MEDIA ROOTS – I was recently interviewed by Aaron Dykes on the Info Wars Nightly News to discuss several issues: the Bilderberg Group and the evolution of the global protest movement; Stuxnet and the CIA’s covert warfare in Iran; the US government’s fearmongering about cyberterrorism; the increasing irrelevancy of the corporate media and the rise of citizen journalism; the alternative media becoming the new mainstream; information as power and applying your passion to effect positive change.
MEDIA ROOTS – For the last half century, an organization comprised of the .001% of the world’s elite called the Bilderberg Group has met annually around the world with almost no official press coverage. During the meetings, the top 140 of the world’s power brokers in banking, oil, food, media, defense, royalty and politics are believed to make policy decisions behind closed doors that affect the rest of the world.
On Thursday, May 31st – Sunday, June 3rd, the annual Bilderberg Conference took place at the Westfields Marriot in Chantilly, Virginia, a city located right next to Washington, DC. I went to cover this year’s Bilderberg Conference and mass protests that took place all weekend for RT TV. People across many political spectrums–including Ron Paul libertarians to Occupy Wall Street protesters–joined together to rally against the covert meeting of the minds, in which the protesters claim sets a global agenda to perpetuate their own power structure at the subjugation of humanity.
Abby
Abby Martin reports on the history of the Bilderberg Group and cites some of its most notable attendees from past years.
Abby Martin covers the first day of the Bilderberg Group to find out why people are protesting. Featuring interviews with Dan Dicks of Press for Truth TV, Luke Rudkowski of WeAreChange, Mattew Medina of Truth Exposed Radio and Alex Jones of InfoWars.
Abby Martin reports from the second day of the Bilderberg Conference protests during a torrential downpour.
After Bilderberg came to a close, Abby Martin wraps up the event and gives some insight on what transpired over the weekend.
INFOWARS – “Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both…”
To be absolutely clear –Any citizen without United States authority who speaks intentionally of influence with foreign government officials about disputes or controversies any country has with America shall be fined and imprisoned.
Americans attending the Bilderberg conference in Chantilly, Virginia this past weekend violated the Logan Act. Given this is America these individuals are innocent until proven guilty, however that is a process for the courts. Each American citizen attending the meeting should prove to a jury of his or her peers that in fact they did not engage discussion with foreign government officials with the intent to influence the conduct of that foreign government in the context of an existing dispute or controversy with the United States. It is not up to executive branch officials, legislators, police, military or media to decide their guilt or innocence –it is up to the courts. That being said, it seems clear sufficient probable cause, motive and opportunity exists to issue arrest warrants.
Historical Origins of the Logan Act
The Logan Act all begins with a treaty between America and Britain called the Jay Treaty. You can research the contents and reasons behind the Jay Treaty on your own, it is only important here to understand that it angered the French who had been a staunch ally of America since the 1778 Treaty of Alliance. America had declared neutrality in the conflict between Britain and France and the Jay Treaty violated that neutrality. Pouring salt into that wound America also refused to re-pay debts owed to France, suggesting the debt was owed to the French monarchy and not to the newly founded Republic of France. The French were furious and began seizing American trade ships and refused to accept an American ambassador to negotiate. This spurred the Quasi-War.
Along comes a physician, farmer and future United States Senator named George Logan. As the founder of the Democratic-Republican society in 1793 he was not well liked by the coalescing and strengthening Federalist Party who lusted for an American central bank. In 1798, Logan travelled to Paris and met with the infamous French diplomat Charles “lame devil” Talleyrand and former exile Philippe Merlin de Douai, who held the highest political office in the new French republic. Like modern American Bilderberg participants Logan identified himself as merely an American citizen and like modern Bilderberg meetings they discussed matters of general dispute, controversy and interest to the French foreign power.
George Logan reported an expanding American anti-French sentiment, while he insisted that he did not intend to explain America’s position nor criticize French positions. He was merely there to discuss general matters emanating from the controversy and dispute evident in the mutual relations between France and America. The success of Logan’s trip is largely due to the timing as the French were anxious to extricate themselves from foreign entanglement to focus on domestic issues. Only days after Logan’s departure American seamen held in French jails were released and the trade embargo was lifted. Praise was showered upon Logan by Democratic-Republican newspapers and this drew the ire of the dominant Federalist Party.
Then Secretary of State Timothy Pickering, charged with conducting the nation’s foreign policy, suggested to Congress that they act to curb individual interference with sovereign foreign affairs. With very little debate the Logan Act glided through the Federalist majority House and Senate. George Logan would become a United States Senator representing Pennsylvania from 1801 to 1807. Irony would later see George Logan dispatched on an unsuccessful private diplomatic mission to avoid the War of 1812. So, the Logan Act was historically conceived by a Secretary of State to protect the State Departments authority.
Today the State Department allows their responsibility to be hi-jacked by foreign lobbyists, corporate interests, privately conceived and controlled “think tanks,” and international legislative bodies such as the United Nations. This is the very premise for convening the annual Bilderberg meeting and the corresponding premise for the Logan Act. The mainstream media facilitates the dilution of sovereign American foreign policy by ignoring the facts and history, disguising it with misguided articles that place the word “conspiracy,” or by suggesting nothing tangible is being accomplished.
MEDIA ROOTS – Luke Rudkowski of WeAreChange confronts twelve mainstream media pundits and elite politicians about the secretive and elusive Bilderberg Group, a group of the top 130 elite in the world that meet annually behind closed doors. The media members that are confronted are willfully ignorant about the mere existence of the Bilderberg Group, and the politicians that have attended the meetings skirt the issue: they either run away or evading Luke’s questions.
Here are the twelve confrontations below:
Tony Blair Lies to Parliament about Bilderberg
MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell “Too Lazy” to Research the Bilderberg Group
Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan Confronted about the Bohemian Grove and Bilderberg Group
Former NY Governor George Pataki Lies about Attending Bilderbeg with Kissinger
PBS’s Charlie Rose Runs away from Bilderberg Questions
Ted Turner Supports Population Reduction to Two Billion
War Criminal Henry Kissinger Confronted about Mass Murder, Bilderberg
NY Times Editor-in-chief Jill Abrasom Runs from Bilderberg Questions
Clinton Adviser on Bilderberg: “We Don’t Want Any Press.”
Former World Bank President James Wolfensohn: “I don’t want to talk about Bilderberg.”
FOX’s Lou Dobbs on Bilderberg, New World Order
CNN’s Paula Zahn Completely Ignorant Of Bilderberg Group
Abby Martin of RT TV interviews former Captain Ray Lews about his case
RT TV– Retired Captain Ray Lewis served within the ranks of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Police Department for nearly a quarter of a century. Now he is at odds against the force’s higher ups, however, over his role with Occupy Wall Street.
Captain Lewis became a regular at protest and rallies since the infancy of the Occupy movement last year. Regularly donning his Philadelphia PD uniform, Lewis was caught at demonstrations across the country demanding for changes within the system. Speaking with RT, though, the 24-year veteran of the force says it hasn’t been easy.
After first involving himself with OWS, Lewis says he received a letter from the department condemning his uniformed protests. “They want to make sure that no other officers join me in promoting this Occupy movement,” he tells RT. According to the captain, the aesthetic of a uniformed officer rallying against the backbone of the law enforcement industry is the reason behind the department’s demands.
“It is my belief that they were pressured by corporate America, because the one sign I carry on a daily basis is to ask people to watch the documentary Inside Job,” says Lewis. “Inside Job is a scathing, indicting film of banks, specifically in the 2008 financial collapse, and anybody who watches that documentary will fully understand the corruption of our banks in this country.”
The ties between the police and the nation’s financial institutions might not be clear cut, but Lewis attests that it is certainly there.
“In Philadelphia, the Fraternal Order of Police — a lot of cops want to be the president of that union — and they have elections. And these elections are run just like any other political election: they are based on money. A lot of advertising goes into these elections and those cops don’t pay for that advertising out of their back pockets. This advertising is paid for by corporations, banks, financial institutions.
“Subsequently, when you are elected, you are beholden to those financial institutions. And when I come out condemning those financial institutions, if the president of the [union] wants to get continuing contributions, he better pay heed to the banks,” explains Lewis. Now, he says, his benefits with the Philly PD could be revoked if the department decides to pursue an investigation into his role with the protest movement.
Lewis says that the union’s response to his participation in the Occupy movement wasn’t exactly what he had expected. He tells RT he “was taken aback” when he received a letter in the mail from high higher-ups at the Fraternal Order of Police.
“They threatened me with having a hearing, perhaps to expel me,” he says. “I was surprised that they took that extent, without even giving me the courtesy of a phone call and finding out exactly what I was doing; what I was about.”
After going public with his grievances over his demands, Lewis was let off the hook — for now. He says that the way the department acted over his involvement with the Occupy movement should be a chilling wake up call to the rest of the country, though.
“When they come out and say what I’m doing is illegal or improper and give me an order to immediately cease and desist wearing my uniform…or they will take any and all unnecessary action to stop me, what’s so egregious about this is it sends the message to officers that they can violate people’s First Amendment rights,” he says.
Today Lewis says he has yet to be expelled but is still sure that the department will continue to investigate his role with OWS. As for the movement itself, he says he has no expectations but is still behind it 100 percent.
“It’s not going to do any good wondering where it’s going to go,” he says. “I’d rather spend my time and my positive energy on determining what path I can take, what can I do to further the goals of the movement.”
MEDIA ROOTS — If you were ever wondering exactly how large corporations ‘cover up’ malfeasance, look no further than the India Times. Ag-giant Monsanto has colluded with one of the largest papers in Asia, the India Times, to heavily downplay the notion that Indian farmers have been committing suicide at abnormally high rates as a result of Monsanto’s clamp down on crop sharing. This is a perfect example of powerful interests conspiring with a major media outlet in order to conceal the truth.
Robbie Martin of Media Roots
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COUNTER PUNCH — Three and a half years ago, at a time when the controversy over the use of genetically modified seeds was raging across India, a newspaper story painted a heartening picture of the technology’s success.
“There are no suicides here and people are prospering on agriculture. The switchover from the conventional cotton to Bollgard or Bt Cotton here has led to a social and economic transformation in the villages [of Bhambraja and Antargaon] in the past three-four years.” (Times of India, October 31, 2008).
So heartening was this account that nine months ago, the same story was run again in the same newspaper, word for word. (Times of India, August 28, 2011). Never mind that the villagers themselves had a different story to tell.
“There have been 14 suicides in our village,” a crowd of agitated farmers in Bhambraja told shocked members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture in March this year. “Most of them after Bt came here.” The Hindu was able to verify nine that had occurred between 2003 and 2009. Activist groups count five more since then. All after 2002, the year the Times of India story says farmers here switched to Bt. Prospering on agriculture? The villagers told the visibly shaken MPs: “Sir, lots of land is lying fallow. Many have lost faith in farming.” Some have shifted to soybean where “at least the losses are less.”
MEDIA ROOTS – For the last half century, an organization comprised of the .001% of the world’s elite called the Bilderberg Group has met annually around the world with almost no official press coverage. During the meetings, the top 140 of the world’s power brokers in banking, oil, food, media, defense, royalty and politics are believed to make policy decisions behind closed doors that affect the rest of the world. 
MEDIA ROOTS — If you were ever wondering exactly how large corporations ‘cover up’ malfeasance, look no further than the India Times. Ag-giant Monsanto has colluded with one of the largest papers in Asia, the India Times, to heavily downplay the notion that Indian farmers have been committing suicide at abnormally high rates as a result of Monsanto’s clamp down on crop sharing. This is a perfect example of powerful interests conspiring with a major media outlet in order to conceal the truth. 