<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<div class="post-headline">
<h1>Bilderberg At 60: Inside The World’s Most Secretive Conference</h1>
</div>
<div class="post-byline">
<div id="single_post_category_images" class="bfa_widget_area">
<div id="linkabletitlehtmlandphpwidget-3" class="widget
widget_text">
<div class="textwidget"><img
src="cid:part1.08030402.06020007@comcast.net"
class="attachment-580x387 wp-post-image" alt="Screen Shot
2014-05-30 at 9.11.50 AM" height="346" width="580"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="cat-date-line"><span class="cat-date-line2"><a
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/category/educate/"
title="View all posts in Educate!" rel="category tag">Educate!</a></span>
<span class="cat-date-line3"> <a
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/bilderberg/"
rel="tag">Bilderberg</a>, <a
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/inequality/"
rel="tag">Inequality</a>, <a
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/privacy/"
rel="tag">Privacy</a>, <a
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/surveillance/"
rel="tag">Surveillance</a> </span> <br>
<span class="cat-date-line4">By Charlie Skelton, <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/29/bilderberg-60-inside-worlds-most-secretive-conference"
target="_blank">www.theguardian.com</a><br>
May 30th, 2014</span><br>
</div>
<div id="google_translate_element">
<div style="" dir="ltr" class="skiptranslate goog-te-gadget"> Powered
by <span style="white-space:nowrap"><a class="goog-logo-link"
href="https://translate.google.com" target="_blank"><img
src="cid:part8.05090702.06090306@comcast.net"
style="padding-right: 3px" height="13px" width="37px">Translate</a></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style "
addthis:url="http://www.popularresistance.org/bilderberg-at-60-inside-the-worlds-most-secretive-conference/"
addthis:title="Bilderberg At 60: Inside The World’s Most Secretive
Conference "><a class="addthis_button_facebook_like at300b"
fb:like:layout="button_count">
<div
fb-iframe-plugin-query="action=like&app_id=172525162793917&font=arial&href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.popularresistance.org%2Fbilderberg-at-60-inside-the-worlds-most-secretive-conference%2F&layout=button_count&locale=en_US&sdk=joey&send=false&show_faces=false&width=90"
fb-xfbml-state="rendered" data-send="false"
data-href="http://www.popularresistance.org/bilderberg-at-60-inside-the-worlds-most-secretive-conference/"
data-font="arial" data-width="90" data-action="like"
data-show_faces="false" data-layout="button_count"
class="fb-like fb_iframe_widget" data-ref=""><span
style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 78px; height: 20px;"><iframe
class=""
src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?action=like&app_id=172525162793917&channel=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.ak.facebook.com%2Fconnect%2Fxd_arbiter%2FV80PAcvrynR.js%3Fversion%3D41%23cb%3Df3b73d92c5a26b6%26domain%3Dwww.popularresistance.org%26origin%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.popularresistance.org%252Ff389d25d33a9a3a%26relation%3Dparent.parent&font=arial&href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.popularresistance.org%2Fbilderberg-at-60-inside-the-worlds-most-secretive-conference%2F&layout=button_count&locale=en_US&sdk=joey&send=false&show_faces=false&width=90"
style="border: medium none; visibility: visible; width:
78px; height: 20px;" title="fb:like Facebook Social
Plugin" allowtransparency="true" name="f14464aaefc27c6"
frameborder="0" height="1000px" scrolling="no"
width="90px"></iframe></span></div>
</a><a class="addthis_button_tweet at300b"><iframe style="width:
109px; height: 20px;" data-twttr-rendered="true"
title="Twitter Tweet Button" class="twitter-share-button
twitter-tweet-button twitter-share-button
twitter-count-horizontal"
src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/tweet_button.1401325387.html#_=1401538363156&count=horizontal&counturl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.popularresistance.org%2Fbilderberg-at-60-inside-the-worlds-most-secretive-conference%2F&id=twitter-widget-0&lang=en&original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.popularresistance.org%2Fbilderberg-at-60-inside-the-worlds-most-secretive-conference%2F&size=m&text=Bilderberg%20At%2060%3A%20Inside%20The%20World%E2%80%99s%20Most%20Secretive%20Conference%20&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.popularresistance.org%2Fbilderberg-at-60-inside-the-worlds-most-secretive-conference%2F&via=PopResistance"
allowtransparency="true" id="twitter-widget-0" frameborder="0"
scrolling="no"></iframe></a><a
class="addthis_button_pinterest_pinit at300b"><span
class="at_PinItButton"></span></a><a class="atc_s
addthis_button_compact"><span></span></a><a
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/bilderberg-at-60-inside-the-worlds-most-secretive-conference/#"
title="View more services" target="_blank"
class="addthis_button_expanded">10</a></div>
<div class="pf-content">
<div class="printfriendly pf-alignright"><a
href="http://www.printfriendly.com/print?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.popularresistance.org%2Fbilderberg-at-60-inside-the-worlds-most-secretive-conference%2F"
rel="nofollow" onclick="window.print(); return false;"><img
style="border:none;-webkit-box-shadow:none;
box-shadow:none;"
src="cid:part15.01070906.06020700@comcast.net" alt="Print
Friendly"></a></div>
<div id="article-body-blocks">
<p><em>George Osborne is among those attending the high-powered
summit. Photograph: John Thys/AFP/Getty Images</em></p>
<p>It’s been a week of celebrations for Henry Kissinger. On
Tuesday he turned 91, on Wednesday he broke his personal best
in the 400m hurdles, and on Thursday in Copenhagen, he’ll be
clinking champagne flutes with the secretary general of Nato
and the queen of Spain, as they celebrate 60 glorious years of
<a title="More from the Guardian on Bilderberg"
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/bilderberg">Bilderberg</a>.
I just hope George Osborne remembered to pack a party hat.</p>
<p>Thursday is the opening day of the influential three-day
summit and it’s also the 60th anniversary of the Bilderberg
Group’s first meeting, which took place in Holland on 29 May
1954. So this year’s event is a red-letter occasion, and <a
title=""
href="http://bilderbergmeetings.org/participants.html">the
official participant list </a>shows that the 2014
conference is a peculiarly high-powered affair.</p>
<p>The chancellor, at his seventh Bilderberg, is spending the
next three days deep in conference with the heads of MI6,
Nato, the International Monetary Fund, HSBC, Shell, BP and
Goldman Sachs International, along with dozens of other chief
executives, billionaires and high-ranking politicians from
around Europe. This year also includes a visit from the
supreme allied commander Europe, and a return of royalty –
Queen Sofia of Spain and Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands,
the daughter of the Bilderberg founder Prince Bernhard.</p>
<p>Back in the 1950s, when Bernhard sent out the invitations, it
was to discuss “a number of problems facing western
civilization”. These days, the Bilderberg Group prefers to
call them “megatrends”. The megatrends on this year’s <a
title=""
href="http://bilderbergmeetings.org/press-release.html">agenda</a>
include: “What next for Europe?”, “Ukraine”, “Intelligence
sharing” and “Does privacy exist?”</p>
<p>That’s an exquisite irony: the world’s most secretive
conference discussing whether privacy exists. Certainly for
some it does. It’s not just birthday bunting that’s gone up in
Copenhagen: there’s also a double ring of three-metre (10ft)
high security fencing. The hotel is teeming with security:
lithe gentlemen in loose slacks and dark glasses, trying not
to kill the birthday vibe. Or anyone else.</p>
<p>Already, two reporters have been arrested trying to interview
the organisers of the conference in the Marriott hotel bar.
It’s easy enough to keep your privacy intact when you’re
employing so many people to guard it.</p>
<p>There’s something distinctly chilling about the existence of
privacy being debated, in extreme privacy, by people such as
the executive chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, and the board
member of Facebook Peter Thiel: exactly the people who know
how radically transparent the general public has become.</p>
<p>And to have them discussing it with the head of MI6, Sir John
Sawers, and Keith Alexander, the recently replaced head of the
National Security Agency. And with people such as the head of
AXA, the insurance and investment conglomerate –<a title=""
href="http://bilderbergmeetings.co.uk/chairman/"> Henri de
Castries.</a> Perhaps no one is more interested in data
collection and public surveillance than the insurance giants.
For them, privacy is the enemy. Public transparency is a
goldmine.</p>
<p>Back in 2010, Osborne proudly launched “the most radical
transparency agenda the country has ever seen”. However, this
transparency agenda doesn’t seem to extend to Osborne himself
making a public statement about what he has discussed at this
meeting. And with whom.</p>
<p>We know, from the agenda and list, that Osborne will be there
with the foreign affairs ministers from Spain and Sweden, and
the deputy secretary general of the French presidency. And
from closer to home, the international development secretary,
Justine Greening, and fellow Bilderberg veteran and shadow
chancellor, Ed Balls.</p>
<p>We know that he’s scheduled to discuss the situation in
Ukraine with extremely interested parties, such as the chief
executive of the European arms giant Airbus, Thomas Enders.
Not to mention the chief executive and chairman of “the
defence & security company” Saab: Håkan Buskhe and Marcus
Wallenberg. And billionaire investors including Henry Kravis
of KKR, who is “always looking to sharpen” what he calls “the
KKR edge”. Helping Kravis sharpen his edge is General David
Petraeus, former director of the CIA, now head of the KKR
Global Institute – a massive investment operation.</p>
<p>The Bilderberg Group says the conference has no desired
outcome. But for private equity giants, and the heads of
banks, arms manufacturers and oil companies, there’s always a
desired outcome. Try telling the shareholders of Shell that
there’s “no desired outcome” of their chairman and chief
executive spending three days in conference with politicians
and policy makers.</p>
<p>Try telling that to the lobbyists who have been working so
hard to push the Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership
(TTIP) deal that is being negotiated. Bilderberg is packed to
the gills with senior members of powerful lobby groups. Will
members of British American Business’s international advisory
board, such as Douglas Flint and Peter Sutherland, express
BAB’s fervent support of TTIP when discussing “Is the economic
recovery sustainable?” Or will they leave their lobbying hats
at the door?</p>
<p>MP Michael Meacher describes Bilderberg as “the cabal of the
rich and powerful” who are working “to consolidate and extend
the grip of the markets”. And they’re doing so “beyond the
reach of the media or the public”. That said, every year, the
press probes a little further behind the security fencing.
Every year the questions for the politicians who attend, but
remain silent, get harder.</p>
<p>They can try to laugh it off as a “talking shop” or a
glorified knees-up, but these people haven’t come to
Bilderberg to drink fizzy wine and pull party poppers. It’s
possible that Reid Hoffman, the head of LinkedIn, has turned
up for the birthday cake. But I doubt it. This is big
business. And big politics. And big lobbying.</p>
<p>Bilderberg is big money, and they know how to spend it. From
my spot outside, I’ve just seen three vans full of fish
delicacies trundle into the hotel service entrance. I always
thought there was something fishy about Bilderberg. Turns out
that for tonight at least, it’s the rollmops.</p>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>