Bilderberg.org

[marektysis]

Democratic change in Bahrain does not serve US interests: Kissinger
Submitted 7 hrs 38 mins ago

Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger emphasized that a democratic change in Bahrain did not serve the interests of his country, highlighting once again the western double standard towards the Arab revolt, the daily Die Welt reported Monday.
Speaking at a round-table discussion on global affairs in Berlin, Kissinger said it's 'not in our interests' for Shiites to take over power in Bahrain since this could lead to 'the breakup of Saudi Arabia.'
He conceded the upheaval in Bahrain and other Arab Persian Gulf countries was a 'strategic and at the same time moral problem' for America.
The silence of the world, and particularly the US, in the face of the murderous Al-Kalifa repression is galling to ordinary Bahrainis who oppose the crackdown, who atch the world condemn rulers in Libya and Yemen without a mention of Bahrain which is also home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet.
While Washington initially urged Bahrain's government to negotiate with the opposition, it has issued no strong condemnation of Bahrain's use of violence and intimidation since the middle of March, when Saudi Arabia sent more than 1,000 troops into Bahrain to help the despotic Al-Khalifa regime quell the protest movement that started in February asking for democratic reforms.
The US refusal to condemn massive human rights abuses committed by the Bahraini security forces while condemning such abuses in Libya and Yemen has undermined any credibility it had with Bahrainis.
Human right groups have complained that the White House has been publicly mum amid reports that Bahrain's Sunni-led government is waging a violent and bloody crackdown — destroying Shiite mosques, illegally detaining and torturing dissidents, attacking medical personnel to prevent them from treating wounded protestors, abusing women and girls, and expelling journalists from the tiny island kingdom.
http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/International/06-Jun-2011/Democratic-change-in-Bahrain-does-not-serve-US-interests-Kissinger

MAREK

[marektysis]

TheRightChange's Blog Inform yourself on the Bilderberg Group
by TheRightChange
Politics
Last comment by rozemist 3 hours, 43 minutes ago.


Take Me To Post Comment Form

A prominent member of Switzerland’s largest political party has called upon federal authorities to arrest Henry Kissinger as a war criminal if he attends the 2011 Bilderberg conference of global power brokers which is set to begin on Thursday at the Hotel Suvretta House in St. Moritz.

Swiss People’s Party representative Dominique Baettig wrote a letter to the General Prosecutor of the Swiss Federation in which he asked, “In the name of Cantonal Sovereignty and independence, but especially of the Justice’s independence from executive power – may it be Federal or Cantonal – I ask you to check abroad for Arrest Warrants delivered by various Courts, Judges and also for all valid criminal complaints against the persons who were, amongst others, cited as mere examples in my (enclosed) letters to Mrs. Simonetta Sommaruga, Federal Counselor and Mrs. Barbara Janom Steiner, Cantonal Counselor and of course, to arrest them before diligent extraditions.”

Baettig is no fringe figure, he’s the equivalent of a US Congressman, representing the Canton of Jura on the National Council of Switzerland. His party, the Swiss People’s Party, is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of the Council of States.

Baettig’s letter also calls for the apprehension of George W. Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, but neither are likely to be attending the conference. However, Kissinger is a regular Bilderberg attendee and is almost certain to be present in St. Moritz.

Kissinger, National Security Advisor and later Secretary of State for President Nixon and President Ford, has been accused of being complicit in a number of war crimes in Indochina, Bangladesh, Chile, Cyprus and East Timor. Numerous activists have attempted to arrest him over the years under the Geneva Conventions Act.

In The Trial of Henry Kissinger, author Christopher Hitchens documents how Kissinger personally approved bombing campaigns that resulted in thousands of civilian casualties as well as signing off on the use of the deadly chemical Agent Orange. United States General Telford Taylor, the former chief prosecuting officer at the Nuremberg trials, stated that Kissinger committed war crimes by giving the nod to bomb Vietnamese villages during the war.

Although Bilderberg’s primary confab will take place in St. Moritz, other associated meetings will also occur in Zurich and Geneva. Unlike the small group of independent journalists who will travel to the location to do the job that the castrated establishment media refuses to undertake, Bilderberg elitists can rely on private jets and helicopters to transport them between the different locations.

In recent years, Bilderberg luminaries have decried the increasing number of demonstrators and independent journalists who descend on the scene of each annual meeting, which is the primary reason why members will be hopping around to different locations within the small country of Switzerland to escape the glare of reporters and the unwanted attention of protesters.

Claims by apologists that Bilderberg is merely a talking shop that has no influence on setting policy have been vehemently debunked in recent years. Bilderberg chairman Étienne Davignon last year bragged about how the Euro single currency was a brainchild of the Bilderberg Group.

“A meeting in June in Europe of the Bilderberg Group- an informal club of leading politicians, businessmen and thinkers chaired by Mr. Davignon- could also ‘improve understanding’ on future action, in the same way it helped create the Euro in the 1990s, he said,” reported the EU Observer in March 2009.

The foundations for the EU and ultimately the Euro single currency were laid by the secretive Bilderberg Group in the mid-1950’s. Bilderberg’s own leaked documents prove that the agenda to create a European common market and a single currency was formulated by Bilderberg in 1955.

As we first reported in 2003, a BBC investigative team were allowed to access Bilderberg files which confirmed that the EU and the Euro were the brainchild of Bilderberg.

During an interview with a Belgian radio station last year, former NATO Secretary-General and Bilderberg member Willy Claes admitted that those who attend the conference are mandated to implement decisions that are formulated during the confab within their respective spheres of influence.


Latest Activity: Jun 07, 2011 at 8:20 AM

http://community.mantecabulletin.com/blogs/detail/1581/

[marektysis]

Bilderberg: The Uber Powerful Global Elite Meet Behind Closed Doors In St. Moritz
As the secret annual meeting of the elite Bilderberg group arrives in Switzerland, theories of world domination abound.

by: admin
Protesters turned out for last year's Bilderberg meeting (Rodt nytt)

By Anne Fournier
LE TEMPS/ Worldcrunch

ST. MORITZ - Dominique Strauss-Kahn will not be stepping out of a limousine this year. That much is sure about this year’s Bilderberg conference, which the former IMF chief, awaiting trial for alleged sexual assault of a hotel maid in New York, is said to have attended several times in the past. But little else is known about this secretly organized, unofficial meeting of some 100 powerful figures, slated to take place June 9-12 in a luxury hotel in the Grison station. Indeed, not even the dates of the gathering are confirmed.

The canton is to ensure the tranquility of its guests with the help of the Federal security service. Two of its ministers will take part in some of the discussions. But the canton is not commenting on the measures in place or the cost of the operation.

The Bilderberg group is one of the world’s most famous clubs. It gathers bankers, politicians, industrialists, media movers and shakers, scholars and billionaires in a different location each year, usually in Europe. All the attendees share one condition of membership: discretion.

Created in 1954 by Prince Bernhard of Holland in order to bring together European and American elites, this annual meeting is named after the hotel of the Dutch village Oosterbeek where it took place for the first time. Henry Kissinger, Helmut Schmidt, Gerhard Schröder, Daniek Vasella, the heads of Coca-Cola, Shell, Fiat and even the Queen of Holland are among the participants regularly mentioned. What do they do there? What do they want?

Decade after decade, the Bilderberg group has fueled all kinds of speculation. Multiplied on online forums, these hypotheses, sometimes denounced as “conspiracy theories”, spread the idea that a powerful minority is carrying out its plan for a new world order. The idea is that important political and economic decisions are being made behind closed doors, with no democratic control. With the Bilderberg conference bringing together important politicians from left and right, some rumors say the group recommends future heads of state. Bill Clinton, Lionel Jospin, and even José Manuel Barroso, were invited to join shortly before they came to power.

“The conspiracy theory is absurd,” said the former federal counselor Pascal Couchepin, one of the Swiss politicians to have participated in these conferences. “We spend three days trying to better understand the world thanks to meetings that I would describe more as intellectual than political. We are away from any pressure.”

Le Valaisan, invited “four or five times”, mainly remembers fascinating discussions about French history, or encounters with people like Olivier Roy, an expert on Islam. Another Swiss politician, Christoph Blocher, is usually skeptical about international collaboration, but shares the same opinion. Invited to a meeting in Athens where he rubbed shoulders with the head of Coca-Cola, the King of Morocco’s daughter and the Swedish Secretary of State Carl Bildt, he appreciated “the excellence of the orators and the frankness of the debate”. A vestige of the Cold War, the only drawback of the meeting could be that the Chinese and the Russians are still missing.

But the St. Moritz conference does disturb certain representatives of the Swiss political party UDC. In March, the national counselor Dominique Baettig filed an interpellation cosigned by Oskar Freysinger and Yves Nidegger, among others, denouncing “sopra-national and non-transparent governance.” The politician justifies his action: “this kind of gathering of powerful people of the globalized world goes against our principles of sovereignty."

Criticisms about circumventing democracy are especially sharp this year, in the context of the Arab revolutions. Moreover, the cost for the Swiss taxpayer is kept secret. The Federal Council answered that it was not part of its role “to pass judgment on information policy carried out in relation to private manifestations.”

Much more exclusive than Davos

This exclusive version of the Davos World Economic Forum has already been held twice in Switzerland. It is organized by a steering committee of about 20 people, which now includes Josef Ackermann, CEO of Deutsche Bank, and Daniel Vasella, CEO of Novartis. Experts are invited along with the guests. Each participant has a limited speaking time and the debates are graded to guarantee their quality. Another tacit condition is a command of the English language.

In the past few years, the mystery surrounding the Bilderberg group has faded slightly because of interest from journalists. Despite the confidentiality protecting it, the group publishes its discussion themes and participants after the meeting online at www.bilderbergmeetings.org. But the defenders of the “conspiracy theory” who keep denouncing the “Illuminati” are still active.

“This conspiracy spirit is also due to an official authority crisis. It is no longer confined to the myth of the Jewish conspiracy, but it now touches all population categories”, says Bruno Fay, journalist and author of a book on the “plot-cracy” who met the current Bilderberg director, the Belgian Etienne Davignon. Rather than making decisions, the Bilderberg meetings are a way to sound out opinions on current affairs, some say. “And the members are also asked to identify rising personalities in their country.”

Another custom evoked is the invitation of the president of the host country. The communication services of the President of the Confederation say that “Micheline Calmy-Rey will not participate in the Bilderberg meeting which will take place next week in St. Moritz.” For their part, the young socialists will be present behind the scenes of the meeting. For several weeks, they have called for a demonstration on June 11, on the main square of St. Moritz, to sign a manifesto in favor of greater democracy. Lukas Horrer, president of the Social Democratic Party’s youth organization Grison Jusos explains: “We don’t agree with the conspiracy theory. We just want to remind people that democracy has to prevail in the economic world.”

Read the original article in French.
http://www.worldcrunch.com/bilderberg-uber-powerful-global-elite-meet-behind-closed-doors-st-moritz/3252

[marektysis]

Meet The Thiel Fellows
by Jeffrey K. Rohrs, Yesterday, 9:25 AM


Laura Deming is not your ordinary teen. At the tender age of 12, she began working in a biogerontology lab. At 14, she headed off to MIT for college. Today, at 17 years old, when most of her peers are only beginning to look at colleges, she's leaving MIT to join the inaugural class of Thiel Fellows -- a group of 20 teens hand-picked by The Thiel Foundation to pursue innovative scientific and technical projects, learn entrepreneurship, and begin building the technology companies of tomorrow.
The brains behind the Thiel Fellows is Peter Thiel, president of Clarium Capital, a managing partner in The Founders Fund, a co-founder and former CEO of PayPal, and early stage investor in Facebook. Back in September 2010, Peter fired a shot heard in ivory towers worldwide when he questioned the higher education model that was putting students deep in debt before they ever entered the workplace. Instead of dropping out, Peter's idea was to encourage students to "stop out" of school by offering $100,000, 2-year fellowships in which 20 students would be free to work on their entrepreneurial ideas and benefit from some of the best mentors Silicon Valley has to offer.

After reviewing over 400 applications, Laura and 19 other teenage applicants made the cut last month and are now on their way to Silicon Valley to participate in Peter Thiel's grand experiment. A few of the other Thiel Fellows include:

•Dale Stephens, the leader of UnCollege, a social movement that applies the methods of unschooling -- the self-directed brand of homeschooling with which he was raised -- to the realm of higher education. Now he is building a platform called RadMatter to revolutionize how we develop and demonstrate talent in the 21st century.
•Eden Full is the 19-year-old Canadian founder of Roseicollis Technologies, a solar energy start-up that deploys her patent-pending inventions in established and emerging markets. Currently electrifying two villages of 1000 citizens in Kenya, Eden's SunSaluter is a solar panel rotating system that tracks the sun to optimize energy collection by up to 40 percent for only $10. She began developing her social enterprise when she was 15.
•Gary Kurek has been developing mobility aids for physically disabled citizens for the last four years and is the 19 year-old founder of GET Mobility Solutions. Seeing his grandmother weakened by cancer led Gary to invent a walker-wheelchair hybrid that can provide power to assist its user according to how strong she feels at any moment. Gary is currently working on expanding the versatility of his mobility aids, making them lighter, foldable, and capable of navigating any home environment including staircases.
If you have a moment, I encourage you to read about all of the projects being pursued by the Thiel Fellows. They run the gamut from medicine to economics and technology to the humanities, and they overwhelm you with their spirit of optimism and ingenuity.

Whether Peter Thiel's grand experiment will get others to reconsider the wisdom of taking on college debt rather than pursuing their entrepreneurial ideas remains to be seen. I do know, however, that if Laura Deming gets her way, we'll all be here to see it. She plans to focus her Thiel Fellowship efforts on accelerating the commercialization of anti-aging research in hopes of extending the human lifespan.

If she succeeds, who knows -- what it means to be a teenager may take on a whole new meaning.
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=152066

[marektysis]

http://www.itworld.com/mobile-wireless/172697/you-call-tech-bubble

[marektysis]

Bilderberg mystery (BBC)
The second article tells the story of the most powerful lobby organization in the world, the Bilderberg group. This group, under the presidency of Vicerous Etienne Davignon, has been organizing annual meetings on the future of the world since 1954.

Many have critisized the group for being non-transparant and dangerous. However, the most powerful bussinessmen, politicians and scientists attend this annual meeting in a Swiss ski resort.

Therefor it is interesting to read this article on this mysterious group. On the other hand, it shows that Etienne Davignon is as powerful as ever before.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13682082

http://www.lemonde.fr/blake

[marektysis]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/video-report-richard-perle-bill-gates-other-delegates-spotted-at-bilderberg.html


Bill Gates is not on the official list....remark of marek

[marektysis]

A massive Shower Curtain Erected to hide the Bilderberg Group?
Thursday, 09 June 2011

Ok, so some of you may call this infantile. Unless there are group showerings by Bilderberg's elite members, why the silly curtain?

What are they so afraid of? After entering a majestic castle, closing a dozen doors behind them, of course no media is allowed, with over 1,000 agents guarding them on the outside, was a shower curtain really necessary?

What is the CEO of Deutche Bank Josef Ackermann doing hiding in a black limo and more importantly what are German plane clothed policemen doing patrolling Swiss streets and following people around?

Henry Kissinger is cool, the soon to be adviser to FIFA arrived at the castle followed by the Queen of Netherlands and David Rockefeller.

So who put up the shower curtain? Was it the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, but then who held the nails? The CEO of Bank of America? It's anybody's guess, but these people mean business. Do not peek through the shower curtain, you'd probably be unpleasantly surprised.

http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/18359/53/

[marektysis]

Bilderberg 2011: For he's a jolly good RockefellerJust when you thought the annual four-day Bilderberg conference couldn't get any more exciting, a policeman goes and finds a bomb ...



One of two men arrested in conjunction with a Bilderberg bomb scare. Photograph: Quierosaber
Just when you thought the annual four-day Bilderberg conference couldn't get any more exciting, a policeman goes and finds a bomb. Or at least, he went and found a "tubular device" that at certain angles, if you squinted a bit, looked sort of like a bomb. By that well known bomb manufacturer – Pringles.

One of the two men arrested at Bilderberg. Photograph: Adrian Gatton All of a sudden the shout went up, out came the handcuffs, and two men (that nobody recognized) were bustled into custody. We're still trying to find out who they were or what they're charged with. Ownership of a tubular device is still frowned on in Switzerland. That's why Toblerone is shaped like that.

In light of this new tubular threat patrols were stepped up, sniffer dogs began sniffing about, and everyone was moved a bit further back from the hotel. Although it must have been a fairly mild scare, because soon enough the first delegates came zooming through the hotel gates in their limos.

Rush hour at Bilderberg as the Steering Committee gathers. Photograph: Charlie Skelton/guardian.co.uk Bilderberg's favourite power couple were spotted: Henry Kravis, head of private equity giant KKR (assets $60 billion) and his wife, Marie-Josée (Hudson Institute; International Advisory Board of the Federal Reserve). Then in swept Washington's hawkish 'Prince of Darkness', Richard Perle (Hudson Institute; PNAC; Hollinger; former Gaddafi adviser – etc. etc. etc.).

We had the usual peekaboo hidings, and impenetrable black windows, but we also got a couple of happy backseat grins. This fellow can't believe his luck:

Yay! Wooo! I'm off to a conference! Photograph: Hannah Borno Around teatime, a massive helicopter flew up the valley, and landed at the tiny local airport. It was one of the few arrivals there today, due to bad weather. A couple of private jets did make it in; their passengers were whisked off the tarmac, straight out of the gates. Not a passport shown, a bag searched, or a body scanned. "All arranged in advance," we were told. I must remember to arrange that in advance the next time I go on holiday. Such a timesaver.

Best moment of the day was the arrival of everyone's favourite Bilderberger, Papa Bear himself – the undisputed King of the Club – David Rockefeller.

The big Swiss cheese: David Rockefeller arrives at Bilderberg 2011. Photograph: Freemanfriend Doesn't he look cute? Although it's a bit naughty of him, going out and about in daylight like that. He knows it's bad for him.

Thank heavens the bomb scare was a false alarm; an explosion would have soured the build up to Rockefeller's birthday celebrations. David turns 96 on Sunday, but honestly, he doesn't look a day over 137.

Spry little David is the last surviving grandson of John D. It was Granddad Rockefeller who famously declared competition a sin, and built one of the world's great fortunes. It was Granddad Rockefeller who warned his Bible class: "Every downfall is traceable directly or indirectly to the victim's good fellowship" – and solemnly advised them: "Don't be a good fellow."

But young David couldn't live like that. His whole life long he's tried to spread his money where it will do most good. Like in 1961, when he approved a $10,000,000 Chase Manhattan loan to prop up the apartheid economy. Even then, that generosity wasn't quite enough, so two years later his bank joined with a number of other financial institutions to extend the South African regime $40,000,000 more in credit.

Of course, as David himself has said: "We cannot be idealistic. Capital must be invested in countries which have the political stability to guarantee a fair deal for the businessman." And with his ping-pong partner, Henry Kissinger, the master of realpolitik (and the topspin backhand) at his side on Bilderberg's top table, it is hard to imagine much 'idealism' pervading the group. Beyond the heartwarming goal of guaranteeing a fair deal for the businessman.

Which would be all be fine and dandy if the Bilderberg attendees didn't include quite so many elected officials. Our own chancellor, George Osborne, was a serial attendee (2006-2009); our own prime minister, David Cameron, sat through the seminars in 2008 before taking office. And don't forget Tony Blair attended. Not that he likes to admit it (he preferred lying to parliament about not going).

Breaking news: George Osborne MP is on this year's attendee list, which has just been published by a Swiss news agency. So too is Peter Mandelson. More on this shortly.

Politicians from the host country are usually pretty thick on the ground, so it was no surprise to see the stately arrival of Barbara Janom Steiner, head of the justice department of the local Swiss canton.

The politicians get to rub shoulders and polish policies with Bilderberg businessmen like W Edmund Clarke, President & CEO of Canada's second largest bank, Toronto-Dominion (total assets in 2010: 619.5 billion Canadian Dollars), and member of the conference Steering Committee. Clark's plane into San Moritz was delayed due to bad weather, we were told. Poor W Edmund Clark. He missed Etienne Davignon's 'golden oldies' movie quiz (3pm in the sun lounge).

Davignon was one of the early arrivals. The rumour on the hill is that he's about to be replaced as Honorary Chairman of Bilderberg (sorry if you're reading this, Etienne, I hope I haven't spoiled your weekend). There was talk of Josef Ackermann, the head of Deutsche Bank, taking over, but Ackermann's hopes have been dented somewhat by recent accusations of an involvement in dirty slush funds. Not that anyone at Bilderberg is dirty. I mean, hardly any of them are wanted for war crimes. People don't stress that enough.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/10/bilderberg-2011-charlie-skelton

[marektysis]

Secret Bilderberg Group meets in Switzerland
One of the world's most exclusive clubs is a meeting of 140 leading politicians and business people who gather to discuss world events.
Fri, Jun 10 2011 at 12:42 PM EST Comments

St. Moritz, Switzerland, site of this year's Bilderberg conference, (Photo: timo_w2s/Flickr)
When it comes to exclusive gatherings of the most influential and powerful people in the world, it doesn't get much better than scoring an invite to the annual Bilderberg conference.

ShareThe event, slated to take place this year from June 9-12 at a luxury hotel in Switzerland, includes 140 of the top movers and shakers in politics, banking, business, the military and news media. Everything is kept "hush-hush" — from the guest list to the discussions — which organizers say allows a greater degree of expression and openness than usual.

"We spend three days trying to better understand the world thanks to meetings that I would describe more as intellectual than political. We are away from any pressure," Pascal Couchepin, a former Swiss federal counselor and Bilderberg attendee told Worldcrunch.

Indeed, the original purpose behind the conference — first held at the Hotel de Bilderberg in 1954 — was to foster better understanding of American and European cultures under the banners of politics, economics and defense.

This year's agenda, posted on the group's official website, will cover such topics as Challenges for Growth: Innovation and Budgetary Discipline, the Euro and Challenges for the European Union, the role of Emerging Economies, Social Networks: Connectivity and Security Issues, New Challenges in the Middle East, Conflict Areas, Demographic Challenges, China, and Switzerland: Can it remain successful in the future?

Put enough elites in one room, wrap the whole thing in a blanket of secrecy, and conspiracy theories will grow like weeds. The Bilderberg Group in particular is the subject of several theories — with the most alarming stating that the club wishes to reduce global population by 80 percent. Another says they're moving the planet towards a "new world order," something Chairman Étienne Davignon easily dismissed in a 2005 interview.

"It is unavoidable and it doesn't matter," he said. "There will always be people who believe in conspiracies but things happen in a much more incoherent fashion ... When people say this is a secret government of the world, I say that if we were a secret government of the world, we should be bloody ashamed of ourselves."

While the guest list is generally kept under wraps, one website has put together a rather complete look at this year's attendees, thanks to "the fantastic work of Bilderberg activists, journalists and the Swiss media."

U.S. participants reportedly include Keith Alexander, commander of USCYBERCOM and director of the National Security Agency; Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon; Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook; Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google; and James Steinberg, deputy Secretary of State.

More information on the group can be found at BilderbergMeetings.org.
http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/blogs/secret-bilderberg-group-meets-in-switzerland

[marektysis]

http://ofgoatsandmen.blogspot.com/2011/06/where-do-charlie-rose-kissenger.html

[marektysis]

http://ofgoatsandmen.blogspot.com/2011/06/where-do-charlie-rose-kissenger.html

[marektysis]

Bilderberg: world’s fate sealed behind closed doors
permalink email story to a friend print version Published: 10 June, 2011, 09:00
Edited: 11 June, 2011, 10:50

A private policeman guarding the Suvretta House five-star hotel on June 9, 2011 (AFP Photo / Fabrice Coffrini)

The Bilderberg Group, an invitation-only meeting of the world's most powerful people, is taking place in Switzerland. Just what the political insiders, media moguls and industry magnates will actually discuss, remains top secret.
­This year the Bilderberg Group has occupied the grand Suvretta House Hotel among the magnificent hills and lakes of St. Moritz resort, Switzerland. The world’s most powerful group of some 150 will be meeting there behind closed doors to discuss whatever they need to in the next few days and, perhaps, carry out decisions that will determine the future of the whole world.

Bilderberg attendees of the past include kings, presidents, captains of industry and heads of the world’s most powerful corporations. Rumors have been spread of Juan Carlos I of Spain, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and board members from IBM, Royal Dutch Shell, and Nokia having attended the Bilderberg Group meetings. Various officials and politicians such as Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis, European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso and US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner have also been claimed to be on the participants’ lists.

Still, there is little media coverage of the group: official lists of participants are not revealed, neither is the agenda publicized. Press releases are not expected to be issued after the meeting.
Since the 1950s, when the group started, there has been much speculation regarding the purposes and possible agendas of the meetings. The group has been accused of plans to crop 80 per cent of the world’s population, of masterminding the global financial crisis of 2008–2010, or even secretly coming up with the original plan to implement the euro.


A dedicated Bilderberg Group watcher Jim Tucker believes this year’s meeting will focus on the Arab Spring. He thinks that the group will want to create a mastermind behind the conflicts in Arab countries to protect Israel. Tucker expects the group to try to prolong the war in Libya, but the increasing opposition to it in the US Congress might curb their plans.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the IMF head’s succession will be another topic of the Bilderberg Group this year, Tucker thinks.

http://rt.com/news/bilderberg-switzerland-moritz-2011/

[marektysis]

Bilderberg 2011: George Osborne attending as chancellor
Charlie Skelton spots some interesting names on the delegate list

British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne poses for pictures with the ministerial budget box, outside 11 Downing Street in London, on March 23, 2011. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images
Early this morning a Swiss website published a genuine-sounding list of delegates to this year's conference. A couple of names leapt out, both of them Bilderberg alumni: Lord Mandelson (2009) and George Osborne (2006-2009).

On the 2011 delegate list, Osborne appears thus:

Osborne, George, Chancellor of the Exchequer.

I've just spent the entire day trying and failing and failing and trying again to get an official confirmation that Osborne is attending the St Moritz conference, and if so, in exactly what capacity he's here.

At long last the Treasury Press Office gave me a straight answer, but it wasn't the answer I was expecting: "George Osborne is attending the Bilderberg conference in his official capacity as Chancellor of the Exchequer" – and he's coming along "with a number of other international finance ministers." Any Treasury staff? "Probably not more than one."

So – ok – you mean we're paying for Osborne to be here? You mean he's on Treasury business? You mean this is an official summit? You mean he's talking economic policy with the Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell, the CEO of Airbus, and Russian oligarch Alexey Mordashov, the billionaire CEO of Severstal? And Henry Kissinger? In secret? Behind a police cordon?

Then came the photo. It's a bit washed out, but that profile…

The chancellor in Bilderberg. Photograph: We Are Change Switzerland We're not sure who's travelling with him, but maybe Conservative Home could take a punt? (Or the Treasury Press Office?)

I'm not quite sure why George is taking the trip as Chancellor. Was he that unwilling to pick up the cost of a flight? Isn't he a wallpaper heir or something? Why would he walk willingly into a blizzard of tricky questions: who paid for his flight? Who's paying for his security? What's he discussing? Who's he discussing it with? Who's he gone with? Who's taking minutes? Why on earth wouldn't he just have attended as humble little "Osborne, George"? Did he think his lanyard would look empty? Can't he put 'Bullingdon Club' under his name or something?

Right back at the beginning of Bilderberg, the key selling point of the conference was its privacy. In March 1954, a couple of months before the first meeting – at the Bilderberg Hotel in May – a senior Foreign Office official, Frank Roberts, describes how it was sold to him: "the idea was that the meeting would be entirely private but that there might be a press conference at the end if the meeting had been successful."

The meeting was a success, clearly, and its privacy enshrined. But the idea of a press conference seems to have faded away. It's shame, seeing as how many questions (and Freedom of Information requests) spring to mind. Maybe it's finally time for the original dream of "a press conference at the end" to come to pass.

Oh, and one last thing – I'd like to congratulate Rory Stewart MP on his forthcoming promotion.

Sorry – one other last thing – the Chancellor of the Exchequer is
attending a four-day summit with international finance ministers, heads of
state and CEOs of banks and corporations... and the press?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jun/10/bilderberg-2011-charlie-skelton

[marektysis]

Greece and the euro: Is it time for a divorce?
By AMITRAJEET A. BATABYAL
Rochester Business Journal
June 10, 2011
The continuing financial difficulties of Ireland, Portugal and particularly Greece-all of which were bailed out by the International Monetary Fund-have led some to ask the unthinkable: Does it make sense for Greece to leave the euro zone and go back to the drachma, the currency it had before it adopted the euro in 2002? Although it is difficult to answer this question unambiguously, some understanding of economics does shed valuable light on the underlying issues.

First, some facts. Relative to economic powerhouses such as Germany and France, Greece has always been a straggler. In addition, past Greek governments have kept promising generous benefits to the country's citizens. This required governments to significantly increase public spending even though income tax receipts and other revenue were not sufficient to balance the budget. Tax evasion was and continues to be a major problem in Greece.

When Greece adopted the euro in 2002, the serious budget imbalance did not ring alarm bells for politicians because they were able to borrow on the international market to finance the increased domestic spending. And borrow they did. This unrestrained borrowing, combined with an inability to pay creditors and a recessionary economic environment, is the source of Greece's current sovereign debt problem.

The severity of the problem was recognized by the IMF and the European Central Bank, and the IMF bailed out Greece in 2010 with a non-trivial rescue package. Even so, reductions in domestic spending and increases in taxes have not yet had the desired effect. Therefore, Fitch, a rating agency, recently cut the nation's debt rating by three notches, and the yields on Greek 10-year bonds in May reached 16.8 percent, which is more than twice what they were a year ago. This makes it highly unlikely that Greece will be able to borrow on the international market, so it looks very likely that the IMF and the ECB will have to deal with the Greek debt problem once again.

A second bailout will almost certainly come with requirements that will be extremely painful for Greece. As the prominent economist Martin Feldstein has noted, the required reduction in the fiscal deficit will plunge Greece into a deep and prolonged recession that, as a member of the euro zone, it cannot offset with a currency devaluation.

This inability to devalue the currency is a key part of the problem for Greece. The Economist has pointed to some options for dealing with Greece's debt problems. One would be for the IMF and euro-zone nations to provide fiscal transfers and bailout loans. A second option would be to ask banks and creditors to "volunteer" to roll over their holdings and maturities of Greek debt.

Although these options would buy Greece some time, they would be difficult to sell to European-particularly German-voters, and they do not address the underlying solvency issue. The only meaningful option now is to allow Greece to restructure its debt. This would immediately bring down the nation's debt burden but also would impose large losses on private creditors. This is probably why the ECB is opposed to this sort of restructuring.

If debt restructuring is not an option and Greece is punished with further austerity measures, then it would face many years of prolonged economic pain with large spending cuts, high taxes and massive unemployment. A single European currency denies Greece the ability to adjust its monetary policy to local conditions; it eliminates the natural response of the currency to what Feldstein calls "shifts in global demand and in productivity trends"; it encourages Greece to run large fiscal deficits; and it does not allow Greece to reduce its large fiscal deficit with a currency devaluation.


http://www.rbj.net/article.asp?aID=187812