Bilderberg May Make U.S. Pay For Unsanctioned War Against Iraq WEB EXCLUSIVE: Front page and Complete PDF of AFP Bilderberg coverage
23May 2005
By James P. Tucker Jr.
ROTTACH-EGERN, Germany—Will the price of oil reach $150 a barrel in two years? Henry Kissinger made this prediction to Richard Holbrooke, according to two friendly sources inside the secret Bilderberg meeting. “It should not be long,” Kissinger told Holbrooke, vice chairman of Perseus LLC and longtime Bilderberg luminary. Kissinger said the demand for oil has far exceeded the supply. Oil, and who gets it, is part of the bitter Bilderberg dispute over Middle East policy.
One source said James Baker had made the same pre-diction while representing the Carlyle Group at an earli-er business conference, saying “look for $150 a barrel.” Baker represented the White House at Bilderberg meetings under former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush the Elder, where he served as chief of staff and treasury secretary, respectively.
The economic impact of tripling already-high oil prices would be staggering. Inflation would soar, because transportation—from raw material to finished product to marketplace—has a significant impact on virtually everything you buy—from neckties to houses.
Bilderberg hunkered down here May 5-8 to decide how the world should deal with European-American relations, the Middle East powder keg, the Iraq war, the global economy and potential war in Iran. The first appearance of Virginia Gov. Mark Warner (D) indicates Bilderberg considers him a presidential contender.
The absence of former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), John Kerry’s presidential running mate in 2004, indi-cates the Sun has set on his political career. Last year was Edwards’s first appearance and, like most of the “fringe” invitees, he has been cast aside like an old shoe.
European hostility toward Americans for the invasion of Iraq was rekindled by reports in the European press that British Prime Minister Tony Blair had secretly agreed with President Bush to go to war months in advance of the U.S. invasion.
The Guardian of London, among other newspapers, carried detailed accounts of a transcript of conversations between Blair and President Bush three months before the March 2002 invasion. The transcript clearly shows Blair promising, in advance, to join the United States in the war on Iraq.
This prompted hostile comments while Kissinger was presiding over a panel discussion on the meaning of “peace.” Europeans demanded to know if “Iran is next,” and “when does it end?” America was repeatedly warned not to “rush to war with Iran.”
But history demonstrates that Americans are no more the “war party” than the European Bilderbergers. Europeans joined in supporting the 1991 invasion of Iraq by President Bush the Elder, celebrating the end of “America’s Vietnam syndrome.” Europeans also support-ed former President Bill Clinton’s invasion of Yugoslavia, bringing NATO into the operation. The first shot ever fired in anger by NATO troops were in Yugoslavia. Bilderberg had made NATO, effectively, the UN’s standing army.
The British election results pleased Europeans, who grudgingly supported Blair because of his commitment to the European Constitution (EC). Britons will vote in 2006 on ratifying the EC. But they are happy that Blair’s Labor Party’s majority in Parliament shrank from 160 to 60 and he will likely be replaced as prime minister with-in two years.
To address the Mideast issue, Bilderberg brought together Eival Gilady and Natan Sharansky of Israel and Palestinian Ziad Abu-Amr.
Gilady is strategic adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Sharansky is a former minister for Jerusalem and diaspora affairs. Abu-Amr is a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, president of the Palestinian Council on Foreign Relation and professor of political science at Birzeit University.
The Council on Foreign Relations, always richly represented at Bilderberg, serves as Bilderberg’s propaganda ministry. Scholarly “white papers” advocating Bilderberg policies routinely follow the secret sessions. This year, Bilderberg ordered Israel to keep its prom-ise to withdraw from some settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. Also, they noted that Palestinians must be grateful for the portion of their territory they get back and not insist on pre-1967 borders. Israel seized these lands in a surprise attack in 1967.
“We must get along, despite our harsh differences, because we now live in an interdependent, global econ-omy,” said a lanky, gray-haired European in a discussion of “trans-Atlantic Relations.” Poverty in Africa or South America “or wherever” is a “threat to all of us, anywhere in the world,” he said.
Again, the United States was denounced for “not pro-viding a fair share” of economic aid to poor countries. Again, Kissinger and David Rockefeller, among other Americans, beamed and nodded approval. Bilderberg argues that, as a percentage of gross national product, Americans are “stingy.”
There was discussion of timing for a vote in the United Nations on establishing a direct global tax by imposing a 10-cents-a-barrel levy on oil at the well-head. This is important to the Bilderberg goal of establishing the UN as a formal world government. Such a direct tax on individuals is symbolically important.
Bilderberg’s global tax proposal has been pending before the UN for three years but the issue has been blacked out by the Bilderberg-controlled U.S. media. Said one Bilderberger of the pending UN tax: “Let the tax pass the UN with absolutely no publicity. Talk with the (news) boys in advance and warn them about triggering right-wing hysteria. People won’t even notice that fraction of a penny per gallon. When people do become aware, perhaps in three years, they’ll simply say ‘ain’t that sumphin.’ ”
Other topics of discussion this year included “China and energy,” “Russia’s role in the world,” “economic lib-eration,” and U.S. Social Security “reform.” Bilderberg’s interest in how the United States deals with Social Security remains unclear. China’s demand for oil has increased dramatically in recent years, contributing to the current $50 price per barrel. Bilderbergers debated whether a proposed pipeline should move oil to Japan or China from Russia.
Bilderbergers were downcast when word came that some Senate Democrats, who had voted for “free” trade bills in the past, were threatening to kill the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) because of insufficient worker protections. CAFTA is a crucial step in expanding NAFTA into the Free Trade Area of the Americas, which is to include the entire Western Hemi-sphere except for Cuba until Fidel Castro is gone.
Kenneth Clarke, Conservative member of Parliament and a former chancellor of the exchequer in Britain, a long-time Bilderberg luminary, once told this journalist that the goal is to establish an “American Union” similar to the European Union with the dollar as the common currency. The “Asia-Pacific Union” is also emerging, which will complete the division of the Earth into three great regions for the administrative convenience of the planned world government.