Secretive Bilderberg meeting taking place in Spain

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June 4, 2010 7:28 PM EDT

Some of the Western world's top business and political leaders are holding their annual secret Bilderberg conference about global issues this weekend in Spain. The meeting of around 130 selected elites, taking place from June 3-6 in the luxury Hotel Dolce in Sitges, a resort town close to Barcelona, is under a tight security lock-down.

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A small army of private security and hundreds of policemen, complete with helicopter and patrol boats, are reported to be shielding the high-profile forum of the elite, which is closed to the public and to the press.

A small group of reporters, mainly representing the alternative media, is providing some footage of arriving participants and the massive security - even though the police is arresting some and forcing others to delete any photos made in the vicinity of the event.

One of them is Charlie Skelton, who is covering the event for the second time for The Guardian in Britain. Hinting at the possible significance of the meeting, he warns: "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!"

Indeed the top item on the list of topics said as being discussed is the question "will the Euro survive?"

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This is according to the veteran Bilderberg researcher and bestselling author Daniel Estulin, who claimed to be able to acquire a copy of the agenda, which is sent as part of the required invitation to the participants.

Estulin gave a presentation about the Bilderberg Group to the European parliament on June 1, which came as a highly unusual public mentioning of the secret club. It could be claimed that the European citizens have a right for more transparency, regarding Herman Van Rompuy to be on the record for attending a dinner meeting with fellow Bilderberg participants in Brussels on 12th November, just prior to becoming selected as the first President of the European Council.

The Bilderberg conferences are not so secret and hidden anymore as they used to be. For the first two decades after the first meeting in Hotel Bilderberg in the Netherlands, organized in the year 1954 as a trans-atlantic forum according to multiple sources , barely anyone knew even of the existence of the annual invitation-only gathering. Reports about the 2009 Bilderberg meeting in Greece appeared in several major media, and for the first time there was a government press release about the participation of senior officials, as well as the coverage of a global news agency.

This year a significant number of people are gathering at Sitges protesting the conference, which could be seen as a development similar to the opposition drawn by similar meetings like the World Economic Forum or the G8/G20. Due to the appearance as a secretive and undemocratic club, some see the Bilderberg Group as part of a conspiracy aiming to influence world events in favor of selected and hidden interests.

This article is copyrighted by International Business Times, the business news leader