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Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
One More Evasive Crack From Goldman Sachs: Call In The Marshalls And Break Out The Orange Jackets
One More Evasive Crack From Goldman Sachs: Call In The Marshalls And Break Out The Orange Jackets
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Israel’s fear and loathing of Obama : By Gideon Rachman
Published: April 26 2010 19:47
www.ft.com/cms/s/0/310bdc10-5163-11df-bed9-00144feab49a.html
Israel’s alarm at the deterioration in its relations with the US is palpable. In Jerusalem recently, even a liberal commentator told me: “Barack Obama is a disaster for Israel. I don’t think the general public realise just how much of a disaster he is.” Government officials are more careful – but only a bit. Danny Ayalon, the deputy Israeli foreign minister, says that it would be a “grave mistake” for America to present its own Middle East peace plan, an idea that the US president’s people are known to be considering.
Listening to all this, I could not help thinking back to the early stages of the Northern Irish peace negotiations. In part, this is because some of the same cast of characters have moved from Belfast to Jerusalem. George Mitchell, Mr Obama’s envoy to the Middle East, played a crucial role as a go-between in Ulster. Tony Blair Is also on the scene, this time installed in the American Colony hotel rather than Stormont castle.
But there is more to the parallel than familiar faces. The Israelis’ furious reaction to the pressure they are under from the Obama administration is reminiscent of the British rage early in the Northern Irish peace process, when it became clear that our American allies were intent on “talking to the terrorists” of the Irish Republican Army. But, as it turned out, the Americans were right to insist that there was a peace deal to be made with the IRA. They are right again on the Middle East peace process. There is still a deal to be had – and if Israel does not take it soon, the long-term survival of the Jewish state will be imperilled.
In their more reflective moments, some senior Israeli politicians will acknowledge that a two-state solution is as vital for Israel as it is for the Palestinians. Dividing the land is the only way of ensuring that Israel remains both Jewish and democratic. The continued occupation of the West Bank, by contrast, always carries with it the risk of another Palestinian intifada, and is the major cause of Israel’s dreadful global image. Israeli politicians worry that the “delegitimisation” of their state has spread from the Muslim world to Europe. Tzipi Livni, leader of the Israeli opposition, recently had to cancel a trip to Britain for fear that she would be arrested on war-crimes charges.
Yet for all their long-term concerns, the Israelis have failed to make vital concessions, because the status quo still feels more comfortable. Israel’s assaults on Lebanon and Gaza have, for the moment, largely stopped the threat of rocket fire into Israel. The wall the Israelis have built around the West Bank has helped to prevent suicide bombings. The economy has done well in recent years. Things look good – if you do not look too far into the future.
By contrast, calling a complete halt to illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land – as Mr Obama has demanded – entails risks and pain. There are members of the Israeli cabinet who still cling to the idea of a Greater Israel, incorporating all of the West Bank. If Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, delivered the settlement freeze the Americans want, his rightwing coalition would probably collapse. Many Israelis also worry that an eventual move to uproot at least 80,000 settlers as part of a peace deal could lead to a revolt in the army – some 30 per cent of whose officers are religious conservatives, presumed to be sympathetic to the settlers. Any such military revolt, one respected commentator told me, “would be the end of the state of Israel”. Even if a Palestinian state were established on the West Bank, the Israelis worry that it might fall into the hands of Hamas, just as Gaza did; and then become the base for renewed rocket attacks on Israel that could hit Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion airport.
So rather than discuss settlements, the Israelis are desperately trying to change the subject. They point out that there are many obstacles to a peace deal other than the settlements: the bitter division on the Palestinian side between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, and between Gaza and the West Bank; Palestinian insistence on the “right of return” of millions of refugees and their descendants; the technical and emotional difficulty of dividing Jerusalem.
The Israelis are certainly right to argue that there is no guarantee that a freeze on settlements will lead to a peace deal. On the other hand, there certainly is a guarantee that a continued expansion of settlements will ensure that no peace deal is ever possible. The West Bank is already a small and arid place – and bits of it keep being chipped away. As the bitter Palestinian joke has it: “We’re negotiating over how to divide a pizza and the Israelis keep eating bits of it.” For that reason, Mr Obama is right to identify a halt to “settlement activity” as crucial.
Israelis have many theories about why Mr Obama is being so beastly to them. The wilder fringes of the Israeli right insist that the US president is an anti-semite – despite the fact that both his chief-of-staff and his top political adviser are Jewish. Even leftwing commentators muse that Mr Obama may be more instinctively sympathetic to the developing world than to the Jewish state.
But no special explanation should be needed for Mr Obama’s insistence on a settlement freeze. Such a policy is in the interests of Israel as well as the Palestinians. Israelis may fear and even detest Mr Obama – but the American president is actually doing them a favour.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175239/tomgram%3A_noam_chomsky%2C_eyeless_in_gaza___ /
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Growing fascism in America
Terrorizing Immigrants - by Stephen Lendman On April 20, Reuters headlined, " Arizona passes tough illegal immigration law," saying:
www.freedomsphoenix.com/.../067950-2010-04-26-terrorizin...
Chomsky Warns of Risk of Fascism in America - Page 5 - Liveleak Forums
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Will Goldman Sachs Prove Greed Is God?
The investment bank's cult of self-interest is on trial against the whole idea of civilisation – the collective decision by all of us not to screw each other over even if we can
- Matt Taibbi
- The Guardian, Saturday 24 April 2010
- Article history
Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs, once said his bank was doing 'God's work'. Photograph: Chip East/Reuters
So Goldman Sachs, the world's greatest and smuggest investment bank, has been sued for fraud by the American Securities and Exchange Commission. Legally, the case hangs on a technicality.
Morally, however, the Goldman Sachs case may turn into a final referendum on the greed-is-good ethos that conquered America sometime in the 80s – and in the years since has aped other horrifying American trends such as boybands and reality shows in spreading across the western world like a venereal disease.
When Britain and other countries were engulfed in the flood of defaults and derivative losses that emerged from the collapse of the American housing bubble two years ago, few people understood that the crash had its roots in the lunatic greed-centered objectivist religion, fostered back in the 50s and 60s by ponderous emigre novelist Ayn Rand.
While, outside of America, Russian-born Rand is probably best known for being the unfunniest person western civilisation has seen since maybe Goebbels or Jack the Ripper (63 out of 100 colobus monkeys recently forced to read Atlas Shrugged in a laboratory setting died of boredom-induced aneurysms), in America Rand is upheld as an intellectual giant of limitless wisdom. Here in the States, her ideas are roundly worshipped even by people who've never read her books oreven heard of her. The rightwing "Tea Party" movement is just one example of an entire demographic that has been inspired to mass protest by Rand without even knowing it.
Last summer I wrote a brutally negative article about Goldman Sachs for Rolling Stone magazine (I called the bank a "great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity") that unexpectedly sparked a heated national debate. On one side of the debate were people like me, who believed that Goldman is little better than a criminal enterprise that earns its billions by bilking the market, the government, and even its own clients in a bewildering variety of complex financial scams.
On the other side of the debate were the people who argued Goldman wasn't guilty of anything except being "too smart" and really, really good at making money. This side of the argument was based almost entirely on the Randian belief system, under which the leaders of Goldman Sachs appear not as the cheap swindlers they look like to me, but idealised heroes, the saviours of society.
In the Randian ethos, called objectivism, the only real morality is self-interest, and society is divided into groups who are efficiently self-interested (ie, the rich) and the "parasites" and "moochers" who wish to take their earnings through taxes, which are an unjust use of force in Randian politics. Rand believed government had virtually no natural role in society. She conceded that police were necessary, but was such a fervent believer in laissez-faire capitalism she refused to accept any need for economic regulation – which is a fancy way of saying we only need law enforcement for unsophisticated criminals.
Rand's fingerprints are all over the recent Goldman story. The case in question involves a hedge fund financier, John Paulson, who went to Goldman with the idea of a synthetic derivative package pegged to risky American mortgages, for use in betting against the mortgage market. Paulson would short the package, called Abacus, and Goldman would then sell the deal to suckers who would be told it was a good bet for a long investment. The SEC's contention is that Goldman committed a crime – a "failure to disclose" – when they failed to tell the suckers about the role played by the vulture betting against them on the other side of the deal.
Now, the instruments in question in this deal – collateralised debt obligations and credit default swaps – fall into the category of derivatives, which are virtually unregulated in the US thanks in large part to the effort of gremlinish former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, who as a young man was close to Rand and remained a staunch Randian his whole life. In the late 90s, Greenspan lobbied hard for the passage of a law that came to be called the Commodity Futures Modernisation Act of 2000, a monster of a bill that among other things deregulated the sort of interest-rate swaps Goldman used in its now-infamous dealings with Greece.
Both the Paulson deal and the Greece deal were examples of Goldman making millions by bending over their own business partners. In the Paulson deal the suckers were European banks such as ABN-Amro and IKB, which were never told that the stuff Goldman was cheerfully selling to them was, in effect, designed to implode; in the Greece deal, Goldman hilariously used exotic swaps to help the country mask its financial problems, then turned right around and bet against the country by shorting Greece's debt.
Now here's the really weird thing. Confronted with the evidence of public outrage over these deals, the leaders of Goldman will often appear to be genuinely confused, scratching their heads and staring quizzically into the camera like they don't know what you're upset about. It's not an act. There have been a lot of greedy financiers and banks in history, but what makes Goldman stand out is its truly bizarre cultist/religious belief in the rightness of what it does.
The point was driven home in England last year, when Goldman's international adviser, sounding exactly like a character in Atlas Shrugged, told an audience at St Paul's Cathedral that "The injunction of Jesus to love others as ourselves is an endorsement of self-interest". A few weeks later, Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein told the Times that he was doing "God's work".
Even if he stands to make a buck at it, even your average used-car salesman won't sell some working father a car with wobbly brakes, then buy life insurance policies on that customer and his kids. But this is done almost as a matter of routine in the financial services industry, where the attitude after the inevitable pileup would be that that family was dumb for getting into the car in the first place. Caveat emptor, dude!
People have to understand this Randian mindset is now ingrained in the American character. You have to live here to see it. There's a hatred toward "moochers" and "parasites" – the Tea Party movement, which is mainly a bunch of pissed off suburban white people whining about minorities consuming social services, describes the battle as being between "water-carriers" and "water-drinkers". And regulation of any kind is deeply resisted, even after a disaster as sweeping as the 2008 crash.
This debate is going to be crystallised in the Goldman case. Much of America is going to reflexively insist that Goldman's only crime was being smarter and better at making money than IKB and ABN-Amro, and that the intrusive, meddling government (in the American narrative, always the bad guy!) should get off Goldman's Armani-clad back. Another side is going to argue that Goldman winning this case would be a rebuke to the whole idea of civilisation – which, after all, is really just a collective decision by all of us not to screw each other over even when we can. It's an important moment in the history of modern global capitalism: whether or not to move forward into a world of greed without limits.
A Nation Confused Is Prepared To Lose…Everything.
A Nation Confused Is Prepared To Lose…Everything.
Nature or Nurture?
Why Soldiers Get A Kick Out Of Killing : By John Horgan
April 27, 2010 "Scientific America" - April 23, 2010 -- Do some soldiers enjoy killing? If so, why? This question is thrust upon us by the recently released video of U.S. Apache helicopter pilots shooting a Reuters cameraman and his driver in Baghdad in 2007. Mistaking the camera of the Reuters reporter for a weapon, the pilots machine-gunned the reporter and driver and other nearby people.
The most chilling aspect of the video, which was made public by Wikileaks, is the chatter between two pilots, whose names have not been released. As Elizabeth Bumiller of The New York Times put it, the soldiers "revel in their kill." "Look at those dead bastards," one pilot says. "Nice," the other replies.
The exchange reminds me of a Times story from March 2003, during the U.S. invasion of Baghdad. The reporter quotes Sgt. Eric Schrumpf, a Marine sharpshooter, saying, "We had a great day. We killed a lot of people." Noting that his troop killed an Iraqi woman standing near a militant, Schrumpf adds, "I'm sorry, but the chick was in the way."
Does the apparent satisfaction—call it the Schrumpf effect—that some soldiers take in killing stem primarily from nature or nurture? Nature, claims Richard Wrangham, an anthropologist at Harvard University and an authority on chimpanzees. Wrangham asserts that natural selection embedded in both male humans and chimpanzees—our closest genetic relatives—an innate propensity for "intergroup coalitionary killing" [pdf], in which members of one group attack members of a rival group. Male humans "enjoy the opportunity" to kill others, Wrangham says, especially if they run little risk of being killed themselves.
Several years ago, geneticists at Victoria University in New Zealand linked violent male aggression to a variant of a gene that encodes for the enzyme monoamine oxidase A, which regulates the function of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin. According to the researchers, the so-called "warrior gene" is carried by 56 percent of Maori men, who are renowned for being "fearless warriors," and only 34 percent of Caucasian males.
But studies of World War II veterans suggest that very few men are innately bellicose. The psychiatrists Roy Swank and Walter Marchand found that 98 percent of soldiers who endured 60 days of continuous combat suffered psychiatric symptoms, either temporary or permanent. The two out of 100 soldiers who seemed unscathed by prolonged combat displayed "aggressive psychopathic personalities," the psychiatrists reported. In other words, combat didn't drive these men crazy because they were crazy to begin with.
Surveys of WWII infantrymen carried out by U.S. Army Brig. Gen. S.L.A. Marshall found that only 15 to 20 percent had fired their weapons in combat, even when ordered to do so. Marshall concluded that most soldiers avoid firing at the enemy because they fear killing as well as being killed. "The average and healthy individual," Marshall contended in his postwar book Men Against Fire, "has such an inner and usually unrealized resistance towards killing a fellow man that he will not of his own volition take life if it is possible to turn away from that responsibility…At the vital point he becomes a conscientious objector."
Critics have challenged Marshall's claims, but the U.S. military took them so seriously that it revamped its training to boost firing rates in subsequent wars, according to Dave Grossman, a former U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and professor of psychology at West Point. In his 1995 book On Killing, Grossman argues that Marshall's results have been corroborated by reports from World War I, the American Civil War, the Napoleonic wars and other conflicts. "The singular lack of enthusiasm for killing one's fellow man has existed throughout military history," Grossman asserts.
The reluctance of ordinary men to kill can be overcome by intensified training, direct commands from officers, long-range weapons and propaganda that glorifies the soldier's cause and dehumanizes the enemy. "With the proper conditioning and the proper circumstances, it appears that almost anyone can and will kill," Grossman writes. Many soldiers who kill enemies in battle are initially exhilarated, Grossman says, but later they often feel profound revulsion and remorse, which may transmute into post-traumatic stress disorder and other ailments. Indeed, Grossman believes that the troubles experienced by many combat veterans are evidence of a "powerful, innate human resistance toward killing one's own species."
In other words, the Schrumpf effect is usually a product less of nature than of nurture—although "nurture" is an odd term for training that turns ordinary young men into enthusiastic killers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Horgan, a former Scientific American staff writer, directs the Center for Science Writings at Stevens Institute of Technology. (Photo courtesy of Skye Horgan.)
Bank Reform: Setback in the Senate, Action in the Streets
posted by John Nichols on 04/27/2010 @ 12:47am
The party of "no" said "no" again on Monday -- this time to tightening regulation of the nation's financial system.
While 57 Democratic and independent senators voted to open that long-delayed debate, Senate Republicans and a single Democrat (Nebraska's Ben Nelson) blocked a cloture vote that would have opened the debate on repairing a financial system so vulnerable and dysfunctional that it has repeated brought the nation's economy to the brink of collapse.
Monday's 57-41 vote offered a powerful perspective regarding which side the Grand Old Party -- which made its name a century ago as the champion of trust-busting legislation -- is now on.
Tom McMahon of Americans United for Change summed things up when he said: "Look up ‘Quid pro quo' in the dictionary and you'll find a picture of Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell with his hand out to hedge fund managers and banking executives just days before leading the filibuster against Wall Street reform. Pretending as if the financial crisis that cost over 8 million Americans their jobs never happened, Senate Republicans today stood in unanimous support of Wall Street over the Main Streets that suffered the consequences of the big banks' greed and recklessness."
McMahon's assessment was blunt and unforgiving:
Senate Republicans stood in unanimous opposition to ending taxpayer bailouts, to shining a bright light on the shadowy derivatives markets, and establishing a new watchdog agency on Wall Street that will protect American consumers against Madoff-style scams. They did just what they were told by the 1,500 Wall Street lobbyists camped out their offices this week that got every dime's worth of the $465 million they spent last year to kill reform.
Counting on Republicans to block financial reform was the safest and surest bet Wall Street executives have made in a very long time. But, with two-thirds of American people in support of stricter regulations for banks and other financial institutions, Senate Republicans just made the riskiest gamble of their careers. In the face of overwhelming public demand that Wall Street be held accountable for laying waste to our economy, it's not a question of whether reform is going to pass -- it's a question of how long Republicans can run from the pitch forks on Main Street.
Some Democrats are already excited by the prospect of running fall races against Republicans who took the side of the big banks.
But one of the Senate's most ardent reformers, Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders, was not thinking about the politics of the fall. He was worried about the reality of a banking system reforms that have been too long deferred.
"I am disappointed but not surprised that not a single Senate Republican voted to allow us to proceed to consideration of Wall Street reform," said Sanders, who opposed the Wall Street bailout of 2008 and has been a steady critic of abuses by big banks and financial institutions.
Speaking of his Republican colleagues, Sanders said, "I hope they reconsider. To my mind, it is absolutely imperative that we end the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior on Wall Street which has led to the loss of millions of jobs and the worst recession in modern history."
To help promote that reconsideration, thousands of Americans will gather on Wall Street Thursday to demand that the GOP do the right thing -- and that the whole of the Senate (including reluctant Democrats) back real reform.
The AFL-CIO and National People's Action have organized the afternoon protest so that "everyday people--small business owners and union members, homeowners and tenants, faith leaders, the employed and the unemployed--to join together in recognition of our shared fate and our commitment to democracy."
On April 29th at 3:30pm, the groups say:
Thousands will converge on Wall Street to reclaim America with one simple message: Americans deserve an economy that works for all of us, not just Wall Street!
Wall Street and big banks like Bank of America and Wells Fargo crashed our economy leaving millions without housing, work, and critical services.
Join us as we take the fight for financial reform into the belly of the beast!
Wall Street insiders and their political allies may want to shut down the debate about financial reform.
But the people want a showdown, and they will have it Thursday.
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Washington Post (blog)
The Atlantic's Andrew Sulllivan ripped Allen in December, calling him former Vice President Dick Cheney's "chief spokesman" after Allen published Cheney's ...
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Get Ready to Redeliberate the Bush Years All Over Again!
New York Magazine
Very much unlike his second-in-command Dick Cheney, George W. Bush has nearly vanished from public view since the start of the Obama presidency. ...
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South Park- America's Last Bastion of Free Speech, Get's Redacted
Unconfirmed Sources (satire)
Although I usually hate just what my fellow Americans have to say (the Tea Party, the Pasty Supremacists and Dick Cheney et al.), we are a country based on ...
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Dick Cheney returns: Will he help the GOP?
msnbc.com
Recalling the moment in 2004 when he told a senator to "f--- yourself," former vice president Dick Cheney said, "That's sort of the best thing I ever did. ...
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We have developed brief background reports on the most likely nominees, which are available on our new Supreme Court Watch web page at http://www.afj.org/check-the-facts/supreme-court-watch/.
AFJ has fact sheets on the following potential nominees:
- Merrick B. Garland
- Jennifer Granholm
- Elena Kagan
- Pamela S. Karlan
- Harold Hongju Koh
- Martha Minow
- Carlos Moreno
- Janet Napolitano
- Leah Ward Sears
- Sidney Runyan Thomas
- Elizabeth Warren
- Ann Claire Williams
- Diane Wood
The stakes are high in the appointment of a new justice to replace Justice John Paul Stevens. Our recently released report, "Unprecedented Injustice: The Political Agenda of the Roberts Court" shows a frighteningly clear pattern: the current court has repeatedly gone out of its way to place corporate interests first and the rights of individuals second. Precedents and long-held principles have been disregarded, frequently in 5-4 votes, revealing a drastic rightward, pro-corporate tilt.
That's why it's so important for the next justice to be someone willing and able to persuasively articulate and unhesitatingly defend our individual rights and liberties. Whether the razor thin conservative majority can occasionally be broken is an open question, but given the record of this Court, a full-throated defense of core constitutional values is needed now, more than ever.
Christopher Hitchens on Ronald Reagan
By James Furbush | April 26th, 2010 | 6:20 am UTC
Lest you had any doubts about the way Christopher Hitchens feels about Saint Ronnie, he makes his feelings perfectly clear for Slate.
The fox, as has been pointed out by more than one philosopher, knows many small things, whereas the hedgehog knows one big thing. Ronald Reagan was neither a fox nor a hedgehog. He was as dumb as a stump. He could have had anyone in the world to dinner, any night of the week, but took most of his meals on a White House TV tray. He had no friends, only cronies. His children didn’t like him all that much. He met his second wife—the one that you remember—because she needed to get off a Hollywood blacklist and he was the man to see. Year in and year out in Washington, I could not believe that such a man had even been a poor governor of California in a bad year, let alone that such a smart country would put up with such an obvious phony and loon.
And that’s one of the more kind paragraphs in Hitchens’s angry rant. Not sure what brought this on from him, but there ya go.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
The Gold Grenade Awards From The Graphicsitti Folder
The Gold Grenade Awards From The Graphicsitti Folder
Thursday, April 15, 2010
HPV Vaccination Campaign Suspension Demanded Globally; U.S. Called On To Take Lead
HPV Vaccination Campaign Suspension Demanded Globally; U.S. Called On To Take Lead
HPV Vaccination Campaign Suspension Demanded Globally
http://www.ereleases.com/pr/hpv-vaccination-campaign-suspension-demanded-globally-34447
U.S. Called On To Take Lead
NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif., April 15, 2010 — The global outrage at reports of injustices inflicted on the children of India from unethical trials and experimentation of HPV vaccines in socially disadvantaged groups extends to women and children worldwide subjected to similar violations. False advertising/claims made by pharmaceutical companies, and legislation mandating vaccination without informed consent, are totally unacceptable, say members of TruthAboutGardasil.org.
The TruthAboutGardasil.org group members Leslie Botha, Cynthia Janak, Freda Birrell, Janny Stokvis, Karen Maynor, and Rosemary Mathis, who presented research on HPV vaccine dangers to the FDA on March 12, provided information to SAMA, the Resource Group for Women and Health responsible for spearheading HPV vaccine suspension in India. According to Botha, “Efforts to educate women in industrialized nations about the dangers have been successful. Now, Pharma is targeting uneducated, low-income, minority women - populations even more vulnerable to adverse reactions.”
Media reports from Mumbai, India, state: “The [HPV] vaccine is mandatory for girls in Australia, France and the US.” According to TruthAboutGardasil.org, this is a deliberate lie that cannot go unchallenged. No country to date has mandated HPV vaccination, nor should it. Any falsehoods generated by governmental agencies, vaccine distributors, or the media that encourage uninformed females to accept HPV vaccinations are deceitful and false advertising perpetrated upon innocent victims.
Why have the deaths of four girls in India halted the HPV vaccine campaign while the 67 deaths reported to VAERS been ignored by the US government? Mathis states, “We consider this a human rights violation, and request the US take the lead in protecting fundamental human rights by calling for a congressional hearing.” The group endorses the following demands set forth by SAMA:
- Governments immediately suspend HPV vaccinations/programs until safety, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness of planned interventions are re-evaluated by independent entities.
- Governments establish inquiry committees into vaccine-related deaths.
- Governments establish an inquiry into side effects so that culpability is established and action can be taken.
- Any agencies involved in HPV vaccination projects must be held accountable and culpable for ethical, legal, and/or medical violations exposed during investigations/hearings.
- Governments initiate immediate action, including providing compensation to families that have lost children, and to children suffering side effects.
- All victims should be provided proper medical treatment and follow-up immediately.
- Governments and regulatory agencies place any and all documentation pertaining to clinical trials, agreements with pharmaceutical companies, and/or sponsors regarding HPV vaccine introduction or distribution in their respective countries in public domain.
- Governments implement a national policy regarding vaccine trials and medical “experimentation,” along with a vaccine policy based on public health needs - not pharmaceutical-sponsored research and conflicts of interest.
The group (http://TruthAboutGardasil.org) further recommends that any national/federal/state government agency involved with the distribution of any HPV vaccine implement the above guidelines immediately to halt the unfolding travesty on the unsuspecting, innocent women and children of the world.
| Contact: Bobbi Cowan Public Relations |
View All TruthAboutGardasil.org Headlines at Its Online eNewsroom™
Breaking News: Organizations In India Successfully Halt HPV Vaccination Program
World Health Day is celebrated today, March 7, 2010, in order to recognize the thousands of urban health champions who have taken action and had a significant impact on health in their cities. Hundreds of people gathered today in Dehli, India to witness some of these champions making a difference.
No less than 58 public health organizations, health networks, medical professionals, human rights groups, and women's groups in India took the opportunity to hold a press conference aimed at expressing their intense opposition to the "unethical nature" of the ongoing HPV vaccination 'project' being conducted in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.
They presented a formal letter of protest to the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
This letter outlines the fact that 14,000 girls, ages 10-14, belonging to poor families were enrolled in a two year study to assess the feasibility of introducing HPV vaccines in India. Merck and GlaxoSmithKline were to provide the vaccine. This 'project' was jointly sponsored by PATH (a nongovernmental organization), the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and the respective state governments funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
According to documents provided by these 58 groups, the literature circulated in the 'project' makes outright false statements about the vaccines safety, efficacy, and duration of effectiveness. The girls and their parents were told through the project documents that the vaccine will give life long immunity, has no side effects other than minor ones like fever and rash, and will not affect future fertility of the young girls.
When deaths and serious adverse reactions started being reported, local groups in Andhra Pradesh became alarmed and went on a fact finding mission.
They found access to post mortem reports difficult, if not impossible, to obtain. Cover-up seemed to be the general response. Two of the deaths were shockingly written off as suicides when the evidence clearly suggests otherwise.
According to the extensive documentation compiled by the fact finding mission, of the 14,000 girls vaccinated, there have been 4 deaths and 120 reports of serious adverse reactions including, epileptic-like seizures, severe stomach ache, severe headaches, mood swings, early onset of menstruation, heavy bleeding and severe menstrual cramps.
The current 'project' has no follow up mechanism in place for girls who suffer from adverse events following vaccination. This vaccination 'project' is being conducted in areas that do not have access to even minimal health care facilities. There is no place for these girls to get the pap smears that are mandatory follow-up even for those who face no adverse reactions.
The people who conducted the fact finding mission also found there were many cases where consent to participate in this study was given by the girls' teacher -- parents were not informed. One teacher who protested the vaccinations was told they were mandatory. In the cases where parents did give consent, they were misled by 'project' documents, and therefore were not able to give 'informed' consent.
Their letter to Director-General of ICMR, indicated that although the nomenclature suggests otherwise, this project amounts to nothing more than a Phase IV clinical trial being carried out under the guise of a 'project.'
The letter clearly states,
It is beyond doubt the worse case of human rights violation, where young healthy girls have to die for veing part of a state-endorsed experiment, initiated by a profit making private company.
The "immediate intervention" requested by this group of public health organizations, health networks, medical professionals, human rights groups and women's groups was granted almost immediately. V.M. Katoch, Director-General of the Indian Council of Medical Research advised the state governments to suspend the vaccine program until the issues have been settled.
V. M. Katoch declared,
There can be no compromise, if ethical issues have been violated by any nongovernmental organization or pharmaceutical company. The government is all for the people, and genuine issues have to be addressed."
While the Indian government is investigating the issues raised by this group of local advocates, one would hope they look into one more issue. PATH is supposedly a nongovernmental organization. If they are nongovernmental, why does 21.5% of their operating capital come from the United States? (This can be verified here, via their own website.)
For more information on HPV vaccines, visit www.truthaboutgardasil.org.
HPV Vaccinations In India: Shots Heard Round The World
A 'demonstration project' conducted by PATH International in cooperation with ICMR and the Indian state governments Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was called to an abrupt halt amidst allegations of unethical conduct this week.
58 various health advocacy groups took it upon themselves to conduct an independent fact finding mission when reports of 4 unexplained deaths and 120 girls suffering from debilitating new illnesses after being vaccinated against the HPV virus.
The vaccines were provided via signed agreement with Merck and GlaxoSmithCline. The demonstration project originally planned for the innoculation of 32,000 Indian children in two economically challenged states in India. Only 14,000 received the vaccines prior to the halt of the project.
A complete investigation into the allegations raised will be conducted prior to any further vaccinations. Should the allegations be proven accurate, many organizations will have some serious explaining to do.
Because of the information they uncovered, representatives from 58 different public health organizations, health networks, medical professionals, human rights groups and women's groups stood up in solidarity and signed a list of the following demands to their government:
- The Government should make sure that all these projects are immediately brought to a halt across the country, until concerns relating to safety, efficacy and cost effectiveness of the planned interventions are re-evaluated.
- The government should set up an inquiry into the deaths of the tribal girls.
- The government should set up an inquiry into the side effects of the vaccine on affected girls, so that responsibility can be fixed and action taken.
- All agencies involved in the project need to be held accountable and culpable for any ethical, legal, and/or medical violations that emerge during inquiries.
- The State Government should take immediate action, including providing compensation to the families who have lost their children and the children who are suffering side effects.
- All the sufferers should be provided proper medical treatment and follow-up.
- The Government should place all documents pertaining to the agreement with vaccine manufacturers, and all other bodies, regarding the government's plan to introduce HPV vaccines in public domain.
- The Government should place the list of projects planned, proposed, approved and completed in public domain, including agencies involved, donors involved and proposed locations.
- The Government place the results of all clinical trials, including the pilot phase, in public domain.
- The Government shall institute a national policy on this kind of medical 'experimentation,' and a pro-people vaccine policy based on public health needs.
These demands and the documentation provided by those who conducted the fact finding mission are what prompted the Director-General of ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) to call a halt to the 'demonstration project' until investigations are completed. He believes the questions raised by the public need to be answered before vaccinations continue. He is right!
These demands are not unreasonable. They are simply what victims of Gardasil, Cervarix, and Silgard around the world have been asking for all along. They are simply things that should be done before any new medication is unleashed on the public.
These demands provide a perfect template for governments the world over to adopt during their ongoing quest to provide public health and safety.
These demands are nothing to be feared by pharmaceutical companies who have people's health and well-being at heart. They should be more than happy to make their efforts to keep the world's population healthy transparent.
PERU, UGANDA AND VIETNAM-- BEWARE--similar 'demonstration projects' are planned in your country! See confirmation here.
HPV vaccine controversy: India's response puts the world to shame
Last week, government officials in India called an immediate halt to any further HPV vaccinations until they complete an extensive investigation into allegations of unethical conduct by those involved in a 'demonstration project' aimed at vaccinating 32,000 girls, age 10-14, from Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.
The suspension was called a few short hours after a group of health advocates presented a list of very serious ethical and moral concerns to their government officials, along with the demand for an investigation.
The government of India should be congratulated on their rapid and appropriate response to these citizen concerns. India has exhibited compassion for their citizens' health and well-being above all else by agreeing to determine whether their concerns are valid, or not, before HPV vaccinations are resumed.
Unfortunately, the rest of the world does not seem to care as much for their citizens as does India. Similar concerns about HPV vaccine efficacy, benefits versus risks, questionable marketing campaigns, political 'deals', and the risk of serious adverse events, including death have been raised by at least 12 other countries around the world, with virtually no response.
Nearly identical questions have been brought forth by concerned citizens and health advocate groups in the United States, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Argentina, Grance, Spain, Canada, Finland and Sweden. These people have received little, or no response from their respective governments.
All of these governments should be ashamed of themselves. Whether their citizens' concerns are valid, or not, they should be investigated. This is not the first time pharmaceutical companies have unleashed a relatively unproven "remedy" on an unsuspecting public with disasterous results. Remember Vioxx, and the reported 300,000 unnecessary deaths by heart attack in the U.S.?
Why does the casualty count have to get that high before someone begins to listen?
India has a population of over 1 billion. There were only 14,000 girls vaccinated before the program was halted. It was halted in response to concerns raised after only 4 unexplained deaths and 120 serious systemic adverse reactions were brought to the attention of the authorities. In a population that size, these events could have easily been written off, as they seem to be in other countries. But, no---India took action.
The United States, for example, has a population of approximately 307 million. 29,323 young women participated in the clinical trials for Gardasil. During those trials, there were 37 deaths reported and 255 serious systemic adverse reactions. There were 463 reports of new medical conditions reported by participants that were "potentially indicative of systemic autoimmune disorder(s)." See verification here.
Almost 10 times the number of deaths, and over twice the amount of adverse events; not to mention the reports of new medical conditions.
Did the United States investigate to see if there was a problem with this? No! In a country that professes to take the lead regarding human rights issues, this is nothing short of criminal.
Women around the globe are tired of feeling they and thier families are "guinea pigs" for the pharmaceutical industry. They believe the practice needs to stop here and now.
Every country in the world needs to follow India's lead and take their citizens' health and well-being seriously. Investigate their concerns--independent of any input from anyone in, or with ties to, the pharmaceutical industry.
For the sake of humanity, at least make the effort to find out if their concerns are valid.
For more information, visit The Truth About Gardasil Website here, or the FDA website with information about reporting adverse reactions here.
Make Sure You Open This Link! Vaccines Examiner
http://www.thehindu.com/2010/04/09/stories/2010040964181800.htm
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/150425
It seems that the HPV vaccine Gardasil manufactured by Merck, has been in the spotlight again this week, as the news pours in that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has decided to immediately suspend it's cervical cancer control vaccination programme for girls. The action was taken after 4 girls died and 120 were injured after receiving the vaccine.
DNA India report
"The programme is part of a two-year study to look into the utility of a vaccine in public health programmes and acceptability of Gardasil, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine made by Merck. Gardasil, available in medical stores across the country, is marketed in India by MSD Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd.
The programme was marred by controversy after four deaths and complications among 120 girls were reported after vaccination. The girls complained of stomach disorders, epilepsy, headaches and early menarche. Women activists fear the vaccine may impact the mental health of girls who have shown no signs of distress so far."
This news comes as no surprise to the many USA girls and their distraught parents who have been reporting these side effects for four years now. So far in the USA there have been 17781 adverse reactions and 66 deaths reported to VAERS and yet still this vaccine is being marketed.
One report brought my attention to the fact that the lesser figure of 52 deaths were attributed to unintended acceleration in Toyotas, which triggered a $2 billion recall and yet 66 deaths in the USA and a reported 17781 adverse reactions does not even make Merck or the USA Government feel a little uncomfortable. It just goes to show that Toyota have more scruples than the USA Government and Merck put ogether.
In fact many companies have more of a conscience when it comes down to the safety and protection of the public than the USA Government and Merck.
New Delhi, March 27
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100328/main7.htm
Days after the death of four tribal girls in Andhra Pradesh after the alleged administration of HPV vaccine for prevention of cervical cancer, it turns out that the vaccines are being sold over the counter without comprehensive country-specific safety trials held.
Currently, GlaxoSmithKline is marketing Cervarix, a preventative cervical cancer vaccine (it is not therapeutic) while Merck Sharp and Dohme, an affiliate of Merck and Co, is marketing Gradasil HPV vaccine in India.
Both were introduced last year and are approved by the FDA, with GSK’s Cervarix vaccine already sold in 60 countries, including the US, Australia and the European Union. The vaccine had sales of 125 million pounds last year and was even approved by the UK for its national programme of vaccination for teenage girls.
In India, however, HPV (Human papillomavirus) vaccines are not yet part of the national cancer control programme and their environment specific trials are yet to concluded, with enquiries revealing that the International Agency for Research in Cancer (IARC), World Health Organization branch, is presently conducting safety trials at eight sites.
Being held under IARC’s Dr Shankar Narayan, these trials will help resolve local issues around the vaccine use in India. Dr GK Rath, cancer specialist with AIIMS, today said it was yet not clear how the vaccines would behave in the Indian population which lives in different socio-cultural environment than the westerners.
“We must find out which age group to administer the vaccine to. Like in other countries, we can’t start giving the vaccine to girls of nine years because here we can’t medically examine them at that age. Without examination, we wouldn’t know how the vaccine would behave. Also we need to determine whether to administer the vaccine to those with antibodies. If yes, we need to test girls for antibodies first. These issues are unresolved and we must wait for vaccine use until we put the record straight,” Rath said, putting question marks on mass scale use of HPV vaccines.
The vaccines, however, if proven effective, would help 80 per cent women who get one type of HPV virus or the other (over 100 types exist). Of these, 15 high-risk types cause all cervical cancers. In India (eight women die every hour of cervix cancer), GSK is marketing vaccines to prevent HPV 16 and 18 viruses, which cause 70 per cent cases.
IARC trial report would be submitted to the government in three months after which it can be decided whether India wants the vaccines for its National Cancer Control Programme. “Trials will reveal the side effects, if any and will help us frame guidelines. So far, we have no guidelines for use of HPV vaccines though we have guidelines for Hepatitis B and Oral Polio vaccines,” Rath said. IARC is holding trials in AIIMS, Delhi, Chennai, Trivandrum, Kolkata, Mumbai among other sites.
Meanwhile, Drug Controller General of India Surinder Singh did not respond despite repeated attempts by the Tribune to contact him on the sale of HPV vaccines in India.
Probe ordered into death of four tribal girls
Union Health Secretary Sujatha Rao today told The Tribune that the government had ordered an inquiry into the death of four tribal girls in Andhra Pradesh, who was said to have been administered the HPV vaccine. “In the court, I have told the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to examine the matter,” Rao said, admitting that the trials of the HPV vaccines in India are yet not over. “In such a situation, the pharma companies cannot be marketing the HPV vaccines,” Rao said.
The risks of government-approved medicines
http://www.mndaily.com/2010/04/11/risks-government-approved-medicines
The FDA and other government bureaus continue to endorse harmful drugs.
Published: 04/11/2010
When people get sick, they go to their doctors, trusting that these physicians have the wherewithal to diagnose their ailments and prescribe medications for proper treatment. Rarely do patients question the accuracy of the doctor’s judgment or the safety of the drugs given to them. However, with an increasing number of drugs coming under scrutiny for their damaging effects to the human body, it is absolutely necessary that Americans start probing their health care providers about the security of the practices and products they sanction.
According to Merck & Co., one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, “Gardasil is the only human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine that helps protect against 4 types of HPV.” In spite of this, “as of January 2010, there were more than 17,000 reports of adverse reactions regarding this vaccine. Among them are 59 deaths, 18 of which were among girls under the age of 17,” as reported by the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.
For several years now, Merck has advertised a critical need for this medication. “In girls and young women ages 9 to 26, Gardasil helps protect against 2 types of HPV that cause about 75 percent of cervical cancer cases, and 2 more types that cause 90 percent of genital warts cases. [It] also helps protect against 70 percent of vaginal cancer cases.”
Recently, Merck began marketing the Gardasil drug to men, as well. The company says that “in boys and young men ages 9 to 26, Gardasil helps protect against 90 percent of genital warts cases.”
The statistics cited in Gardasil ads are clearly meant to induce caution and concern in the minds of the general public, encouraging them to seek protection from HPV, cervical cancer and genital warts by receiving the three Gardasil injections.
On the other hand, Dr. Joseph Mercola, a nationally renowned osteopathic physician, says that “Although there are 6 million cases of HPV each year, just 2 percent of the patients in a recent study were infected by the kinds of HPV that put them at high risk for developing cervical cancer. You need to be aware that if you eat right, exercise and keep stress in your life under control, your immune system is typically healthy enough to clear up the vast majority of HPV infections.”
Many Americans have not been exposed to these alternative notions and thus adhere to the arguments made by Merck, physicians and the government that Gardasil is essentially the only way to combat HPV, cervical cancer and genital warts.
The reality is that in order to capitalize on the high potential of this medication, “the Food and Drug Administration [accepted Merck’s request on] Dec. 1, [2005 for a] fast-track review process,” according to Aaron Smith, a staff writer for CNN. In addition, the government strongly considered an appeal by Merck lobbyists that would require all girls in elementary schools to receive the vaccine. In the end, though, this initiative did not pass.
Today, the majority of Americans have unwavering faith in the status quo and believe that anything stamped “government-approved” is 100 percent safe and intended for the well-being of the general populous. Nevertheless, time and again, it is proven by unfortunate reactions — sometimes death — that government bureaus — namely the FDA, EPA, and USDA — are more concerned with releasing new drugs to the market than with the health and security of the people they serve.
A paradigm shift in education is the only way to combat this issue, and luckily, there are several different methods that can be pursued. Society can start lending more credence to holistic doctors, and the University of Minnesota, for its part, should invite the discussion and debate about holistic medicine.
Hadley Gustin welcomes comments at hgustin@mndaily.com.
HPV Vaccine "Gardasil" Underwent Clinical Trials In India | Public ...
This report says that the HPV vaccine "Gardasil" was tested in India by JayaJan Pharmaceutical Research at Bangalore. It also says that payment for such ...
gyanyog.com/publichealth/publichealth_5246.htm
http://lecafpolitiquedecamusdecaf.blogspot.com/2010/03/march-12-2010-fda-gardasil-webinar.html
http://lecafpolitiquedecamusdecaf.blogspot.com/2010/03/gardasil-fda.html
http://lecafpolitiquedecamusdecaf.blogspot.com/2010/03/little-women-with-big-voices-expose-hpv.html
http://lecafpolitiquedecamusdecaf.blogspot.com/2010/02/gardasil-issue-that-wont-go-away.html
http://lecafpolitiquedecamusdecaf.blogspot.com/2010/01/gardasil-dangerous-affects-questions-go.html
http://lecafpolitiquedecamusdecaf.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-web-site-launched-for-gardasil.html
http://lecafpolitiquedecamusdecaf.blogspot.com/2009/10/gardasil-story-continued-controversy.html
http://lecafpolitiquedecamusdecaf.blogspot.com/2009/09/health-dominates-domestic-concerns.html
http://lecafpolitiquedecamusdecaf.blogspot.com/2009/09/gardasil-and-how-it-has-affected-lives.html
http://www.google.com/search?client=gmail&rls=gm&q=gardasil%20%2B%20sterility
To members of VACCINE RESISTANCE MOVEMENT
One major aspect of the Gardasil I neglected to mention, the vaccine also causes sterility in young women - based on Dr. Leonard Horowitz's findings.
Please make sure you tag this to the info package you send out. Also if you haven't please read the full article up on the discussion board relating to this send-out info. So here is the full amended package to send out asap to anyone considering having their children vaccinated for HPV Cervical Cancer. I also recommend you send it out to those parents who have made the unfortunate decision to force Gardasil on their children. They can at the very least begin to restore their child's auto-immune system by taking proactive steps now.
GARDASIL WARNINGS: FULL PACKAGE -
Cervical cancer is at an all time low contrary to the false hype and can be dealt with naturally with regular pap smears, holistic treatment. Today parents are the last stop-gap to protect their children from harmful vaccines & related treatment. Gardasil doesn't work, it is destructive & is ruining the health of an entire generation. Dr. Leonard Horowitz, is leading the war against Pharm corruption has analyzed the HPV vaccine and found it to contain multiple cancer triggers. Further he goes on to state that Gardasil also causes sterility in young women - based on his findings. Dr. Bill Deagle, another MD specialist in the States has identified that the recipient's brain is literally 'on fire' for 2 years after being administered the full regime of shots.
READ CAREFULLY PLEASE -
http://www.judicialwatch.org/gardasil
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/aug/08081405.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/026293.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/GoogleSearchResults.html?
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2001/03/07/vaccine-ingredients.aspx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2gteHfCa_k
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=100535026404&topic=13260
Gardasil Ingredient caused sterility in lab rats | infonews.co.nz ...
Gardasil Ingredient caused sterility in lab rats. By Jenese James 3476 views, 6 comments. An ingredient of the Gardasil HPV vaccination has known ...
www.infonews.co.nz/news.cfm?l=1&t=0&id=28314 - Cached - Similar
Gardasil: Another killer vaccine from Merck « The PPJ Gazette
Jul 8, 2008 ... Gardasil contains extremely high levels of polysorbate 80, a known cause of sterility in lab tests on mice, and also known to cause ...
ppjg.wordpress.com/.../gardasil-another-killer-vaccine-from-merck/ - Cached - Similar
CBS News Sharyl Attkisson: "Gardasil Researcher Speaks Out." Your ...
Aug 21, 2009 ... This vaccine is all about revenue gathering and sterility of our young girls. They'll be known as the "gardasil generation". ...
www.ageofautism.com/.../cbs-news-sharyl-attkisson-gardasil-researcher-speaks-out-your-sons-are-next.html -
You read it here first - Gardasil by Erika Schwartz, MD ... which today we know is Fluoride that would cause sterility in the water supplies of those ...
www.whale.to/m/sterile.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08MKHk0wFic&feature=player_embedded
Microsoft founder Bill Gates told a recent TED conference, an organization which is sponsored by one of the largest toxic waste polluters on the planet, that vaccines need to be used to reduce world population figures in order to solve global warming and lower CO2 emissions.
Stating that the global population was heading towards 9 billion, Gates said, “If we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services (abortion), we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 per cent.”
Quite how an improvement in health care and vaccines that supposedly save lives would lead to a lowering in global population is an oxymoron, unless Gates is referring to vaccines that sterilize people, which is precisely the same method advocated in White House science advisor John P. Holdren’s 1977 textbook Ecoscience, which calls for a dictatorial “planetary regime” to enforce draconian measures of population reduction via all manner of oppressive techniques, including sterilization.
“I’m not sure what the nothing-to-see-here explanation is for Bill Gates’ theory that “new vaccines” can help lower the population of the world,” points out the Cryptogon blog, “But I thought about the incidents from the 1990s where the World Health Organization was providing a “tetanus vaccine” to poor girls and women (and just poor girls and women) that contained human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG). For those who don’t want to delve into that, in short, it was a World Health Organization experiment; a test of a vaccine against pregnancy.”
After presenting an equation that included the number of people on the planet and CO2 emissions, Gates said, “Probably one of these numbers is going to get pretty near to zero.”
Later in the presentation, Gates mentions picking a vaccine, “which is something I love,” that would be used to lower global CO2 emissions.
Websites that you may also want to take a look at. Some pertain specifically to Gardasil and HPV, others to vaccines in general. Many of the sites are from other countries, proving gardasil is affecting girls on a global scale
http://www.cynthiajanak.com/Gardasil.html
http://holyhormones.com/sister_song/74323-responses-to-memorial-document-on-gardasil/
http://www.gardasilactiongroup.com/Gardasil/Home.html
http://www.aavp.es/ This site is in Spanish. There are many free translation programs online, so that the information here can be copy and pasted.
http://www.generationrescue.org/
http://www.comilva.org/default.asp This site is based in Italy, so you would have to use a free translator again. But there is some great info available here.
http://www.EU2009.Come2me.nl This site is based in The Netherlands, but has a button at the top that you can use to translate the site for you.
Bilderberg Group
http://www.nndb.com/org/514/000042388/
Founded in 1954, the Bilderberg Group holds "by invitation only" annual meetings of the rich and powerful. About two-thirds of the attendees are European, the rest American. Informally named for the site of the group's first meeting, the Hotel de Bilderberg in Oosterbeek, Netherlands.
Founding Date:
1954
| Business | 7-Feb-1948 | | CEO of Deutsche Bank | |
| Business | 1-Nov-1934 | 27-May-2004 | Chairman of Fiat, 2003-04 | |
| Author | 9-Sep-1945 | | Director of Middle East Studies, SAIS | |
| Military | 1952 | | Director, National Security Agency | |
| Business | 21-Jul-1938 | | Twice CEO of Xerox | |
| Scholar | 23-Mar-1940 | | Kennedy School of Government | |
| Politician | 17-Jun-1948 | | EU Economic Affairs Commissioner | |
| Business | c. 1945 | | CEO of Evercore Partners | |
| Politician | 25-Feb-1967 | | British MP, Normanton | |
| Editor | 12-Oct-1937 | 10-Dec-2003 | Editor of the Wall Street Journal, 1979-2003 | |
| Politician | 26-Dec-1955 | | US Senator from Indiana | |
| Royalty | 31-Jan-1938 | | Queen of the Netherlands | |
| Economist | 13-Dec-1953 | | Federal Reserve Chairman | |
| Royalty | 29-Jun-1911 | 1-Dec-2004 | Prince of the Netherlands | |
| Head of State | 15-Jul-1949 | | Foreign Minister of Sweden | |
| Business | 25-Aug-1944 | | Rapacious newspaper mogul | |
| Military | 15-Apr-1938 | | Retired General, US Air Force | |
| Business | 20-Feb-1948 | | CEO of British Petroleum, 1995-2007 | |
| Business | 5-Oct-1936 | | CEO of Sara Lee, 1975-2000 | |
| Columnist | 24-Nov-1925 | 27-Feb-2008 | National Review | |
| Government | 24-Sep-1917 | 6-Oct-2000 | Cold War advisor to JFK, LBJ | |
| Government | 6-Jun-1919 | | UK Foreign Secretary, 1979-82 | |
| Business | c. 1954 | | CEO of AXA | |
| Government | 30-Oct-1944 | | Prominent on the Iraqi Provisional Council | |
| Diplomat | 20-May-1942 | | Canadian Ambassador to the US, 1995-2000 | |
| Business | c. 1947 | | CEO of Toronto Dominion Bank | |
| Politician | 2-Jul-1940 | | Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1993-97 | |
| Head of State | 19-Aug-1946 | | 42nd US President, 1993-2001 | |
| Business | c. 1935 | | CEO of Molson, 1988-96 | |
| Business | c. 1956 | | Private equity, Ripplewood Holdings | |
| Business | c. 1943 | | CEO of Lafarge SA, 1987-2003 | |
| Politician | 1-Jan-1947 | | Governor of New Jersey | |
| Government | 29-Oct-1941 | | Asst. Secy. State, African Affairs, 1981-89 | |
| Business | c. 1948 | | CEO of Investor AB, 1978-99 | |
| Politician | 9-Dec-1947 | | US Senator from South Dakota, 1987-2005 | |
| Business | 3-Jul-1954 | | Co-CEO of Power Corporation of Canada | |
| Government | 27-Jul-1938 | | CIA Director, 1995-96 | |
| Politician | 27-May-1944 | | US Senator from Connecticut | |
| Attorney | c. 1955 | | O'Melveny and Myers | |
| Business | 14-Jul-1951 | | EDventure Holdings, former ICANN director | |
| Business | c. 1959 | | Canadian Natural Resources | |
| Psychologist | c. 1955 | | Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, UPenn | |
| Politician | 22-Jun-1933 | | US Senator from California | |
| Economist | 25-Nov-1939 | | Reagan economist | |
| Business | c. 1941 | | Chairman, RBC Capital Markets | |
| Politician | 11-May-1970 | | Congressman from Tennessee, 1997-2007 | |
| Business | 21-Dec-1937 | | Former Partner, Goldman Sachs | |
| Journalist | 20-Jul-1953 | | New York Times | |
| Philanthropist | 15-Aug-1964 | | Married to Bill Gates | |
| Government | 18-Aug-1961 | | US Secretary of the Treasury | |
| Columnist | 9-May-1942 | | Advisor to Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Clinton | |
| Columnist | 1955 | | Wall Street Journal columnist | |
| Journalist | 22-Apr-1945 | | Washington Post CEO | |
| Publisher | 16-Jun-1917 | 17-Jul-2001 | Washington Post publisher, 1966-79 | |
| Government | 1951 | | President, Council on Foreign Relations | |
| Politician | 4-Oct-1946 | | US Senator from Nebraska | |
| Diplomat | 24-Apr-1941 | | US Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan | |
| Economist | 8-Sep-1947 | | George W. Bush economist | |
| Business | c. 1958 | | CEO of Lazard North America | |
| Educator | 13-May-1958 | | Professor of Int'l Affairs, Columbia University | |
| Journalist | 29-Jul-1938 | 7-Aug-2005 | Former anchor, ABC World News Tonight | |
| Business | 24-Dec-1943 | | CEO of Fannie Mae, 1991-98 | |
| Politician | 10-Jun-1932 | | US Senator from Louisiana, 1972-97 | |
| Business | 15-Aug-1935 | | Advisor to Bill Clinton | |
| Business | c. 1952 | | CEO of Coca-Cola | |
| Government | 27-May-1923 | | US Secretary of State, 1973-77 | |
| Business | 6-Nov-1957 | | President and COO of Alcoa | |
| Journalist | 1-Nov-1939 | | Editor of The Economist, 1974-86 | |
| Business | 6-Jan-1944 | | Kohlberg Kravis Roberts | |
| Economist | 11-Sep-1949 | | President of MoMA | |
| Columnist | 23-Dec-1952 | | Editor of The Weekly Standard | |
| Government | 19-Jul-1941 | | EU Commissioner of Competition | |
| Business | ? | | CEO of SmithKline Beecham, 1994-2000 | |
| Military | c. 1952 | | NSC Defense Policy Adviser | |
| Politician | 21-Oct-1953 | | EU Commissioner for Trade | |
| Government | 1946 | | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | |
| Politician | 24-Jul-1922 | 25-Jan-2010 | US Senator from Maryland, 1969-87 | |
| Politician | 30-Sep-1948 | | EU Commissioner, Internal Market and Services | |
| Business | c. 1934 | | President of New York Fed, 1993-2003 | |
| Politician | 19-Jan-1948 | | Canadian Ambassador to the US, 2005-06 | |
| Business | 19-Mar-1943 | | Chairman, Royal Bank of Scotland | |
| Politician | 20-Aug-1933 | | US Middle East Envoy | |
| Journalist | 6-Jun-1934 | | NOW with Bill Moyers | |
| Business | c. 1949 | | CTO of Microsoft | |
| Politician | 24-Jun-1945 | | Governor of New York, 1995-2006 | |
| Business | 28-Mar-1946 | | US Secretary of the Treasury, 2006-09 | |
| Business | c. 1943 | | CEO of Perseus LLC | |
| Government | 16-Sep-1941 | | Prince of Darkness | |
| Head of State | 4-Aug-1965 | | Prime Minister of Sweden | |
| Politician | 15-Nov-1947 | | Governor of New Mexico | |
| Diplomat | 22-Aug-1935 | | Asst. Secy. of State for Europe, 1985-89 | |
| Politician | 4-Feb-1938 | | US Senator from Michigan, 1976-95 | |
| Business | 12-Jun-1915 | | Founder of the Trilateral Commission | |
| Talk Show Host | 5-Jan-1942 | | Charlie Rose Show | |
| Diplomat | c. 1949 | | US Middle East Envoy, 1992-2000 | |
| Business | 2-Jul-1954 | | Telecom executive | |
| Educator | c. 1950 | | The Fragmentation of Afghanistan | |
| Politician | 28-May-1960 | | Governor of South Carolina | |
| Politician | 3-Apr-1948 | | NATO Secretary General, 2004-09 | |
| Business | 27-Apr-1955 | | CEO of Google | |
| Politician | 15-May-1948 | | US Secretary of HHS | |
| Government | 27-Jun-1923 | Jul-1994 | SEC Chairman, 1981-87 | |
| Business | 4-Aug-1938 | | CEO of Monsanto, 1995-2000 | |
| Government | 13-Dec-1920 | | US Secretary of State, 1982-89 | |
| Business | 12-Aug-1930 | | Hungarian financial speculator | |
| Journalist | 16-Dec-1941 | | 60 Minutes | |
| Government | 7-May-1953 | | Deputy Secretary of State | |
| Business | 19-Jul-1945 | | Chairman of HBOS | |
| Economist | 30-Nov-1954 | | US Treasury Secretary, 1999-2001 | |
| Government | 25-Apr-1946 | | First Director General of the WTO | |
| Business | 1967 | | Co-Founder of PayPal | |
| Business | 20-Dec-1942 | | President, European Central Bank | |
| Educator | ? | | Mideast Scholar, SAIS | |
| Journalist | ? | | International Herald Tribune correspondent | |
| Politician | 24-Jul-1952 | | Congressman from Minnesota, 1981-93 | |
| Business | 1922 | | US Deputy Secretary of State, 1985-89 | |
| Politician | 4-Nov-1937 | | Canadian Ambassador to the US | |
| Business | 1-Dec-1933 | | World Bank president, 1995-2005 | |
| Government | 22-Dec-1943 | | President of the World Bank, 2005-07 | |
| Author | 6-Feb-1947 | | The Prize | |
| Government | 25-Jul-1953 | | World Bank president |
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