Bringing Light Into Darkness - News & Analysis

The US Foreign Policy is a Bomb: A Joe Biden, Elliot Abrams Bipartisan Foreign Policy Mantra, with Dave DeCamp

Sarah Jones in a recent 7/6/23 piece, Why Is the Biden Administration Rewarding Elliott Abrams? Describes Elliot Abrams this way:

“In 1981, an American-created military unit in El Salvador raped and murdered its way through several hamlets, including the village of El Mozote. Elliott Abrams, then new to his role as Reagan’s assistant secretary of State for human rights and humanitarian affairs, insisted that news reports had overstated the breadth of the massacre. In remarks to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Abrams dismissed the credibility of the numbers. Guerrillas had twisted the event for their own ends, he argued. We now know this to be false: A U.N. truth commission uncovered evidence of about a thousand murders….”

On Monday (7/3/23), CNN reported that the Biden administration had appointed Elliot Abrams to the prestigious United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. The problem here is this guy is not just a war criminal who enabled and defended death squad activity and all sorts of hideous human right s violations under US foreign policy during the 1980s. He is also a convicted perjurer… We share a US foreign policy history most Americans have been insulated from. How could such a monster return again and agin to US government positions of human rights importance? It speaks volumes of our president and our foreign policy.

Dave DeCamp a fulltime news editor and writer for Antiwar.com since 2020 joins us to connect the historical dots largely ignored by MSM as we review one of his recent articles on the same.. DeCamp also discusses the overall geopolitical forces at work that are shaping our world and keeping us from making our foreign policy accountable to our democratic aspirations. We end the show with a tribute to Tony Bennett …so please stay tuned… Enjoy

Siempre fieles, Pgatos 7/24/23 [email protected]

The US Foreign Policy is a Bomb: A Joe Biden, Elliot Abrams Bipartisan Foreign Policy Mantra, with Dave DeCamp

Sarah Jones in a recent 7/6/23 piece, Why Is the Biden Administration Rewarding Elliott Abrams? Describes Elliot Abrams this way:

“In 1981, an American-created military unit in El Salvador raped and murdered its way through several hamlets, including the village of El Mozote. Elliott Abrams, then new to his role as Reagan’s assistant secretary of State for human rights and humanitarian affairs, insisted that news reports had overstated the breadth of the massacre. In remarks to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Abrams dismissed the credibility of the numbers. Guerrillas had twisted the event for their own ends, he argued. We now know this to be false: A U.N. truth commission uncovered evidence of about a thousand murders….”

On Monday (7/3/23), CNN reported that the Biden administration had appointed Elliot Abrams to the prestigious United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. The problem here is this guy is not just a war criminal who enabled and defended death squad activity and all sorts of hideous human right s violations under US foreign policy during the 1980s. He is also a convicted perjurer… We share a US foreign policy history most Americans have been insulated from. How could such a monster return again and agin to US government positions of human rights importance? It speaks volumes of our president and our foreign policy.

Dave DeCamp a fulltime news editor and writer for Antiwar.com since 2020 joins us to connect the historical dots largely ignored by MSM as we review one of his recent articles on the same.. DeCamp also discusses the overall geopolitical forces at work that are shaping our world and keeping us from making our foreign policy accountable to our democratic aspirations. We end the show with a tribute to Tony Bennett …so please stay tuned… Enjoy

Siempre fieles, Pgatos 7/24/23 [email protected]

War is a Racket that lines the Pockets of the Rich while Decimating the Life Quality of millions: What if Profiteering from War was Outlawed? With Lindsay Koshgarion

Tonight’s show details the endless profiteering that comes from war. Tonight Lindsay Koshgarian from the National Priorities Project returns to BLID to discuss the show focus, surrounding General Smedly Butler’s recognition that War is a Racket (1935) while today the Pentagon budget which is approaching $1T continues to be unaudited and/or improperly audited despite a clear history of corruption documented from Iraq and Afghanistan. The truth behind War, three lessons shared by Major General Smedley Butler are featured. He wrote there are only two things we should go to war and fight for, the defense of the homeland and the Bill of Rights. After retiring from his illustrious military career he suggested three main principles he believed in: (1) being against military involvement abroad and militarism in general ; (2) US military intervention abroad and the profiteering for big business it generated has gone hand in hand; and (3) was his recognition of the separation of US society by wealth disparity between the haves and have nots and it was the haves that started wars while sending the underclass to fight them. They have no skin in the game while being beneficiaries of garnering extreme profiteering from those conflicts.

There should be No Profiteering from War

Meanwhile, he Biden White House is opposing an audit of where all the Ukraine monies and armaments go ($115B) ostensibly because we already have auditing in place and to save taxpayer’s money. But the very agencies connected to that existing auditing, the State Department and its USAID institution, were the same entities that John Sopko, former Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction wrote had obstructed his past Afghanistan audit. Referring to the State Department and USAID Sopko writes, “Agency officials now appear to have adopted a premeditated position of obstruction”. War continues to be Racket under Democratic & Republican administrations.

Meanwhile our guest details unaccountability connected to Pentagon budget (858B) and spending “Not getting adequate oversight” and describes the Pentagon is the only major federal agency that has failed to pass an audit. For the last five years it has failed the audit and before that it could not even do an audit. In their last audit they were only able to account for 39% of their assets.

Privatizing in Iraq of War (i.e. Halliburton etc) led to huge fraud of US taxpayer dollars… Auditing in Afghanistan revealed huge fraud in Afghanistan led by auditing by John Sopko , SIGAR

Meanwhile, President Biden feigns concern funding to audit the criminal war we are complict in Ukraine is not needed as we sabotage peace options there.

Siempre fieles, Pgatos 7/17/23 [email protected]

War is a Racket that lines the Pockets of the Rich while Decimating the Life Quality of millions: What if Profiteering from War was Outlawed? With Lindsay Koshgarion

Tonight’s show details the endless profiteering that comes from war. Tonight Lindsay Koshgarian from the National Priorities Project returns to BLID to discuss the show focus, surrounding General Smedly Butler’s recognition that War is a Racket (1935) while today the Pentagon budget which is approaching $1T continues to be unaudited and/or improperly audited despite a clear history of corruption documented from Iraq and Afghanistan. The truth behind War, three lessons shared by Major General Smedley Butler are featured. He wrote there are only two things we should go to war and fight for, the defense of the homeland and the Bill of Rights. After retiring from his illustrious military career he suggested three main principles he believed in: (1) being against military involvement abroad and militarism in general ; (2) US military intervention abroad and the profiteering for big business it generated has gone hand in hand; and (3) was his recognition of the separation of US society by wealth disparity between the haves and have nots and it was the haves that started wars while sending the underclass to fight them. They have no skin in the game while being beneficiaries of garnering extreme profiteering from those conflicts.

There should be No Profiteering from War

Meanwhile, he Biden White House is opposing an audit of where all the Ukraine monies and armaments go ($115B) ostensibly because we already have auditing in place and to save taxpayer’s money. But the very agencies connected to that existing auditing, the State Department and its USAID institution, were the same entities that John Sopko, former Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction wrote had obstructed his past Afghanistan audit. Referring to the State Department and USAID Sopko writes, “Agency officials now appear to have adopted a premeditated position of obstruction”. War continues to be Racket under Democratic & Republican administrations.

Meanwhile our guest details unaccountability connected to Pentagon budget (858B) and spending “Not getting adequate oversight” and describes the Pentagon is the only major federal agency that has failed to pass an audit. For the last five years it has failed the audit and before that it could not even do an audit. In their last audit they were only able to account for 39% of their assets.

Privatizing in Iraq of War (i.e. Halliburton etc) led to huge fraud of US taxpayer dollars… Auditing in Afghanistan revealed huge fraud in Afghanistan led by auditing by John Sopko , SIGAR

Meanwhile, President Biden feigns concern funding to audit the criminal war we are complict in Ukraine is not needed as we sabotage peace options there.

Siempre fieles, Pgatos 7/17/23 [email protected]

Revisiting Russia-US NATO led- Ukraine War through a Geopolitical Lens: with Mike Whitney

We are socialized informationally outside our awareness, as six corporations control 90% of the (non-internet) information made available to us. "This meant that 232 media executives were calling the shots for 90% of the informational media made available to us. Information is power and like wealth in our nation and throughout the world, it is grossly and disproportionally owned by an elite few. We are taught and constantly messaged to believe we might not be a perfect nation but we a re the land of the free and primarily seek to bring democracy to other nations of the world.

I can remember as an upper middle class kid there was a board game called RISK. And the objective was simple. In order to win you had to wipe everyone else off the map. You had to take over the whole world. In other words, become that unipolar power. RISK is a game of aggression in which if and when I win you lose. I believe a proper reading and understanding of non-revisionist history reveals that the world and the US position in it with its geopolitical motivations since WWII can be seen in the same manner. (5:44) We do not promote democracy rather we promote as imperial powers before us have, empire. However this fact is camouflaged by enormous public relations campaign led by our government leaders and the media that serve them.

We replay an excerpt of Amy Goodman interview of General Wesley Clark of March 2007 in which four star general Clark indicates according to his Pentagon sources at the time, the lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq:

“ So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, “Are we still going to war with Iraq?” And he said, “Oh, it’s worse than that.” He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, “I just got this down from upstairs” -- meaning the Secretary of Defense’s office -- “today.” And he said, “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.”

Mike Whitney investigative journalist joins BLID and brings his geopolitical analysis expertise to the world of war and conflict we find ourselves in the middle of today in Ukraine. We examine what led us to this war and that when you look at the world from a geopolitical model of winner take all (RISK) rather than one in which all nations, not just a select few, deserve their sovereign rights to make choices without fear of reprisal through sanctions or armed conflict, there seems to be some internal logic behind US foreign policy. But is it to promote democracy that drives our geopolitical interests or is it to promote the US as a the world’s hegemon as a unipolar unchallenged economic and military force that essentially rules the world.?

Siempre fieles, Pgatos 7/10/23 [email protected]

Revisiting Russia-US NATO led- Ukraine War through a Geopolitical Lens: with Mike Whitney

We are socialized informationally outside our awareness, as six corporations control 90% of the (non-internet) information made available to us. "This meant that 232 media executives were calling the shots for 90% of the informational media made available to us. Information is power and like wealth in our nation and throughout the world, it is grossly and disproportionally owned by an elite few. We are taught and constantly messaged to believe we might not be a perfect nation but we a re the land of the free and primarily seek to bring democracy to other nations of the world.

I can remember as an upper middle class kid there was a board game called RISK. And the objective was simple. In order to win you had to wipe everyone else off the map. You had to take over the whole world. In other words, become that unipolar power. RISK is a game of aggression in which if and when I win you lose. I believe a proper reading and understanding of non-revisionist history reveals that the world and the US position in it with its geopolitical motivations since WWII can be seen in the same manner. (5:44) We do not promote democracy rather we promote as imperial powers before us have, empire. However this fact is camouflaged by enormous public relations campaign led by our government leaders and the media that serve them.

We replay an excerpt of Amy Goodman interview of General Wesley Clark of March 2007 in which four star general Clark indicates according to his Pentagon sources at the time, the lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq:

“ So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, “Are we still going to war with Iraq?” And he said, “Oh, it’s worse than that.” He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, “I just got this down from upstairs” -- meaning the Secretary of Defense’s office -- “today.” And he said, “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.”

Mike Whitney investigative journalist joins BLID and brings his geopolitical analysis expertise to the world of war and conflict we find ourselves in the middle of today in Ukraine. We examine what led us to this war and that when you look at the world from a geopolitical model of winner take all (RISK) rather than one in which all nations, not just a select few, deserve their sovereign rights to make choices without fear of reprisal through sanctions or armed conflict, there seems to be some internal logic behind US foreign policy. But is it to promote democracy that drives our geopolitical interests or is it to promote the US as a the world’s hegemon as a unipolar unchallenged economic and military force that essentially rules the world.?

Siempre fieles, Pgatos 7/10/23 [email protected]

Important Ukraine Realities Being Hidden from the US Public on the 4th of July: with Scott Ritter

Scott Ritter an American author, pundit, former United States Marine Corps intelligence officer, former United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) weapons inspector working as a weapons inspector for the UNSCOM from 1991 to 1998, which was charged with finding and destroying all weapons of mass destruction and WMD-related manufacturing capabilities in Iraq. He was chief inspector in fourteen of the more than thirty inspection missions in which he participated. He was right about Iraq not having WMDs and he has been closely following the Ukraine-US-NATO-Russian conflict since its inception. Ritter provides important information kept out of main stream news on an array of critical subject matters. Tonight, hear him and Pedro Gatos dialogue and address:

(1) On or about June 25th in response to a question of why we demonize Russia for its invasion of Ukraine but do not demonize the US for our invasion of Iraq, John Kerry said "No, no, no, we did not know it was a lie at the time; you know the evidence that was produced, people did not know it was a lie; so no I think you are stretching something and not in a constructive way." Scott Ritter briefed John Kerry before the march to war in Iraq. Did Kerry know that the totality of the case made by the CIA to sustain the argument that Iraq posed a threat was a lie?

(2) Ritter explains his experience in War Gaming casualty rates and on what basis, what factors are considered, from which his casualty rate numbers are projected from.

(3) US involvement in seeking the demise of Russia did not start with our response to the 2/24/22 Russia invasion of Ukraine. Ritter describes how it begins all the way back in 1990-1991 with the collapse of Soviet Union and a strategic decision made by US to never allow Russia to recover to a level that could ever challenge the US economically, militarily, or politically. Our policy was to help keep Russia down.

(4) We address the issue of whether significant neo nazi influence in the Ukraine post coup government was a reality or just a “Russian talking point” following 2014 when CIA worked with Ukrainian nationalists (neo nazis) to overthrow the democratically elected President Yanokovych replacing him with a nationalist government that embraced nazi ideology linked to Stephan Bandera, a Ukrainian nationalist that openly collaborated with Nazi Germany back in the 1940s murdering tens of thousands of Jews, hundreds of thousands of Poles and hundreds of thousands of Russians.

(5) How can Zelensky seek peace when US and Europe are pushing for war? Ritter lines up powerful historical facts to suggest that this was not an unprovoked war of Russian aggression nor a war Ukraine can win, but this is a war started by US and Europe whom ignored numerous warnings and crossed many red lines leading to the 2/24/22 Russian invasion they define as a Special Military Operation.

Siempre fieles, Pgatos 7/3/23 [email protected]

Important Ukraine Realities Being Hidden from the US Public on the 4th of July: with Scott Ritter

Scott Ritter an American author, pundit, former United States Marine Corps intelligence officer, former United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) weapons inspector working as a weapons inspector for the UNSCOM from 1991 to 1998, which was charged with finding and destroying all weapons of mass destruction and WMD-related manufacturing capabilities in Iraq. He was chief inspector in fourteen of the more than thirty inspection missions in which he participated. He was right about Iraq not having WMDs and he has been closely following the Ukraine-US-NATO-Russian conflict since its inception. Ritter provides important information kept out of main stream news on an array of critical subject matters. Tonight, hear him and Pedro Gatos dialogue and address:

(1) On or about June 25th in response to a question of why we demonize Russia for its invasion of Ukraine but do not demonize the US for our invasion of Iraq, John Kerry said "No, no, no, we did not know it was a lie at the time; you know the evidence that was produced, people did not know it was a lie; so no I think you are stretching something and not in a constructive way." Scott Ritter briefed John Kerry before the march to war in Iraq. Did Kerry know that the totality of the case made by the CIA to sustain the argument that Iraq posed a threat was a lie?

(2) Ritter explains his experience in War Gaming casualty rates and on what basis, what factors are considered, from which his casualty rate numbers are projected from.

(3) US involvement in seeking the demise of Russia did not start with our response to the 2/24/22 Russia invasion of Ukraine. Ritter describes how it begins all the way back in 1990-1991 with the collapse of Soviet Union and a strategic decision made by US to never allow Russia to recover to a level that could ever challenge the US economically, militarily, or politically. Our policy was to help keep Russia down.

(4) We address the issue of whether significant neo nazi influence in the Ukraine post coup government was a reality or just a “Russian talking point” following 2014 when CIA worked with Ukrainian nationalists (neo nazis) to overthrow the democratically elected President Yanokovych replacing him with a nationalist government that embraced nazi ideology linked to Stephan Bandera, a Ukrainian nationalist that openly collaborated with Nazi Germany back in the 1940s murdering tens of thousands of Jews, hundreds of thousands of Poles and hundreds of thousands of Russians.

(5) How can Zelensky seek peace when US and Europe are pushing for war? Ritter lines up powerful historical facts to suggest that this was not an unprovoked war of Russian aggression nor a war Ukraine can win, but this is a war started by US and Europe whom ignored numerous warnings and crossed many red lines leading to the 2/24/22 Russian invasion they define as a Special Military Operation.

Siempre fieles, Pgatos 7/3/23 [email protected]

Celebrating a Long History of Struggle for LGBTQ Equal Rights: Transforming a Culture that kills to one that Saves, with Bob Dailey

Happy Stonewall anniversary and Gay Pride Month!

On the 54th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots of June 29 1969 we seek to Bring Light Into Darkness surrounding the history before and after 1969 of LGTBQ rights and their struggle for equal rights and protections under the law. Our special guest is KOOP's own Bob Dailey. Bob provides a truly remarkable history of his journey and our journey as a country through this human rights seeking journey. From the computer science genius and the persecution and prosecution for being gay, of Alan Turing following World War II and his decoding ot the enigma machine through today Bob shares an eloquent hisotry of how far we have come as well as how far we have to go to provide a safe and nurturing environment for all.

Along the way Bob shares real life stories as we share disturbing scientific studies revealing alarmingly high suicide rates among our LGBTQ population that make up over 7% of our nation. Researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health found that suicide risk was three to six times greater for lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults than for heterosexual adults across every age group and race/ethnicity category.

Meanwhile we share the science that claims that "that health and aging had more to do with how society treats us than how well we take care of ourselves" as well as the collaborating findings of the Trevor Project who concludes that LGBTQ youth are not inherently prone to suicide risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity but rather placed at higher risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society. We also share the science that suggests growing up in a homophobic culture takes years off your life as it disaffects quality of life in a criminalizing manner. Bob Dailey provides a fascinating and eloquently non-judgmental narrative regarding the challenges and to the question of the impact of growing up gay in a homophobic culture.

Please join us as Bob brings light into darkness.

Siempre fieles, Pgatos 6/26/23 [email protected]

Celebrating a Long History of Struggle for LGBTQ Equal Rights: Transforming a Culture that kills to one that Saves, with Bob Dailey

Happy Stonewall anniversary and Gay Pride Month!

On the 54th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots of June 29 1969 we seek to Bring Light Into Darkness surrounding the history before and after 1969 of LGTBQ rights and their struggle for equal rights and protections under the law. Our special guest is KOOP's own Bob Dailey. Bob provides a truly remarkable history of his journey and our journey as a country through this human rights seeking journey. From the computer science genius and the persecution and prosecution for being gay, of Alan Turing following World War II and his decoding ot the enigma machine through today Bob shares an eloquent hisotry of how far we have come as well as how far we have to go to provide a safe and nurturing environment for all.

Along the way Bob shares real life stories as we share disturbing scientific studies revealing alarmingly high suicide rates among our LGBTQ population that make up over 7% of our nation. Researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health found that suicide risk was three to six times greater for lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults than for heterosexual adults across every age group and race/ethnicity category.

Meanwhile we share the science that claims that "that health and aging had more to do with how society treats us than how well we take care of ourselves" as well as the collaborating findings of the Trevor Project who concludes that LGBTQ youth are not inherently prone to suicide risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity but rather placed at higher risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society. We also share the science that suggests growing up in a homophobic culture takes years off your life as it disaffects quality of life in a criminalizing manner. Bob Dailey provides a fascinating and eloquently non-judgmental narrative regarding the challenges and to the question of the impact of growing up gay in a homophobic culture.

Please join us as Bob brings light into darkness.

Siempre fieles, Pgatos 6/26/23 [email protected]