by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Global Research
May 26, 2009
from
GlobalResearch Website
|
Andrew G. Marshall is a
Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
He is currently studying Political Economy and History at Simon
Fraser University. |
From May 14-17, the global elite met in secret
in Greece for the yearly Bilderberg conference, amid scattered and
limited global media attention. Roughly 130 of the world’s most powerful
individuals came together to discuss the pressing issues of today, and to
chart a course for the next year.
The main topic of discussion at this years
meeting was the global financial crisis, which is no surprise, considering
the list of conference attendees includes many of the primary architects of
the crisis, as well as those poised to “solve” it.
The Agenda - The
Restructuring of the Global Political Economy
Before the meeting began, Bilderberg investigative journalist Daniel
Estulin reported on the main item of the agenda, which was leaked to him
by his sources inside. Though such reports cannot be verified, his sources,
along with those of veteran Bilderberg tracker, Jim Tucker, have
proven to be shockingly accurate in the past.
Apparently, the main topic of discussion at this
year's meeting was to address
the
economic crisis, in terms of undertaking,
“Either a prolonged, agonizing depression
that dooms the world to decades of stagnation, decline and poverty... or
an intense-but-shorter depression that paves the way for a new
sustainable economic world order, with less sovereignty but more
efficiency.”
Other items on the agenda included a plan to,
“continue to deceive millions of savers and
investors who believe the hype about the supposed up-turn in the
economy. They are about to be set up for massive losses and searing
financial pain in the months ahead,” and “There will be a final push for
the enactment of Lisbon Treaty, pending on Irish voting YES on the
treaty in Sept or October,” [1] which would give the European
Union massive powers over its member nations, essentially making it a
supranational regional government, with each country relegated to more
of a provincial status.
Shortly after the meetings began, Bilderberg
tracker Jim Tucker reported that his inside sources revealed that the
group has on its agenda,
“the plan for a global department of health,
a global treasury and a shortened depression rather than a longer
economic downturn.”
Tucker reported that Swedish Foreign Minister
and former Prime Minister, Carl Bildt,
“Made a speech advocating turning the World
Health Organization into a world department of health, advocating
turning the IMF into a world department of treasury, both of course
under the auspices of
the United Nations.”
Further, Tucker reported that,
“Treasury Secretary Geithner and Carl Bildt
touted a shorter recession not a 10-year recession... partly because a
10 year recession would damage Bilderberg industrialists themselves, as
much as they want to have a global department of labor and a global
department of treasury, they still like making money and such a long
recession would cost them big bucks industrially because nobody is
buying their toys... the tilt is towards keeping it short.” [2]
After the meetings finished, Daniel Estulin
reported that,
“One of Bilderberg’s primary concerns
according to Estulin is the danger that their zeal to reshape the world
by engineering chaos in order to implement their long term agenda
could cause the situation to spiral out of control and eventually lead
to a scenario where Bilderberg and
the global elite in general are
overwhelmed by events and end up losing their control over the planet.”
[3]
On May 21, the Macedonian International News
Agency reported that,
“A new Kremlin report on the shadowy
Bilderberg Group, who this past week held their annual meeting in
Greece, states that the West’s financial, political and corporate elite
emerged from their conclave after coming to an agreement that in order
to continue their drive towards a
New World Order dominated by the Western Powers, the US
Dollar has to be ‘totally’ destroyed.”
Further, this same unconfirmed Kremlin report,
stated that,
“most of the West’s wealthiest elite
convened at an unprecedented secret meeting in New York called for and
led by”
David Rockefeller, “to plot the demise
of the US Dollar.” [4]
This report, which was not acknowledged by other
media sources, requires verification.
The Secret Meeting of Billionaires
The meeting being referred to was a secret meeting where,
“A dozen of the richest people in the world
met for an unprecedented private gathering at the invitation of Bill
Gates and Warren Buffett to talk about giving away money,”
...held at Rockefeller University, and included
notable philanthropists such as:
One attendee stated that,
“It wasn’t secret,” but that, “It was meant
to be a gathering among friends and colleagues. It was something folks
have been discussing for a long time. Bill and Warren hoped to do this
occasionally. They sent out an invite and people came.”
Chronicle of Philanthropy editor Stacy
Palmer said,
“Given how serious these economic times are,
I don't think it's surprising these philanthropists came together,” and
that, “They don't typically get together and ask each other for advice.”
The three hosts of the meeting were Buffet,
Gates and David Rockefeller.[5] [See: Appendix 2
far below].
Bilderberg founding member
David Rockefeller,
Honorary Chairman of the
Council on Foreign Relations,
Honorary Chairman and Founder of the
Trilateral Commission,
Chairman of the Council of the Americas and the Americas Society,
former Chairman and CEO of Chase Manhattan Bank (now JP Morgan Chase Bank).
At the meeting,
“participants steadfastly refused to reveal
the content of the discussion. Some cited an agreement to keep the
meeting confidential. Spokesmen for Mr. Buffett, Mr. Bloomberg, Mr.
Gates, Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Soros and Ms. Winfrey and others dutifully
declined comment, though some confirmed attendance.” [6]
Reports indicate that,
“They discussed how to address the global
slump and expand their charitable activities in the downturn.” [7]
The UK newspaper The Times reported that
these,
“leading billionaires have met secretly to
consider how their wealth could be used to slow the growth of the
world’s population,” and that they “discussed joining forces to overcome
political and religious obstacles to change.”
Interestingly,
“The informal afternoon session was so
discreet that some of the billionaires’ aides were told they were at
‘security briefings’.”
Further,
“The billionaires were each given 15 minutes
to present their favorite cause. Over dinner they discussed how they
might settle on an ‘umbrella cause’ that could harness their interests,”
and what was decided upon was that, “they agreed that
overpopulation was a priority.”
Ultimately,
“a consensus emerged that they would back a
strategy in which population growth would be tackled as a potentially
disastrous environmental, social and industrial threat,” and that, “They
need to be independent of government agencies, which are unable to head
off the disaster we all see looming.”
One guest at the meeting said that,
“They wanted to speak rich to rich without
worrying anything they said would end up in the newspapers, painting
them as an alternative world government.” [8]
The Leaked Report
Bilderberg investigative reporter Daniel Estulin reportedly received
from his inside sources a 73-page Bilderberg Group meeting wrap-up
for participants, which revealed that there were some serious disagreements
among the participants.
“The hardliners are for dramatic decline and
a severe, short-term depression, but there are those who think that
things have gone too far and that the fallout from the global economic
cataclysm cannot be accurately calculated if Henry Kissinger's model is
chosen. Among them is Richard Holbrooke. What is unknown at this point:
if Holbrooke's point of view is, in fact, Obama's.”
The consensus view was that the recession would
get worse, and that recovery would be “relatively slow and protracted,” and
to look for these terms in the press over the next weeks and months.
Estulin reported,
“that some leading European bankers faced
with the specter of their own financial mortality are extremely
concerned, calling this high wire act "unsustainable," and saying that
US budget and trade deficits could result in the demise of the dollar.”
One Bilderberger said that,
“the banks themselves don't know the answer
to when (the bottom will be hit).”
Everyone appeared to agree,
“that the level of capital needed for the
American banks may be considerably higher than the US government
suggested through their recent stress tests.” Further, “someone from the
IMF pointed out that its own study on historical recessions suggests
that the US is only a third of the way through this current one;
therefore economies expecting to recover with resurgence in demand from
the US will have a long wait.”
One attendee stated that,
“Equity losses in 2008 were worse than those
of 1929,” and that, “The next phase of the economic decline will also be
worse than the '30s, mostly because the US economy carries about $20
trillion of excess debt. Until that debt is eliminated, the idea of a
healthy boom is a mirage.” [9]
According to Jim Tucker, Bilderberg is working
on setting up a summit in Israel from June 8-11, where “the world’s
leading regulatory experts” can “address the current economic situation in
one forum.”
In regards to the proposals put forward by
Carl Bildt to create a world treasury department and world department of
health under the United Nations,
the IMF is said to become the World
Treasury, while the World Health Organization is to become the
world department of health. Bildt also reaffirmed using “climate change” as
a key challenge to pursue Bilderberg goals, referring to the economic crisis
as a “once-in-a-generation crisis while global warming is a
once-in-a-millennium challenge.”
Bildt also advocated expanding NAFTA through the
Western hemisphere to create an
American Union, using the EU as a “model of
integration.”
The IMF reportedly sent a report to Bilderberg advocating its rise to
becoming the World Treasury Department, and,
“U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
enthusiastically endorsed the plan for a World Treasury Department,
although he received no assurance that he would become its leader.”
Geithner further said,
“Our hope is that we can work with Europe on
a global framework, a global infrastructure which has appropriate global
oversight.” [10]
Bilderberg’s Plan in
Action?
Reorganizing the Federal Reserve
Following the Bilderberg meeting, there were several interesting
announcements made by key participants, specifically in regards to
reorganizing
the Federal Reserve.
On May 21, it was reported that US Treasury
Secretary Timothy Geithner,
“is believed to be leaning heavily towards
giving the Federal Reserve a central role in future regulation,” and “it
is understood that the Fed would take on some of the work currently
undertaken by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).”
[11]
On Wednesday, May 20, Geithner spoke before the
Senate Banking Committee, at which he stated that,
“there are important indications that our
financial system is starting to heal.”
In regards to regulating the financial system,
Geithner stated that,
“we must ensure that international rules for
financial regulation are consistent with the high standards we will be
implementing in the United States.” [12]
US Treasury Secretary Timothy
Geithner,
former President of the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Bloomberg reported that,
“The Obama administration may call for
stripping the Securities and Exchange Commission of some of its powers
under a regulatory reorganization,” and that, “The proposal, still being
drafted, is likely to give the Federal Reserve more authority to
supervise financial firms deemed too big to fail. The Fed may inherit
some SEC functions, with others going to other agencies.”
Interestingly,
“SEC Chairman
Mary Schapiro’s agency has been mostly
absent from negotiations within the administration on the regulatory
overhaul, and she has expressed frustration about not being consulted.”
It was reported that,
“Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was set
to discuss proposals to change financial regulations last night at a
dinner with National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers [who was
also present at Bilderberg], former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker [also at
Bilderberg], ex-SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt and Elizabeth Warren, the
Harvard University law professor who heads the congressional watchdog
group for the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.” [13]
The Federal Reserve is a privately owned
central bank, owned by its shareholders, consisting of the major banks
the make up each regional Fed bank (the largest of which is JP Morgan Chase
and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York).
This plan would essentially give a privately
owned bank, which has governmental authority, the ability to regulate the
banks that own it. It’s the equivalent of getting a Colonel to guard a
General to whom he is directly answerable. Talk about the fox guarding
the hen house. It is literally granting ownership over the financial
regulator to the banks being regulated.
As Market Watch, an online publication of the Wall Street Journal,
reported,
“The Federal Reserve, created nearly 100
years ago in the aftermath of a financial panic, could be transformed
into a different agency as the Obama administration reinvents the way
government interacts with the financial system.”
Referring to Geithner’s Senate appearance, it
was reported that,
“Geithner was also grilled on the cozy
relationships that exist between the big banks and the regional Federal
Reserve banks. Before Geithner joined the administration, he was
president of the New York Fed, which is a strange public-private hybrid
institution that is actually owned and run by the banks.”
In response,
“Geithner insisted that the private banks
have no say over the policies of the New York Fed, but he acknowledged
that the banks do have a say in hiring the president, who does make
policy. The chairman of the New York Fed, Stephen Friedman, was forced
to resign earlier this month because of perceived conflicts of interest
due to his large holdings in Goldman Sachs.” [14]
The IMF as a Global Treasury
The Bilderberg agenda of creating a
global treasury has already been started prior to the Bilderberg meeting,
with decisions made during the G20 financial summit in April. Although the
G20 seemed to frame it more in context of being formed into a global central
bank, although it is likely the IMF could fill both roles.
Following the G20 meeting at the beginning of April, 2009, it was reported
that,
“The world is a step closer to a global
currency, backed by a global central bank, running monetary policy for
all humanity,” as the Communiqué released by the G20 leaders stated
that, “We have agreed to support a general SDR allocation which will
inject $250bn (£170bn) into the world economy and increase global
liquidity,” and that, “SDRs are Special Drawing Rights, a
synthetic paper currency issued by the International Monetary Fund that
has lain dormant for half a century.”
Essentially,
“they are putting a de facto world currency
into play. It is outside the control of any sovereign body.” [15]
[See Appendix 2 far below]
Following the Bilderberg meeting,
“President Obama has asked Congress to
authorize $100 billion in loans to the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
to help create a $500 billion global bailout fund,” which would give the
IMF the essential prerogative of a global treasury, providing bailouts
for countries in need around the world.
Further,
“the bill would allow the IMF to borrow up
to $100 billion from the U.S. and increase the U.S. fiscal contribution
to the IMF by $8 billion.”
Elaborating on the program, it was reported
that,
“World leaders began on the global bailout
initiative, called the New Arrangement for Borrowing (NAB), at
the G-20 summit in early April. The president agreed at that time to
make the additional funds available.”
Obama wrote that,
“Treasury Secretary Geithner concluded that
the size of the NAB is woefully inadequate to deal with the type of
severe economic and financial crisis we are experiencing, and I agree
with him.” [16]
With the G20 decision to increase the usage of
IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), forming a de facto world
currency, it was recently reported that,
“Sub-Saharan Africa will receive around $10
billion from the IMF in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to help its
economies weather the global financial crisis,” and that, “As part of a
$1.1 trillion deal to combat the world economic downturn agreed at
April's G20 summit, the IMF will issue $250 billion worth of SDRs, which
can be used to boost foreign currency reserves.” [17]
Recent reports have also indicated that the
IMF’s role in issuing SDRs goes hand in hand with the Bilderberg discussion
on the potential collapse of the US dollar, and,
“Transforming the dollar standard into an
SDR-based system would be a major break with a policy that has lasted
more than 60 years.”
It was reported that,
“There are two ways in which the dollar’s
role in the international monetary system can be reduced. One
possibility is a gradual, market-determined erosion of the dollar as a
reserve currency in favor of the Euro. But, while the Euros'
international role – especially its use in financial markets – has
increased since its inception, it is hard to envisage it overtaking the
dollar as the dominant reserve currency in the foreseeable future.”
However,
“With the dollar’s hegemony unlikely to be
seriously undermined by market forces, at least in the short and
medium-term, the only way to bring about a major reduction in its role
as a reserve currency is by international agreement.”
This is where the SDRs come into play, as,
“One way to make the SDR the major reserve
currency relatively soon would be to create and allocate a massive
amount of new SDRs to the IMF’s members.” [18]
This is, interestingly, exactly what is
happening with Africa and the IMF now.
Former IMF Managing Director Jacques de Larosière recently stated
that the current financial crisis,
“given its scope, presents a unique opening
to improve institutions, and there is already a danger that the chance
might be missed if the different actors cannot agree to changes by the
time economic growth resumes.”
He is now an adviser with BNP Paribas, a
corporation highly represented at Bilderberg meetings, and he was head of
the Treasury of France when Valéry Giscard d’Estaing was President of
France, who is a regular of the Bilderberg Group.[19]
The Guardian Covers
Bilderberg
The British paper, the Guardian, was the only major mainstream news
publication to provide ongoing coverage of the Bilderberg meeting over the
weekend.
His (Charlie Skelton)
first columns were satirical and
slightly mocking, referring to it as,
“A long weekend at a luxury hotel, where the
world's elite get to shake hands, clink glasses, fine-tune their global
agenda and squabble over who gets the best sun loungers. I'm guessing
that
Henry Kissinger brings his own, has it
helicoptered in and guarded 24/7 by a CIA special ops team.” [20]
However, as the weekend dragged on, his
reporting took a change of tone.
He reported on the Saturday that,
“I know that I'm being followed. I know
because I've just been chatting to the plainclothes policemen I caught
following me,” and he was arrested twice in the first day of the
meetings for attempting to take photographs as the limousines entered
the hotel.[21]
He later reported that he wasn’t sure what they
were discussing inside the hotel, but that he has,
“a sense of something rotten in the state of
Greece,” and he further stated, “Three days and I've been turned into a
suspect, a troublemaker, unwanted, ill at ease, tired and a bit afraid.”
He then went on to write that,
“Bilderberg is all about control. It's about
'what shall we do next?' We run lots of stuff already, how about we run
some more? How about we make it easier to run stuff? More efficient.
Efficiency is good. It would be so much easier with a single bank, a
single currency, a single market, a single government. How about a
single army? That would be pretty cool. We wouldn't have any wars then.
This prawn cocktail is GOOD. How about a single way of thinking? How
about a
controlled internet?,” and then, “How
about not.”
He makes a very astute point, countering the
often postulated argument that Bilderberg is simply a forum where people
can speak freely, writing:
“I am so unbelievably backteeth sick of
power being flexed by the few. I've had it flexed in my face for three
days, and it's up my nose like a wasp. I don't care whether the
Bilderberg Group is planning to save the world or shove it in a blender
and drink the juice, I don't think politics should be done like this,”
and the author, Charlie Skelton, eloquently stated, “If they were
trying to cure cancer they could do it with the lights on.”
He further explained that,
“Bilderberg is about positions of control. I
get within half a mile of it, and suddenly I'm one of the controlled.
I'm followed, watched, logged, detained, detained again. I'd been put in
that position by the 'power' that was up the road.” [22]
On Sunday, May 17, Skelton reported that when he
asked the police chief why he was being followed, the chief responded
asking,
“Why you here?” to which Skelton said he was
there to cover the Bilderberg conference, after which the chief stated,
“Well, that is the reason! That is why! We are finished!” [23]
Do reporters get followed around and stalked by
police officers when they cover the World Economic Forum? No. So why does it
happen with Bilderberg if all it is, a conference to discuss ideas
freely?
On the Monday following the conference, Skelton wrote that,
“It isn't just me who's been hauled into
police custody for daring to hang around half a mile from the hotel
gates. The few journalists who've made the trip to Vouliagmeni this year
have all been harassed and harried and felt the business end of a Greek
walkie-talkie. Many have been arrested. Bernie, from the American Free
Press, and Gerhard the documentarian (sounds like a Dungeons and Dragons
character) chartered a boat from a nearby marina to try to get photos
from the sea. They were stopped three miles from the resort. By the
Greek navy.”
As Skelton said himself,
“My dispatches on the 2009 conference, if
they mean anything at all, represent nothing more acutely than the
absence of thorough mainstream reporting.” [24]
Skelton’s final report on Bilderberg from May
19, showed how far he had gone in his several days of reporting on the
meeting. From writing jokingly about the meeting, to discovering that he
was followed by the Greek State Security force.
Skelton mused,
“So who is the paranoid one? Me, hiding in
stairwells, watching the pavement behind me in shop windows, staying in
the open for safety? Or Bilderberg, with its two F-16s, circling
helicopters, machine guns, navy commandos and policy of repeatedly
detaining and harassing a handful of journalists? Who's the nutter? Me
or Baron Mandelson? Me or Paul Volker, the head of Obama's economic
advisory board? Me or the president of Coca-Cola?”
Skelton stated that,
“Publicity is pure salt to the giant slug of
Bilderberg. So I suggest next year we turn up with a few more tubs. If
the mainstream press refuses to give proper coverage to this massive
annual event, then interested citizens will have to: a people's media.”
Amazingly, Skelton made the pronouncement that
what he learned after the Bilderberg conference, was that,
“we must fight, fight, fight, now – right
now, this second, with every cubic inch of our souls – to stop identity
cards,” as, “It's all about the power to ask, the obligation to show,
the justification of one's existence, the power of the asker over the
subservience of the asked.”
He stated that he,
“learned this from the random searches,
detentions, angry security goon proddings and thumped police desks
without number that I've had to suffer on account of Bilderberg: I have
spent the week living in a nightmare possible future and many different
terrible pasts. I have had the very tiniest glimpse into a world of spot
checks and unchecked security powers. And it has left me shaken. It has
left me, literally, bruised.”
Pointedly, he explains that,
“The identity card turns you from a free
citizen into a suspect.” [25]
Who was there?
Royalty
Queen Beatrix of the
Netherlands,
the largest shareholder in
Royal Dutch Shell
Among the members of the Bilderberg Group are
various
European monarchs.
At this years meeting, Queen Beatrix of
the Netherlands was present, who happens to be the largest single
shareholder in Royal Dutch Shell, one of the world’s largest
corporations. She was joined by one of her three sons, Prince Constantijn,
who also attended the meeting.
Prince Constantijn has worked with the Dutch
European Commissioner for the EU, as well as having been a strategic policy
consultant with Booz Allen & Hamilton in London, a major strategy and
technology consulting firm with expertise in Economic and Business
Analysis, Intelligence and Operations Analysis and Information Technology,
among many others.
Prince Constantijn has also been a policy
researcher for RAND Corporation in Europe. RAND was initially founded as a
global policy think tank that was formed to offer research and analysis to
the US Armed Forces, however, it now works with governments, foundations,
international organizations and commercial organizations.[26]
Also present among European Royalty was Prince
Philippe of Belgium, and Queen Sofia of Spain.
Private Bankers
As usual, the list of attendees was
also replete with names representing the largest banks in the world.
Among them,
David Rockefeller, former CEO and
Chairman of Chase Manhattan, now JP Morgan Chase, of which he was, until
recently, Chairman of the International Advisory Board.
And still sits as,
Also present was Josef Ackermann, a Swiss
banker who is
-
CEO of Deutsche Bank, also a
non-executive director of Royal Dutch Shell
-
Deputy Chairman of Siemens AG, Europe’s
largest engineering corporation
-
member of the International Advisory
Council of Zurich Financial Services Group
-
Chairman of the Board of the Institute
International of Finance, the world’s only global association of
financial institutions
-
Vice Chairman of the Foundation Board of
the World Economic Forum [27]
Roger Altman was also present at the
Bilderberg meeting, an investment banker, private equity investor and former
Deputy Treasury Secretary in the Clinton Administration.
Other bankers at this years meeting include:
-
Ana Patricia Botin, Chairman of the
Spanish bank, Banco Español de Crédito, formerly having worked with
JP Morgan
-
Frederic Oudea, CEO and newly appointed
Chairman of the Board of French bank Societe Generale
-
Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, an Italian
banker and economist, formerly Italy’s Minister of Economy and
Finance
-
Jacob Wallenberg, Chairman of Investor
AB
-
Marcus Wallenberg, CEO of Investor AB
-
George David, CEO of United Technologies
Corporation, who also sits on the board of Citigroup, member of the
Business Council, the Business Roundtable, and is Vice Chairman of
the Peterson Institute for International Economics. [For more on the
Peterson Institute, see: Appendix 1 far below]
-
Canadian bankers include:
-
W. Edmund Clark, President and CEO
of TD Bank Financial Group, also a member of the board of
directors of the C.D. Howe Institute, a prominent Canadian think
tank
-
Frank McKenna, Deputy Chairman of TD
Bank Financial Group, former Canadian Ambassador to the United
States, former Premier of New Brunswick
-
Indira Samarasekera, President of
the University of Alberta, who is also on the board of
Scotiabank, one of Canada’s largest banks.
Central Bankers
Of course, among the notable members of the Bilderberg Group, are the
world’s major central bankers.
Among this years members are:
-
Governor of the National Bank of Greece
-
Governor of the Bank of Italy
-
President of the European Investment
Bank
-
James Wolfensohn, former President of
the World Bank
-
Nout Wellink, on the board of the
Bank for International Settlements
(BIS) [28]
-
Jean-Claude Trichet, the President of
the European Central Bank was also present [29]
There is no indication that the Governor
of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke was present, which would be an
odd turn of events, considering that the Federal Reserve Governor is always
present at Bilderberg meetings, alongside the President of the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York, William C. Dudley.
I have contacted the New York Fed inquiring if
Dudley visited Greece or went to any meetings in Greece between May 14-17,
or if another senior representative from the New York Fed went in his stead.
I
have yet to get a response.
The Obama Administration at Bilderberg
National Security Adviser
General James Jones
The
Obama administration was heavily
represented at this years Bilderberg meeting.
Among the attendees were
-
Keith B. Alexander, a Lieutenant
General of U.S. Army and Director of the National Security Agency,
the massive spying agency of the United States
-
Timothy Geithner, US Treasury
Secretary and former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New
York
-
Richard Holbrooke, the Obama
administration’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan
-
General
James Jones, United States National
Security Advisor
-
Henry Kissinger, Obama’s special
envoy to Russia, longtime Bilderberg member and former Secretary of
State and National Security Advisor
-
Dennis Ross, special advisor for
the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia to Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton
-
David Patraeus, Commander of CENTCOM (U.S. Central
Command, in the Middle East)
-
Lawrence Summers, Director of the
White House's National Economic Council, former Treasury Secretary
in the Clinton administration, former President of Harvard
University, former Chief Economist of the World Bank
-
Paul Volcker, former Governor of
the Federal Reserve System and Chair of Obama’s Economic Recovery
Advisory Board
-
Robert Zoellick, former Chairman of
Goldman Sachs and current President of the World Bank [30]
-
Deputy Secretary of State
James Steinberg [31]
Other Notable Names
Among many others present at the meeting are:
-
Viscount Étienne Davignon, former Vice
President of the European Commission, and Honorary Chairman of the
Bilderberg Group
-
Francisco Pinto Balsemão, former Prime
Minister of Portugal
-
Franco Bernabè, CEO of Telecom Italia
and Vice Chairman of Rothschild Europe
-
Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister of
Sweden
-
Kenneth Clarke, Shadow Business
Secretary in the UK
-
Richard Dearlove, former head of
Britain’s Secret Intelligence Services (MI6)
-
Donald Graham, CEO of the Washington
Post Company
-
Jaap De Hoop Scheffer, Secretary-General
of NATO
-
John Kerr, member of the British House
of Lords and Deputy Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell
-
Jessica Matthews, President of the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
-
Richard Perle of the American Enterprise
Institute
-
Romano Prodi, former Italian Prime
Minister
-
J. Robert S. Prichard, CEO of Torstar
Corporation and President Emeritus of the University of Toronto
-
Peter Sutherland, former Director
General of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), first
Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and is
currently Chairman of British Petroleum (BP) and Goldman Sachs
International as well as being a board member of the Royal Bank of
Scotland, Chairman of the Trilateral Commission, Vice Chairman of
the European Roundtable of Industrialists, and longtime Bilderberg
member
-
Peter Thiel, on the board of directors
of Facebook
-
Jeroen van der Veer, CEO of Royal Dutch
Shell
-
Martin Wolf, Associate Editor and Chief
Economics Commentator of the Financial Times newspaper
-
Fareed Zakaria, US journalist and board
member of the Council on Foreign Relations [32]
There were also some reports that this years
meeting would include Google CEO Eric Schmidt, as well as
Wall Street Journal Editor Paul Gigot,[33] both of
whom attended last years meeting.[34]
Conclusion
Clearly, it was the prerogative of this year’s Bilderberg meeting to exploit
the global financial crisis as much as possible to reach goals they have
been striving toward for many years. These include the creation of a
Global Treasury Department, likely in conjunction with or embodied in
the same institution as a Global Central Bank, both of which seem to
be in the process of being incorporated into the IMF.
Naturally, Bilderberg meetings serve the interests of the people and
organizations that are represented there.
Due to the large amount of representatives from
the Obama administration that were present, US policies revolving around the
financial crisis are likely to have emerged from and serve the interests of
the Bilderberg Group. Given the heavy representation of Obama’s foreign
policy establishment at the Bilderberg meeting, it seemed surprising to not
have received any more information regarding US foreign policy from this
year’s meeting, perhaps having to do with Pakistan and Afghanistan.
However, the US recently decided to fire the general who oversaw the Afghan
war, being replaced with,
“Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a
former Green Beret who recently commanded the military's secretive
special operations forces in Iraq.” [35]
From 2003 to 2008, McChrystal,
“led the Pentagon's Joint Special
Operations Command (JSOC), which oversees the military's most
sensitive forces, including the Army's Delta Force,” and who
Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh
singled out as the head of
VP Cheney’s 'executive assassination wing'.”
[36]
So, given these recent changes, as well as the
high degree of representation Obama’s foreign policy establishment held at
Bildebrerg this year, there were likely to have been some decisions or at
least discussion of the escalation of the Afghan war and expansion into
Pakistan. However, it is not surprising that the main item on the agenda was
the
global financial crisis.
Without a doubt, the next year will be an
interesting one, and the elite are surely hoping to make it a productive
one.
APPENDIX 1 -
Bilderberg Connections to the Billionaire’s Meeting
Peter G. Peterson, one of the guests in attendance at the secret
billionaires meeting, was:
-
former United States Secretary of
Commerce in the Nixon administration
-
Chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers,
Kuhn, Loeb Inc., from 1977 to 1984
-
he co-founded the prominent private
equity and investment management firm, the Blackstone Group, of
which he is currently Senior Chairman
-
in 1985, he became Chairman of the
Council on Foreign Relations,
taking over when David Rockefeller stepped down from that position.
He founded the Peterson Institute for
International Economics and was Chairman of the New York Federal Reserve
Bank from 2000-2004.
The Peterson Institute for International
Economics is a major world economic think tank, which seeks to,
“inform and shape public debate,” from
which, “Institute studies have helped provide the intellectual
foundation for many of the major international financial initiatives of
the past two decades: reform of the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
adoption of international banking standards, exchange rate systems in
the G-7 and emerging-market economies, policies toward the dollar, the
euro, and other important currencies, and responses to debt and currency
crises (including the current crisis of 2008–09).”
It has also “made important contributions to
key trade policy decisions” such as the development of the World Trade
Organization, NAFTA, APEC, and East Asian regionalism.[37]
It has a prominent list of names on its board of directors.
-
Peter G. Peterson is Chairman of the
board
-
George David, Chairman of United
Technologies is Vice Chairman, as well as being a board member of
Citigroup, and was a guest at this year’s Bilderberg meeting
-
Chen Yuan, Governor of the China
Development Bank and former Deputy Governor of the People’s Bank of
China (China’s central bank)
-
Jessica Einhorn, Dean of Washington's
Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of the
Johns Hopkins University, former Visiting Fellow of the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), former Managing Director of the
World Bank, and currently on the board of Time Warner and the
Council on Foreign Relations
-
Stanley Fischer, Governor of the Central
Bank of Israel, former Vice President at the World Bank, former
Managing Director at the IMF, former Vice Chairman of Citigroup, and
has also been a regular participant in Bilderberg meetings
-
Carla A. Hills, former US Trade
Representative, and was the prime negotiator of NAFTA, she sits on
the International Advisory Boards of American International Group,
the Coca-Cola Company, Gilead Sciences, J.P. Morgan Chase, member of
the Executive Committee of the Trilateral Commission, Co-Chair of
the Council on Foreign Relations, and played a key part in the CFR
document, “Building a North American Community,” which seeks to
remodel North America following along the lines of the European
Union, and she has also been a prominent Bilderberg member
-
David Rockefeller also sits on the
Peterson Institute’s board, as well as Lynn Forester de Rothschild
-
Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the
European Central Bank, who is at every Bilderberg meeting
-
Paul A. Volcker, former Governor of the
Federal Reserve System, regular participant of Bilderberg meetings,
and current Chair of Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.
Honorary Directors of the Peterson Institute
include Bilderbergers
-
Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, a prime architect
of the current crisis
-
Frank E. Loy, former Under Secretary of
State for Global Affairs, and is on the boards of Environmental
Defense, the Pew Center for Global Climate Change, Resources for the
Future, and Population Services International
-
George P. Shultz, former US Secretary of
State in the Reagan administration, President and Director of
Bechtel Group and former Secretary of the Treasury.[38]
APPENDIX 2 - Creating
a Central Bank of the World
Jeffrey Garten, Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade in
the Clinton administration, former Dean of the Yale School of Management,
previously served on the White House Council on International Economic
Policy under the Nixon administration and on the policy planning staffs of
Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Cyrus Vance of the Ford and Carter
administrations.
He also was a managing director of Lehman
Brothers and the Blackstone Group, is also a member of the Council on
Foreign Relations. As early as 1998, Garten wrote an article for the New
York Times in which he advocated the creation of a global central
bank.[39]
Amid the current financial crisis, Garten wrote an article for the
Financial Times in which he advocated for,
“the establishment of a Global Monetary
Authority to oversee markets that have become borderless,” acting as a
global central bank.[40]
In late October, Garten wrote an article for
Newsweek in which he said that world,
“leaders should begin laying the groundwork
for establishing a global central bank.” [41]
Three days after the publication of Garten’s
Newsweek article, it was reported that,
“The International Monetary Fund may soon
lack the money to bail out an ever growing list of countries crumbling
across Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia, raising
concerns that it will have to tap taxpayers in Western countries for a
capital infusion or resort to the nuclear option of printing its own
money.”
Further,
“The nuclear option is to print money
by issuing Special Drawing Rights, in effect acting as if it were
the world's central bank.” [42]
[For a detailed look at the moves to create a
global central bank, regional currencies, a global reserve currency and a
world governing body, see:
The Financial New World Order: Towards a Global
Currency and World Government, April 6, 2009]
Endnotes
[1] CFP, Annual Elite Conclave, 58th
Bilderberg Meeting to be held in Greece, May 14-17. Canadian Free Press:
May 5, 2009:
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/10854
[2] Paul Joseph Watson, Bilderberg Wants Global Department Of Health,
Global Treasury. Prison Planet: May 16, 2009:
http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-wants-global-department-of-health-global-treasury/
[3] Paul Joseph Watson, Bilderberg Fears Losing Control In Chaos-Plagued
World. Prison Planet: May 18, 2009:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/bilderberg-fears-losing-control-in-chaos-plagued-world.html
[4] Sorcha Faal, Bilderberg Group orders destruction of US Dollar? MINA:
May 21, 2009:
http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/6807/53/
[5] Kristi Heim, What really happened at the billionaires' private
confab. The Seattle Times: May 20, 2009:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thebusinessofgiving/2009244202_what_really_happened_at_the_bi.html
[6] A. G. Sulzberger, The Rich Get … Together (Shhh, It Was a Secret).
The New York Times: May 20, 2009:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/the-rich-get-together-shhh-it-was-a-secret/
[7] Chosun, American Billionaires Gather to Discuss Slump. The Chosun
Ilbo: May 22, 2009:
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/05/22/2009052200772.html
[8] John Harlow, Billionaire club in bid to curb overpopulation. The
Sunday Times: May 24, 2009:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6350303.ece
[9] Press Release, Investigative Author, Daniel Estulin Exposes
Bilderberg Group Plans. PRWeb: May 22, 2009:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/Bilderberg_Group_Meeting/Daniel_Estulin/prweb2453144.htm
[10] James P. Tucker Jr., BILDERBERG AGENDA EXPOSED. American Free
Press: June 1, 2009:
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/bilderberg_2009_179.html
[11] James Quinn, Tim Geithner to reform US financial regulation. The
Telegraph: May 21, 2009:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance
/5359527/Tim-Geithner-to-reform-US-financial-regulation.html
[12] Greg Menges, U. S. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy F. Geithner
speech before the Senate Banking Committee. Examiner: May 20, 2009:
http://www.examiner.com/x-8184-Boston-Investing-Examiner~y2009m
5d20-U-S-Secretary-of-the-Treasury-Timothy-F-Geithner-speech-before-the-Senate-Banking-Committee
[13] Robert Schmidt and Jesse Westbrook, U.S. May Strip SEC of Powers in
Regulatory Overhaul. Bloomberg: May 20: 2009:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a18ctNv3FDcw
[14] Rex Nutting, Fed could be completely retooled, Geithner says.
Market Watch: May 20, 2009:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fed-could-be-completely-retooled-geithner-says
[15] Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The G20 moves the world a step closer to a
global currency. The Telegraph: April 3, 2009:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/5096524/The-G20-moves-the-world-a-step-closer-to-a-global-currency.html
[16] Marie Magleby, Obama Wants U.S. to Loan $100 Billion to Global
Bailout Fund. CNS News: May 20, 2009:
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=48329
[17] Joe Bavier, Sub-Saharan Africa to receive $10 bln in SDRs-IMF.
Reuters: May 25, 2009:
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLP336909
[18] Onno Wijnholds, The Dollar’s Last Days? International Business
Times: May 18, 2009:
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20090518/dollar-rsquolast-days.htm
[19] MATTHEW SALTMARSH, Former I.M.F. Chief Sees Opportunity in Crisis.
The New York Times: May 22, 2009:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/23/business/global/23spot.html?ref=global
[20] Charlie Skelton, Our man at Bilderberg: in pursuit of the world's
most powerful cabal. The Guardian: May 13, 2009:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/13/in-search-of-bilderberg
[21] Charlie Skelton, Our man at Bilderberg: They're watching and
following me, I tell you. The Guardian: May 15, 2009:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/15/bilderberg-charlie-skelton-dispatch
[22] Charlie Skelton, Our man at Bilderberg: I'm ready to lose control,
but they're not. The Guardian: May 15, 2009:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/15/bilderberg-charlie-skelton-dispatch1
[23] Charlie Skelton, Our man at Bilderberg: 'You are not allowed to
take pictures of policemen!' The Guardian: May 17, 2009:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/17/charlie-skelton-bilderberg
[24] Charlie Skelton, Our man at Bilderberg: Fear my pen. The Guardian:
May 18, 2009:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/18/bilderberg-charlie-skelton-dispatch
[25] Charlie Skelton, Our man at Bilderberg: Let's salt the slug in
2010. The Guardian: May 19, 2009:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/may/19/bilderberg-skelton-greece
[26] Dutch Royal House, Work and official duties. Prince Constantijn:
http://www.koninklijkhuis.nl/english/content.jsp?objectid=18215
[27] Deutsche Bank, Management Board. Our Company:
http://www.db.com/en/content/company/management_board.htm
[28] InfoWars, Bilderberg 2009 Attendee List (revised). May 18, 2009:
http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-2009-attendee-list/
[29] Demetris Nellas, Greek nationalists protest Bilderberg Club
meeting. AP: May 14, 2009:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jep_nbEq1srzJHFQ8fRGNQO3P38QD987H3200
[30] InfoWars, Bilderberg 2009 Attendee List (revised). May 18, 2009:
http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-2009-attendee-list/
[31] MRT, Top US official arrives in Greece. Macedonian Radio and
Television: May 15, 2009:
http://www.mrt.com.mk/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6112&Itemid=28
[32] InfoWars, Bilderberg 2009 Attendee List (revised). May 18, 2009:
http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-2009-attendee-list/
[33] WND, Google joins Bilderberg cabal. World Net Daily: May 17, 2009:
http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=98469
[34] Adam Abrams, Are the people who 'really run the world' meeting this
weekend? Haaretz: May 14, 2009:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1085589.html
[35] YOCHI J. DREAZEN and PETER SPIEGEL, U.S. Fires Afghan War Chief.
The Wall Street Journal: May 12, 2009:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124206036635107351.html
[36] M.J. Stephey, Stan McChrystal: The New U.S. Commander in
Afghanistan. Time Magazine: May 12, 2009:
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1897542,00.html
[37] PIIE, About the Institute. Peterson Institute for International
Economics:
http://www.petersoninstitute.org/institute/aboutiie.cfm
[38] PIIE, Board of Directors. Peterson Institute for International
Economics:
http://www.petersoninstitute.org/institute/board.cfm#52
[39] Jeffrey E. Garten, Needed: A Fed for the World. The New York Times:
September 23, 1998:
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/23/opinion/needed-a-fed-for-the-world.html
[40] Jeffrey Garten, Global authority can fill financial vacuum. The
Financial Times: September 25, 2008:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/7caf543e-8b13-11dd-b634-0000779fd18c,Authorised=false.html?_i_
location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F7caf543e-8b13-11dd-b634-000077
9fd18c.html&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwilliamnotes.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F09%2F30%2Fgarten-on-a-global-monetary-authority%2F
[41] Jeffrey Garten, We Need a Bank Of the World. Newsweek: October 25,
2009: http://www.newsweek.com/id/165772
[42] Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, IMF may need to "print money" as crisis
spreads. The Telegraph: October 28, 2009:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/3269669/IMF-may-need-to-print-money-as-crisis-spreads.html
