back to article Tech aristocracy joins conflab with Secret Rulers of the World

Some of the biggest names in the technology industry are among the guests at the 61st annual meeting of the Bilderberg Group – a secretive talking shop for the top echelons of business and politics or a shadowy cabal seeking to rule the world, depending on whom you believe. Eric Schmidt, making his fourth trip, will represent …

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  1. Blofeld's Cat
    Black Helicopters

    Hmm...

    (Geordie accent) "It's half past five here at the Grove Hotel and everyone is asleep, apart from Craig and Peter who are in the coffee bar.

    Earlier today all the attendees completed their first group task on cyber warfare.

    Meanwhile, out in garden Big Brother is releasing three starving tigers from their cages..."

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Hmm...

      Bilderberg Group Party?

      Where they decide to fcuk up the little people for their own benefit.

  2. Chris Miller

    People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. - "Wealth of Nations" Adam Smith (1723–1790)

    PS Anyone want to play spot the 12-foot, blood-drinking, shape-shifting lizard? My money's on Mandy.

    PPS Their opening session is on <drum roll> Ethics. ROFLMAO

    1. Blofeld's Cat

      "Their opening session is on <drum roll> Ethics"

      Well that's the first five minutes taken care of - unless it turns out to be a talk on Basildon, by somebody with an unfortunate speech defect.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Who's heard of Palantir, and understands what they do?

    And wtf is Shirley Williams there, of all people?

    Marcus Agius, former chairman of Barclays and former 'independent' director on the board at the BBC, now he's more obvious.

    Full list of attendees: various places, e.g.

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-03/full-list-2013s-bilderberg-attendees

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Who's heard of Palantir, and understands what they do?

      I know about and have worked with Palantir's Gotham platform, if you're talking about the intelligence system that Peter Thiel's involved with. The Joint IED Defeat Organization uses it, as do some other units.

      I'm not exactly a fan of Palantir. I think DCGS-A works better for our needs, if only because very robust communication software is deep in the design of the system itself.

      Anyway, something cool about Palantir systems is that they claim to have Civil Liberties safeguards embedded in their code that will supposedly drop any intercept that has an American citizen in it, as long as that isn't being directly targeted. I'm not sure how this works in practice, but that's what they claim, at least for the Gotham. The lower specced and somewhat cheaper Metropolis (they name their platforms after cities in the D.C. Comics Universe obviously) may or may not have them, but I've never seen one of those as they're geared more towards local police and such.

  4. DZ-Jay

    ORLY?

    Extra! Extra! Founder of secret cabal accused of plotting to take over the world denies actual plans to take over the world!

    News at 11.

    1. phuzz Silver badge
      Alien

      Re: ORLY?

      Between them, don't they basically rule the world anyway? And if they wanted to have a secret conspiracy, wouldn't telephones be a bit more secretive than all meeting at the same location and publicly announcing the meeting?

      Aliens, because, well, you never know eh?

  5. Herby
    Joke

    You mean...

    They aren't there to sacrifice babies on a shrine?

    Oh, sorry, next month...

  6. YARR
    Stop

    The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant" in a free and open society - JFK

    How odd that the very same ilk responsible for creating war and conflict should be gathering to discuss how to stop it. Most of them are still motivated by the same priorities of resource-grabbing and people-control that the elite have always pursued. If we rate their success by the frequency that the US military intervenes in other countries prior to and since the formation of this secretive organisation, then they have been an unmitigated disaster.

    While I respect anyone's right to privacy for their private matters (if only they would reciprocate and respect ours!), a private meeting should not have security paid for from public funds. Conversely, if our elected representatives are deciding future government strategy, that is in the public interest and the electorate should have a right to know what decisions they are making on our behalf. Elected politicians should not be giving disproportionate attention to a select wealthy group.

    1. disgruntled yank

      Re: The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant" in a free and open society - JFK

      "The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant" in a free and open society - JFK"

      No doubt the Diems agreed.

  7. Neoc

    Did I miss something?

    "...confidential conference for the great and the good to discuss world issues candidly and openly."

    How can a *confidential* conference be *open*? I'll accept "candid", but "open"?

    1. disgruntled yank

      Re: Did I miss something?

      You did miss something. "Openly" means "openly with one another", not openly with us of hoi polloi.

      Though to be candid and open with you, I believe, even in this limited context, "candidly" and "openly" about as much as "great" and "good".

  8. SleepyJohn
    Big Brother

    We don't need no 12 foot lizards for a conspiracy

    We are expected to believe that an organised mob of the richest and most powerful businessmen, bankers and politicians in the world does NOT meet to work out a way to run the world solely for their own benefit?

    These people must be delighted to be called '12 foot lizards from Space', 'Illuminati from the 15th Dimension', 'The Bilderbergers' and suchlike as it makes the mass of the populace laugh at the notion of a conspiracy; when in truth there quite clearly is one - the rich and powerful conspire to subjugate the masses in order to increase their own wealth and power at the expense of the masses. And there they all are - in Watford (presumably not at "Watford Gap, grease on the plates, it's a load of crap").

    These people effectively already virtually rule the world, so the potential for them to morph into a 'New World Order' seems self-evident. It is a shame Dr Who has spent the last fours years as a demented adolescent on Speed, or he might have been able to do something about it.

  9. Suburban Inmate
    WTF?

    So... People that passionately campaign for peace and monetary system reform get spied on as "potential terrorists", while this warmongering, resource ravaging, tax dodging, economy starving, circle-jerking bunch of ne'er-do-wells get the utmost privacy?

  10. Steen Hive
    Black Helicopters

    Tautology, much?

    "a secretive talking shop for the top echelons of business and politics or a shadowy cabal seeking to rule the world".

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Purpose?

    Those of us in Bilderberg felt we couldn't go on forever fighting one another for nothing and killing people and rendering millions homeless ...

    A stunning success, then.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Davos is a waste of time. People go to Davos to name drop

    The controversial yet insightful trader / writer / statistician: Nassim Taleb went to Davos a few times and slated the whole G8 / WTO/ WEF process: "Davos is a waste of time. People go to Davos to name drop"... Basically he became disillusioned and stopped going. But he didn't slate the meetings as a conspiracy, merely as a place for elites to mingle, with nothing ever coming out of it. Taleb rips the likes of the US Fed and Bernanke. Asking repeatedly why the people who caused the recession / crisis, were allowed to keep their jobs...

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    Mr Cameron and the other guy are about to receive there orders.

  14. lordvalumart

    Nothing to worry about?

    "Among the 12 topics for discussion over the three days of the conference: 'How big data is changing almost everything'"

    Sounds just like every other tedious, band-wagonning conference I've ever been to... unless the agenda is a decoy, of course.

  15. disgruntled yank

    A couple of reflects

    First, I trust that Steve Bong is among the tech luminaries attending, and hope that he will write up the conference for The Register.

    Second, if David Icke is wise to the genetic engineering, perhaps he should join them rather than fight them, and improve England's chances in the World Cup.

  16. WalterAlter
    Mushroom

    C'mon, just say it...Nazis

    Between all the shuffling for cognitive leverage in the "is it a conspiracy" contest, let's try to keep in mind that waaay back in 1938, every country in the industrialized world had a Nazi "internationale" 5th column waiting in the wings made up of the acutal old time and latter day financier neo-aristocracies of the world. America had its pro-Nazi industrialists (Anthony Sutton- "Wall St. and the Rise of Hitler"), England had its Edward VIII and Clivedon Set (Who do you suppose Rudolf Hess had listed on his dance card?). Oswald Mosely and "pacifist" Charles Lindburgh may have been the overt Nazi agents of influence, but the Rolls Royce jockeys were overseeing the destiny of their clans by clandestinely slipping their sock puppets a fiver from time to time and greasing civilization's skids to the hoped for H. G. Welles theme park in the sky. Meanwhile, once the Jerries began in Poland to construct their "world without borders", our contrite Nazi "intelligentsia" dusted off their respective nationalities and put their shoulders to the war effort. Problem is, we think that was that, all those high rent goose stepping goons simply evanesced like mist on a noonday heath as the West happily raised their war babies. Yahright.

    Most psyops, er, psychology experts will agree that people need the hand of reality smacking them in the face from time to time, so why not we step into the Kissingerian "Arc of Crisis" for a bracing five-fingered Bilderberg "howdy do"?

  17. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

    He also claims many are 12-foot, blood-drinking, shape-shifting lizards.

    Obvious rubbish. As shape-shifters, they are only occasionally 12 feet tall.

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