Bilderberg Group Meets In Athens Amid Tight Security
ATHENS (AFP)--Some of the world's top business and political leaders started
annual secret talks with the Bilderberg group Thursday in a suburb of Athens,
under tight security control.
The surroundings of the Astir Palace, a luxury hotel in the suburban resort of
Vouliagmeni, where the group is holding its annual meeting, were protected by
dozens of policemen, who were keeping the press and public at bay, an AFP
journalist said.
A Greek navy launch and boats carrying elite divers could be seen a few meters
off the coast of the peninsula where the hotel stands. Greek newspapers said the
group had also asked for the protection of two F-16 warplanes and a police
helicopter.
Reports say U.S. State Department number two James Steinberg, U.S. Treasury
Secretary Timothy Geithner, World Bank President Robert Zoellick, European
Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso, Queen Sofia of Spain and Queen Beatrix of
the Netherlands are among those attending the Bilderberg meeting.
The group, which has been holding annual off-the record talks open to guests
only since 1954, feeds conspiracy theories and speculation about its intentions,
with critics accusing it of plotting world domination.
Several sources say Polish political adviser Joseph Retinger, former Belgian
prime minister Paul van Zeeland and former Unilever chief executive Paul Rijkens
organized the first meeting at the Hotel Bilderberg in the Netherlands to unite
European and U.S. elites amid growing transatlantic tensions a half-century ago.
Its success spawned similar talks at posh hotels and palaces in Europe, the
U.S. and Canada each year since.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
05-14-090722ET
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