Lt_Cody
24-05-2006, 19:40
well, maybe not super-secret...
Link (http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=85ef0469-1893-4bd7-aee5-ffe5394fa63c)
The meetings of a secretive global think-tank would bring 100 of the world's most powerful and influential figures to Ottawa next month and make a Kanata hotel the host of deliberations on such weighty issues as the direction of global oil markets and potential military action against Iran.
Reports circulating on the Internet say this year's Bilderberg conference will be held June 8-11 at the Brookstreet Resort -- a rumour the hotel would not confirm.
But if a gathering in Ottawa is anything like past Bilderbergs, invitees will be drawn from the pages of International Who's Who, with a emphasis on political and corporate leadership and strong representation from the oil and banking industries. Guest lists typically include names like Kissinger, Rockefeller and Soros.
The obsessive secrecy that accompanies Bilderberg conferences could also draw Ottawa into the insane conspiracy theories that surround the group. The Bilderberg has been accused of being everything from a Zionist cabal building a single global government to a secret star-chamber that seeks to fix the price of oil and presidential elections.
But even some rational critics suspect that the Bilderberg's meetings set the economic and political agenda for much of the industrialized world -- without any public oversight or accountability. They denounce the Bilderberg as elitist and overly secretive, calling it an anti-democratic gathering of "the high priests of globalization."
The conference takes its name from the Hotel de Bilderberg in the Netherlands, site of the first meeting in 1954. The group's intent was to link governments and economies in Europe and North America amid the Cold War. But its mandate has evolved, and it now exerts a global influence with interests in foreign policy in general and energy in particular.
The small guest list is selected by a steering committee with representatives of major North American and European countries.
Several Canadian political figures have spoken at Bilderbergs, including prime ministers Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chretien, New Brunswick premiers Bernard Lord and Frank McKenna, and former Ontario premier Mike Harris.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office would not say yesterday whether he has been invited to attend the rumoured Ottawa meetings. Mr. Harper attended the 2003 conference in Versailles, France.
Patrice Basille, general manager of the Brookstreet Hotel, said no event associated with the Bilderberg group has been formally booked at the hotel. He said two conferences, one out of Montreal and another out of Toronto, are booked for the weekend of June 8.
"What is the Bilderberg?" he asked. "This is the first I've heard about it."
The hotel's owner, prominent Ottawa entrepreneur Terence Matthews, would neither confirm nor deny the reports.
"Does that sound like an event I would host?" he asked. He declined further comment.
What exactly happens at Bilderberg remains blanketed in secrecy -- or, as the organization prefers, "privacy." Journalists are not allowed to attend the sessions, which are held within a tight clench of security.
Staff at the host hotels are told not to confirm or deny any event is scheduled and there are never any "Welcome Bilderberg Guests" signs in sight. At some conferences, lobby windows have been draped with sheets to block the prying eyes of the press.
Contrary to Internet mythology, invitees do not sign blood oaths of secrecy, but they are strongly encouraged not to discuss who said what during the closed meetings, to allow for freer flowing discussions.
Not all of the attendees are comfortable with the pervasive secrecy, says Britain-based journalist Tony Goslin, who runs a website devoted to uncovering the Bilderberg secrets and making the group more publicly accountable (www.bilderberg.org). There is enough leakage from past conferences to determine generally what is discussed, he said.
"There is pretty much a preoccupation with the Middle East and oil at most of the meetings," he said. "The whole idea is to meet a consensus, but it is a fairly narrow consensus. Most of the banking power in the western world is behind Bilderberg policy, and particularly their energy policies."
Mr. Goslin says that two issues will likely concern the Ottawa meeting: How to deal with Iran's alleged nuclear threat, and the direction of Venezuela's oil industry under the leadership of leftist president Hugo Chavez.
The right-wing website americanfreepress.net reported yesterday that Bilderberg was coming to Ottawa. Mr. Goslin said several of his sources have also confirmed the date and location.
There is little reason to expect the kind of organized demonstrations seen at G8 summits or World Trade Organization meetings, he said. Past Bilderbergs have attracted only small and sometimes eccentric protests.
Norman Spector, a former chief of staff to prime minister Brian Mulroney, says he knew little of the suspicions that surrounded Bilderberg when he attended a conference in the early 1990s.
"It's hard to understand the conspiracy stuff. Most of the people were publicly visible," he said. "They weren't like the gnomes of Zurich or shady financiers. They were all people you'd see on a Sunday morning talk show."
Mr. Spector says his strongest memory of the event is that the guests were seated along cafeteria-style tables in alphabetical order -- to avoid offence, he suspects. That put him at a table next to Queen Sofia of Spain.
Canada last hosted the conference in 1996, when participants invited by newspaper publisher Conrad Black gathered at a resort north of Toronto.
The Canadian location had more imaginative observers speculating wildly on whether the group was hatching secret plans for Quebec's secession or drawing up a blueprint for the annexation of Canada by the United States.
The discussions, in reality, were far less dramatic.
The group merely aims to "promote a stimulating discussion," with "no direct impact on policy matter," Mr. Black told the Citizen in 1999. "Some mystique is associated to it but only because its meetings are held discreetly."
Bilderberg was last held in this region in 1983, when the conference came to the Chateau Montebello in West Quebec. Then, with Ronald Reagan occupying the White House and Yuri Andropov the Kremlin, the East-West divide was the top issue on the table.
Bilderberg Group Conspiracy Theories
Nothing gets tongues wagging like a group of 100 or so world power-brokers meeting in secret. Over its 52-years, conspiracy theories about the Bilderberg Group have abounded, including:
- Many leading Serbs, according to one BBC report, blame Bilderberg for triggering the war that led to Slobodan Milosevic's downfall. Milosevic's death, according to one blogger, resulted from his being a "loose cannon with intimate knowledge of the criminality of the Globalists after the IMF/Bilderberg coup d'etat in Serbia in the 1990s."
- In Rottach-Egern, Germany, last year, Bilberberg delegates arranged for the publication of the now-infamous cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, thus inflaming the Islamic world.
- It is alleged that the notion of forming the European Union was first discussed at the Bilderberg Group's first meeting, in either 1953 or '54.
- John F. Kennedy and Margaret Thatcher, the latter after criticizing the Bilderberg Group, were ousted from power by the group. Bill Clinton, on the other hand, was "selected" U.S. president in 1992.
- According to former journalist and anti-Bilderberg activist Tony Gosling, "One of the first places I heard about the determination of U.S. forces to attack Iraq was from leaks that came out of he 2002 Bilderberg meeting."
- Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, London nail-bomber David Copeland and Osama bin Laden are all alleged to have believed the theory that Bilderberg "pulls the strings with which national governments dance," according to the BBC.
Link (http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=85ef0469-1893-4bd7-aee5-ffe5394fa63c)
The meetings of a secretive global think-tank would bring 100 of the world's most powerful and influential figures to Ottawa next month and make a Kanata hotel the host of deliberations on such weighty issues as the direction of global oil markets and potential military action against Iran.
Reports circulating on the Internet say this year's Bilderberg conference will be held June 8-11 at the Brookstreet Resort -- a rumour the hotel would not confirm.
But if a gathering in Ottawa is anything like past Bilderbergs, invitees will be drawn from the pages of International Who's Who, with a emphasis on political and corporate leadership and strong representation from the oil and banking industries. Guest lists typically include names like Kissinger, Rockefeller and Soros.
The obsessive secrecy that accompanies Bilderberg conferences could also draw Ottawa into the insane conspiracy theories that surround the group. The Bilderberg has been accused of being everything from a Zionist cabal building a single global government to a secret star-chamber that seeks to fix the price of oil and presidential elections.
But even some rational critics suspect that the Bilderberg's meetings set the economic and political agenda for much of the industrialized world -- without any public oversight or accountability. They denounce the Bilderberg as elitist and overly secretive, calling it an anti-democratic gathering of "the high priests of globalization."
The conference takes its name from the Hotel de Bilderberg in the Netherlands, site of the first meeting in 1954. The group's intent was to link governments and economies in Europe and North America amid the Cold War. But its mandate has evolved, and it now exerts a global influence with interests in foreign policy in general and energy in particular.
The small guest list is selected by a steering committee with representatives of major North American and European countries.
Several Canadian political figures have spoken at Bilderbergs, including prime ministers Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chretien, New Brunswick premiers Bernard Lord and Frank McKenna, and former Ontario premier Mike Harris.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office would not say yesterday whether he has been invited to attend the rumoured Ottawa meetings. Mr. Harper attended the 2003 conference in Versailles, France.
Patrice Basille, general manager of the Brookstreet Hotel, said no event associated with the Bilderberg group has been formally booked at the hotel. He said two conferences, one out of Montreal and another out of Toronto, are booked for the weekend of June 8.
"What is the Bilderberg?" he asked. "This is the first I've heard about it."
The hotel's owner, prominent Ottawa entrepreneur Terence Matthews, would neither confirm nor deny the reports.
"Does that sound like an event I would host?" he asked. He declined further comment.
What exactly happens at Bilderberg remains blanketed in secrecy -- or, as the organization prefers, "privacy." Journalists are not allowed to attend the sessions, which are held within a tight clench of security.
Staff at the host hotels are told not to confirm or deny any event is scheduled and there are never any "Welcome Bilderberg Guests" signs in sight. At some conferences, lobby windows have been draped with sheets to block the prying eyes of the press.
Contrary to Internet mythology, invitees do not sign blood oaths of secrecy, but they are strongly encouraged not to discuss who said what during the closed meetings, to allow for freer flowing discussions.
Not all of the attendees are comfortable with the pervasive secrecy, says Britain-based journalist Tony Goslin, who runs a website devoted to uncovering the Bilderberg secrets and making the group more publicly accountable (www.bilderberg.org). There is enough leakage from past conferences to determine generally what is discussed, he said.
"There is pretty much a preoccupation with the Middle East and oil at most of the meetings," he said. "The whole idea is to meet a consensus, but it is a fairly narrow consensus. Most of the banking power in the western world is behind Bilderberg policy, and particularly their energy policies."
Mr. Goslin says that two issues will likely concern the Ottawa meeting: How to deal with Iran's alleged nuclear threat, and the direction of Venezuela's oil industry under the leadership of leftist president Hugo Chavez.
The right-wing website americanfreepress.net reported yesterday that Bilderberg was coming to Ottawa. Mr. Goslin said several of his sources have also confirmed the date and location.
There is little reason to expect the kind of organized demonstrations seen at G8 summits or World Trade Organization meetings, he said. Past Bilderbergs have attracted only small and sometimes eccentric protests.
Norman Spector, a former chief of staff to prime minister Brian Mulroney, says he knew little of the suspicions that surrounded Bilderberg when he attended a conference in the early 1990s.
"It's hard to understand the conspiracy stuff. Most of the people were publicly visible," he said. "They weren't like the gnomes of Zurich or shady financiers. They were all people you'd see on a Sunday morning talk show."
Mr. Spector says his strongest memory of the event is that the guests were seated along cafeteria-style tables in alphabetical order -- to avoid offence, he suspects. That put him at a table next to Queen Sofia of Spain.
Canada last hosted the conference in 1996, when participants invited by newspaper publisher Conrad Black gathered at a resort north of Toronto.
The Canadian location had more imaginative observers speculating wildly on whether the group was hatching secret plans for Quebec's secession or drawing up a blueprint for the annexation of Canada by the United States.
The discussions, in reality, were far less dramatic.
The group merely aims to "promote a stimulating discussion," with "no direct impact on policy matter," Mr. Black told the Citizen in 1999. "Some mystique is associated to it but only because its meetings are held discreetly."
Bilderberg was last held in this region in 1983, when the conference came to the Chateau Montebello in West Quebec. Then, with Ronald Reagan occupying the White House and Yuri Andropov the Kremlin, the East-West divide was the top issue on the table.
Bilderberg Group Conspiracy Theories
Nothing gets tongues wagging like a group of 100 or so world power-brokers meeting in secret. Over its 52-years, conspiracy theories about the Bilderberg Group have abounded, including:
- Many leading Serbs, according to one BBC report, blame Bilderberg for triggering the war that led to Slobodan Milosevic's downfall. Milosevic's death, according to one blogger, resulted from his being a "loose cannon with intimate knowledge of the criminality of the Globalists after the IMF/Bilderberg coup d'etat in Serbia in the 1990s."
- In Rottach-Egern, Germany, last year, Bilberberg delegates arranged for the publication of the now-infamous cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, thus inflaming the Islamic world.
- It is alleged that the notion of forming the European Union was first discussed at the Bilderberg Group's first meeting, in either 1953 or '54.
- John F. Kennedy and Margaret Thatcher, the latter after criticizing the Bilderberg Group, were ousted from power by the group. Bill Clinton, on the other hand, was "selected" U.S. president in 1992.
- According to former journalist and anti-Bilderberg activist Tony Gosling, "One of the first places I heard about the determination of U.S. forces to attack Iraq was from leaks that came out of he 2002 Bilderberg meeting."
- Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, London nail-bomber David Copeland and Osama bin Laden are all alleged to have believed the theory that Bilderberg "pulls the strings with which national governments dance," according to the BBC.