crime

UN crime chief Costa says it again: banks bailed out by now "laundered" drug money

Submitted by HongPong on Mon, 2009-12-14 00:39

There was a quip about this a while ago, now it is more established. Posted in full cause it's a big deal.... via Agonist .

These people are criminals!

Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor

Drugs and crime chief says $352bn in criminal proceeds was effectively laundered by financial institutions

Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations' drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer.

Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were "the only liquid investment capital" available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result.

This will raise questions about crime's influence on the economic system at times of crisis. It will also prompt further examination of the banking sector as world leaders, including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, call for new International Monetary Fund regulations. Speaking from his office in Vienna, Costa said evidence that illegal money was being absorbed into the financial system was first drawn to his attention by intelligence agencies and prosecutors around 18 months ago. "In many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital. In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system's main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor," he said.

Some of the evidence put before his office indicated that gang money was used to save some banks from collapse when lending seized up, he said.

"Inter-bank loans were funded by money that originated from the drugs trade and other illegal activities... There were signs that some banks were rescued that way." Costa declined to identify countries or banks that may have received any drugs money, saying that would be inappropriate because his office is supposed to address the problem, not apportion blame. But he said the money is now a part of the official system and had been effectively laundered.

"That was the moment [last year] when the system was basically paralysed because of the unwillingness of banks to lend money to one another. The progressive liquidisation to the system and the progressive improvement by some banks of their share values [has meant that] the problem [of illegal money] has become much less serious than it was," he said.

The IMF estimated that large US and European banks lost more than $1tn on toxic assets and from bad loans from January 2007 to September 2009 and more than 200 mortgage lenders went bankrupt. Many major institutions either failed, were acquired under duress, or were subject to government takeover.

Gangs are now believed to make most of their profits from the drugs trade and are estimated to be worth £352bn, the UN says. They have traditionally kept proceeds in cash or moved it offshore to hide it from the authorities. It is understood that evidence that drug money has flowed into banks came from officials in Britain, Switzerland, Italy and the US.

British bankers would want to see any evidence that Costa has to back his claims. A British Bankers' Association spokesman said: "We have not been party to any regulatory dialogue that would support a theory of this kind. There was clearly a lack of liquidity in the system and to a large degree this was filled by the intervention of central banks."

*****

Thanks Costa!!

Sibel Edmonds testimony in Ohio congressional case exposes Turkish blackmail & espionage complex, Valerie Plame, Jan Shakowsky..

Submitted by HongPong on Wed, 2009-08-26 04:39
Sibel Edmonds testimony in Ohio congressional case exposes Turkish blackmail & espionage complex, Valerie Plame, Jan Shakowsky and the whole ball o' wax

Allegations of espionage, sexual blackmail control of sitting members of Congress, the bribery of members of Congress, Dennis Hastert, Roy Blunt, and Tom Lantos, are all in the mix.

The American Turkish Council, AIPAC and the foreign lobbyist layer all stand to catch a lot of heat from the Sibel Edmonds case.

Interesting stuff finally released on the Sibel Edmonds case. Edmonds ended up testifying about the Turkish espionage complex and a ton of shady business. Edmonds defied the State Secrets privilege that was imposed after Edmonds became the first 9/11 whistleblower.

She testified about a contentious Ohio election -- one candidate accused the other of shady Turkish ties. Edmonds, being the expert on Turkish schemes, got to slip out of her gag via the lawsuit of Krikorian vs. Rep. Jean Schmidt.

Chair of US House Intelligence oversight controlled by Turkish sexual blackmail!?

At this point, why not? The name-dropping has only been done by Wayne Madsen, and rather pointedly, the proprietor of BradBlog doesn't want to go there.

One interesting tangent: Apparently Democratic U.S. Rep. Jan Shakowsky was entrapped by a classic Turkish intelligence 'honeypot' operation, and was seduced by a female Turkish operative in a bugged/taped house, thus enabling the Turks to blackmail her over an apparent lesbian indiscretion.

If true, this would be quite an epic example of how foreign intelligence operatives can create 'control files' over members of Congress. In the tactics of what you might call the 'Intelligence Power,' creating control files over members of Congress is a critical activity.

Today, Shakowsky is the Chairwoman of the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Investigations & Oversight - one might suspect this would make grilling the CIA over torture more difficult. And you won't see Shakowsky messing with the Turks or AIPAC anytime soon. Which is too bad, because she seems pretty cool.

Linxor: BRAD BLOG : SIBEL EDMONDS' DEPOSITION: VIDEO AND TRANSCRIPT RELEASED - watch the video or download the PDF!

Here's the PDF of the transcript Krikorian v. Schmidt!

Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds Ohio deposition (Schmidt v. Krikorian)

This is the root stuff about one of the most salient layers of the Bush Administration's shady underbrush, the hustles and the foreign intelligence games that connect with 9/11, the Valerie Plame/Brewster Jennings affair.

Also getting exposed, a bunch of shady plays involving, as she noted in an oblique way, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Eric Edelman, Marc Grossman, Brent Scowcroft, Larry Franklin, Dennis Hastert, Roy Blunt, Dan Burton, Tom Lantos, Bob Livingston, Stephen Solarz, Graham Fuller, neoconservative wonks David Makovsky, Alan Makovsky, and Turkic operative types Yusuf Turani, Sabri Sayari, Mehmet Eymur, are all involved.

Sibel Edmonds was tasked to listen to certain phone lines that carried foreign language conversations, by translating material from wiretaps in the FBI translation office. It transpired that Edmonds noticed that Melek Can Dickerson, who was of superior rank in FBI translation, was covering up the contents of wiretaps. Then Dickerson tried to get Edmonds to join the American Turkish Council.

The American Turkish Council (ATC) is the leading establishment Turkish foreign lobby, closely linked with AIPAC -- Turkey's and Israel's political establishments share a lot of strategic interests, and this has been reflected in what they've been up to in Washington over the years.

Valerie Plame, Scooter Libby, Marc Rich and the nexus of nuclear smuggling and who knows what

Sibel Edmonds attempted to inform Congress about the FBI getting penetrated by the foreign espionage conspiracy, after she tried to address her concerns within the FBI, via Inspectors General etc.

But it got nowhere fast, in early 2002. Edmonds got the States Secrets privilege-style gag from Attorney General Ashcroft, but the FBI Inspector General has released an unclassified version of their report that substantiates Edmonds' claims about Dickerson's espionage activities on behalf of the ATC and Turkey.

However, things get deeper from here.

It appears that the CIA's anti-proliferation people, in particular Valerie Plame and the Non-Official Cover people at the fake 'proprietary' or front, Brewster-Jennings, were tracking a ring of agents of foreign powers, neo-conservatives and various Washington operatives, who were involved somehow in terrorism financing, drug trafficking and nuclear smuggling.

On the surface, Valerie Plame and Scooter Libby were the two big figures in the flap -- but what's often forgotten is that Libby was the attorney for noted international criminal financier Marc Rich. Rich has cooperated often with Viktor Bout, the world's most notorious arms trafficker. Rich and Bout are both part of a far-flung global criminal mafia, known roughly (including to the Justice Department) as the Russian-Israeli Mafia.

So the idea is that Plame and Brewster-Jennings were a threat to the continued operations of the mafia, as well as its friends in the Turkish establishment. Rich and Dick Cheney took out Brewster-Jennings to defend the criminal network, not just for the petty reasons of making Plame's husband look bad.

"Covert activities" of the Turkish lobby "many of which may not be legal"

ATAA and the ATC, as well as TACA, are specified by Edmonds as part of the alphabet soup of Turkish overt organizations that the FBI was interested. Edmonds says that she knew the ATC was a target of the FBI counterintelligence operations.

A ton of stuff got spelled out about the bribes and everything in the deposition, things long covered up via the States Secret privilege.

By the way it turns out that former GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert was really into some gay stuff, and very blackmailable about it as well. (Thus he shot down Armenian Genocide resolutions &etc.)

Here are the deposition videos:

Part 1, 51 minutes, direct (friendly) questions with a lot of interruptions from the nasty other attorney.

Sibel Edmonds Deposition, 8/8/09: PART 1 of 5 from Velvet Revolution on Vimeo.

Part 2, 35 minutes - more direct questions:

Sibel Edmonds Deposition, 8/8/09: PART 2 of 5 from Justice Through Music on Vimeo.

Part 3 - 17 minutes, more direct questions:

Sibel Edmonds Deposition, 8/8/09: PART 3 of 5 from Justice Through Music on Vimeo.

Part 4 - 43 minutes cross examination - hostile:

Sibel Edmonds Deposition, 8/8/09: PART 4 of 5 from Justice Through Music on Vimeo.

Part 5 - 54 minutes redirect & recross

Sibel Edmonds Deposition, 8/8/09: PART 5 of 5 from Justice Through Music on Vimeo.

Here are a few grafs from BradBlog rounding out the subject.

The BRAD BLOG covered details of some of Edmonds' startling disclosures made during the deposition, as it happened, in our live blog coverage from August 8th. The deposition included criminal allegations against specifically named members of Congress. Among those named by Edmonds as part of a broad criminal conspiracy: Reps. Dennis Hastert (R-IL), Dan Burton (R-IN), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Bob Livingston (R-LA), Stephen Solarz (D-NY), Tom Lantos (D-CA), as well as an unnamed, still-serving Congresswoman (D) said to have been secretly videotaped, for blackmail purposes, during a lesbian affair.

High-ranking officials from the Bush Administration named in her testimony, as part of the criminal conspiracy on behalf of agents of the Government of Turkey, include Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, Marc Grossman, and others.

During the deposition --- which we are still going through ourselves --- Edmonds discusses covert "activities" by Turkish entities "that would involve trying to obtain very sensitive, classified, highly classified U.S. intelligence information, weapons technology information, classified Congressional records...recruiting key U.S. individuals with access to highly sensitive information, blackmailing, bribery."

Speaking about current members of Congress during a break in the testimony,Krikorian told The BRAD BLOG that "for people in power situations in the United States, who know about this information, if they don't take action against it, in my opinion, it's negligence." (More video statements from Krikorian, Edmonds and attorneys from all parties, taped before, during, and after the 8/8/09 testimony, areavailable here.)

Edmonds' on-the-record disclosures also include bombshell details concerning outed covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson's front company, Brewster Jennings. Edmonds alleges the front company had actually been shut down in August of 2001 --- three years prior to Bob Novak's public disclosure of the covert operative's identity --- following a tip-off to a wire-tap target about the true nature of the CIA front company. The cover was blown, Edmonds alleges, by Marc Grossman, who was, at the time, the third highest-ranking official in the U.S. State Department. Prior to that, Grossman served as ambassador to Turkey. He now works "for a Turkish company called Ihals Holding," according to Edmonds' testimony.

An unclassified FBI Inspector General's report, released on her case in 2005, declared Edmonds' classified allegations to be "credible," "serious," and "warrant[ing] a thorough and careful review by the FBI." In 2002, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-NE) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), then the senior members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, co-wrote letters on Edmonds' behalf to Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and DoJ Inspector General Glenn A. Fine, calling on all of them to take action in respect to her allegations. And in a 2002 60 Minutesreport on Edmonds' case, Grassley noted: "Absolutely, she's credible...And the reason I feel she's very credible is because people within the FBI have corroborated a lot of her story."

The 8/8/09 deposition was brought by Krikorian as part of his defense in a case filed against him before the Ohio Election Commission (OEC) by Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH). The 2nd district Congresswoman has accused Krikorian, an Armenian-American who ran against her as an independent in 2008, of "false statements" during the campaign last year alleging that she had accepted "blood money" from Turkish interests. Krikorian says that Schmidt, co-chair of the Congressional Turkish Committee, accepted more money from Turkish interests during last year's campaign than any other member of Congress, despite few, if any, ethnic Turks among her local constituency. He has suggested she may have been instrumental in helping to hold off a Congressional vote on a long-proposed, much-disputed resolution declaring the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians during WWI as a "genocide" by the Turks.

Edmonds herself happens to be a Turkish-American, though she was recently attacked by the Turkish Lobby, following her long-sought, long-blocked testimony.

All right, not too bad! I am trying to work some angles on this case, so please standby on it. Digg this post if you like :)

The unmaking of a Democratic governor: Part Three

Submitted by HongPong on Tue, 2008-12-09 21:05

Yesterday the Chicago window workers' sit-in looked like it was gaining momentum - national press, a huge deal, an icon of a nation whose economy is parked in free fall as companies get denied the credit lines needed to keep rolling debts over. Now, that demonstration is off the news.

Today, former Democratic Alabama governor Don Siegelman's appeals case started: he got yanked out of office, convicted in a faulty process by the corrupt local U.S. Attorney's office, and tossed in prison. Siegelman also off the news.

Today, SEIU no longer appears on the side of the burgeoning righteous labor revolution; its president, Andy Stern, is apparently the 'SEIU official' contemplating inserting Ron Blagojevich into a cush job.

Today, Treasury Department officials will continue to hand out mysterious swaths of money, in all likelihood failing to log who the hell they are giving the cash to. However, we'd bet a mountain of Collateralized Debt Obligations that the Department of Justice isn't bugging the Free Cash for Cronies office. Treasury off the news.

Today, the appointment of one U.S. Senator, from New York, will not be handled by the anti-Wall Street Eliot Spitzer because he got taken down - again, by a weirdly obvious vulnerability. A second U.S. Senator, from Illinois, is entirely up for grabs; the very ability of a sole official to make this selection has been put into a radical focus, much to the delight of the chattering class (who have been noticing the peasants are getting restless and hungry).

Has anyone noticed that powerful politicians - Dem governors in particular - that are more on Wall Street's side never seem to get knocked out by surveillance, espionage, the information warfare hits, the 'Justice' political plays?

Can we seriously believe these days that the closed rooms of the powerful financial guys really sound any better than poor ol' Blagojevich's expletive-laden, desperate grabs?

I mean, I haven't even been paying close attention to Illinois, but I'd heard that this guy was marked to take a fall, he was super tainted. How could he not have expected wiretaps? It seems like he didn't give a damn, even with the Obama camp's tense distancing from him and the Feds' multi-year corruption investigation into the whole state government!

As a media play, it yanks attention off the nearly critical-mass labor conflict at the Republic factory, and in an almost COINTELPRO pitch-perfect wedge cuts SEIU into the 'bad guys' pile. That's impressive!

Side point: the triangle between the Tribune Co.'s bankruptcy, the cajoling about Wrigley Field, mixed with the paper's editorial board, just illustrates how these massive corporations fuck up conflict of interest for everyone.

Spitzer, Siegelman, and Blagojevich (the D3) are all part of a pattern: what they're all accused of seems par for the course, even timid by modern standards. Foundation seats? Appointees? How the hell does this normally work? Isn't this circle of chumminess the true texture of America's power, politics and cash allocation? Delete the expletives and imagine the variety of politicians who would likely say this stuff, servicing their patronage networks with all available appointments at their discretion.

Another fun bonus: Illinois, in an effort to dent the circle of state contractors giving political contributions, had set a deadline for the end of this year limiting contributions from parties scoring $50K or more from the state. So Blagovich was sprinting to the finish line!

(Blagovich gets a bonus for raising the profile of politicized foundation appointments: that overlooked feature of the tax system, foundations, so beloved by conspiracy theorists as 'skeleton keys' to webs of intrigue. The notion of President Obama controlling foundations, it's almost as if Blagovich knew where Obama had worked around town!)

Perhaps it's good that Fitzgerald fires another warning shot at politicians, generally. But will he get into the true context of the thing? Will his gig here lead to more transparent government, or a diversion from the massive systemic breakdown that the D3 were pretty much not party to?

The Kucinich impeachment file! Yums

Submitted by HongPong on Tue, 2008-06-10 20:39

Actually I'm impressed. The list of articles of impeachment are well-chosen, and all very well-documented. Huzzah! Right now we're following it on C-SPAN, getting read aloud!

Even includes the PSYOPS of the war propaganda campaign - and the 9/11 coverup. Not bad at all!

Download it here: as a PDF

Rep. Kucinich calls for Bush impeachment | Reuters

All the supporting documents: Congressman Dennis Kucinich

What a nice list of articles: thanks to these guys: Krazy Kuncinich Offers Articles of Impeachment on GW Bush (With Text of Impeachment Articles) Updated with Video

Article I
Creating a Secret Propaganda Campaign to Manufacture a False Case for War Against Iraq.

Article II
Falsely, Systematically, and with Criminal Intent Conflating the Attacks of September 11, 2001, With Misrepresentation of Iraq as a Security Threat as Part of Fraudulent Justification for a War of Aggression.

Article III
Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, to Manufacture a False Case for War.

Article IV
Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Posed an Imminent Threat to the United States.

Article V
Illegally Misspending Funds to Secretly Begin a War of Aggression.

Article VI
Invading Iraq in Violation of the Requirements of HJRes114.

Article VII
Invading Iraq Absent a Declaration of War.

Article VIII
Invading Iraq, A Sovereign Nation, in Violation of the UN Charter.

Article IX
Failing to Provide Troops With Body Armor and Vehicle Armor

Article X
Falsifying Accounts of US Troop Deaths and Injuries for Political Purposes

Article XI
Establishment of Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq

Article XII
Initiating a War Against Iraq for Control of That Nation’s Natural Resources

Article XIIII
Creating a Secret Task Force to Develop Energy and Military Policies With Respect to Iraq and Other Countries

Article XIV
Misprision of a Felony, Misuse and Exposure of Classified Information And Obstruction of Justice in the Matter of Valerie Plame Wilson, Clandestine Agent of the Central Intelligence Agency

Article XV
Providing Immunity from Prosecution for Criminal Contractors in Iraq

Article XVI
Reckless Misspending and Waste of U.S. Tax Dollars in Connection With Iraq and US Contractors

Article XVII
Illegal Detention: Detaining Indefinitely And Without Charge Persons Both U.S. Citizens and Foreign Captives

Article XVIII
Torture: Secretly Authorizing, and Encouraging the Use of Torture Against Captives in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Other Places, as a Matter of Official Policy

Article XIX
Rendition: Kidnapping People and Taking Them Against Their Will to “Black Sites” Located in Other Nations, Including Nations Known to Practice Torture

Article XX
Imprisoning Children

Article XXI
Misleading Congress and the American People About Threats from Iran, and Supporting Terrorist Organizations Within Iran, With the Goal of Overthrowing the Iranian Government

Article XXII
Creating Secret Laws

Article XXIII
Violation of the Posse Comitatus Act

Article XXIV
Spying on American Citizens, Without a Court-Ordered Warrant, in Violation of the Law and the Fourth Amendment

Article XXV
Directing Telecommunications Companies to Create an Illegal and Unconstitutional Database of the Private Telephone Numbers and Emails of American Citizens

Article XXVI
Announcing the Intent to Violate Laws with Signing Statements

Article XXVII
Failing to Comply with Congressional Subpoenas and Instructing Former Employees Not to Comply

Article XXVIII
Tampering with Free and Fair Elections, Corruption of the Administration of Justice

Article XXIX
Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Article XXX
Misleading Congress and the American People in an Attempt to Destroy Medicare

Article XXXI
Katrina: Failure to Plan for the Predicted Disaster of Hurricane Katrina, Failure to Respond to a Civil Emergency

Article XXXII
Misleading Congress and the American People, Systematically Undermining Efforts to Address Global Climate Change

Article XXXIII
Repeatedly Ignored and Failed to Respond to High Level Intelligence Warnings of Planned Terrorist Attacks in the US, Prior to 911.

Article XXXIV
Obstruction of the Investigation into the Attacks of September 11, 2001

Article XXXV
Endangering the Health of 911 First Responders

******

Duly noted. It was important to get this on the record, even if the mainstream Dems don't care. It's all very well cited and certainly worthy of any politician to stand on.

In any case, you could campaign against all of these articles, in talking-point form. They're quite well-worded, and I have to hand it to the clever wordsmiths that put this beast together.

Unfortunately, in our system of government the actual impeachment system is a mess - and there's really very little way for the legislative branch to chip away at patently awful leaders.

On the other hand, the DFL-controlled Minnesota Senate blocked Lt. Gov. Molnau's confirmation as Transportation Commissioner. So you've got a bit more chutzpah around these parts.

Bilderberg announces 2008 conference! Charlie Rose!? Obama? Sebelius? Bernanke, Perle, Wolfowitz, Kissinger = PARTY TIME, EXCELLENT

Submitted by HongPong on Mon, 2008-06-09 01:17

060608bernanke.jpg

Ben Bernanke: I want COFFEE and FRESHLY MINTED $20s. NOW dammit.....

What's New at Bilderberg 2008?

Obama, Clinton staying mum on Bilderberg globalist confab

Turkish paper Today's Zaman: Rice hopes Turkey will solve issues through democracy

Off to Bilderberg conference

Responding to a question regarding his weekend schedule in the US later in the day, [Turkish Foreign Minister] Babacan revealed that he would be attending an international conference of people of influence in the fields of business, media and politics, known as the Bilderberg conference.

The unofficial invitation-only conference will take place from June 5 to June 8 at the Westfields Marriott Hotel in Chantilly, Virginia, this year. Last year, it was hosted at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in İstanbul. "We hosted this conference in İstanbul last year," Babacan said, without mentioning its name. He also said this is the fifth time he has been invited to the elite gathering.

The bad kids have shown up and made a mess of things! Dirty Tricks Campaign Against Alex Jones

Bilderberg 2008 - Day 3 Footage, U.S. Corporate Media Blackout On Bilderberg Meeting

070608alex.jpg

Due to unexpected publicity from the usual New World Order protester types, everyone's favorite secret annual conference (which can never be reported upon inside the United States) was forced to spell out the nature of their gig. Lulz...

Unexpected press release!! And now according to the Internets, Charlie Rose is in on it! Democratic governors Mark Sanford and Kathleen Sebelius (Tom Daschle too) - which means that you can bet your hat Sanford or Sebelius will be Obama's vice presidential choice.

Bilderberg Announces 2008 Conference: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Press Release

Source: American Friends of Bilderberg

Bilderberg Announces 2008 Conference
Thursday June 5, 8:10 pm ET

CHANTILLY, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The 56th Bilderberg Meeting will be held in Chantilly, Virginia, USA 5 – 8 June 2008. The Conference will deal mainly with a nuclear free world, cyber terrorism, Africa, Russia, finance, protectionism, US-EU relations, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Islam and Iran. Approximately 140 participants will attend, of whom about two-thirds come from Europe and the balance from North America. About one-third is from government and politics, and two-thirds are from finance, industry, labor, education and communications. The meeting is private in order to encourage frank and open discussion.

Bilderberg takes its name from the hotel in Holland, where the first meeting took place in May 1954. That pioneering meeting grew out of the concern expressed by leading citizens on both sides of the Atlantic that Western Europe and North America were not working together as closely as they should on common problems of critical importance. It was felt that regular, off-the-record discussions would help create a better understanding of the complex forces and major trends affecting Western nations in the difficult post-war period. The Cold War has now ended. But in practically all respects, there are more, not fewer, common problems - from trade to jobs, from monetary policy to investment, from ecological challenges to the task of promoting international security. It is hard to think of any major issue in either Europe or North America whose unilateral solution would not have repercussions for the other. Thus the concept of a European-American forum has not been overtaken by time. The dialogue between these two regions is still - even increasingly - critical.

What is unique about Bilderberg as a forum, is the broad cross-section of leading citizens that are assembled for nearly three days of informal and off-the-record discussion about topics of current concern especially in the fields of foreign affairs and the international economy; the strong feeling among participants that in view of the differing attitudes and experiences of the Western nations, there remains a clear need to further develop an understanding in which these concerns can be accommodated; the privacy of the meetings, which has no purpose other than to allow participants to speak their minds openly and freely. In short, Bilderberg is a small, flexible, informal and off-the-record international forum in which different viewpoints can be expressed and mutual understanding enhanced.

Bilderberg's only activity is its annual Conference. At the meetings, no resolutions are proposed, no votes taken, and no policy statements issued. Since 1954, fifty-five conferences have been held. The names of the participants are made available to the press. Participants are chosen for their experience, their knowledge, and their standing; all participants attend Bilderberg in a private and not an official capacity.

There will be no press conference. A list of participants is available by phone request at 703-818-3647 between 9am-5pm EDT June 6-7, 2008.



Contact:

American Friends of Bilderberg
Steven Lee, 703-818-3647

Source: American Friends of Bilderberg

******

PRESENTING THE ESTABLISHMENT (in alphabetical order!)

LiveLeak.com - Bilderberg Attendee List 2008

Bilderberg Attendee List 2008
Bilderberg Attendee List 2008
Chantilly, Virginia, USA
5-8 June 2008

CURRENT LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

Honorary Chairman
BEL Davignon, Etienne Vice Chairman, Suez-Tractebel

DEU Ackermann, Josef Chairman of the Management Board and the Group Executive Committee, Deutsche Bank AG
CAN Adams, John Associate Deputy Minister of National Defence and Chief of the Communications Security Establishment Canada
USA Ajami, Fouad Director, Middle East Studies Program, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University
USA Alexander, Keith B. Director, National Security Agency
INT Almunia, Joaquín Commissioner, European Commission
GRC Alogoskoufis, George Minister of Economy and Finance
USA Altman, Roger C. Chairman, Evercore Partners Inc.
TUR Babacan, Ali Minister of Foreign Affairs
NLD Balkenende, Jan Peter Prime Minister
PRT Balsemão, Francisco Pinto Chairman and CEO, IMPRESA, S.G.P.S.; Former Prime Minister
FRA Baverez, Nicolas Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
ITA Bernabè, Franco CEO, Telecom Italia Spa
USA Bernanke, Ben S. Chairman, Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System
SWE Bildt, Carl Minister of Foreign Affairs
FIN Blåfield, Antti Senior Editorial Writer, Helsingin Sanomat
DNK Bosse, Stine CEO, TrygVesta
CAN Brodie, Ian Chief of Staff, Prime Minister's Office
AUT Bronner, Oscar Publisher and Editor, Der Standard
FRA Castries, Henri de Chairman of the Management Board and CEO, AXA
ESP Cebrián, Juan Luis CEO, PRISA
CAN Clark, Edmund President and CEO, TD Bank Financial Group
GBR Clarke, Kenneth Member of Parliament
NOR Clemet, Kristin Managing Director, Civita
USA Collins, Timothy C. Senior Managing Director and CEO, Ripplewood Holdings, LLC
FRA Collomb, Bertrand Honorary Chairman, Lafarge
PRT Costa, António Mayor of Lisbon
USA Crocker, Chester A. James R. Schlesinger Professor of Strategic Studies
USA Daschle, Thomas A. Former US Senator and Senate Majority Leader
CAN Desmarais, Jr., Paul Chairman and co-CEO, Power Corporation of Canada
GRC Diamantopoulou, Anna Member of Parliament
USA Donilon, Thomas E. Partner, O'Melveny & Myers
ITA Draghi, Mario Governor, Banca d'Italia
AUT Ederer, Brigitte CEO, Siemens AG Österreich
CAN Edwards, N. Murray Vice Chairman, Candian Natural Resources Limited

DNK Eldrup, Anders President, DONG A/S
ITA Elkann, John Vice Chairman, Fiat S.p.A.
USA Farah, Martha J. Director, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience;
Walter H. Annenberg Professor in the Natural Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
USA Feldstein, Martin S. President and CEO, National Bureau of Economic Research
DEU Fischer, Joschka Former Minister of Foreign Affairs
USA Ford, Jr., Harold E. Vice Chairman, Merill Lynch & Co., Inc.
CHE Forstmoser, Peter Professor for Civil, Corporation and Capital Markets Law, University of Zürich
IRL Gallagher, Paul Attorney General
USA Geithner, Timothy F. President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
USA Gigot, Paul Editorial Page Editor, The Wall Street Journal
IRL Gleeson, Dermot Chairman, AIB Group
NLD Goddijn, Harold CEO, TomTom
TUR Gö?ü?, Zeynep Journalist; Founder, EurActiv.com.tr
USA Graham, Donald E. Chairman and CEO, The Washington Post Company
NLD Halberstadt, Victor Professor of Economics, Leiden University; Former Honorary Secretary General of Bilderberg Meetings
USA Holbrooke, Richard C. Vice Chairman, Perseus, LLC
FIN Honkapohja, Seppo Member of the Board, Bank of Finland
INT Hoop Scheffer, Jaap G. de Secretary General, NATO
USA Hubbard, Allan B. Chairman, E & A Industries, Inc.
BEL Huyghebaert, Jan Chairman of the Board of Directors, KBC Group
DEU Ischinger, Wolfgang Former Ambassador to the UK and US
USA Jacobs, Kenneth Deputy Chairman, Head of Lazard U.S., Lazard Frères & Co. LLC
USA Johnson, James A. Vice Chairman, Perseus, LLC
SWE Johnstone, Tom President and CEO, AB SKF
USA Jordan, Jr., Vernon E. Senior Managing Director, Lazard Frères & Co. LLC
FRA Jouyet, Jean-Pierre Minister of European Affairs
GBR Kerr, John Member, House of Lords; Deputy Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell plc.
USA Kissinger, Henry A. Chairman, Kissinger Associates, Inc.
DEU Klaeden, Eckart von Foreign Policy Spokesman, CDU/CSU
USA Kleinfeld, Klaus President and COO, Alcoa
TUR Koç, Mustafa Chairman, Koç Holding A.S.
FRA Kodmani, Bassma Director, Arab Reform Initiative
USA Kravis, Henry R. Founding Partner, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
USA Kravis, Marie-Josée Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute, Inc.
INT Kroes, Neelie Commissioner, European Commission
POL Kwasniewski, Aleksander Former President
AUT Leitner, Wolfgang CEO, Andritz AG
ESP León Gross, Bernardino Secretary General, Office of the Prime Minister
INT Mandelson, Peter Commissioner, European Commission
FRA Margerie, Christophe de CEO, Total
CAN Martin, Roger Dean, Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
HUN Martonyi, János Professor of International Trade Law; Partner, Baker & McKenzie; Former Minister of Foreign Affairs
USA Mathews, Jessica T. President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

INT McCreevy, Charlie Commissioner, European Commission
USA McDonough, William J. Vice Chairman and Special Advisor to the Chairman, Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.
CAN McKenna, Frank Deputy Chair, TD Bank Financial Group
GBR McKillop, Tom Chairman, The Royal Bank of Scotland Group
FRA Montbrial, Thierry de President, French Institute for International Relations
ITA Monti, Mario President, Universita Commerciale Luigi Bocconi
USA Mundie, Craig J. Chief Research and Strategy Officer, Microsoft Corporation
NOR Myklebust, Egil Former Chairman of the Board of Directors SAS, Norsk Hydro ASA
DEU Nass, Matthias Deputy Editor, Die Zeit
NLD Netherlands, H.M. the Queen of the
FRA Ockrent, Christine CEO, French television and radio world service
FIN Ollila, Jorma Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell plc
SWE Olofsson, Maud Minister of Enterprise and Energy; Deputy Prime Minister
NLD Orange, H.R.H. the Prince of
GBR Osborne, George Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
TUR Öztrak, Faik Member of Parliament
ITA Padoa-Schioppa, Tommaso Former Minister of Finance; President of Notre Europe
GRC Papahelas, Alexis Journalist, Kathimerini
GRC Papalexopoulos, Dimitris CEO, Titan Cement Co. S.A.
USA Paulson, Jr., Henry M. Secretary of the Treasury
USA Pearl, Frank H. Chairman and CEO, Perseus, LLC
USA Perle, Richard N. Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
FRA Pérol, François Deputy General Secretary in charge of Economic Affairs
DEU Perthes, Volker Director, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik
BEL Philippe, H.R.H. Prince
CAN Prichard, J. Robert S. President and CEO, Torstar Corporation
CAN Reisman, Heather M. Chair and CEO, Indigo Books & Music Inc.
USA Rice, Condoleezza Secretary of State
PRT Rio, Rui Mayor of Porto
USA Rockefeller, David Former Chairman, Chase Manhattan Bank
ESP Rodriguez Inciarte, Matias Executive Vice Chairman, Grupo Santander
USA Rose, Charlie Producer, Rose Communications
DNK Rose, Flemming Editor, Jyllands Posten
USA Ross, Dennis B. Counselor and Ziegler Distinguished Fellow, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
USA Rubin, Barnett R. Director of Studies and Senior Fellow, Center for International Cooperation, New York University
TUR ?ahenk, Ferit Chairman, Do?u? Holding A.?.
USA Sanford, Mark Governor of South Carolina
USA Schmidt, Eric Chairman of the Executive Committee and CEO, Google
AUT Scholten, Rudolf Member of the Board of Executive Directors, Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG
DNK Schur, Fritz H. Fritz Schur Gruppen
CZE Schwarzenberg, Karel Minister of Foreign Affairs
USA Sebelius, Kathleen Governor of Kansas
USA Shultz, George P. Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Distinguished Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University

ESP Spain, H.M. the Queen of
CHE Spillmann, Markus Editor-in-Chief and Head Managing Board, Neue Zürcher Zeitung AG
USA Summers, Lawrence H. Charles W. Eliot Professor, Harvard University
GBR Taylor, J. Martin Chairman, Syngenta International AG
USA Thiel, Peter A. President, Clarium Capital Management, LLC
NLD Timmermans, Frans Minister of European Affairs
RUS Trenin, Dmitri V. Deputy Director and Senior Associate, Carnegie Moscow Center
INT Trichet, Jean-Claude President, European Central Bank
USA Vakil, Sanam Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
FRA Valls, Manuel Member of Parliament
GRC Varvitsiotis, Thomas Co-Founder and President, V + O Communication
CHE Vasella, Daniel L. Chairman and CEO, Novartis AG
FIN Väyrynen, Raimo Director, The Finnish Institute of International Affairs
FRA Védrine, Hubert Hubert Védrine Conseil
NOR Vollebaek, Knut High Commissioner on National Minorities, OSCE
SWE Wallenberg, Jacob Chairman, Investor AB
USA Weber, J. Vin CEO, Clark & Weinstock
USA Wolfensohn, James D. Chairman, Wolfensohn & Company, LLC
USA Wolfowitz, Paul Visiting Scholar, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
INT Zoellick, Robert B. President, The World Bank Group

Rapporteurs
GBR Bredow, Vendeline von Business Correspondent, The Economist
GBR Wooldridge, Adrian D. Foreign Correspondent, The Economist

AUT Austria HUN Hungary
BEL Belgium INT International
CHE Switzerland IRL Ireland
CAN Canada ITA Italy
CZE Czech Republic NOR Norway
DEU Germany NLD Netherlands
DNK Denmark PRT Portugal
ESP Spain POL Poland
FRA France RUS Russia
FIN Finland SWE Sweden
GBR Great Britain TUR Turkey
GRC Greece
USA United States of America

Meanwhile here is the list of attendees going around the Internets!

Barack Obama ditches his press corps to go hang out!! Behind the Scenes: Obama press 'hijacked' during Clinton meeting - CNN.com

The press soon noticed there were far too few people aboard for a standard campaign flight. Something was different. It's fair to say that the term "everyone" was used a bit loosely -- especially when the presumptive nominee appeared to be missing.

As the plane taxied, communications director Robert Gibbs admitted that Obama was remaining behind because he "wasn't going to be back in D.C. for a while" and had "scheduled some meetings" before he left.

Obama staffers, including Gibbs and Linda Douglass, a newly appointed senior adviser and campaign spokeswoman, didn't ask the reporters on board if they'd prefer to wait on the runway in Washington until the meetings concluded. They were going to Chicago. Without Barack Obama.....

Once airborne, a timid and slightly giggly Gibbs granted the confused and agitated press corps a meeting, one that any eyewitness would have easily labeled contentious and heated. Video Watch the riled press corps grill Gibbs »

Gibbs took on a barrage of questions, and, to his credit, listened to what he called the "anticipated grievances" from the press for almost 20 minutes.

"He's having a secret meeting tonight, and we're not going to see him until Monday" because of three scheduled "down days," one reporter began. "I'd like to say that's unacceptable. He's the -- "

"Presumptive Democratic nominee?" Gibbs finished, adding a giggle. "Yeah."

Questions centered largely on why the press was essentially held hostage with no candidate and no choice but to fly to Chicago on a chartered plane -- a flight many news organizations pay thousands of dollars to keep their journalists stationed on, ideally with the candidate.

"We're not paying however much this plane is to be here -- no offense -- with you," one reporter said to Gibbs as the largely newsless news conference wrapped up.

When pressed, Gibbs admitted he was responsible for how the situation was handled.

"It wasn't an attempt to deceive in any way," he said. "It was just private meetings."

LiveLeak.com - Hillary & Obama In Secret Bilderberg Rendezvous, LiveLeak.com - Bilderberg boys will decide who’s Obama’s “chosen” Veep Sure, why not?!

Photos! Bilderberg Meeting 2008 Photos, Flickr: shepherdjohnson's Photostream

And don't forget, you government schlubs! Meeting with foreign heads of state and other agents of influence without filing your activities with the State Department is illegal under the Logan Act!

Can't wait to cut off their government salaries!

Here's some quality satire: Bilderberg Group orders end to Obama-Clinton contest « Sir Satire’s New World Order News Service

hotel_de_bilderberg.jpg

The two presidential hopefuls were summoned to the Bilderberg Group annual meeting, where they were both informed that Obama would play the part of the Democratic candidate this election year. Clinton is reported to have begged Lord Rothschild and David Rockefeller — both senior level Bilderbergers — for forgiveness following her poor campaign performance this past year.

“Mrs. Clinton was very upset,” said a male prostitute who services some of the male Bilderberg members. “She said David Rockefeller was behind the push to oust her from the race. She had apparently been promised a comeback effort by Lord Rothschild like the kind that was granted to her husband Bill Clinton in the early 1990s, when it looked like he was going to be out of the presidential race.”

THE WIRE ENDS THIS WEEK - WOE IS ME! Clay Davis: SHeeeeiiiitt!!

Submitted by HongPong on Mon, 2008-03-03 05:32

I will really miss The Wire. We are gonna watch the last episode the second it comes on OnDemand, whenever that is (not Sunday @ midnight this week, argh!!). Damn.

At the end of the second-to-last episode, Clay Davis tells Detective Freamon that Levy, the gangsters' lawyer has been buying secret documents from someone at the Courthouse. My guess is that the Judge was selling the documents -- that would bring the plot full circle, since the Judge and Detective McNulty set the whole plot in motion at the very beginning of the series' first episode. The Judge has been signing the wiretaps all along, hence The Wire merely working out to supply info to the highest bidder, would be a pretty good final joke.

Let's have one final moment with Clay Davis, the time he talks about not collecting money from some damn Korean Grocers....

And this one just got put up a couple days ago, it'll probably get pulled, but it's his fifth season panache at its best!

I will have to write something about the show later... but I have to put in my prediction now!

DailyKos audience don't want to hear about Hillary Iran Contra documents! Still, these damn CIA planes keep crashing with coke in Mexico!

Submitted by HongPong on Sat, 2007-12-29 23:54

I tried putting the post below on just a few sites. After it got a strong, immediate reaction on DailyKos, the leading liberal mega-blog of our day, I decided that another, more refined post will later be needed to really get over people's bullshit filters. Or better yet, a comical video!

This was a pretty good one! My document dump on that whole Arkansas Iran Contra paper trail thingy pissed off most people who cared to notice at the Daily Kos. Pretty interesting reaction with 150+ comments: Daily Kos: Hillary's skeleton: These CIA Iran-Contra Arkansas docs reveal ugly past

Indeed the post was written pretty much off the cuff. I didn't go stuffing in links that corroborated many basic parts of Iran-Contra. In any case, many people thought that this whole area of skepticism had already been discredited (the conventional wisdom seemed to frame it as a Richard Mellon Scaife-induced Kool Aid episode.) A couple valiant souls pointed out that the broad outline of this shit is well proven, but the crowd wouldn't cop to that reality!

On the other hand, my framing of the whole thing as "rose law firm not really examined" was indeed not quite accurate. This ticked people off. But so did the idea that Hillary is "shady", which I'm surprised the DKos crowd can't handle.

The best of all was when people believed that the whole background of the Clintons in Arkansas was already off the table. And the guy who demanded about 8 times that the whole post get deleted off DailyKos because it was a 'conspiracy theory' article. Didn't have anything better to do on a Friday night.

There are a lot more double negatives to the case. It's a censored government document about a suppressed scandal the media has buried involving a presidential candidate. Therefore, um... it's too crazy to try to put into our conventional frame of reference?

A quality experiment. The people at the Agonist thought it was funny.

For some reason, it got bumped into the Ron Paul forum on the Alex Jones Prison Planet forum. Hillary's skeleton: These CIA Iran-Contra Arkansas docs reveal ugly past

*******

Here is a perfect example of why the Agonist is a good site: The Index of Suspicion: CIA plane and drugs in Mexico | The Agonist. This is the more recent September detainee plane with cocaine in Mexico thing. Usually they are run from Homeland Security contractors nowadays (as opposed to the CIA old days alluded to in my glorious Hillary post).

As long as we are on this, I stopped by to say hi to the biggest damn conspiracy forum on the Interwebs, Above Top Secret, about the same planes:

CIA Torture Jet wrecks with 4 Tons of COCAINE.

And: NarcoNews | Cocaine Jet That Crashed in Mexico Part of Cowboy Government Operation, DEA Sources Claim

Looks like an ICE DEA cutout kind of thing. Way to go federal bureaucracies!

******

In case you have not yet discerned my new pattern, I have decided to step back from being a partisan crusader for a limited set of issues, and instead try to hit a wider target by putting out weird government documents that totally cut against the grain of conventional wisdom, in an effort to rattle the frames of lame ordinary political perceptions.

This is merely the first step in a larger process of action!

(And also there will be a healthy proportion of weird spoofs, like the Telepathy SRI thing. Hell yeah!)

NAFTRACS Strategic Objectives: You're FUcked!

Submitted by HongPong on Mon, 2007-12-10 20:35

This, people, is from about four pages of One PDF file. Of which I have just gotten about 600 I think. Yes, 5 minutes into this stuff, we're already inside a huge all-encompassing grid of control run by Lockheed Martin. It's like Minority Report, see?

We'll cut our eyes out to escape the "prescence" provided along Interstate 35.

Wow that was quick eh?

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS? MORE COMING SOON.


OMG


by the way: I bet hillary knows.

Internet Radicalization Thought Crimes, Centers of Orwellian Excellence & Strategic Communication Laboratories: What Modules are

Submitted by HongPong on Tue, 2007-12-04 21:37

Internet Radicalization Thought Crimes, Centers of Orwellian Excellence & Strategic Communication Laboratories: What Modules are in an OpCentre?
Featuring Rep. Jane Harman's "Thought Police" Internet Radicalization and Crush These Meddling Kids Bill!
 Norm Coleman co-sponsors Thought Crime Bill.

Here is what MnBlue said: Norm Coleman co-sponsors Thought Crime Bill | mnblue:

The bill has two distinct parts. The first establishes a Commission. The second establishes a think tank of sorts to study how better to hunt down Arabs, suppress internet democracy, perform datamining of raw data obtained via illegal wiretapping and such noble efforts.

Like NSPD51 which is so vaguely worded that President Bush could suspend the Congress, Courts and Constitution over anything he deems is a national emergency, this bill is so vaguely worded that an administration without any ethical principles (namely the Bush Administration) in cahoots with one or more ethically challenged Senator(s) or Representative(s) (and we certainly have plenty of them) might manipulate this bill to do things like I've described if it ever became law.

From my reading of this bill, they could drag anyone in front of The Though Crimes Commission. Imagine questions like this: "Have you ever aided and abetted the terrorists by saying anything opposing the war on terrorism?" Also, the word force is not defined. Couldn't a boycott be considered force? What about Ghandi, Martin Luther King ... they used force, didn't they? Might this allow for a Joseph McCarthy of the 21st century?

Furthermore the Thought Crimes Think Tank might need to analyze trends spotted by the Bush Administration's illegal wiretapping. Since the capability does not currently exist to do datamining of terrabytes of data, they might need to reinstitute the NSA's Total Information Awareness program under their aegis. After analyzing these trends they might find alarming results and need to begin analyzing in real-time. After all the bill states that our current law enforcement and intelligence aparratus are not capable of preventing homegrown terrorism (see Finding 6). Might they then spawn a Thought Police to stop the evil-doers before they strike?

Getting worried? Have no fear, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are here. This is the same leadership which caved on FISA. Oops, I guess not. This bill passed stealthily through the House resulting in a 404-6 vote for it. Oops. I guess Nancy Pelosi was part of some back room deal that allowed this blighted child of repression to slink through the House. The House voted to suspend the rules (2/3 majority required) and cut short any debate. Sadly, our entire Minnesota delegation in the House voted for it. We never heard about this when it happened on 10/23/07 because the debate was cut short.

What is this really about? That's what I ask myself every day.

Right now there is definitely some kind of insane Orwellian conspiracy involving setting up things called "Centers of Excellence" that would basically spy on all of American society in every possible way, then calculate which points on the system count as terrorists, thus employing hordes of Control Freak Cabal minions and creating the RFID SPP Total Control Grid along the NAFTA Superhighway (which is evidently 1.5 blocks from my house).

I first discovered the evidence of this from documents pried from the Minnesota Department of Transportation. See July's post @ my day job, SuperRondo? MnDOT, NASCO, and I-35 NAFTA Superhighway plans | Politics in Minnesota.

This is intense! What is it, in short:

Also released [from MnDOT] were NASCO public relations documents describing how to spin media coverage, and MnDOT emails about media incidents. Oddly, NASCO distributed PR material disambiguating themselves, the cross-border Security and Prosperity Partnership, and even the Council on Foreign Relations, among their materials sent to Minnesota.

Interestingly, NASCO discusses an advanced systems integration platform called NAFTRACS (North American Facilitation of Transportation, Trade, Reduced Congestion and Security Project), which would be developed by SAVI, a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, which already handles shipping container logistics for the Pentagon's Global Transportation Network. The NAFTRACS "integration pilot program will automatically gather, correlate, and interpret fragments of multi-source (Radar, AIS, & GPS tracks, Open Source, Intelligence, Watch list & Law Enforcement Report, CCTV, Bioterrorism sensors) data together into one collaborative portal-based environment, an [sic] ultimately a Total Transportation Domain Awareness Center of Excellence." The NASCO Center of Excellence and Total Domain Awareness Center would be the "centerpiece of the corridor coalition; will engage in studies, development and deployment activities; will seek funding & investment for a broad array of projects relevant to both the corridor and of current & national significance," including "the US-Mexico-Canada Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP); Hurricane Katrina/Rita impact; Cross-border trade facilitation and information sharing; inland ports network; counter-terrorism and security." In the last couple PDF files, the development of NAFTRACS through Lockheed Martin's advanced military-oriented research facility in Virginia is discussed at length.

This is what I am talking about. Basically cloning the military-industrial complex's tracking system and forcing it down our throat. Lockheed will always know where you are. They really love their "customers."

There was some speculation that big media events like 9/11 are manipulated in government psy-ops media centers, where video can get patched through and thus the stuff can be inserted or whatever. Evidently a UK company Strategic Communication Laboratories has OpCentres for just this purpose:

*********

An OpCentre can be made up of many different custom modules. Any of the following may be incorporated into an OpCentre: Strategic Communication Laboratories : What modules are in a OpCentre?

  • Media capture & analysis
  • Concept Development
  • Secure Communications
  • Target audience archive filtering
  • Cultural Alignment Unit
  • Recruitment & Training
  • Target audience issue analysis
  • Command Interface
  • Scenario Planning Team
  • Archive and recall systems
  • Radio Production
  • Redundancy Unit
  • Evaluation & MOE Unit
  • Radio Transmission
  • Media Management Unit
  • Strategic Campaign Planning
  • TV Production
  • Word-of Mouth Unit
  • Risk Analysis Unit
  • TV Transmission
  • Communication Planning Unit
  • Print Production
  • Message Development
  • Distribution & Logistics
  • Channel Management
  • Forward Command/Tactical
  • Environment Development
  • Administration/Management

Wow! Strategic Communication Laboratories : Company overview

Strategic Communication Laboratories is the leading supplier of strategic communications, information operations and public diplomacy to governments and military clients around the world.

The company is the exclusive licence holder of the BDi strategic communication methodology, which is the most advanced and effective persuasion methodology for social and group communication.

The company provides solutions mainly for defence, internal security and foreign affairs governmental departments, but also provides solutions for tourism, financial markets & investment and health programmes.

SCL operates throughout the world and is based in London, UK. The Head Office employs about 30 people and there maybe as many as 2000 specialists employed on projects worldwide.

The company was formed in 1993 and produced a number of projects for the Behavioural Dynamics Institute, which was undergoing development trials for its methodology. The successful outcome of the trials led to the permanent association of SCL and BDi.

Today SCL is not only the unique licence holder of the BDi methodology, but more importantly, after 12 years, it is the only team fully trained in its operation.

Strategic Communication Laboratories : What makes SCL stand out

Strategic communication differs from orthodox commercial communication (such as advertising, public relations, etc.) in that it concentrates on the behavioural outcome of the communication not just concepts such as brand awareness.

For example, commercial advertising might encourage an audience to hold very favourable attitudes about a Ferrari, but that does not necessarily lead to all those with a favourable attitude buying a Ferrari. Conversely, cigarette smokers may be fully aware of the dangers associated with smoking, but will carry on anyway.

Broadly speaking, commercial communication is measured by attitudinal results (considering one brand better than another) and strategic communication is measured by results (changes in actions).

SCL uses the BDI methodology, which is the most powerful communication methodology to influence group behaviour.

Even though much greater effort and resources must be applied at the front end (as compared to commercial advertising), the resultant outcomes are far more effective and predictable.

Consequently, the SCl solutions are used primarily where the communication outcomes are critical.

Strategic Communication Laboratories : What is an OpCentre?

An Opcentre is a command facility for strategic communications.

In this always-ready environment researchers can identify target audiences using highly advanced statistical models, strategists can orchestrate campaigns using the most effective scientific methods and media producers have access to innovative production techniques.

These units of expertise combine to create one of the most dynamic and influential ‘weapons' in the world.

An Opcentre puts influence, control and power back into the hands of the government and military, giving them greater power to influence the enemy in time of conflict and enhanced access to their citizens during a crisis. For instance, an Opcentre can be designed to override all national radio and TV broadcasts, allowing the government and military to communicate with the public as the need arises.

The Opcentre is a formidable tool for Homeland Security, Conflict Reduction, International Public Diplomacy and un-mediated Government communications.

What can the OpCentre do?

  • Launch a powerful psyop campaign against an engaged enemy
  • Engender support within the national community for proposed military action
  • Re-engineer foreign perceptions to potentially avert conflict altogether
  • Develop national resilience and behavioural compliance for homeland security issues
  • Produce powerful public diplomacy campaigns for political, economic, military issues
  • Maintain an ‘always ready' public communication command centre for critical incidents
  • Develop more effective public information campaigns for social and health issues

***********

Override ALL communications? So that's why everyone thought those holograms hit the WTC! Hah! Square the Quad Laser kids!

The idea is that they can keep building these things, and then make a lot of money declaring all the weird kids terrorists who need to be spied upon.

Frankly I don't know what the big picture is, but this is part of Rep. Jane Harman's "Thought Police" Internet Radicalization and Crush These Meddling Kids Bill, or whatever the fuck it is.

Everyone, I am planning a seriously large effort to expose this stuff and present in a way such that even the dumbest Baby Boomer can understand what this police state bullshit is all about.

Police quit DARE 'cause it don't work; DARE is run from Inglewood

Submitted by HongPong on Tue, 2007-12-04 20:50

DARE originated in Los Angeles County in 1983. What the hell were They up to there at that time?

Smart move for Dormer. Putting chemical dependency more in the context of personal health than suspiciously hokey 1980s caricatures could work for everyone. DARE is run from INGLEWOOD. No wonder it's insane.

Police Boss Says No To DARE In Suffolk County

Students 'Tuning Out' DARE, No Reduction In Drug Use

SMITHTOWN, N.Y. (AP) Suffolk County's police department is dropping DARE, the widespread school anti-drug program that has faced questions about its effectiveness, the police commissioner said.

Commissioner Richard Dormer said Thursday he aimed to replace DARE with another drug-prevention program, but some local lawmakers objected to the idea.

With the change, set to take effect in January, the large Long Island county's police force will join a series of school districts and law enforcement agencies that have abandoned the program, formally known as Drug Abuse Resistance Education. Schools and police forces work together to offer it.

After nearly 20 years in Suffolk County, DARE isn't working, Dormer told local lawmakers Thursday. The program's 26 police officers teach fifth- and seventh-graders about the dangers of drugs, spending an hour a week in a given classroom for 10 weeks.

Students "are tuning us out, and that's why we haven't reduced drug use in our society," Dormer told the County Legislature's Public Safety Committee.

Instead of DARE, Dormer wants to add police participation to HealthSmart, a general health and safety program now taught in various school districts. He plans to assign 10 of the current DARE officers to the new program.

Three Republican lawmakers said students would be shortchanged
by Dormer's plan. "Please tell me how less is better," said Legislator [square]. Launched in Los Angeles in 1983, DARE is offered in 75 percent of the nation's school districts, according to the organization.

But a 2003 U.S. Government Accountability Office analysis of several studies concluded DARE had "no statistically significant long-term effect on preventing illicit drug use."

The national DARE organization disputes the studies and says the program has changed to become more effective. DARE representatives did not immediately return a telephone message left early Friday at their Inglewood, Calif., headquarters. Suffolk County, on eastern Long Island, has a population estimated at more than 1.4 million.

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