system becomes incapable of implementing the will of the majority population. It shows how much the power of wealth can block democratic change.

Our guest describes this profoundly undemocratic reality this way, “I think part of the pickle we are in is as wealth concentrates in fewer hands, those wealthy people deploy their power, their wealth and power to rig the rules to get more wealth and power. It becomes kind of a vicious cycle.”

This show unveils how wealth translates into power as well as the tools the ‘wealth defense industry’ has at its disposal, and how this hidden wealth system acts against the popular will and best interest of the majority population. This profoundly negative impact on democracy is realized by increasingly blocking opportunities for everyone else.

Pgatos [email protected] 10/11/2021

Honduran Elections & Human Rights Under US Friendly Governments since 2009 & whether Summit for Democracy is a Summit for Hypocrisy

With special guest Simon Elliot with the Center for Policy Research: His research interests include social movements, elections, and US intervention in Latin America. He holds both a B.A. in Political Science and Spanish and an M.P.A from Clark University.

Our show focus is on the difference of NPR and Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) as they each cover US foreign policy influences. We suggest that compared to NPR, BLID provides the light that they miss by bringing you historical context that they generally leave out and without which it becomes difficult or impossible to get close to the truth. For instance, they uncritically report this past week promoting the 12/9 & 10th, Summit for Democracy as a virtual summit hosted by the United States to renew democracy at home and confront autocracies abroad and its three themes are defending against authoritarianism, addressing, and fighting corruption, and advancing respect for human rights.

BLID suggests one simple question that is never asked regarding measuring the democratic or undemocratic influence our foreign policy projects: “Are you better off now or before our US foreign policy exercised its enormous power to bring its preferred leader to power.”

While the Biden administration and the loyal MSM were celebrating the same old bipartisan canard, symbolizing that the US is good and fights evil everywhere, our show tonight explains with empirical documentation the outcomes for the majority populations in a host of countries we have intervened in this century. Haiti, Ecuador, Bolivia, Iraq, Libya, and Honduras. These measurable results in a half dozen nations reveal a hidden truth, that if democracy benefits the majority and our FP consistently disenfranchises the majority and enriches a minority than are we a democracy? Its time to take responsibility for our FP but to do so we must see it, bring light to it.

Please join us tonight as our guest Simon Elliot with the Center for Policy Research, who just returned from Honduras after observing their recent elections educates us to the election, human rights, and corruption history in Honduras and US foreign policy influences there since the 2009 US enabled coup until today. All of this in the context of the Summit for Democracy backdrop. After you listen to the show you will know what to believe and what to question regarding the Summit. Don’t be Late!

Pgatos [email protected] 12/13/2021

Honduran Elections & Human Rights Under US Friendly Governments since 2009 & whether Summit for Democracy is a Summit for Hypocrisy

With special guest Simon Elliot with the Center for Policy Research: His research interests include social movements, elections, and US intervention in Latin America. He holds both a B.A. in Political Science and Spanish and an M.P.A from Clark University.

Our show focus is on the difference of NPR and Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) as they each cover US foreign policy influences. We suggest that compared to NPR, BLID provides the light that they miss by bringing you historical context that they generally leave out and without which it becomes difficult or impossible to get close to the truth. For instance, they uncritically report this past week promoting the 12/9 & 10th, Summit for Democracy as a virtual summit hosted by the United States to renew democracy at home and confront autocracies abroad and its three themes are defending against authoritarianism, addressing, and fighting corruption, and advancing respect for human rights.

BLID suggests one simple question that is never asked regarding measuring the democratic or undemocratic influence our foreign policy projects: “Are you better off now or before our US foreign policy exercised its enormous power to bring its preferred leader to power.”

While the Biden administration and the loyal MSM were celebrating the same old bipartisan canard, symbolizing that the US is good and fights evil everywhere, our show tonight explains with empirical documentation the outcomes for the majority populations in a host of countries we have intervened in this century. Haiti, Ecuador, Bolivia, Iraq, Libya, and Honduras. These measurable results in a half dozen nations reveal a hidden truth, that if democracy benefits the majority and our FP consistently disenfranchises the majority and enriches a minority than are we a democracy? Its time to take responsibility for our FP but to do so we must see it, bring light to it.

Please join us tonight as our guest Simon Elliot with the Center for Policy Research, who just returned from Honduras after observing their recent elections educates us to the election, human rights, and corruption history in Honduras and US foreign policy influences there since the 2009 US enabled coup until today. All of this in the context of the Summit for Democracy backdrop. After you listen to the show you will know what to believe and what to question regarding the Summit. Don’t be Late!

Pgatos [email protected] 12/13/2021

Occupy Wall Street 10th Anniversary & the False Reconstruction of IED Iran Demonizing to Falsely Rationalize Soleimani Assassination Special guest, author and award winning investigative journalist Dave Lindorff joins Bringing Light Into Darkness tonight to address the excessive repression and violence that went largely unreported in the suppression of the two month long Occupy Wall Street (OWS) peaceful protests of ten years ago that called out the economic policies of our country and its history which have unfairly benefitted the richest "one percent" at the direct cost to the 99% and have framed the public dialogue to avoid acknowledging and examining this profound contradiction to liberty, democracy and the pursuit of happiness.

The contradiction of the US having the most unequal wealth of the advanced OECD nations, along with the highest poverty and child poverty rates is juxtaposed with the fact that we are the wealthiest nation, materially speaking, of the world. We review articles written by our guest on the subject, including his 9/15/2021 piece, 10 Years on — How Occupy Wall Street Ended: Clampdown by Obama that Trump Emulated. We also review the focus of a 2/13/2007 piece he wrote on Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), Iran Charges: Lying White House and Credulous Media by Dave Lindorff (source: opednews.com) and the false image making that sought to portray Iran as their major manufacturers and reason so many Americans were dying and getting severely injured in the Iraq post invasion setting. It also has recently been reconstituted to ‘justify’ the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani in January 2020 rather than considering the argument that it was a result of state terrorism by the US government. We discuss what other motives were more likely responsible for his assassination and let you decide.

We review Lindorff’s claim that there was a White House led nationally coordinated campaign to disrupt and crush the Occupy Movement. What type and to what degree was the repression of Occupy Wall Street that resulted in some 7000 arrests? Why did the press fail to report this with accuracy and why and how was many of the press kept from covering OWS repression? When peaceful protest can be so violently repressed, as our guest describes, yet there is no reporting of the techniques used by the Obama administration for us to learn from what does that say about democracy and dissent in the USA?

Pgatos [email protected] 10/04/2021

Occupy Wall Street 10th Anniversary & the False Reconstruction of IED Iran Demonizing to Falsely Rationalize Soleimani Assassination Special guest, author and award winning investigative journalist Dave Lindorff joins Bringing Light Into Darkness tonight to address the excessive repression and violence that went largely unreported in the suppression of the two month long Occupy Wall Street (OWS) peaceful protests of ten years ago that called out the economic policies of our country and its history which have unfairly benefitted the richest "one percent" at the direct cost to the 99% and have framed the public dialogue to avoid acknowledging and examining this profound contradiction to liberty, democracy and the pursuit of happiness.

The contradiction of the US having the most unequal wealth of the advanced OECD nations, along with the highest poverty and child poverty rates is juxtaposed with the fact that we are the wealthiest nation, materially speaking, of the world. We review articles written by our guest on the subject, including his 9/15/2021 piece, 10 Years on — How Occupy Wall Street Ended: Clampdown by Obama that Trump Emulated. We also review the focus of a 2/13/2007 piece he wrote on Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), Iran Charges: Lying White House and Credulous Media by Dave Lindorff (source: opednews.com) and the false image making that sought to portray Iran as their major manufacturers and reason so many Americans were dying and getting severely injured in the Iraq post invasion setting. It also has recently been reconstituted to ‘justify’ the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani in January 2020 rather than considering the argument that it was a result of state terrorism by the US government. We discuss what other motives were more likely responsible for his assassination and let you decide.

We review Lindorff’s claim that there was a White House led nationally coordinated campaign to disrupt and crush the Occupy Movement. What type and to what degree was the repression of Occupy Wall Street that resulted in some 7000 arrests? Why did the press fail to report this with accuracy and why and how was many of the press kept from covering OWS repression? When peaceful protest can be so violently repressed, as our guest describes, yet there is no reporting of the techniques used by the Obama administration for us to learn from what does that say about democracy and dissent in the USA?

Pgatos [email protected] 10/04/2021

The Other 9-11 (1973): The US Assassination of Salvador Allende & Methods revealed within the US Foreign Policy Toolkit of Subversion

Chilean born Ricardo Venegas shares his Latin American expertise and experiences growing up in post-coup Chile and the history surrounding the rise of Salvador Allende and the Popular Unity Party despite US foreign policy of destabilizing the democratic will of the Chilean people.

Tonight’s show describes how US foreign policy and the techniques it utilized, would forbid the elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende from carrying out the mandates of the collective interests of the majority population. Henry Kissinger led the US foreign policy efforts that led to the overthrow Allende in a 9/11/1973 coup, the goal and mission of which was not to protect democracy but to betray it by instead protecting the interests behind a billion dollars of US investment in Chile.

Kissinger oversaw and largely directed a US foreign policy that included “the CIA penetrating virtually every sector of Chilean life throughout the society”. With respect to the subversion and penetration of Chilean labor movement: “In cooperation with and often under cover supplied by the AFL-CIO, the CIA had infiltrated the labor movement…108 leaders of the white-collar trade associations received training in the US from the American Institute of Free Labor Development (AIFLD) an agency that according to former CIA agent Phillip Agee was set up by the AFL-CIO under the control of the CIA.” “Other funds went into support of strikes and demonstrations that plagued the Allende regime”, including, “In 1972 the organizers of the Confederation of Truck Owners strike also receiving CIA money, in order to allow them to pay strike benefits during the 26-day nationwide truck strike,“ that paralyzed the economy.

Additionally, “CIA operatives had bought their way into the local press; the country’s largest newspaper El Mercurio, was a regular recipient of CIA funds. Other operatives maintained regular liaison with the Chilean military and police services.” In April 1971 the CIA funded the fascist group, Patria y Libertad which began “stepping up a campaign of sabotaging factory equipment to hobble the economy.”

All of the above subversive US invasions of the Chilean civil society are documented by Robert Borosage and John Marks in their 1976 book The CIA File and are all elements of what Brazilian ‘think tank’ head, Dr Glycon de Paiva described in a late 1973 Washington Post interview as, “the recipe exists, and you can bake the cake anytime.” Today we continue to bake and improve the illegal and undemocratic recipe.

On some seven different occasions payments that together totaled more than $1m, between 9/8/1970 and 7/6/1971, authorized by the Kissinger led “Committee of 40” to subvert the Chilean electoral process. Monies were authorized in support of opposition candidates to the Popular Unity Party, particularly the Christian Democratic Party.

Pgatos [email protected] 9/27/2021