Tuesday, June 5, 2012

12-06-06 Welcome Anonymous Proxy!

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12-06-04 Ongoing Criminality at Bank of America

New evidence of criminality at Bank of America has been reported by the New York Times and ProPublica.  Through the coerced mergers of Bank of America with Countrywide and Merrill Lynch the US government converted Bank of America into a corrupt organization. Today, the indemnity for criminality, both past and future, vested in Bank of America, is probably its most valuable intangible capital asset.  However, this asset only works for the benefit of management, and against the shareholder and all who do business with this criminal enterprise.
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BofA Brian Moynihan, Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke
Both ProPublica and the New York Times in their most recent coverage failed to mention additional significant facts regarding the Bank of America- Merrill Lynch Merger:

  • The fraud on the shareholders and SEC in the Merrill Lynch merger was perpetrated under coercion by the US government. [1]
  • The matter was investigated by then NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who produced indisputable evidence of a criminal conspiracy involving Lewis, Bernanke, Paulson, and others. [1,2]
  • The completion of the merger entailed the ouster of then BofA General Counsel Timothy Mayopoulos and appointment of Brian Moynihan (who had no legal experience at that time) to replace him. [1]
  • During the same merger executives unlawfully took $5.8 billions of shareholders funds to their own pockets. [3,4]
  • The matter was purportedly reviewed in court under SEC v Bank of America  (1:09-cv-06829) in the US District Court in Manhattan, where Judge Jed Rakoff, BofA, and SEC (with media cheering along) engaged in fraud on the court to exonerate all involved. [3,4]
  • Today, the indemnity for criminality, both past and future, vested in Bank of America, is probably its most valuable intangible capital asset.  However, this asset only works for the benefit of management, and against the shareholder and all who do business with this criminal enterprise. [5]
LINKS:[1] 09-04-23 RE: SEC v BAC (1:09-cv-06829) State of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo Letter to US Congress and analysts' responses:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/41079990/[2] 11-02-11 Press Release: US Congress Fails to Perform Its Oversight Duties and Impeach Bernanke
http://www.scribd.com/doc/48669543/[3] 11-08-01 Zernik, J: Fraud and corruption in the US courts is tightly linked to failing banking regulation and the financial crisis, 16th World Criminology Congress presentation
http://www.scribd.com/doc/61351562/[4] 

11-01-10 Request No 1 for investigation/impeachment proceedings against US Judge JED RAKOFF and Clerk RUBY KRAJICK, US District Court, Southern District of New York, in re: Conduct of Securities and Exchange Committee v Bank of America Corporation (1:09-cv-06829) s
http://www.scribd.com/doc/46616530/
[5] 12-01-30 Vistas in Legal-Economic Theory: Perpetual corporate immunity as a major intangible capital asset and a driving force in socio-economic development, or lack thereof
http://www.scribd.com/doc/79912684/____

Merrill Losses Were Withheld Before Bank of America Deal

By GRETCHEN MORGENSON
Days before Bank of America shareholders approved the bank’s $50 billion purchase of Merrill Lynch in December 2008, top bank executives were advised that losses at the investment firm would most likely hammer the combined companies’ earnings in the years to come. But shareholders were not told about the looming losses, which would prompt a second taxpayer bailout of $20 billion, leaving them instead to rely on rosier projections from the bank that the deal would make money relatively soon after it was completed.

READ MORE:[1] G. Morgenson, Merrill Losses Were Withheld Before Bank of America Deal, New York Times, June 3, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/04/business/bank-of-america-withheld-loss-figures-ahead-of-merrill-vote.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&hp 

How Bank of America Execs Hid Losses­In Their Own Words

by Cora Currier
ProPublica, June 4, 2012, 4:50 p.m

When Bank of America announced it was buying Merrill Lynch in September 2008, bank execs told their shareholders that the merger might hurt earnings a touch. It didn't turn out that way. Losses at Merrill piled upover the next two months, before the deal even closed. Yet the execs kept painting a prettier picture to shareholders ­ even though it turns out they knew better.

As the New York Times detailed this morning, a brief in a new lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan recounts sworn testimony and internal emails in which execs admitted to giving bad information to shareholders and that they had worried about the legal ramifications of doing so.

READ MORE:[1] C. Currier, How Bank of America Execs Hid Losses­In Their Own Words, ProPublica, June 4, 2012
http://www.propublica.org/article/how-bank-of-america-execs-hid-losses-in-their-own-words 

12-06-04 Police State USA

Photo

Photo: US Prisons Turn To Call Center Jobs For Inmates, Earn Millions In Labor Costs


http://www.inquisitr.com/180576/us-prisons-turn-to-call-center-jobs-for-inmates/
US Prisons Turn To Call Center Jobs For Inmates, Earn Millions In Labor Costs
http://www.inquisitr.com/180576/us-prisons-turn-to-call-center-jobs-for-inmates/

12-06-03 POLICE STATE USA

The following pieces of legislation, programs, and actions--by no means exhaustive--illustrate the unfortunate yet steady advance in the paranoid style of American governance that especially since 2001 has placed both the subject and all who come in to contact with it at risk of serious injury or death.


POLICE STATE USA: The Paranoid Style of American Governance

Global Research, June 3, 2012
URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=31220

In 1964 Harper's magazine published the now famous essay, "The Paranoid Style of American Politics," by historian and public intellectual Richard Hofstadter. Appearing in the wake of President John F. Kennedy's assassination and Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater's Republican presidential nomination, the tract remains emblematic of liberal anxiety toward serious and in many cases unresolved questions regarding the forces behind American governance. "The Paranoid Style" overall helped establish the term "conspiracy theory" as perhaps the most powerful epithet in the American political lexicon.  "American politics has often been an arena for angry minds," Hofstadter wrote.
"In recent years, we have seen angry minds at work, mainly among extreme right-wingers, who have now demonstrated, in the Goldwater movement, how much political leverage can be got out of the animosities and passions of a small minority. But, behind this, I believe, there is a style of mind that is far from new, and that is not necessarily right-wing. I call it the paranoid style, simply because no other word adequately evokes the sense of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy that I have in mind." (emphasis added)

Americans typically comfort themselves in the notion that they live in a democracy, with a government that is rational, responsible, and accommodative of their needs. Yet what if the government Americans look to for protection of personal property, the creation and enforcement of fair and just laws, and defense of the nation's borders and interests abroad exhibits the paranoia Hofstadter attributed to John Birchers and Goldwater supporters, complete with deep suspicions and conspiratorial fantasies toward those it is supposed to serve and protect?
The New York Times Health Guide explains a prevailing symptom of Paranoid Personality Disorder as being "highly suspicious of other people." Those afflicted "often feel that they are in danger, and look for evidence to support their suspicions. People with this disorder have trouble seeing that their distrustfulness is out of proportion to their environment." Other symptoms include "concern that other people have hidden motives, expectation that they will be exploited by others, inability to work together with others," "detachment"  and "hostility."
US legislation exhibiting undue suspiciousness toward allegedly strange "others" suggests how the paranoid style has thoroughly imbued American governance, particularly over the past 10 years. An especially strong onset of symptoms is evidenced in the blizzard of new laws, programs, and executive orders dating from September 11, 2001.
Indeed, the US government's dramatic increase in suspicion and contempt toward others over the last decade, combined with its accelerated violent and criminal aggression toward innocents at home and abroad, indicates a potential onset of what might even be deemed paranoid schizophrenia. With the development of such a condition the subject as a whole suffers from acute delusions of persecution and is tormented by illusory forces that it perceives as seeking to inflict harm on it.
This advanced stage of illness may have been triggered by the violent terrorist attack of September 11, 2001; one that the subject immediately blamed on a set of previous associates, Osama bin Laden and his mercenary group known as Al Qaeda. Despite the government's continued insistence that bin Laden and Al Qaeda are the culprits, exhaustive expert forensic and scientific investigations have been unable to confirm their involvement in the crime. Nevertheless, the subject uses the unresolved incident as the primary rationale for its accelerated paranoia.
The following pieces of legislation, programs, and actions--by no means exhaustive--illustrate the unfortunate yet steady advance in the paranoid style of American governance that especially since 2001 has placed both the subject and all who come in to contact with it at risk of serious injury or death.
Alien Enemies Act of 1798

Gave president power to apprehend and deport resident aliens if their home countries were at war with the United States of America. With no sunset provision, act is intact today as 50 U.S.C. §§ 21–24.
Sedition Act of 1798

Made it a crime to publish "false, scandalous, and malicious writing" against the government or certain officials. Enacted July 14, 1798, with expiration date of March 3, 1801 (the day before John Adams' presidential term was to end).
Espionage Act of 1917

Made it a crime to interfere with the war effort or with military recruitment or to attempt to aid a nation at war with the US.
Sedition Act of 1918

Extended Espionage Act of 1917 to cover a broader range of offenses, notably speech and the expression of opinion that cast the government or the war effort in a negative light or interfered with the sale of government bonds.
Executive Order 9066, 1942

Authorized internment of tens of thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident aliens from Japan. Also authorized transporting these citizens to assembly centers hastily set up and governed by the militaries of California, Arizona, Washington state, and Oregon. EO 9066 was combined with other war-time orders and restrictions to smaller numbers of residents of the United States who were of Italian or German descent.
Operation Garden Plot / REX 84

General plan by the US military to respond to major domestic civil disturbances within the US by suspending US Constitution and declaring martial law. Developed in response to the civil disorders of the 1960s and now would be carried out by U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM).
Executive Order 12148, 1979
Created the Federal Emergency Management Agency that is to interface with the Department of Defense for civil defense planning and funding. Bulk of FEMA funding utilized for construction of secret underground facilities to assure continuity of government in case of a major emergency, foreign or domestic.
Executive Order Number 12656, 1988
Appointed National Security Council as principal body to consider emergency powers. Allows government to increase domestic intelligence and surveillance of U.S. citizens and would restrict the freedom of movement within the United States and grant the government the right to isolate large groups of civilians.
Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995

Allows US government to use evidence from secret sources in deportation proceedings for aliens suspected of terrorist involvement. Deportee would not have right to face accusers. Makes an individual liable for contributing to an organization deemed by US President to be involved in terrorism, even if donation was for a non-terrorist activity.
Model States Emergency Health Powers Act, 2001
Calls for giving state public health officials broad, new police powers for controlling epidemics of infectious diseases during public health emergencies. Defines "infectious disease" as "a disease caused by a living organism." Forces individuals suspected of harboring an "infectious disease" to undergo medical examinations, be vaccinated, treated, or quarantined for infectious diseases.
USA PATRIOT Act, 2001
Enacted in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Provides for wide range of unchecked US government surveillance powers to access personal records, monitor financial transactions, student, medical and other information. "Sneak and peak" searches permit "delayed notice" warrants, roving wiretaps, email tracking, and Internet and cell phone monitoring." Crime of "domestic terrorism" enacted to include anti-war activists, global justice demonstrators, environmental and animal rights adherents. Civil disobedience, and dissent of any kind may be included under all-encompassing definition. Law is vague enough to label almost anything "terrorism" at government's discretion.

US government may confiscate or freeze all foreign and domestic assets of any individual, entity, or organization accused of engaging in, planning, supporting, concealing, or perpetrating any act considered domestic or international terrorism against America.
Establishment of United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), 2001
Created in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Cabinet department of the US federal government that is domestic counterpart to US Department of Defense. with primary responsibilities of protecting the United States of America and US Territories from and responding to terrorist attacks, man-made accidents, and natural disasters. In fiscal year 2011 it was allocated a budget of $98.8 billion, spent $66.4 billion, and had 200,000 employees. Stated goal is to prepare for, prevent, and respond to domestic emergencies, particularly terrorism.
Establishment of Transportation Safety Authority, 2001
Created in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Charged with developing policies to protect U.S. transportation, especially airport security and the prevention of aircraft hijacking. TSA oversees security for highways, railroads, buses, mass transit systems, pipelines, ports. Responsible for screening passengers and checked and carry-on baggage at 450 U.S. airports.
Federal establishment of State and Local Fusion Centers, 2004

DHS establishes Fusion Centers, defined as a “collaborative effort of two or more Federal, State, local, or tribal government agencies that combines resources, expertise, and information with the goal of maximizing the ability of such agencies to detect, prevent, investigate, apprehend, and respond to criminal and terrorist activity.” "Fusion" also refers to data mining of multiple sources of information on citizens who may pose "terrorist threat". There are presently 58 such centers operating throughout US.
John Warner Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 5122) 2007
Allows US President to declare a "public emergency," station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder."
National Defense Authorization Act, 2011
Puts domestic terror investigations and interrogations into the hands of the military. Allows for stripping of due process, indefinite detention of anyone, including American citizens, based on US government claim that they are terrorists.
Strategic Implementation Plan, 2011

Coordination of United States federal government with regional and local authorities in three core areas: (1) enhancing engagement with and support to local communities that may be targeted by violent extremists; (2) building government and law enforcement expertise for preventing violent extremism; and (3) countering violent extremist propaganda while promoting US ideals.
Communities Against Terrorist Program, 2011FBI and DOJ campaign to enlist workers in 25 industries to spy on fellow workers and citizens and report findings to federal authorities. Citizen spies being recruited from hotel and motel personnel, dive shop operators, car and property rental agents, tattoo parlors employees, gun dealers and Internet cafe clerks.
Spy-ware in Home Appliances, 2012
All new online devices provide a treasure trove of data to US intelligence on “persons of interest” or "potential terrorists." In March 2012 CIA Director David Petraeus discussed emergence of an “Internet of Things” — or, wired devices — at summit for the CIA’s venture capital firm In-Q-Tel. “‘Transformational’ is an overused word, but I do believe it properly applies to these technologies,” Petraeus remarked, “particularly to their effect on clandestine tradecraft.”
Executive Order - Food Resources, 2012
"National Defense Resources Preparedness" EO enacted on March 16, 2012 renews and updates the president's power to take control of all civil energy supplies, including oil and natural gas, control and restrict all civil transportation, which is almost 97 percent dependent upon oil; and even provides the option to re-institute conscription in order to achieve both the military and non-military demands of the country.
DHS Purchases Enough Ammunition to Eliminate Entire US Population, 2012

The DHS signs off on “indefinite delivery” for nearly 500 million high-power ammunition for .40 caliber firearms from defense contractors ATK. Department says it expects to continue receiving shipments from the manufacturer for the next five years.
President Obama's Assassination List, 2012
Obama and about 100 counter-terrorism officials have created "kill list" to specify extrajudicial killings of suspected Al Qaeda terrorists in the drone war in Pakistan and Yemen. Obama exercises complete discretion over who may be placed on list. American citizens are not exempt.
US Military to Launch Armed Drones Domestically, 2012
NDAA sets stage for US military to arm up to 30,000 drones set to fly over US. More powerful versions of the famed Predator drones, known as MQ-9 Reaper drones, are being fitted with missiles and other explosive ordinances as part of the deployment of 30,000 drones authorized to fly over the US.

James F. Tracy is Associate Professor of Media Studies at Florida Atlantic University.

12-06-04 Welcome Poland!


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12-06-04 Would you be my Facebook friend?


WOULD YOU BE MY FRIEND?
Joseph Zernik
FACEBOOK barred me for 30 days
from offering friendships... (:

I have been barred from Wikipedia (two languages), ABA Journal, Youtube,
and numerous other sites before, but this is really painful… :)

12-06-04 Supreme Court Denies Siegelman, Scrushy Appeals

True to recent form, the U.S. Supreme Court denied relief June 4 to former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman on corruption charges. This sets the stage for Siegelman's reimprisonment in the most notorious federal political prosecution and frame-up of the decade.

By Andrew Kreig

opednews.com

True to recent form, the U.S. Supreme Court denied relief June 4 to former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman on corruption charges. This sets the stage for Siegelman's reimprisonment in the most notorious federal political prosecution and frame-up of the decade.

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The court denied without comment the certiorari petition of Siegelman and co-defendant Richard Scrushy, former CEO of HealthSouth, Inc. In 2007, U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller sentenced them to seven-year prison terms on multiple charges from Siegelman's solicitation of donations from Scrushy in 1999 for the non-profit Alabama Education Foundation. Siegelman supported the foundation's initiatives to increase school funding with a state lottery over the opposition of a Republican-orchestrated coalition.

On receipt of the court's decision, Siegelman gave a brief comment to his supporters, who have helped him through the years with legal bills of millions of dollars. As published on a list-serve run by Alabama supporter Pam Miles, Siegelman wrote, "Cert Denied.....:)...I'm Blessed by having your love and support..."
Emacs!

The court, as usual, gave no details on its vote to deny the petition. But Democratic Justice Elena Kagan, left, presumably recused herself because she had advocated Siegelman's imprisonment when she was the Obama Administration's Solicitor General in 2009. The new administration stood shoulder-to-shoulder with its Bush predecessors in continuing the frame-up and cover-up. This was part of a "look forward, not backward" mantra that Obama articulated most famously on torture cases, but which applied also to Rove-era political prosecutions. Kagan's recusal made possible a 5 to 3 Republican majority for the case (although the precise totals aren't otherwise known) on a Supreme Court increasingly divided on partisan political lines as rarely before in modern history.

Our Justice Integrity Project has been collecting hard evidence from legal scholars that the court's result-oriented decision-making is becoming an unprecedented disgrace of historic proportions, and is something every thinking voter needs to appreciate. Still to come are the court's decision on the health care law But already the clear outlines are visible in which Democrats and Republicans tend to vote as blocs on tight cases, with important legal scholars discerning political motives more than consistent legal principles in close decisions. Such scholars rarely share such views with the lay public, however, because expert court-watchers do not want to antagonize players in the close-knit, high-prestige world of legal scholarship and advocacy.  

Evidence of Supreme Court scandal, which we've carefully accumulated and shall provide in-depth later this summer, rarely finds such a tragic and dramatic result as the federal-state persecution of Siegelman, Alabama's most important Democrat of his era. The June 5 ruling appears to have been Siegelman's last chance to avoid revocation of his appeal bond and resentencing by his nemesis, Judge Fuller, chief middle district judge from 2004 to 2011. Fuller allegedly "hated" Siegelman even before the Bush administration's second secret indictment of Siegelman, and tried to frame him while also benefiting from some $300 million in Bush contracts for a military contracting company the judge secretly controlled as its largest shareholder.

Last week, the Montgomery Independent reported that Fuller cashed out his interests at Doss Aviation with an $18 million payment as he undergoes allegations of adultery and drug-use made by his wife of three decades, Lisa Fuller, in a divorce action filed in April. The divorce case files has now been sealed, part of the pattern of secrecy that has blighted this case at all judicial levels since its inception. We have reported that the secrecy can be traced to a culture of silence whereby attorneys and judges protect each other, especially given the vast defense contracts -- including the Boeing-Airbus rivalry over $35 billion involved in the next generation of Air Force tankers -- looming as part of the motive for the Siegelman prosecution.

Siegelman, whose Karl Rove-inspired prosecution helped gut Alabama's once-competitive Democratic Party, served nearly a year of his term before release on bond when whistleblowers and legal experts helped show in 2007 and 2008 that he had been targeted for political reasons. As trial judge, Fuller paved the way for conviction with innumerable pro-prosecution rulings that ignored clear-cut legal irregularities plus allegations of monumental scandal.The prominent, blunt-speaknig Alabama businessman Luther "Stan" Pate has said his fellow Republicans clearly famed Siegelman. But Fuller, Rove and the vast bulk of other politicians and judges have denied wrongdoing or irregularities.
The Obama administration and Fuller's fellow federal judges have thus closed ranks with innumerable tactical successes to keep the lid on the scandals. This is despite the sworn testimony of whistleblowers and the unprecedented filing to the Supreme Court of 113 former state attorneys general from more than 40 states arguing to the court that Scrushy's donations to the non-profit did not constitute a crime even though Siegelman in 1999 reappointed Scrushy to a state board after the donations.

The June 5 Supreme Court ruling provides many sad lessons. Most obvious is a lack of transparency and logic in the court's deliberations, leading to justified suspicions that it is result-oriented jurisprudence with legal rhetoric just for show. Those regularly involved with the court as legal pundits or professors dare not voice such sacrilege publicly for the most part, but I can report that the overwhelming evidence is becoming difficult even for court loyalists to suppress. Second, we see illustrated in the Siegelman-Scrushy case a visible breakdown of the news media as a meaningful watchdog, aside from a temporary blessing in 2007 and 2008 by the mainstream media and an ongoing, dedicated cadre of old-school but low-income bloggers and citizen activists who have tried to hide the obvious irregularities of the case, to scant avail.

We see also that the bipartisan political system represents scant check on any misconduct. Listed below is a new book about Obama Attorney General Eric Holder, who reputedly feels sorry for himself because he is attacked by Republicans. There's no hint in the news articles about the forthcoming book that he feels the slightest shame at abandoning political prosecution torture victims from the Bush administration, or even the whistleblowers who courageously risked everything to fight injustice in the Justice Department. One of them is Tamarah Grimes, the DOJ's top-house paralegal in the Siegelman case. Holder fired her in 2009 after she sent him a 10-page single spaced description of irregularities in the office of holder Bush U.S. Attorney Leura Canary and others who helped lead the Siegelman prosecution. Ironically, Grimes was scheduled for a federal hearing June 5 on her claim of unjust firing, which the Obama administration is resisting out of loyalty to its predecessors.

None of this makes sense according to conventional political and other civic affairs analysis. But it all makes sense, in a diabolic way, with the kind of slightly deeper reporting independent media have been providing for years. Thus, 2010 Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Bill Barnes told me on the record that his view is that the Obama administration had largely written off the Deep South on such justice issues as the Siegleman case in order not antagonize powerful Republicans, sch as incumbent Sen. Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions. Similarly, Congressman Artur Davis, Alabama's most important elected Democrat following Siegelman's persecution, worked out a deal with Republicans to sell out Siegelman, according to multiple confidential reports. But Davis was widely suspected of the double-cross, and lost the 2010 Alabama Democratic primary for governor. His reputation in ruins, last month he announced that he was becoming a Republican. 

Beyond breakdowns in political, court and news media watchdog functions, the Siegelman case illustrates the powerlessness of defendants no matter how much experience they have, how many witnesses or how much they can raise in defense costs. Siegleman was a Rhodes Scholar and former state attorney general. His co-defendant, Scrushy, was one of Alabama's richest men before the onslaught. Scrushy faced separate fraud allegations him both civilly and criminally arising from fraud in inflating the assets of HealthSouth, thus hurting investors. But his only convictions were for his donations to the non-profit, not any substantive action involving his company. Scrushy, denied bond, was released form prison to a halfway house this spring for the remainder of his term.

Scrushy and Siegelman received temporary hope last June when the Supreme Court provided an ambiguous ruling in parallel cases under the "honest services" law. This helped certain well-connected defendants specifically, but appellate courts whittled down meaningful application to Siegelman and Scrushy, thus setting up today's final appeal by defendants almost unaccountably doomed from the start.

In 2009, the Obama Justice Department requested that Fuller sentence Siegelman to 20 more years in prison when his appeals were concluded. Presumably, but not certainly, some sense of shame at DOJ as well as cost-benefit recognition of the enormous costs of prosecution and imprisonment will encourage Obama officials to reduce that request.

Read the rest of the article here
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Supreme-Court-Denies-Siege-by-Andrew-Kreig-120604-561.html 

12-06-04 Welcome Kenya!


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12-06-04 Bilderberg Meeting a Wrap, Who Would Trust these People?


Bilderberg Meeting a Wrap, Who Would Trust these People?

By Michael Collins

(Chantilly, VA 6/3/2012) The Bilderberg Group completed its annual meeting today in Northern Virginia. The group was founded in 1954 by the financial, political, and military elites of Europe and the United States. Annual meetings provide for “regular, off-the-record discussions [to] help create a better understanding of the complex forces and major trends affecting Western nations in the difficult post-war period.” Bilderberg Meetings, Official Website
The inherent contradiction in this mission statement is glaringly obvious. These are the very same people who put in place and control the governments and programs that they’re meeting in private to “discuss.” Don’t they discuss these things before and during their masquerade of governance?

The group’s official meeting website says, “What is unique about Bilderberg as a forum is the privacy of the meetings, which has no purpose other than to allow participants to speak their minds openly and freely.”
When the world’s ultra-rich and powerful meet to address major sociopolitical problems in a forum based onprivacy, it’s time to take a closer look.
Trust the Bilderberg Group at your own peril
This group represents what Steve Hynd of The Agonist calls the top 0.001% on the wealth pyramid. They have all the levers of power. The heads of the major US-European central banks are permanent members. The Federal Reserve’s Ben Bernanke and curmudgeon in chief Paul Volker are made men. Mega corporations are there too. Bill Gates of Microsoft and Jeff Bezos of Amazon are representatives for the United States. The Europeans have BP’s former and current chairmen, the head of Royal Dutch Shell, plus major manufacturing companies like Fiat, Unilever, and the French and Italian Telecoms. David Rockefeller, of Chase banking, is the group’s éminence grise.
What’s the track record of the group? Look around and you’ll see the product of their control and leadership, as it were. The world’s economy is disjointed and failing in nearly every corner except Asia. Plans are already in place for massive security problems created by the collapse of just about every vital element of the planet’s ecology during the group’s watch. The latest venture of spreading democracy and capitalism, the Arab Spring, is an utter failure. Libya, Tunisia, and Egypt are arguably less free in a number of ways. There is no argument that the economies of the three nations are much worse off thanks to the efforts NATO, the military arm of these individuals and inerests.
Individual members have a sorry track record as well. The central bankers are struggling as evidenced by the faltering Eurozone and US economies. Deutsche Bank’s Josef Ackermann was a key player in the European response to Greece’s troubles. That’s certainly worked out well. US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner presided over the greatest wealth transfer in history enabled by massive bailouts for Wall Street and big bank interests. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke got the Fed lending rate to nearly zero percent for the big banks while failing to notice that those banks were routinely charging 25% interest to credit card holders. These folks are not the sharpest tools in the shed when it comes to helping the people.
Who would trust them? Can we survive much more of their bad judgment and disastrous management?
Bilderberg’s more sinister side contributed directly to the numerous theories that see the group as a diabolic international conspiracy. In my opinion, the Bilderberg group is the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, a self-appointed hapless collection of incompetents with all the power required to solve major problems but none of the intellect, discipline, and moral sensibility required to get the job done.
In addition to incompetence, there are clear examples of sociopathic behavior by group members. Henry Kissinger allowed the ravaging of East Timor in return for a few favors from Indonesia. His failures in Vietnam caused hundreds of thousands to die needlessly. Colin Powell lied about weapons of mass destruction before the United Nations to get his boss the war he wanted. George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton 1990′s sanctions against Iraq resulted in the deaths of around a quarter million Iraqi children under five.
The baddest Bilderberger of all time
Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Lyman Lemnitzer, is the Bilderberg member who has done more for both accurate and unfounded conspiracy theories than any of his peers.
In 1962, Lemnitzer approved Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba, also known as Operation Northwoods . The plan was declassified in 1997 by the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board.
The chiefs were upset that they lacked the option of invading Communist Cuba. As an alternative, they came up with Northwoods, a false flag operation that would provide the excuse required to invade Cuba. Northwoods was presented to and rejected by President John F. Kennedy in 1962. The material below is from that original plan.
One feature of the plan called for recruiting Cuban exiles to don official Cuban military uniforms, storm the Guantanamo Bay base, set some fires, etc. and then get caught. This operation was intended to show that Cuba was a threat to the United States.
While a fake battle was taking place between US provocateurs and uniformed military, Miami and other U.S. cities would be subjected to false flag terrorist attacks by another set of agents working for the joint chiefs. These terrorists were to be tied directly to Fidel Castro.
A “drone” ship would be destroyed and a remote controlled aircraft, masquerading as a charter flight with real people aboard, would be shot down with the blame falling on Castro’s Cuba.
When Lemnitzer presented the plan, he was removed as head of the joint chiefs and given the command of NATO. Lest than a year later, he was invited to join the Bilderberg group.
This plan represents treason at the highest levels. No one was punished. Outside of the authors and a few elected officials, no one was told about this episode of madness. Lemnitzer joined the Bilderberg Group in 1963.
It’s no wonder…
It is no wonder that people aware of Northwoods and other control schemes interpret manipulative and malicious intent behind government actions. For years, the CIA’s MKULTRA program experimented on citizens to develop mind control techniques. Operation Mockingbird allowed the CIA to dictate content for news and opinion pieces by prominent journalists. That project began in 1948 and was supposedly shut down I 1976. (With today’s corporate media, the project is likely unnecessary.)

Protesters showed up for an Occupy Bilderberg event at the 2012 meeting in Chantilly. Alex Jones and Mark Dice ofInfowars.com were there to provide extensive coverage of the event. Supporters included loyal readers of Infowars, some Ron Paul supporters, and other sympathizers.
Jones and Dice see an evil genius behind the group with an interlocking relationship with the other secret groups like the Illuminati and the Bohemian Grove revelers.
I agree that whenever these individuals and interests get together, trouble will follow. Attempts at secrecy only compound the problem
The real problems, however, are presented to us in very visible ways year after year. The elite, also known as The Money Party, make no secret of taking as much wealth as possible from those without political control. It never occurs to them that the more people they impoverish, the less vibrant the market will be for their goods and services. The elite engage in endless wars that slaughter hundreds of thousands and lead to social regression. It never occurs to them that there is a price for this paid in human suffering.
The very fact that the secret meeting is announced with its own web site shows just how decadent the ruling class has become. They can’t even manage a secret meeting in secret.
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