Posted on 06/10/2006 11:06:40 AM PDT by ex-Texan
OTTAWA -- Greeted at the airport by limousine drivers holding single-letter "B" signs, global luminaries such as Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands began arriving in Ottawa Thursday for the annual gathering of the ultra-secretive Bilderberg Group.
Over the next three days, they and other prominent political and business leaders from North America and Europe are expected to discuss issues such as the security threat posed by Iran and the direction of oil markets.
The group's discreet approach was evident as attendees arrived at the Ottawa International Airport.
Outside the airport, a phalanx of limousines queued to ferry guests to the Brookstreet Hotel, where security guards with ear pieces kept watch over the barricaded entrance to the hotel parking lot.
Limos were also dispatched to the nearby Shell Aerocentre to retrieve participants arriving on private aircraft. Some attendees had the single-letter "B" on their luggage tags.
Former U.S. defence policy adviser Richard Perle shot down criticism about the secrecy of the group's meetings.
"It's a private organization," he said. He denied the charge, advanced by Bilderberg critics, that the organization crafts public policy behind closed doors.
"It discusses public policy," he said.
Perle also dismissed suggestions the group's heavy representation from the oil industry gives it influence over global energy prices.
"If it did, I'd be trading on oil futures," he said.
A former assistant secretary of defence to President Ronald Reagan, Perle is still considered an influential adviser in U.S. conservative circles. He advised President George W. Bush and is said to be a close friend of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
In 2003, he publicly chastised the Canadian government for refusing to send troops to Iraq and warned that "lame-duck" Prime Minister Jean Chretien would be embarrassed once weapons of mass destruction were found.
Also seen arriving Thursday were Jorma Ollila, chairman of Royal Dutch Shell, and Egil Myklebust, chairman of Scandinavian Airlines.
According to an unsigned press release, presumably by Bilderberg organizers, attendees will also include New York Governor George Pataki, former Iraqi deputy prime minister Ahmad Chalabi, the heads of Coca-Cola, Credit Suisse, the Royal Bank of Canada, a number of media moguls, and cabinet ministers from Spain and Greece.
The release confirmed this year's meeting will deal with energy issues, Iran, the Middle East, terrorism, immigration, Russia, European-American relations and Asia.
"The meeting is private to encourage frank and open discussion," said the release. "There will be no press conference."
Security was relatively light at the airport, with only a few uniformed police officers on hand.
But at the Brookstreet, the parking lot in front of the hotel was empty and all entrances to the lot barricaded. A tow truck removed vehicles that did not comply.
Security guards were stationed at various points around the hotel perimeter, including the golf course behind the Brookstreet. A number of Ottawa police officers also provided security.
The event drew a number of regular Bilderberg watchers who follow the organization around the world, few more colourful than James P. Tucker Jr., a 71-year-old writer who says he has covered every Bilderberg conference for the last 30 years. He recently published a book called the Bilderberg Diary.
Tucker said he spent several days this week casing out the hotel, plying Brookstreet bartenders for information.
"For years they denied their very existence," Tucker said. "Well, they certainly influence the world."
Daniel Estulin, who flew from Spain to cover this week's conference, is such a regular on the circuit that he is on a first-name basis with Bilderberg security officials.
"Their main objective is creating a world government ruled by an elite group of people whose main objective is to control all the natural resources of the planet," Estulin said.
The Bilderberg Group, named after the Dutch hotel where it held its first meeting in 1954, was conceived as a forum for building transatlantic ties during the Cold War.
Organizers insist the group's clandestine ways media are barred from the event and attendees are sworn to secrecy enable a freer exchange of ideas.
But critics and conspiracy theorists say the group shows a disturbing lack of accountability considering how many powerful people it brings together.
Ottawa Citizen
Hush. You know the rules.
If you can't be part of the solution... ; )
Buffet! At a Build-A-Burger conference! Damned internationalism is going the Hell in a handbasket. What next, a sushi bar and latte stands?
Sigh. It's just so sad.
Ouch...I hurt something inside laughing so hard.
Don't fight with them. It's useless. They jump on any thread of this type with ridicule and lampooning. Whatever these meetings of the super elite are about, they don't want it discussed.
Anytime the first response of someone is insults, you've hit a nerve, just like with our liberal friends.
In the real world, there are no coinciences. Conspircies work. That is why they are kept secret. Organized crime works. Guess that is why the Mexican Drug Cartel is so profitable.
Guess that's why there was a shortage of Reynolds foil at Walmart this morning.
I send everything I make straight to SOROS so he can bring DEMOCRACY to the world..
"My well placed and informed sources inform me that Jesus' last living descendant will be present."
Correction: Several of his descendants will be present.
Take it to the Bank!
The last I heard, Ahmad Chalabi was still on the CIA payroll to the tune of $ 400,000 per month. That makes him an employee of the U.S. government. At the same time, he is Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister. Is there a genuine conflict of interest at work here? Typical Bilderberger conflicts abound. In the real world, there are no coincidences.
By the way, I have no liberal friends. All my friends are very angry conservatives.
I don't need to attend. Several Elders of Zion are tied up in by basement, and they give me my marching orders and talking points every morning in exchange for human blood. I suspect Karl Rove has a similar set-up.
Karl Rove will be signing autographs at the grassy knoll on fifteen minutes.
Did you forget the ".com"?
Because 80% of the American voters who oppose unlimited immigration don't donate as much money to Congress as the percentage of companies that are dependent on hiring illegals for their profits. And they don't actually cast their votes against illegal immigration.
Follow the money. There is no need to invoke a conspiracy here. People are acting in their self interest. If the 80% of the voters who oppose illegal immigration were *really* so pissed off about it, they would have voted their Congressmen out already. They don't. The fact is, those 80% of course will say they oppose it if you ask them directly, but they're not going to lift a finger to stop it, and our politicians know that's true.
The grassy knoll theory was discredited by the Warren Commission. They ruled the bullet that killed JFK did a u-turn and everybody knows commission finding is the truth. But I met General Walker who claimed to have been shot at by Oswald. He told me a different story about Oswald. There was someone with us at the time. He claimed to be with military intel. But the Warren Commission report is correct. No doubt about it. Yes, sir! There is no such thing as conspiracies.
>>>>>"By the way, I have no liberal friends. All my friends are very angry conservatives"<<<<<
Not all of them, I'm just angry and Libertarian
Take that... my new friend
TT
There are always plenty of conspiracies...some people must have them to face life.
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