Sinister undertones of elitist gathering

Britain’s Guardian doesn’t hesitate to go where the corporate media fears to tread. One of a handful of papers worldwide that dared to publish the damaging WikiLeaks cables, this week it exposed its acquisition of “top secret documents.” They reveal that the US National Security Agency (NSA) has been contravening America’s sacrosanct constitution as well as the PATRIOT Act by mining citizens’ private data, including audio and video, gleaned from computers, social media sites and telephone networks via Prism—an electronic eavesdropping system to which UK intelligence agencies enjoy access. The paper alleges that in one month alone, the NSA “collected 97 billion pieces of intelligence from computer networks worldwide.”

As astonishing as most will view, it’s not news for those who are invariably written off as overly imaginative conspiracy theorists. Alternative websites, such as Infowars, have been warning for years that US government agencies were using technologies and had set up secret deals with communication companies to illegally spy on Americans, citing this warning from NSA whistleblower William Binney: “Domestically, they’re pulling together all the data about virtually every US citizen in the country and assembling that information, building communities that you have relationships with, and knowledge about you; what your activities are; what you’re doing . . .”

Conspiracy theorists, so-called, have been vindicated on this issue now that their concerns have finally been spotlighted by the mainstream which begs the question of how right they are on other Orwellian-type topics, such as the existence of a secret world government that formulates global policies behind the closed doors of the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Bilderberg Group that succeeded in remaining largely in the shadows until it chose to hold its annual meeting in the English town of Watford, Hertfordshire. It’s interesting to note that many the same names show up in the membership lists of all three of these inter-related organisations.

The usual gaggle of individuals protesting the secretive four-day conference attended by 130 or so selected global decision makers—royalty, heads of state, politicians, bankers, captains of industry and commerce, head honchos from the Pentagon and Nato, plus a few media barons open to being gagged—were out in force outside the Grove Hotel awaiting the inevitable steam of limousines with blacked-out windows.

But then, as the Guardian put it, “something remarkable happened; the mainstream press showed up in droves.” That was, indeed, a first, probably because the media in other countries that have hosted Bilderberg conferences are less aggressive than the British media and more respecting of privacy. Or it may be that investigative journalists have hitherto shied away from messing with the rich and powerful.

Britain’s press is on an anti-establishment roll, slamming the British Prime Minister David Cameron for attending the meeting without his usual coterie of civil servants. Downing Street has reacted coyly, announcing “it is a private meeting so we are not going to go into any further details.” Indeed, the lack of transparency surrounding Bilderberg get-togethers, from which the media is barred and no minutes are taken, is a problem for its objectors convinced that Bilderberg is one arm of a secret global government plotting a New World Order serving elites.

Daniel Estulin’s book The True Story of the Bilderberg Group, billed as an investigative journey that became his life’s work, provides an insight into ‘conspiracy theorist’ thinking. The Group originated in Oosterbeek, Netherlands in 1954 when “the most powerful men in the world met for the first time” to debate “the future of the world” and planned to meet annually in secret. The author maintains that the Bilderberg Group is the world’s most exclusive club with a membership no amount of money can buy. Rather, participants are invited based on their adherence to a One World Order supplanting the governments of sovereign nations.

“Imagine a private club where presidents, prime ministers, international bankers and generals rub shoulders, where gracious royal chaperones ensure everyone gets along, and where the people running the wars, markets, and Europe say what they never dare say in public,” he writes. He further accuses the Bilderbergers of creating “an aristocracy of purpose between Europe and the United States” to maintain their wealth and power.

Estulin lists the Bilderberg’ objectives that include the emergence of a One World Government overseeing a single, global marketplace, policed by a One World army and financially regulated by a One World Bank using a single global currency. Implementation requires control of world public opinion, manufactured crises, perpetual wars, subduing the middle classes to make way for rulers and servants, indoctrination of the public mind via education and the expansion of Nafta, the WTO and Nato, he writes.

Now that the Bilderberg Group has hit the headlines and is under scrutiny, those who wondered what Estulin had been smoking might be inclined to think again. When ‘free’ citizens of democracies are being spied upon by governments they trust, anything is possible. Conspiracy theorists attempting to break through carefully contrived official facades may be on to something after all. “In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act,” said George Orwell. That may be so, but the question is how many of us are open to hearing it?

Linda S. Heard is a British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.