Bilderberg Conference Convenes
by Stephen Lendman
Heery Kravis, head of KKR, an “equity acquisition firm,” and king of the LBO game. Few represent the capitalist disease as well as Kravis.
On June 5, the London Evening Standard headlined “No minutes, no press conferences – just the world’s power brokers chewing the fat on the issues of the day. It’s the Bilderberg conference – and it’s coming to a suburb near you.”
On June 6, it convened. It continues through June 9. It’s a rite of spring. A previous article said British political economist Will Hutton calls attendees the “high priests of globalization.” Powerful movers and shakers have their own agenda. They’re up to no good. They meet annually face-to-face. They conspire, collude and collaborate against populist interests. Their’s alone matter.
According to Bilderberg Meetings.org:
“Founded in 1954, Bilderberg is an annual conference designed to foster dialogue between Europe and North America.”
“Every year, between 120 -150 political leaders and experts from industry, finance, academia and the media are invited to take part in the conference.”
“About two thirds of the participants come from Europe and the rest from North America; one third from politics and government and the rest from other fields.”
“The conference is a forum for informal, off-the-record discussions about megatrends and the major issues facing the world.”
“Thanks to the private nature of the conference, the participants are not bound by the conventions of office or by pre-agreed positions.”
“As such, they can take time to listen, reflect and gather insights. There is no detailed agenda, no resolutions are proposed, no votes are taken, and no policy statements are issued.”
“The 61st Bilderberg meeting will take place at the beginning of June 2013 in the UK.”
Earlier articles discussed their agenda. Their ideal world isn’t fit to live in. Democracy is verboten. They want one world government. They want unchallenged global dominance. Their wish list includes universal rules they set, centralized global control, perpetual crises and wars, NATO operating worldwide, abolishing the middle class, establishing ruler-serf societies, and having unchallenged wealth and power in their hands.
They want what they say goes enforced as policy. Obedient serfs can expect subsistence crumbs at best. Non-believers will be eliminated. New world order priorities alone matter.
Bilderberg’s Steering Committee includes a dozen prominent Americans. David Rockefeller’s called an Advisory Group member. It’s uncertain if he’s attending. A published list excludes his name. He’s called the master spider for good reason. He’s been dominant for decades. On June 12, he turns 98. He’s fading. Who’ll replace him isn’t clear.
In her book “Web of Debt,” Ellen Brown quoted economist/geopolitical analyst Hans Schicht saying:
“What has been good for Rockefeller, has been a curse for the United States. Its citizens, government and country indebted to the hilt, enslaved to his banks.”
“The country’s industrial force lost to overseas in consequence of strong dollar policies (pursued for bankers not the country.”
Rockefeller’s no longer the force he once was. “(S)ixty years of dollar imperialism (is ending). The day of financial reckoning is not far off any longer.”
“With Rockefeller’s strong hand losing its grip and the old established order fading, the world has entered a most dangerous transition period, where anything could happen.”
Bilderberg rogues plan a world unfit to live in. They may end up destroying it in the process. It’s hard imagining a more malevolent force. US members reflect the worst of what it stands for. More on some prominent ones attending below.
They’re meeting at Britain’s five-star Grove Hotel. It’s 18 miles from London. It’s ideal for secluded meetings. While ongoing, police state security’s enforced. Operations go on round-the-clock. Area residents have to show police passports, drivers licenses, or other accepted photo IDs to go home, to work, or attend to other personal business.
Civil liberties are suspended. De facto martial law’s in force. What Bilderberg rogues want they get. They want the worst of all possible worlds spread globally.
Prominent American attendees in alphabetical order include:
Roger Altman:
He’s a former Lehman Brothers partner. He left before its dissolution. Perhaps he helped push it over the edge. He was Clinton’s Deputy Treasury Secretary. He’s a Bilderberg Steering Committee member.
He’s founder and executive chairman of Evercore Partners. It’s a prominent predatory investment banking advisory firm. It specializes in mergers, acquisition, divestitures, restructurings, financings and other strategic transactions.
It operates the old-fashioned way. It recommends leveraged buyouts, asset-stripping targeted companies, and leaving thousands of employees high and dry on their own.
Jeff Bezos:
He’s Amazon’s founder and CEO. It’s the world’s largest online retailer. Earlier he worked on Wall Street and for a New York-based hedge fund. In March 2013, Forbes estimated his net worth at $25.2 billion.
Martin Feldstein:
He’s Harvard University Professor of Economics. From 1982 – 1984, he was Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisors chairman and chief economic advisor. He’s National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) president emeritus. It’s an elitist organization.
Many of its members have been conservative Nobel economics laureates. Others served as White House chairmen of the Council of Economic Advisors. It’s well known for announcing when recessions begin and end. It does so inaccurately. It ignores an ongoing protracted Main Street Depression.
In 2006, Feldstein was on Bush’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. In 2009, he served Obama in a likewise capacity. His other affiliations include the Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, and American Enterprise Group among others. He been a board member of several major corporations.
Timothy Geithner:
A previous article discussed his legacy of shame. His rap sheet includes various Treasury posts, IMF Policy Development and Review director, New York Fed president, vice chairman of the Fed’s Open Market Committee (FOMC), and Obama’s Treasury Secretary.
He partnered with former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed chairman Ben Bernanke. They planned the grandest of grand thefts. They implemented banker bailouts.
They looted the federal treasury. They stuck taxpayers with the bill. They debased the currency. They transformed America into an unprecedented money making racket.
He and other Bilderberg rogues want spread globally what they did to America. They conspired with their EU partners doing the same thing to Western Europe.
They bear full responsibility for today’s global economic crisis. They planned it for greater wealth and power control.
Donald Graham:
He’s Washington Post Company chairman and CEO. His holdings include TV stations, municipal cable systems, and Kaplan, Inc. It provides higher education testing, training, and professional courses. It’s ethically and legally challenged.
It specializes in ripping off students. It does so for profit. It features scams and other fraudulent schemes. It sacrifices education for bottom line priorities.
It’s faced numerous lawsuits. In 2007, a class-action one on overcharging was settled. It shows no signs of changing its ways. Doing business the old fashioned way matters most.
Robert D. Kaplan
His articles are featured in numerous scoundrel media publications. Defense Secretary Robert Gates appointed him to the Defense Policy Board. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush reportedly sought his counsel.
In 2011, Foreign Policy magazine called him one of the world’s “top global thinkers.” He’s Stratfor Global Intelligence chief geopolitical analyst. According to Professor Daniel Drezner:
“What Kaplan and George Friedman share is a sense of geographical determinism that allows them to claim predictive powers.”
They and likeminded ideologues advance amoral national interest priorities. Resource control weighs heavily.
Professor Robert Farley added:
“Kaplan’s talent is to tell the powerful what they want to hear with the veneer of both theoretical insight and empirical knowledge, while possessing neither.”
His book “Balkan Ghosts” allegedly influenced Clinton’s thinking on Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Its dark side analysis characterized Yugoslav people as primitive and violent.
He calls Iran a potential regional hegemon. He says “Iranians do respond to pressure, but it has to be extreme.”
At an earlier Davos World Economic Forum meeting, Stratfor’s George Friedman addressed Iran saying, “There is a solution to (weapons) proliferation, and this is bombing them.” Perhaps Kaplan’s view is likeminded.
Henry Kissinger:
Previous articles discussed him. He was an early architect of new world order harshness.
He’s a notorious war criminal. His rap sheet includes three to four million Southeast Asian war deaths.
He was instrumental in overthrowing Chile’s democratic government. Augusto Pinochet replaced Salvador Allende. Reign of terror arrests, killings, torture and neoliberal harshness followed.
He backed Suharto’s brutal dictatorship. His Kopassus special forces terrorized Indonesians. Their record includes kidnappings, rape, torture, targeted killings, sweeping violence, mass murder, and other atrocities against anyone challenging his authority.
He supported his West Papua takeover. He OK’d his East Timor invasion. Over two hundred thousand East Timorese died. Around half a million more were displaced.
In two months, 10% of the population was annihilated. It was prelude for what followed.
Kissinger supported the Khmer Rouge’s rise to power and reign of terror. He encouraged a Kurdish revolt against Saddam Hussein. He then abandoned them. He advised Bush and Cheney on Iraq policy.
He backed a 1974 Cypriot fascist coup. He defended Turkey’s brutal invasion. He was complicit in Operation Condor. Pinochet and other Latin American despots reigned terror against alleged communists and political opponents. Tens of thousands perished.
He supported Pakistan’s “delicacy and tact” in overthrowing Bangladesh’s democratically elected government. Half a million deaths followed.
In 1974, his secret National Security Study Memorandum 200 (NSSM 200) called for drastic global depopulation. Developing nations are resource rich, he said. They’re vital to US growth. He wanted useless eaters eliminated. He said “Depopulation should be the highest priority of US foreign policy towards the Third World.”
He supported involuntary mass sterilizations. He wanted birth control made a prerequisite for US aid. He wanted hundreds of millions eliminated by 2000.
He endorsed the worst of Israeli crimes. He deplores peace. He supports war and state terror. He symbolizes the worst of imperial lawlessness.
Henry Kravis:
He’s co-chairman and co-CEO of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR). It calls itself “a leading global investment firm with deep roots in private equity, diversified capabilities, decades of financial and operational experience, broad industry knowledge, and a powerful network of global relationships.”
It specializes in leveraged buyouts. It asset-strips companies for profit. It dumps thousands of employees doing so. It makes money the old fashioned way. Bottom line ones alone matter.
Forbes estimates his net worth at $4.5 billion. Balzac once said behind every great fortune lies a great crime.
Jessica T. Mathews:
She’s a Bilderberg Steering Committee member. She’s Carnegie Endowment for International Peace president. From 1977 – 1979, she was National Security Council Office of Global Issues director. She held various other executive and legislative government posts. From 1980 – 1982, she was a Washington Post editorial board member.
Her husband is retired four-star Air Force General Charles G. Boyd. He’s a Council on Foreign Relations program director. He’s Business Executives for National Security president. He’s a prominent Project on National Security Reform member.
Richard Perle:
He’s a Bilderberg Steering Committee member. He’s known as “the prince of darkness.” He’s a prominent uberhawk. He favors conflict over diplomacy. He served as Reagan’s Assistant Secretary of Defense and Global Strategic Affairs. He was GW Bush’s Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee chairman.
He’s associated with the Project for the New American Century and American Enterprise Institute. Both organizations figured prominently in post-9/11 wars.
His other affiliations include the Hudson Institute, pro-Israeli front group Washington Institute for Near East Affairs (WINEP), the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), and Center for Security Policy among others.
David Petraeus
He gained prominence as US Central Command head, International Security Assistance Force commander, and CIA director. Defrocking followed Petraeusgate. A previous article said forget resignation over extramarital sex. Lots of elected and appointed Washington officials had affairs. Many likely have current ones. Numerous former presidents had them. Defrocking never forced any from office.
Competence didn’t earn Petraeus four stars. Former peers accused him of brown-nosing his way to the top. It made him a brand as much as general.
Talk earlier surfaced about his presidential aspirations. In 2007, Time magazine made him runner-up Person of the Year.
White House and media spin praised his stellar performance. Before he fell from grace, he was called aggressive in nature, an innovative thinker on counterinsurgency warfare, a talisman, a white knight, a do-or-die competitive legend, and a man able to turn defeat into victory.
His former commander, Admiral William Fallon, called him “a piece of brown-nosing chicken shit.”
He’s more myth than man. His failures were called successes. His career advanced by being super-hawkish, brown-nosing the right superiors, lying to Congress, surviving the scorn of some peers, hiding his failures, hyping a fake Iranian threat, supporting Israel, unjustifiably claiming Iraq success, and boasting how he’d do it throughout the region.
He manufactured successes. He concealed failures. He’s out of the public spotlight but not gone.
In March 2013, he became honorary Office of Strategic Services (OSS) chairman. It was the CIA’ s predecessor organization.
He’s also a City University of New York visiting professor. In May, UCLA named him Judge Widney Professor. He’s Currahee Board of Trustees president. KKR named him KKR Global Institute chairman.
Robert Rubin:
He formerly chaired Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. He served as Clinton’s Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, National Economic Council head and Treasury Secretary. Time magazine once called him, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, and Deputy Treasury Secretary Larry Summers “The Committee to Save the World.”
They did more wrecking than saving. They helped get Glass-Steagall repealed. They influenced Commodities Futures Modernization Act (CFMA) passage. It legitimized swap agreements and other hybrid instruments. They’re at the core of major financial problems. It prevented regulatory oversight of derivatives and leveraging. CFMA and Glass-Steagall’s repeal made Wall Street a casino operating on only the house wins rules.
CFMA legitimized derivatives scams. Enron took full advantage. It fleeced investors and energy purchasers with impunity. It did so until its house of cards collapsed. At the time, Alan Greenspan endorsed derivatives. He lied calling them a way to share risks. They turned an economic downturn into a protracted Main Street Depression.
Clinton/Rubin/Summers/Greenspan/Bernanke/Paulson/Geithner, and other co-conspirators engineered it.
Eric Schmidt:
He’s Google executive chairman. Forbes estimates his net worth at $7.5 billion. He’s a regular Bilderberg attendee. A previous article discussed his close Bilderberg ties.
Infowars reporters Paul Joseph Watson and Jon Scobie said Google’s “merging” with Bilderberg.
It’s “being recast as ‘Google-Berg’ – partly because of efforts on behalf of activists to tear away the veil of Bilderberg’s much cherished secrecy, and partly as a means of re-branding authoritarian, undemocratic secret gatherings of elites as trendy, liberal, feel-good philanthropic-style forums like Google Zeitgeist and TED.”
Schmidt thinks “privacy is a relic of the past.” He “plans to turn Google into the ultimate Big Brother.”
He and Bilderberg members share common aims. In part, they reflect a “collectivist, permanently networked world (without) individuality and privacy.” They’re partnering for greater global control. Doing so makes Bilderberg’s ideal world unfit to live in.
James Wolfensohn:
He’s Australian born. He became a naturalized US citizen. From 1995 – 2005, he was World Bank president. Along with the IMF and other major international lending agencies, it debt entraps nations.
It wages financial war on humanity. It mandates structural adjustment harshness.
It prioritizes privatization of state enterprises, mass layoffs, deregulation, deep social spending cuts, wage freezes or cuts, corporate-friendly tax cuts, unrestricted Western corporate market access, trade unionism crushed or marginalized, and stiff repression targeting non-believers.
In 2005, Wolfsensohn founded Wolfensohn & Company. It’s a global emerging markets private equity firm. It advises governments and large corporations doing business in emerging market economies.
Since 2006, Wolfensohn’s also been Citigroup International Advisory Board chairman. In 2009, he became a China Investment Corporation International Advisory Council member. In October 2010, he regained his Australian citizenship.
Robert Zoellick:
He’s a prominent neocon. He was a Project for a New American Century member. He advocated post-9/11 wars. Paul Wolfowitz succeeded Wolfensohn as World Bank president. Zoellick succeeded him. He served from 2007 to 2012.
He formerly was a Goldman Sachs managing director, as well as Deputy Secretary of State and US Trade Representative under GW Bush.
Under Reagan, he held various Treasury positions. He was Counselor to James Baker, Executive Secretary of the Department, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions Policy.
He was GHW Bush’s Under Secretary of State for Economic and Agricultural Affairs. He also served as Department Counselor.
In 1991 and 1992, he was Bush’s G7 summit representative. He 1992, he served as White House deputy chief of staff.
From 1993 – 1997, he was Fannie Mae executive vice president. He bears much responsibility for helping to inflate the housing bubble. During George Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign, he was one among other self-styled “vulcans.” Others included Condoleezza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Armitage, Richard Perle, Stephen Hadley, Scooter Libby, and Dov Zakheim. The term alludes to the Roman god of fire and metalworking.
Zoellick’s other past and present affiliations include Enron’s advisory board, Alliance Capital, Said Holdings, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Aspen Institute’s Strategy Group, former Defense Secretary William Cohen’s Defense Policy Board, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies among others.
Other notable Bilderberg attendees include IMF head Christine Lagarde, European President Jose Manuel Barroso, former appointed Italian Prime Minister Mario (three-card) Monti, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, Goldman Sachs International chairman Peter Sutherland, as well as numerous other politicians, corporate bosses, investment firm heads, journalist insiders and others.
They comprise a virtual rogues gallery of scoundrels. An official list excludes likely figures kept private. Rumor suggests Obama and Britain’s David Cameron may attend. Perhaps we’ll know more later on.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book is titled “Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity.”
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
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