Source: disinfo.com

In post-WWI London, the public’s attention was gripped by a string of mysterious deaths of people linked in one way or another to the unsealing of Tutankhamun’s tomb. Was the “pharaoh’s curse” in fact carried out by Aleister Crowley?

Six mysterious London deaths famously attributed to the ‘Curse of Tutankhamun’ were actually murders by notorious Satanist Aleister Crowley, a historian claims in a new book. Incredible parallels between Crowley and Jack the Ripper have also been discovered during research by historian Mark Beynon.

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, London was gripped by the mythical curse of Tutankhamun, the Egyptian boy-king, whose tomb was uncovered by British archaeologist Howard Carter. More than 20 people linked to the opening of the pharaoh’s burial chamber in Luxor in 1923 bizarrely died over the following years – six of them in the capital.

Victims included Carter’s personal secretary Captain Richard Bethell, who was found dead in his bed from suspected smothering at an exclusive Mayfair club. Bethell’s father Lord Westbury then plunged seven floors to his death from his St James’s apartment, where he reportedly kept tomb artefacts gifted by his son. And Aubrey Herbert, half-brother of Carter’s financial backer Lord Carnarvon, also died suspiciously in a Park Lane hospital shortly after visiting Luxor.

At the time, a frenzied Press blamed the ‘Curse of Tutankhamun’ for the deaths and speculated on the supernatural powers of the ancient Egyptians. But Mr Beynon has now drawn on previously unpublished evidence to conclude the deaths were all ritualistic killings masterminded by Crowley, an occultist dubbed “the wickedest man in the world”.

The gods and goddesses of Crowley’s own religious philosophy, Thelema, were mainly drawn from ancient Egyptian religion. He believed himself to be a prophet of a new age of personal liberty, controlled by the ancient Egyptian god Horus. It is likely that he would have found Carter’s excavation sacrilegious and wanted revenge, according to Mr Beynon.

After unique analysis of Crowley’s diaries, essays and books and inquest reports, the armchair detective argues that he was a Jack the Ripper-obsessed copycat killer.

Crowley wrote in his diaries that he believed the locations of five of the Ripper’s murders in Whitechapel in 1888 formed a pentagram – an important star-shaped symbol in Satanism. Mr Beynon claims that the locations of five of Crowley’s ‘murders’ form a copycat pentagram.

London’s Curse: Murder, Black Magic and Tutankhamun in the 1920s West End by Mark Beynon

(hardcover available in February) (Kindle version out now)

The Bilderberg Hotel was the site of the first meeting.

The shadowy group known as Bilderberg will be gathering this year for its annual meeting at the resort city of St. Moritz, in southeastern Switzerland, June 9-12, but they will have a lot of company. St. Moritz is a short distance from Davos, the site of the regular high-priced meeting of thousands of bankers, political leaders and other notables called the World Economic Forum. But unlike at Davos, where the press is always welcome, Bilderberg still tries to maintain absolute secrecy.

Bilderberg has met in Switzerland four times over the years but never in the same city. Normally, when their sibling in crime, the Trilateral Commission (TC), meets in North America, Bilderberg does, too. This year, the TC will meet in Washington on April 8 to 10, but the Bilderbergers are avoiding the United States, in what may be an effort to fool the press.

Bilderberg has been called the most exclusive and secretive club in the world. To be admitted, you have to own a multinational bank, a multinational corporation or a country. Since its first meeting in 1953, it has been attended by the top powerbrokers, financial minds and world leaders.

The Bilderbergers hope that part of their common agenda with the “Trilateralists” will be accomplished by the time they meet: a U.S. invasion of Libya to generate increased Middle East turmoil so America can go to war with Iran, on Israel’s behalf.

As has happened for several years, the Bilderbergers will blubber about how “ evil nationalists” are blocking their efforts to achieve world government. They will order oil prices to climb so desperate Americans might be made more willing to surrender sovereignty to a world government. They will promote wars for profit, and will advance the call for a world government to impose peace—as if peace can be imposed.

It is ironic that Bilderberg attendees love Switzerland so much because they are poles apart politically from Switzerland, which declared itself a non-interventionist neutral country four centuries ago. It has been involved in none of the world’s bloody wars since.

The Bilderbergers can expect to be loudly greeted by AFP, European news outlets and some in the U.S. independent media. In Europe, major metropolitan daily newspapers from Paris, London and other cities give major coverage to Bilderberg. But The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times and their numerous chains will submit to muzzling because their top representatives are actual Bilderberg participants themselves.

Source: American Free Press

Another year, another Bilderberg. The first “participants” (as the delegates are known) won’t be arriving until Thursday, but already the Hotel Dolce in Sitges is buzzing with anticipation. This Catalan seaside town hasn’t hosted an event as large and politically sensitive as Bilderberg since the legendary 2008 Foam Party at the Mr Gay Sitges awards night.

Last year, Bilderberg was held in Vouliagmeni, on the coast just south of Athens. The Greek minister of finance attended, the minister of foreign affairs, and the governor of the National Bank of Greece. A few months later, Greece was bankrupt and Athens was in flames. So … good luck, Madrid!

Police are already stretching their red stripy tape around the hotel, and zipping up and around the local roads in their squad cars, sniffing for trouble. I’m really hoping there’s none to find. The Spanish are promising a beach party and an “awareness camp”, with political discussion forums and meditation zones.

I plan to spend at least part of Friday sitting cross-legged in a campsite, sending beams of white light up the hill and into the hotel. Feel my love, Marcus Agius – Chairman of Barclays and senior non-executive director on the BBC’s new executive board. Let it surround you, Queen Sofia of Spain. Don’t fight it, president of the World Bank. You can’t beat the love.

It would be nicer if the interface between Bilderberg and the world could be softer – if it could turn an open face towards us, rather than the barrel of a machine gun. What I’m hoping is that this year, in the all-new CamCleggian spirit of openness and political transparency, any British elected official who attends the meeting – and I’m talking to you, Kenneth Clarke and George Osborne – will tell us they attended, tell us what they spoke about, and tell us what the next 12 months has in store. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

Not that anyone is really asking. I’ve come along again this year because I had the horrible, nagging thought that no other journalists would.

Not that I’m a proper journalist. Hardly: consider me an interested citizen of the world come to bear witness to a peculiar, important, and unsettling event.

For a long and luxurious weekend at the Dolce Sitges, relishing its “new and creative buffet concepts” (a table with food on it), prime ministers will mingle with European royalty, with various EU commissioners, with representatives from Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, AIB, Deutsche Bank, Chase Manhattan and Royal Dutch Shell.

They’ll clink glasses with President Obama’s special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke (he is confirmed for this year). And join the Friday night conga line behind the US treasury secretary (Tim Geithner went last year; he goes a lot). We can reasonably expect the head of the Federal Reserve, the president of the World Bank, the secretary general of Nato … they’ve all attended in the past and many will attend again. So yes, important it is; to think otherwise is painfully naive (see below for the usual “just a big boys’ club” comments …)

The conference hotel may be perched above a golf course, and boast two ping pong tables, but this four-day event isn’t about who is better at table tennis, Ken Clarke or David Rockefeller (it’s Rockefeller). This is about big business, global financial strategy and the economic future of Europe … if indeed it has one.

And most importantly, this four-day event doesn’t start until tomorrow – and continues all the way through the weekend – so if you’re a PROPER journalist reading this, or a blogger, or simply a curious citizen of a Europe teetering on the edge, then come along. Please come. I’ll buy you a Catalan beer. I recommend the Rosita. It’s fruity but ballsy – not unlike the winner of Mr Gay Sitges 2008.

It’s midday at the Bilderberg conference hotel – and that means helicopters, riot police and angry staff

“Congratulations!” grinned the man in charge of this year’s Bilderberg conference, mustering as much sarcasm as a Dutchman could muster.

“You are the last guests here! You should have a banner!” he whooped, punching the air, wanting us gone. It’s true – we had been dragging our heels as we left the Hotel Dolce Sitges. The folding tables were already being set up in the courtyard for participant lanyards and orientation packs. It was well past the midday “lockdown” of the hotel.

“Lockdown” at Bilderberg means that security is snapped securely shut – it means an unbreachable, Pentagon-like security cordon is tightened around this seaside hotel.

It means that hundreds (and I mean hundreds) of police, in various states of riot readiness, position themselves at every junction, every roundabout, along every road, layby and dirt track within a mile of the building. And every 15 minutes or so, ruining everyone’s poolside naps, police choppers circle in the perfect sky above.

The helicopters started yesterday. The day before, as we were checking in, a couple of tourists in microlights came buzzing over the hotel before buzzing off towards the beach. For about two seconds, I thought: “Brilliant! That’s how we’re going to get photos! From the air!” Then I thought: “CIA snipers! Not so brilliant!”.

We’ve made do with a few sneaky shots around the hotel and some hushed chats with the barstaff. We did a little undercover work. And, as a result, we can confirm the following people will definitely be attending this year’s Bilderberg conference in Sitges.

I can’t tell you how I know this. Let’s just say we ‘obtained’ this information. Step forward if you hear your name.

1. Marcus Agius: The chairman of Barclays and a senior non-executive director on the BBC’s new executive board. Married to Katherine, daughter of Edmund Leopold de Rothschild (I don’t know why I mention that. Just a bit of family trivia – the sort of thing some people find interesting).

2. Josef Ackermann: The CEO of Deutsche Bank and a non-executive director of Shell.

3. General Jack Keane, the former vice chief of staff of the US army and on the board of the US defence conglomerate General Dynamics.

4. Juan Luis Cebrián Echarri: The CEO and co-founder of El Pais; the CEO of Grupo Prisa (Spain‘s biggest publisher); on the board of directors of Le Monde.

5. Richard Holbrooke: Barack Obama’s special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan and a member of the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations.

6. Gustavo A Cisneros Rendiles: A Venezuelan media mogul – one of the world’s richest men.

7. Victor Halberstadt: Professor of public economics at Leiden University and international advisor to Goldman Sachs. President of the International Institute of Public Finance.

8. Roger Altman: The founder and chairman of Evercore Partners, “the most active investment banking boutique in the world” (their website says).

9. Joaquín Almunia: Senior Spanish member of the European commission.

10. W. Edmund Clark: President and CEO of the TD Bank Financial Group.

11. Jan H.M. Hommen: Chairman of the ING Group.

12. Jyrki Katainen: Minster of finance in Finland, chairman of the Finnish National Coalition party.

And they’re just the tip of the Bilderberg. More names will emerge as the weekend progresses, and the long-lens snaps have started coming in. The police have started pushing us further from the roundabouts. We’ve had the first detentions and the first angry deletions of photographs by police.

Although quite why attending Bilderberg has to remain such a mystery remains a mystery. The blackened windows of the limousines, the desperate camera-dodging of the delegates.

Tony Blair attended in 1993, but lied about it in parliament. Why lie? Why hide? If it’s a long weekend of ping-pong, why the secrecy? If it’s a long weekend of global strategising, why not simply behave like adults and talk to the press about it?

The paranoia was riding high amongst the conference organisers. A pair of them talked about the 2006 Bilderberg conference in Ottawa, where the radio host Alex Jones led the protests with his megaphone.

“They were very close to the hotel,” said one. Another looked shocked and asked: “Did they ever try to attack?” A shake of the head and the answer: “No, but it was very scary.” A third leaned in: “This is the negative side of the welfare state. People have enough income, so they can do this – it’s like a permanent threat.”

What threat? That people concerned about the unfairness of the world should drape a banner over a police cordon? That they should shout their anger at the madness of asset-grabbing transnational corporations, whose chairmen are sipping beers with our elected officials? “It’s like a permanent threat.” Don’t make me spit.

My wife, Hannah, felt the hard edge of paranoia as we left the hotel at lockdown. She decided she needed to do some last-minute printing (she suddenly felt the urge to print out a history of Sitges from the internet).

The concierge ushered her into the business centre, where she found herself in the middle of pulsing heart of Bilderberg. She sat down to print. She was spotted. A stern Dutch lady shouted coldly: “Take her to security!” and barked: “What is your name?”

Startled, Hannah remarked: “This isn’t a very friendly hotel.” The lady replied: “No, it’s not a very friendly hotel.” Not this week it isn’t.

As we left finally left the unfriendly Dolce Sitges, as the plainclothes police gathered, a pallet of watermelons was being rolled into the service entrance alongside a lighting rig. The patio lights had been covered with orange cellophane.

It’s going to be quite a show later, the opening night of Bilderberg – watermelons everywhere, greedy eyes glowing orange on the dancefloor.

“More watermelons!” shouts the CEO of Deutsche Bank. Twenty are rolled towards him in an instant. He stamps upon the first and hoots his joy into the orange air, as the DJ leans into the microphone: “And we have a request from Mr Kenneth Clarke, it’s Another One Bites the Dust!”

A happy Ken tosses his cigar over his shoulder and takes to the disco floor. Not that Ken’s been confirmed yet. He’s probably relaxing in his constituency. Maybe someone should find out.

On Tuesday night, when we were at the bar working our way through their selection of Catalan beers, we asked the barman how big he reckoned the Bilderbergers’ hotel bill would be.

He rolled his eyes and said: “You don’t want to know how much they’re paying for this!” He misunderstood. I really did.

If the cost of dinner at the Dolce is anything to go by, it’ll be a whacking great tab. My advice to David Rockefeller – avoid the ‘award winning’ trout fillets. If you’re hungry, try the black spaghetti with salmon meatballs to start.

What else…?

My top tips for Bilderberg 2010 participants:

The gazpacho is good but thin.

The righthand of the two ping-pong tables (if you’re standing with your back to the sunloungers) has a tricky camber. Better go for the left-hander.

If you’re on a budget, go to breakfast at 7am, then go again at half 10, so you can get breakfast and lunch out of the same buffet.

Don’t drink the tapwater in the bedrooms. It’s got more chlorine in it than the swimming pool.

The kiwifruit breakfast pastries are to die for.

The artichoke soup needs black pepper.

Go to the spa, have an Ayurvedic massage, and during it repeat the mantra: “It’s ok if I don’t own everything, it’s ok if I don’t own everything.” Then get drunk and throw bread rolls at the stripper.

The staff are Catalan, not Spanish. Apart from the Argentinian bellhop. He’s Argentinian.

Cancel three-quarters of your police protection. You don’t need them, and they’re costing other people money.

Source: The Guardian

LONDON (AFP) – Scouting founder Lord Robert Baden-Powell was invited to meet Adolf Hitler after friendly talks with the Hitler Youth about forming closer ties, secret British files released Monday showed.

Britain’s Baden-Powell, who started the Scouts in 1907, held talks with German ambassador Joachim von Ribbentrop and Hitler Youth chief of staff Hartmann Lauterbacher on November 19, 1937.

Lauterbacher, then 28, was in Britain to foster closer relations with the Boy Scout movement and Ribbentrop invited Baden-Powell to tea with the Hitler Youth leader, newly declassified MI5 Security Service files revealed.

A letter from Baden-Powell to Ribbentrop the day after the meeting showed how he felt about the talks.

“I am grateful for the kind conversation you accorded me which opened my eyes to the feeling of your country towards Britain, which I may say reciprocates exactly the feeling which I have for Germany,” Baden-Powell wrote.

“I sincerely hope that we shall be able, in the near future, to give expression to it through the youth on both sides, and I will at once consult my headquarters officers and see what suggestions they can put forward.”

In a report on the meeting, Baden-Powell described Ribbentrop as “earnest” and “charming”.

He wrote: “I had a long talk with the ambassador, who was very insistent that the true peace between the two nations will depend on the youth being brought up on friendly terms together in forgetfulness of past differences.

“He sees in the Scout movement a very powerful agency for helping to bring this about if we can get into closer touch with the Jugend (Youth) movement in Germany.

“To help this he suggested that if possible we should send one or two men to meet their leaders in Germany and talk matters over and, especially, he would like me to go and see Hitler after I am back from Africa.”

He went on: “I told him that I was fully in favour of anything that would bring about a better understanding between our nations, and hoped to have further talks with him when I return from Africa.”

There is no evidence that Baden-Powell ever met Hitler.

Once the war had been under way for several years, the security services had no doubt about the nature of the Nazi youth wing.

An October 1944 intelligence assessment warned that the organisation should not be taken lightly and could not be compared to the Scouts.

It said: “It is a compulsory Nazi formation, which has consciously sought to breed hate, treachery and cruelty into the mind and soul of every German child.

“It is, in the true sense of the word, ‘education for death’.”

Richard Nixon, and newly elected Governor Ronald Reagan, at The Bohemian Grove (1967)

This is what the Sonoma County Free Press, Bohemian Grove Action Network says about the Bohemian Grove:

The grove is the site of a two week retreat every July (as well as other smaller get-togethers throughout the year).  At these retreats, the members commune with nature in a truly original way.  They drink heavily from morning through the night, bask in their freedom to urinate on the redwoods, and perform pagan rituals (including the “Cremation of Care”, in which the members wearing red-hooded robes, cremate a coffin effigy of “Dull Care” at the base of a 40 foot owl altar).  Some (20%) engage in homosexual activity (but few of them support gay rights or AIDS research).  They watch (and participate in) plays and comedy shows in which women are portrayed by male actors.  Although women are not allowed in the Grove, members often leave at night to enjoy the company of the many prostitutes who come from around the world for this event.  Is any of this hard to believe? Employees of the Grove have said that no verbal description can accurately portray the bizarre behavior of the Grove’s inhabitants.

Besides this type of merriment. the annual gathering serves as an informational clearing house for the elite.  The most powerful men in the country do their “networking” here, despite the Grove’s motto “weaving spiders come not here” (don’t do business in the Grove).  At these gatherings men representing the government, military-industrial, and financial sectors meet and make major policy decisions.  The Manhattan project, which produced the first atomic bombs, was conceived at the Grove in 1942.  Other decisions made at the Grove include who our presidential candidates will be.  There are speeches, known as “Lakeside Talks”, wherein high-ranking officials disseminate information which is not available to the public-at-large.

The Lakeside Talks are conducted twice daily during the July encampment.  They feature prominent men representing CORPORATE, FINANCIAL, MILITARY and POLITICAL elite circles. They provide a way to float ideas that often lead to public policy but are done without public scrutiny.  Do “Weaving Spiders” indeed come to the Grove? YOU BE THE JUDGE!!!

In July of 1967, Richard Nixon gave the Lakeside Talk at the Bohemian Grove.