Thursday, August 30, 2007

MONOPOLY MEN

47 min - Apr 8, 2006 -
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The Federal Reserve, or the Fed as it is lovingly called, may be one of the most mysterious entities in modern American government. Created during Wilson's presidency
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7065177340464808778

BOOM OF CONDO CRASH LOUDEST IN MIAMI

Boom of condo crash loudest in Miami
The pain is acute here but unbearable in S. Florida
.
Downtown Miami

SUSAN STOCKER/SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL, August 7, 2007
Multiple construction cranes fill the skyline off Brickell Avenue in downtown Miami, where the nation's most glutted condo market can be found. Orlando has 4,440 condos listed for sale; Miami has 23,000.


Maya Bell Sentinel Staff Writer
August 27, 2007
MIAMI

The champagne-popping days are over for Natalie and David Luongo, who banked enough money flipping a South Florida condo three years ago to stage a $100,000 wedding.

Now the couple are spending restless nights wrestling with the question that looms like a guillotine: Should they walk away from the $117,000 deposit they plunked down on another investment condo in the ritzy Miami-Dade enclave of Bal Harbour?

Or should they close on the one-bedroom unit, which is similar to others now on the market for less than the $585,000 they agreed to pay?

Related links
Big real-estate slowdown spurs legion of condo opportunists
Orlando's condo boom a thing of the past
Condo market goes bust in Miami Graphic
The Big Slowdown: The end of Orlando's condo boom

"It's painful and scary," Natalie Luongo, 31, said. "We saw the frenzy, and we bought in. Now we're paying the consequences."

Just how many other speculators face the same dilemma in the nation's most glutted condo market will become clear during the next two years. That is when 25,000 new condo units, most of them rising in or near Miami's downtown, will flood an area already saturated with 23,000 condos listed for sale. An additional 40,000 units have been approved, but analysts doubt the majority will break ground. (See map with condo locations.)

Orlando and other Florida cities -- Naples, Fort Myers, Tampa and Sarasota among them -- also have huge condo gluts. With 4,440 condos listed for sale, Orlando has an unprecedented 29-month supply, and last month sales plummeted 64 percent lower than a year ago.

But Miami, with its unmatched volume and untold number of speculative buyers, is ripe for the hardest fall in the U.S.

"Miami is the poster child for the condo bust," said Jack McCabe, CEO of McCabe Research & Consulting, a real-estate market-analysis firm located in Deerfield Beach. "There are probably only two cities in the world with more construction: Shanghai and Dubai. Unfortunately, there is going to be a lot of foreclosures . . ., and developers, lenders, title companies and real-estate companies will go under."

Many analysts, McCabe among them, predict the area's condo collapse will drag the rest of the state into recession. Other experts scoff at that notion. But nearly all agree grim times lie ahead.

Usually joyous milestones, closings in Miami are about to become somber days of reckoning for electricians, waiters, retirees and other amateur speculators who counted on making a quick killing in a market they thought would rise forever.

No one knows how many units speculators bought. But as early as 2004, McCabe and Lew Goodkin of Miami-based Goodkin Consulting warned that up to 70 percent of the condos rising in Miami were being snapped up by people who didn't plan to hold on to them, much less live in them.

That was evident from the hordes who camped overnight, fought over lottery numbers, even paid homeless men $20 and a pack of cigarettes to hold their places in long lines, all for the chance to put 20 percent deposits on condos that existed only in brochures. The frenzy for some projects was so fevered that some developers raised their prices hourly.

"It was a nightmare. Lines around the corner. People screaming into phones. I would look at them, and think, 'You don't know what you're doing,' " said Mark Zilbert, president of Zilbert Realty Group.

Many told a similar story: They had a friend who made $100,000 flipping a new condo, and they planned to ride the same wave of escalating prices. All they had to do was put down $60,000 on a $300,000 pre-construction unit and resell it when the value climbed to $400,000 -- before the building opened, and before closing and mortgage payments, maintenance fees, insurance and taxes kicked in.

That meant anyone could risk $60,000 and pocket $100,000 without actually buying anything.

Some investors were experienced players like Barry Beschel of Aventura. After the dot-com stock-market crash in 2000, he said he had no trouble persuading his buddies to park their money in Miami's sizzling condo market.

"All my guys in New York were like, 'Yeah, flipping condos in Miami.' It was a sexy commodity, and it was fun to make money," Beschel said.

It was also easy. Beschel, 50, said his group followed well-known developers such as The Related Group's Jorge Perez to their next project. The king of Florida's condo market, Perez has built or manages more than 55,000 units in the state and is building at least nine new towers in Miami as well as a 441-unit, luxury condo hotel in Celebration.

From 2001 to 2005, Beschel said his group bought about 50 pre-construction condos, sometimes 10 or 12 at a time. They would pay about $300 a square foot and, once the building sold out, return the condos to the developer, who would resell them at $350 a square foot. The difference between the original contract price and the new one -- $100,000 on a 2,000-square-foot unit -- would go to Beschel's group, minus a commission.

"The developer would take his commission, and we'd take our profit and everybody was happy. When the market was cranking, it was a brilliant business model," Beschel said.

But beginning in 2006, Goodkin said, it became clear the market was saturated. Speculators, at least the wise ones, had fled. Buyers stopped walking through the sales-office door. Some developers halted resale programs to concentrate on their own inventory.

And whoever held a contract was stuck -- with prices at their peak. Now, foreclosure filings are up by 30 percent in greater Miami over last year.

For Beschel, whose group still holds contracts on two condos with falling values and looming closing dates, financial ruin isn't a worry. He figures his group made "a few million dollars," so walking away from two $100,000 deposits is no big deal.

But for untold others, such as the Luongos, losses could be devastating. Owners of a gourmet shop, the transplanted New Yorkers poured their life savings into deposits on four condos they had planned to flip for a quick profit.

The plan worked for a one-bedroom condo conversion at The Residence in Hollywood. They agreed to buy it in 2004 for $207,000 and sold it before closing for $330,000.

But they were forced to close on a condo in Boynton Beach, where they now live, and they face the prospect of losing nearly $200,000 they put down on two condo conversions at the Harbour House in north Miami-Dade County. One is a $350,900 studio, which Natalie Luongo said is smaller and in a different location than the one she agreed to buy in December 2005. It is the subject of litigation.

The other is a $585,000 one-bedroom unit similar to others now available for about 25 percent less. As the September closing looms, the Luongos are distraught. If they can't secure another mortgage, the decision will be made for them. They will have to walk away from their $117,000 deposit.

But if they secure financing, they know they will be stuck with a property that could be as difficult to rent as it is to sell.

Gregg and Mary Mullins, 70-year-old retirees living near Fort Myers, learned that the hard way.

Last month, they finally rented out the two-story $885,500 penthouse they closed on last year in Blue, a concave tower overlooking Biscayne Bay. But the $2,800-a-month rent they're collecting is less than half their monthly mortgage payment, maintenance fees and property taxes. Yet, as Mary Mullins said, something is better than nothing.

The couple never planned to live in the condo, but jumped at buying it at pre-construction prices in 2004 after friends shared a familiar story.

"They said they made lots of money, so they told us to try it and maybe we could make lots of money, too," Mary Mullins said. "But that didn't happen. We don't know what happened."

A sheepish Tom Leon says he knows. The retired businessman from Illinois said he knew he had made a mistake about six months after he put down $200,000 on two $500,000 condos at the end of 2004.

"Every 2 inches, I'd see another [construction] crane, and I knew: There is no market that can absorb these many units," said Leon, 72. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to say, 'Gee, who's going to live in all these buildings?' "

Jerry Jackson of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Maya Bell can be reached at mbell@orlandosentinel.com or 305-810-5003.

more articles in /business

Copyright © 2007, Orlando Sentinel

SUNDAY, HOLY SUNDAY?

WND Exclusive
TESTING THE FAITH
Sunday, holy Sunday?
Pastor resurrects Sabbath debate
with $1 million reward


Posted: October 13, 2001
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Joe Kovacs
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com

One of the longest running disputes in the history of Christianity – Saturday vs. Sunday – is having new life breathed into it with a cash reward of up to $1 million toward a resolution.

A. Jan Marcussen, a Seventh-day Adventist pastor in Illinois, is starting with $50,000 of his own money if someone can produce "a verse from the Holy Bible showing that God commands us to keep holy the first day of the week" – Sunday – "instead of the seventh day" – Saturday – "as is commanded in the Bible."

He says the reward will increase in $25,000 increments each week for 40 consecutive weeks if no one sends him such a verse, with a final cap at $1 million.

"The $50,000 offer is to wake people up out of a stupor," Marcussen tells WorldNetDaily. "People wake up when there's money involved."


A. Jan Marcussen (right), and wife Vennita

Marcussen, who says he has the money ready to pay if someone is successful, is making the offer to encourage people to read the Bible for themselves, instead of accepting without question what religious leaders have been instructing.

"Millions of people believe and have confidence in their clergy that what they're being taught is true," says Marcussen. "They'll find out that the clergy is not teaching from the Bible."

Marcussen, 52, is not only a preacher in his local church, he's also a physical therapist, nutritionist, marriage counselor and author of six books. One of those works, "National Sunday Law," focuses on the Saturday-vs.-Sunday debate. Marcussen is asking people to read that book before applying for the reward. (It can be read for free online.)

As a college student in the 1970s, Marcussen made a similar, albeit smaller, challenge. He posted an ad in a local newspaper starting with a $500 reward and ending up at $1,000. "Certain preachers really got excited," he says. "But the only thing they couldn't do was produce a Bible verse [as proof]."

Experts on biblical scripture tell WorldNetDaily that Marcussen has little need to worry about paying out the money.

"I am afraid that you are not going to find an exact Bible verse to counter the good pastor's challenge and collect," says James Efird, professor of biblical interpretation at Duke University Divinity School in Durham, N.C. "As far as I know, there is no verse which specifies that Sunday is the day for Christians to observe the Sabbath."

Indeed, neither the words Saturday nor Sunday appear anywhere in most translations of the Bible. Days of the week are referred to by number, starting in the first chapter of Genesis in the account of creation. It was after the work of creating that God made special note of one day of the week: "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made" (Genesis 2:3).

In the Ten Commandments, the seventh day was made the focus of the fourth mandate: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy ... thou shalt not do any work ... For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it" (Exodus 20:8-11).

The word sabbath comes from the Hebrew root word "shabbat," meaning to rest, cease or desist. Scholars say the word in Bible scripture not only refers to the weekly day of rest, but also the annual festivals of God such as Passover and Day of Atonement. It additionally refers to a sabbatical year, and it's the term denoting one week. The phrase "first day of the week" occurs eight times in the King James translation of the New Testament, mostly dealing with the circumstances of Jesus' resurrection.

In the lexicon of modern society, the debate over which day is holy – that is, set apart to God – goes unresolved by the editors of Webster's New World College Dictionary. While the first definition of sabbath calls it "the seventh day of the week (Saturday), set aside for rest and worship and observed as such by Jews (from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset) and some Christian denominations," its second meaning defines it as "Sunday as the usual Christian day of rest and worship."

"There's a fear factor among preachers," says Marcussen, on why churches don't have their members look into this issue. "They're afraid their sheep will start reading the Bible, and they know they'll lose their sheep."

One expert who has spent his career researching and explaining the Sabbath debate is Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi, a retired theology professor at Andrews University in Michigan. He tells WorldNetDaily two factors are responsible for the shift from one day to another: "Anti-Judaism caused the abandonment of the Sabbath, and pagan sun worship influenced the adoption of Sunday."

Bacchiocchi says the Church of Rome, which grew into the Roman Catholic Church, had great influence in promoting Sunday observance.

"The Church of the capital of the empire, whose authority was already felt far and wide in the second century, appears to be the most likely birth-place of Sunday observance," he writes in his book, "From Sabbath to Sunday: A historical investigation of the rise of Sunday observance in early Christianity."

In May 1998, Pope John Paul II issued an apostolic letter on the subject, entitled Dies Domini (The Lord's Day). In it, the pontiff refers to the origins of Sunday-keeping.

"In the weekly reckoning of time, Sunday recalls the day of Christ's Resurrection," writes the pope. "It is Easter which returns week by week, celebrating Christ's victory over sin and death, the fulfillment in him of the first creation and the dawn of 'the new creation.'"

The pontiff goes on to state that though Sunday has become a time for cultural, political and sporting events, it has a significance that shouldn't be ignored.

"Unfortunately, when Sunday loses its fundamental meaning and becomes merely part of a 'weekend,' it can happen that people stay locked within a horizon so limited that they can no longer see 'the heavens.'"

Though Protestant churches have some significant differences with Catholicism, one thing often agreed on today is Sunday observance.

"The church always met on Sunday throughout the New Testament," says Rev. Jerry Falwell, chancellor of Liberty University in Virginia. "Saturday is clearly the Sabbath as is recorded many times in the Old Testament. In Christian Church tradition, Sunday became 'the Lord's Day' when Jesus rose from the grave."

The actual times of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection are not universally agreed on either.

"I personally believe he was crucified on Wednesday evening ... and rose after 6 p.m. Saturday evening," Falwell tells WorldNetDaily. "Others believe he died on Friday ... But the point is, he did rise on Sunday, which, in Jewish tradition, started the evening before at 6 p.m."

Falwell is among those who believe which day is chosen is not of great significance.

"I don't think Saturday or Sunday are more sacred than other days," he says.

He also points out there have been so many calendar changes over the years, chronologists are not even certain that a day of the week in the 21st century matches the same day from centuries ago.

Most scholars agree that biblical references to "the sabbath day" denote the seventh day of the week. But in the years to come after Jesus rose, the first day of the week came into competition with Saturday, and at times both days were being observed side by side. The ostensible church was divided on the issue, choosing different days to regard as holy.

"It may be that Sunday was originally one of the [pagan] Roman festival days," explains Professor Efird at Duke, "but so were several others that the church adopted in its evolution, [for example:] Christmas."

Marcussen condemns the change in day of observance.

"It's the greatest hoax of all time, foisted upon the world for hundreds and hundreds of years," he says. His zeal on the matter reflects his belief that citizens of the United States and other countries will be forced to choose sides on the issue in the so-called "end time" mentioned in Scripture.

"Sunday worship is the mark of the Papacy's authority," Marcussen writes in his book. "Sunday worship is the 'mark of the beast!'" Yet he insists he is not attacking anyone's faith, but rather trying to lead people to the Bible, Jesus, and eventually heaven.

"I love all these ministers who teach falsehoods," Marcussen says. "Many are honest – they're not all crooks – they believe Sunday is God's day ... this offer will help them find the truth."

Marcussen expects his challenge to be eye-opening for many who never thought about the issue, and he thinks it will spark serious global attention. "The impact of this is going to be like an atomic bomb, it will mushroom all over the world."

Editor's note: Marcussen is accepting regular mail from those seeking to claim the reward at: PO Box 68, Thompsonville, IL 62890




Joe Kovacs is executive news editor for WorldNetDaily.com.

Source: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=24908

ELIHU YALE

Elihu Yale
Elihu Yale
Enlarge
Elihu Yale

Elihu Yale, (April 5, 1649 in Boston, Massachusetts, America – July 8, 1721 in Wrexham, Denbighshire, Wales), was the first benefactor of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut in the United States.

Life

Born in Boston, Massachusetts to David Yale (1613-1690) and Ursula Knight (1624-1698). His grandmother, Ann Lloyd (1591-1659), was also the wife of Governor Theophilus Eaton (1590-1657) of New Haven Colony by a second marriage, after her first husband, Thomas Yale (1590-1619), suddenly died at Chester, in England. Yale moved to England with his family when he was four, and never returned to North America.

Yale's ancestry can be traced back to the family estate at Plas yn Iâl near the village of Llanarmon yn Iâl, Denbighshire, Wales. The name Yale is the English spelling of the Welsh place name, Iâl.

For 20 years, Yale was part of the British East India Company, and he became the second governor of a settlement at Madras (present-day city of Chennai) in 1687, after Streynsham Master. He was instrumental in the development of the Government General Hospital which was housed at Fort St George [1]. Yale amassed a fortune in his lifetime, largely through secret contracts with Madras merchants, against the East India Company's directive. By 1692, Elihu Yale's repeated flouting of East India Company regulations, and growing embarrassment at his illegal profiteering resulted in his being relieved of the post of governor.[2]

In 1718, Cotton Mather contacted Yale and asked for his help. Mather represented a small institution of learning that had been founded as the Collegiate School of Connecticut in 1701, and it needed money for a new building in New Haven, Connecticut. Yale sent Mather a carton of goods that the school subsequently sold, earning them 560 pounds sterling, which was a substantial sum in the early 1700s. In gratitude, officials named the new building Yale; eventually the entire institution became Yale College.

Corrupt Governance

As governor of Fort St. George, Yale purchased territory for private purposes with East India Company funds, including a fort at Tevnapatam (present-day Cuddalore). Yale was responsible for imposing high taxes for the maintainance of the colonial garrison and town. His regime was unpopular and led to several revolts by Indians, which were brutally quelled by garrisson soldiers. Yale was also notorious arresting and trying Indians on his own private authority, including the hanging of a stable boy who had absconded with a Company horse [3]

Death and legacy

Yale died on July 8, 1721, and is buried in the churchyard of the parish church of St. Giles Church' in Wrexham, Wales. His tomb is inscribed with these lines:

Born in America, in Europe bred
In Africa travell'd and in Asia wed
Where long he liv'd and thriv'd; In London dead
Much good, some ill, he did; so hope all's even
And that his soul thro' mercy's gone to Heaven
You that survive and read this tale, take care
For this most certain exit to prepare
Where blest in peace, the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in silent dust.

Wrexham Tower, part of Saybrook College, Yale, is a replica of that of St. Giles', Wrexham.

Elihu later became the name of a "senior society" founded in 1903 at Yale.

Alexandra Robbins, in her article for Atlantic Monthly about Skull and Bones, alleges that the gravestone of Elihu Yale was stolen years ago from its proper setting in Wrexham, and is displayed in a glass case, in a room with purple walls, which belongs to a building called the Tomb of the Skull and Bones at Yale University.

In 1999, American Heritage magazine rated Elihu Yale the "most overrated philanthropist" in American history, arguing that the college that would later bear his name (Yale University) was successful largely because of the generosity of a man named Jeremiah Dummer, but that the trustees of the school did not want it known by the name "Dummer College".

Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/elihu-yale

U.S. SUPPLIED WEAPONS WIND UP IN TURKEY

U.S. Weapons, Given to Iraqis, Move to Turkey

Published: August 30, 2007

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 — Weapons that were originally given to Iraqi security forces by the American military have been recovered over the past year by the authorities in Turkey after being used in violent crimes in that country, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.

The discovery that serial numbers on pistols and other weapons recovered in Turkey matched those distributed to Iraqi police units has prompted growing concern by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates that controls on weapons being provided to Iraqis are inadequate. It was also a factor in the decision to dispatch the department’s inspector general to Iraq next week to investigate the problem, the officials said.

Pentagon officials said they did not yet have evidence that Iraqi security forces or Kurdish officials were selling or giving the weapons to Kurdish separatists, as Turkish officials have contended.

It was possible, they said, that the weapons had been stolen or lost during firefights and smuggled into Turkey after being sold in Iraq’s extensive black market for firearms. Officials gave widely varied estimates — from dozens to hundreds — of how many American-supplied weapons had been found in Turkey.

Over the past year, inquiries by federal oversight agencies have found serious discrepancies in military records of where thousands of weapons intended for Iraqi security forces actually ended up.

The disclosure of the weapons in Turkey, part of those investigations, came on the same day that the Army announced moves aimed at addressing a widening scandal that has generated 76 criminal investigations involving contract fraud in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. Twenty civilians and military personnel have been charged in federal court as a result of the inquiries.

“The reports suggest we have serious issues in this area,” Army Secretary Pete Geren told reporters on Wednesday, adding that the criminal inquiries and the reported diversion of Iraqi weapons to Turkey were major reasons behind his decision to take action now.

Mr. Gates sent the Pentagon general counsel, William J. Haynes II, to Turkey last month for talks with Turkish officials, who had been complaining for months that American-supplied weapons were being used in murders and other violent crimes carried out, in some cases, by Kurdish militants.

Turkey’s allegations that Iraq was being used as a sanctuary to carry out attacks inside Turkey have strained relations between the Bush administration and Ankara over the past six months, with Turkey not ruling out a military intervention into northern Iraq to stop the activity.

American officials said that it appeared that the weapons found in Turkey were given to Iraqi units in 2004 and 2005 when, in the rush to build police and army units, controls on distribution of firearms had been much weaker. Gen. David H. Petraeus, who was then in charge of training and equipping Iraqi forces and who is now the top American commander in Iraq, has said that the imperative to provide weapons to Iraqi security forces was more important at the time than maintaining impeccable records.

By checking serial numbers, American officials confirmed that some of the recovered weapons, which included handguns made by Glock, an Austrian weapons manufacturer, had originally been bought by the Defense Department for distribution in Iraq, the officials said.

Geoff Morrell, a Pentagon spokesman, said at a briefing on Wednesday that Mr. Gates was “deeply troubled by the reports and allegations” about problems accounting for American-supplied weapons in Iraq.

Pentagon officials said Wednesday that the problem of weapons turning up in Turkey was part of a larger investigation being carried out by the Pentagon inspector general, Claude M. Kicklighter, a retired Army three-star general, into allegations that American-supplied weapons had been improperly accounted for and fallen into the wrong hands.

“General Kicklighter has informed the secretary that he will remain in-country as long as it takes to find out if record-keeping problems persist, and if so, make recommendations to the commanders on the ground how to fix those problems,” Mr. Morrell said.

American officials added that they had not seen firm evidence that the firearms had been found in the hands of Kurdish separatists from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, the hard-line Kurdish separatist group that for years has used northern Iraq as a sanctuary to carry out attacks inside Turkey.

Turkish officials have complained in recent months that Kurdish officials in senior positions in the Iraqi government, including Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan region, are actively supporting the Kurdish Workers Party, known as the PKK. Mr. Barzani and other Kurdish officials say they do not support attacks by the PKK into Turkey.

At the Pentagon on Wednesday, Mr. Morrell said, “If American-issued weapons have ended up in the hands of criminals in Turkey or terrorists in Turkey, that is not based upon the policy of this department or this government.”

As the American authorities work to clamp down on any illicit flow of American-supplied weapons to insurgents, Mr. Geren, the Army secretary, announced that two new review panels would address immediate problems and systemic shortcomings in the contracting system.

One panel of retired generals and civilian contracting experts, led by Jacques Gansler, a former top Pentagon acquisition official, will examine the Army contracting system and report back in 45 days how to improve its organization, staffing levels, auditing ability and other functions to prevent fraud, waste and abuse.

The second review, led by Lt. Gen. N. Ross Thompson III and Kathryn Condon, two Army contracting specialists, will examine current operations, Mr. Geren said. It will look for improprieties in the 18,000 contracts awarded from 2003 to 2007 by the Army’s big contracting office in Kuwait. Those contracts to clothe, house and feed American forces moving in and out of Kuwait are valued at more than $3 billion.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/30/washington/30contract.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

__________________________________ ________________________________

P.S. COMMENT:

What audacity to blame the government of Iran or even Syria, of contributing to insurgence or rebellion in Iraq?

When weapons that are "supposedly" intended to combat the Insurgents become the weapons that are used against the Authority that sent them to the WAR ZONE?

Who is conducting these weapon convoys, The Three Stooges, Sergeant Bilko? This is like an F-Troop (the sitcom) episode: "Don't Look Now, One of Our Cannons is Missing"—Where the heck are we? Hekawi?

Is it time to send in Curtis Sliwa and his Guardian Angels to rectify the chaos in Iraq?

Blogmaster.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

BLACKWATER AIR FORCE COMING

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Coming To A State Near You: Blackwater Air Force





As if having them run around Iraq like loose cannons wasn't bad enough, Blackwater is building an Air Force. Via Scholars & Rogues:

Security company Blackwater U.S.A. is buying Super Tucano light combat aircraft from the Brazilian manufacturer Embraer. These five ton, single engine, single seat aircraft are built for pilot training, but also perform quite well for counter-insurgency work.... The bubble canopy provides excellent visibility. This, coupled with its slow speed (versus jets), makes it an excellent ground attack aircraft.



Now why would the good patriots at Blackwater need airplanes that "can carry up to 1.5 tons of weapons, including 12.7mm machine-guns, bombs and missiles"? For their missions in Iraq, of course. Because, you know, the world's largest military merely owning everything that flies over a third-world country isn't enough in the way of air superiority.


My first thought was that this had to do with the Administration's almost promised plans to invade Iran. (Please please please please please please please PLEASE don't do that! I can hope, can't I?) How else are we supposed to keep Iraq's friendly skies safe while we're shocking and aweing the mullahs? But there's an even more awful prospect for these "excellent ground attack aircrafts." Here's Jeremy Scahill, Blackwater expert and biographer:

Blackwater's been in negotiations with several state governments in the United States. Blackwater met recently with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger about doing disaster response in California. They're opening up a new private military base in San Diego. Another one is in Mount Carroll, Illinois. They have applied for operating licenses in every coastal U.S. state.



That's right, folks: the U.S. military whose expenditures are almost half of the total military spending worldwide needs private military bases in the United States for some reason.


What might that reason be? Perhaps it has something to do with National Security Presidential Directive NSPD-51, which lays out exactly how the Executive Branch would run the entire government in the event of a "Catastrophic Emergency," which could be anything from a terrorist attack to the next Katrina, as far as the ambiguous wording of the directive is concerned:

"Catastrophic Emergency" means any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions



Meanwhile, the clergy is being enlisted to keep citizens in line in the event of a declaration of martial law, and Is it really a coincidence that a private company with close ties to the GOP is arming itself with attack planes just at the moment when the President is laying the groundwork for extraordinary wartime powers? The calmer side of me says, "hold judgment." I just can't help but see a mercenary force of palace guards looming in the not-too-distant future.


Should it come to that, I hope Machiavelli's thoughts on mercenaries will prove valid:

Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous; and if one holds his state based on these arms, he will stand neither firm nor safe; for they are disunited, ambitious and without discipline, unfaithful, valiant before friends, cowardly before enemies; they have neither the fear of God nor fidelity to men, and destruction is deferred only so long as the attack is; for in peace one is robbed by them, and in war by the enemy.



Aw, but who am I kidding? If we've learned anything from the Iraq War it's that we can be robbed by mercenaries in war as well.



Source: http://www.declineandfall.net/2007/08/coming-to-state-near-you-blackwater-air.html

PROSPERITY GOSPEL: BRINGIN' IN THE SHEAVES

Prosperity gospel bringing in the cash

An usher

Newsday / Robert Mecea, May 22, 2006

An usher is seen carrying a box of tissues and donation envelopes as he walks in the aisles during a religious service led by the Reverend Creflo Dollar at Madison Square Garden in May.


When the Rev. Creflo A. Dollar asked those who would donate to his World Changers Church to hold their contributions in the air, a sea of blue envelopes rippled through the 5,000-seat Theater at Madison Square Garden.

Dollar -- who drives a Rolls Royce, owns a lavish home in suburban Atlanta and a $2.5 million apartment on Manhattan's Columbus Circle, and flies between them in a private jet -- thanked them for their generosity. And he reminded them: Give and you shall receive.

That's the message of Dollar, among the highest-profile of an increasingly visible number of black preachers advocating the pro-wealth philosophy known as prosperity gospel.

Their message -- that God intends believers to be wealthy and prosperous -- has spawned a massive following across the country, including New York. Dollar, pastor of a megachurch based in Atlanta, where he has more than 20,000 followers, began renting Madison Square Garden for Saturday services here two years ago. That service draws thousands from the metro area each weekend.

"I don't give just out of expectations," said Bryant Wilson, 39, an Army master sergeant from Bayside, who stuffed a blue donation envelope into a collection box at a World Changers service. "But as far as my finances are concerned, my givings have returned to me. I can see it in my promotions, I can see it in my income. I actually have more."

Sandra Fletcher, 56, of Copiague, who sings with the World Changers choir, joined two years ago after her son-in-law urged her to watch telecasts of Dollar's preachings. She had been a member of the Massapequa Full Gospel Tabernacle, but says Dollar's message has encouraged her to devote more energy to printing and karaoke businesses she started in 2002.

"The biggest change has been my attitude," Fletcher said. "What most people do when they have a business is if it's not working they do something else. I take the attitude that God is the source."

Contrary to Biblical teachings

Still, critics say prosperity gospel betrays Christian traditions by linking money and church involvement to an extent at odds with Christ's teachings.

"They are twisting the meaning of the Bible," said the Rev. Calvin Butts, president of the State University of New York at Old Westbury.

"Jesus' teachings were always focused on the needs of the least among us," said Butts, who also is pastor of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church. "It is wrong to say that because you are poor somehow you must not be faithful or in synch with the teachings of God."

To be sure, many white preachers, including Fort Worth televangelist Kenneth Copeland, have also professed the prosperity doctrine. Prosperity gospel was first pushed into widespread acceptance in the 1960s by a white Oklahoma preacher named Kenneth Hagin, Copeland's early mentor.

But many critics say black prosperity preachers have been especially harmful to black church traditions. Those traditions, they say, have emphasized helping the greater community and challenging secular leaders rather than aligning with political power.

Creflo Dollar -- that is his given name -- counters that supporting political leaders is in keeping with the Bible. At Madison Square Garden, Dollar opened his sermon by praying for President George W. Bush by name. "We pray for our political leaders and support those politicians who support godly principles," Dollar said recently.

And while other black leaders were criticizing the president's response to Hurricane Katrina victims last fall, Dallas megachurch leader T.D. Jakes, another proponent of prosperity gospel, was rallying to Bush's side.

Dollar's World Changers Web site includes an online "School of Prosperity," where for $20 one can learn "Why God wants you rich."

And Dollar, who believes God never says 'no' to any prayer as long as you know how to pray, sells prayer coaching tapes. He said his wealth comes from the sale of books and inspirational tapes, not from church donations. The church enterprises take in an estimated $80 million annually.

"Bishop Jakes and I are smart businessmen -- we use our investment skills to bring us money," Dollar said. "But people assume our money is coming from the congregation."

Not rich, just responsible

Even church leaders critical of prosperity gospel, including Butts, have from the pulpit urged churchgoers to secure themselves financially.

The Abyssinian Development Corporation, a non-profit group created by the Butts' Abyssinian church, has helped bring $250 million in investment for housing, businesses and community development in Harlem.

"Our church looks to point people to ways they can relieve themselves from debt," Butts said. "But we don't emphasize prosperity as the result from faithful living. Some of the most faithful and deeply religious people are not rich in terms of material wealth."

In Roosevelt, the Rev. Reggie Tuggle, of Memorial Presbyterian Church, while not advocating Dollar's particular brand of prosperity, does urge congregants to get out of debt, purchase their homes and build wealth. So does the Rev. Floyd Flake, whose Allen A.M.E. Church in Jamaica, Queens, is a center of both personal and community economic development.

And both Jakes and Dollar have organized housing, food and other assistance programs to benefit the poor. Jakes' Dallas-based Potter's House church arranged permanent housing for hundreds of displaced Hurricane Katrina victims. Dollar's World Changers church provides groceries for about 180 families per week, a church spokesman said, and is building about a dozen small homes in a Brazilian shanty town.

Even so, their harsher critics say prosperity preachers focus so heavily on material gain that followers are often distracted from pursuing more subtle spiritual growth.

"Prosperity gospel has gained a following because of the hope it gives of a brighter tomorrow," said the Rev. Marvin Dozier, pastor of Unity Baptist Church in Mattituck. "But if you put all your aspirations in one bucket and prosperity is what you are after, when prosperity doesn't fulfill itself, you find your faith anemic."

Doctrine key to black churches

Black churches have long stressed economic development and social advancement for whole communities. Since before the Civil War, donations to black churches helped support runaway slaves, set up schools, feed needy families and bankroll the civil rights movement.

"In the past, when we talked about prosperity in African-American churches our concern was on the upward mobility on the entire community," said R. Drew Smith, director of the Public Influences of African American Churches Project at Atlanta's Morehouse College. "The message has shifted so the concern now is how one can achieve personal gain, with very little discussion of the collective needs of the African-American community."

Critics of prosperity gospel often point to various passages in the Bible they say indicate Jesus' aversion to wealth. "Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven," Jesus says in Luke 18. " ... For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

But proponents say the Bible indicates God wanted his followers to have material comforts.

Dollar says biblical descriptions of Jesus' crucifixion -- one says "soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice" -- shows that Jesus must have been wealthy enough to have worn fine garments.

"When you go to the scriptures, there is no way you can conclude Jesus was poor."

Butts is one of the critics who says that is a misreading of the Bible. Some critics have pointed to the Biblical references to Jesus as an itinerant preacher with no permanent home.

'Storing up riches for heaven'

Many of Dollar's followers say they are happy to share their paychecks with his church because they receive spiritual healing and monetary gains in return.

"I feel once I'm blessed, I can give more to the kingdom," said Fletcher, who said she gives 10 percent of her family income to World Changers. "Because once you're taking care of the kingdom of God, you're storing up riches for heaven."

Wilson said Dollar's preaching has encouraged him to feel comfortable about asking for wealth even though he grew up in a Christian tradition that rejected materialism and stressed austerity.

"I grew up in the South and came from churches that taught that and always thought there was more," said Wilson, who attributed a recent promotion to the church's positive message. "But if you think about it, God did not want us to be poor."

GOD'S WARRIORS VEILS WORLD RELIGIONS...

August 28, 2007

God's Warriors Veils that our World Religions Command Genocide

By Karen Fish


The Temple in Jerusalem

A woman goes to her doctor for a mammogram. The test reveals a cancerous tumour but her doctor decides not to tell her. Two weeks ago 71 year old tenor Luciano Pavorotti was recording an album of religious songs when he went to the hospital with a fever. Tests revealed a cancerous tumour on his pancreas. What if his doctors had decided that he would not have been able to tolerate the news? How can we tolerate the news watered down for us by the mainstream media like CNN and Christiane Amanpour’s God’s Warriors? The world is careening towards the extinction of life on earth forever in nuclear world war 3 driven there by our world religions which explicitly forbid world peace and command and reward genocide with great rewards for mass murder in the world to come, but your mainstream media does not trust you to know this.

How do you solve a problem when you don’t know what the problem is? How do you solve a problem like Maria? Why does the mainstream media 6 years after 9/11 continue to hide the fact that both the Koran and Hadith clearly and explicitly command the genocide of every Christian, Jew and non Muslim on Earth for eternal paradise in Heaven with God of Mount Sinai, crystal clear streams, 72 virgins per martyr and believer, endless wine with no side effects and 80,000 servants per martyr and believer? Why does your mainstream media not trust you to know this? How does Luciano Pavorotti have surgery to remove a cancerous tumour on his pancreas when he doesn’t know that it’s there?

Is the mainstream media afraid to spill the beans on your world religions for fear of reprisal? Is your mainstream media owned by religious people who are covering up the hate speech inside of their Bibles? As Marvin Gaye asked, “What’s Going On?” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQr4UAeMrxg Why does CNN and Christiane Amanpour spend 8 months preparing God’s Warriors to explain to us the root of the religious conflict engulfing the world and tell us that Islamic violence is committed only by a small percentage of Muslims who have a wild interpreation of Islam? The Koran says, “Make War upon the Christians and the Jews. Do battle with them. Kill the infidels, the non Muslims wherever ye shall find them. Besiege them and lay wait for them with every kind of ambush. The believers shall be rewarded with eternal paradise in Heaven with God of Mount Sinai, crystal clear springs, trees clad with fruit, extended shade, flowing waters, 72 virgins and 80,000 servants. The non Muslims shall suffer pestilential winds and scalding water and live in a hot black smoke.” (Koran, Sura, Chapter 9:5, 29-30, Chapter 56, and the Hadith).

Is the mainstream media afraid that if the Muslims knew what their religion commanded of them that they would immediately run out and slaughter all non Muslims? Is the mainstream media afraid that if the Christians knew what Islam was all about that the Christians would immediately run out and kill every Muslim? To hide the truth is like saying that only a small percentage of golfers with a wild interpretation of the rules of golf are penalized for hitting their ball into a water hazard. Islam forbids peace and commands genocide with great eternal rewards for mass murder and suicide bombing in this lifetime. 6 years after 9/11 this should be common knowledge in every grade one class.

The truth shall set you free if you know the truth and take action to correct the problem. Christianity began 2,000 years ago and since then has been spread by the sword in the Crusades, the 300 year inquisition, the pogroms and resulted in the Holocaust, “The War Against the Jews”. The New Testament says that when Jesus Christ returns he will order the Christian people to throw all 4 billion non Christian men, women and children into the fire to burn alive because they are all devils. (Matthew 13:36-43). CNN and Christiane Amanpour in God’s Warriors spent two hours examining God’s Christian Warriors and never mentioned the countless passages in the Christian Bible commanding the slaughter of non believers. Instead they spent two hours discussing abortion and gay marriage.

3 years ago George Bush publicly announced a Crusade. The Crusades were 1,000 years ago when the Pope marched his Christian Army across Europe massacring every Jew in their way until they reclaimed the Holy Land and stood knee deep in Muslim blood. So far George Bush has conquered Muslim Afghanistan and Iraq, and is now poised to strike Iran with weapons of mass destruction. George Bush expects to be met in Jeruslaem and congratulated by Jesus Christ for conquering the world for Christianity and then raptured into eternal paradise with God of Mount Sinai because he read this in his Bible.

Psalm 2 of the Old Testament of Judaism describes how the Messiah will take a rod of iron and smash every non Jew like a potter’s clay vessel and conquer the world for the Jewish people. When Christianity adopted the Old Testament they changed it to the Messiah will kill all of the Heathens, the non Christians, and conquer the world for Christianity. This is called forgery. When Islam adopted the Old Testament they changed it to the messiah will kill every infidel non Muslim and conquer the world for Islam. This was a forgery of a forgery.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. On their 10 page website The Temple of Love aka The World Peace Religion reveals the cause and the solution (according to God of Mount Sinai, aka God the Father, Jesus Christ, The Holy Spirit, Allah, Yehovah, Elohim, Hashem and your common sense) for the world wide religious conflict now leading us all into the world wide inferno of nuclear world war 3 and the extinction of life on earth forever in its aftermath nuclear winter then ultraviolent summer, which God of Mount Sinai explained through every single Biblical Prophet of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, especially Jesus Christ, the awaited Jewish born Messiah of Christianity and Islam. Although The Temple of Love is widely known on the internet today, 2 years after its founding, the mainstream media has never mentioned it. If they will not tell you the problem, then how can you expect them to show you the solution?

We have become too technologically advanced for war. Every nuclear scientist knows that nuclear world war 3 will have zero survivors. In order to prevent the impending nuclear world war 3, The Temple of Love website must immediately be made mandatory reading and the link http://www.thetempleoflove.com must be placed in every classroom, mainstream newspaper, television station, radio station, blog, myspace, facebook and website on earth. This is how you can help to save the world. Forewarned is forearmed. Let us not go down like ostriches with our heads buried in the sand. Your God’s solution to your problems is simple. Go read what your God’s solution is now while we still have time. By the way, Luciano Pavorotti is doing fine two weeks after his doctors removed the cancerous tumour from his pancreas. Now let us follow the command of our God of Mount Sinai and remove the cancer of hatred from our religions. Go see how. It’s simple once you see.


Authors Website: http://www.thetempleoflove.com

Authors Bio: Karen Fish is a writer currently living in Los Angeles California. The Temple of Love - The World Peace Religion makes peace among and unites Christianity Islam Judaism and Everyone else and the Countries they all live in as the first step towards world peace.


Source: http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/print_friendly.php?p=opedne_karen_fi_070826_god_s_warriors_veils.htm

ATLANTA OLYMPICS BOMBING SUSPECT DIES

Former Security Guard Jewell Dies
Wednesday, August 29, 2007

ATLANTA - Former security guard Richard Jewell, who was erroneously linked to the 1996 Olympic bombing, died Wednesday, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.

Jewell, 44, was found dead in his west Georgia home, GBI spokesman John Bankhead said.

He died of natural causes, said Meriwether County Coroner Johnny Worley.

"There's no suspicion whatsoever of any type of foul play. He had been at home sick since the end of February with kidney problems," Worley said.

The GBI planned to do an autopsy Thursday, Bankhead said.

Lin Wood, Jewell's longtime attorney, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that he was "devastated" by the news. He declined to comment further, saying he was in New York trying to get back to Atlanta.

Jewell was initially hailed as a hero for spotting a suspicious backpack in a park and moving people out of harm's way just before a bomb exploded during a concert at the Atlanta Summer Olympics.

The blast killed one and injured 111 others.

Three days after the bombing, an unattributed report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution described him as "the focus" of the investigation.

Other media, to varying degrees, also linked Jewell to the investigation. He was never arrested or charged, although he was questioned and was a subject of search warrants.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

ATLANTA (AP) - Former security guard Richard Jewell, who was erroneously linked to the 1996 Olympic bombing, died Wednesday, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.

Jewell, 44, was found dead in his west Georgia home, GBI spokesman John Bankhead said.

He died of natural causes, said Meriwether County Coroner Johnny Worley.

"There's no suspicion whatsoever of any type of foul play. He had been at home sick since the end of February with kidney problems," Worley said.

The GBI planned to do an autopsy Thursday, Bankhead said.

Copyright © 2007, PeoplePC Inc. All rights reserved.


Source: http://home.peoplepc.com/psp/newsstory.asp?cat=TopStories&id=20070829/46d4ef40_3ca6_1552620070829296307539

DANIEL'S PRAYER FOR THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL


1In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;
2In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
3And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
4And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;
5We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:
6Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
7O LORD, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.
8O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
9To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;
10Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
11Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.
12And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.
13As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.
14Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.
15And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
16O LORD, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.
17Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.
18O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.
19O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
20And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;
21Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.
22And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.
23At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.
24Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
25Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
26And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
27And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. .................................................................Daniel 9

VOW TO CONFRONT IRAN NUCLEAR THREAT


Vow to confront Iran nuclear threat

August 30, 2007 12:00am


US PRESIDENT George W. Bush has raised the spectre of a "nuclear holocaust" in the Middle East if Israel's arch-enemy Iran gets atomic weapons.
The rhetorical blast came as US soldiers arrested suspected Iranian agents in Iraq.
"Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere, and the United States is rallying friends and allies to isolate Iran's regime, to impose economic sanctions," he told the American Legion veterans group yesterday.
"We will confront this danger before it is too late," Mr Bush said. He has pressed for tougher international sanctions and said he hoped for a diplomatic solution but refused to rule out the use of force.
Shortly before Mr Bush spoke, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad scoffed at the notion of a US attack on his country.
He dismissed a warning from his new French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, as a symptom of inexperience.
"There is no . . . possibility of such an attack by the United States," Mr Ahmadinejad told a news conference marked by his characteristic defiance.
"Even if they take such a decision, they cannot implement it," he said.
French President Mr Sarkozy used a keynote foreign policy address this week to say the threat of sanctions coupled with an offer of dialogue was the only way of avoiding a "catastrophic alternative: an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran".
Mr Ahmadinejad said the French President "only recently came to power and wants to find a place for himself in the world.
"He is still inexperienced, meaning that maybe he does not really understand the meaning of his own words."
Tensions between the US and Iran are running high, with the US accusing Iran of providing arms, money and military training to Shiite insurgents in Iraq.
Late yesterday US forces released seven Iranians who were detained in a swoop on a hotel in Baghdad.
The men were seized from one of the main hotels in the capital and led away blindfolded and handcuffed.
The Iranian embassy in the Baghdad said the men were helping rebuild electricity power stations in Iraq.
Washington earlier said the men were linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards and were providing support to militants. US soldiers escorted the Iranians to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office.
- AFP


THE PILGRIMS SOCIETY

Pilgrims Society

Membership list 

Highest level Anglo-American relations for over a century Note beforehand: Since this article first appeared, knowledge about this group has greatly expanded. This first version of this article was written after about 400 names were gathered and largely analyzed; and even before any work had been done on Le Cercle and the 1001. Now we are up to at least 1500 names, including many recent ones. It will take a lot of time to do bios on these members, analyze them, and give sources with each name, but for now it can be safely concluded that many members consistently are recruited from ALL the major banks, insurance companies, and law firms in New York and London. At the same time, Pilgrims flow in and out of the elected and permanent governments of the US and UK. I suggest you take a look at the introduction page and appendix B where the origins of this group and its influence is discussed in a bit more detail. I also suggest you check out the work of Charles Savoie, who has been publishing a lot of work on Pilgrims since late 2004. New information on the Pilgrims might be released via the front page at times, or not. Not sure. Finally, I also suggest you take a look at this chart, which has been put together by looking at the individual biographies of the Pilgrims Society members. The Pilgrims Society, an aristocratic Anglo-American dining club, was established over a century ago and meets at least two or three times a year. Its membership consists of the most influential bankers, lawyers, insurance brokers, and businessmen from the New York and London areas. A handful of career politicians also come from Washington. The club's primary purpose is to keep the ties between the United States and Britain as close as possible. The London chapter of the Pilgrims Society was established on July 11, 1902, followed by a New York chapter on January 13, 1903. Its patron is the British monarch, who has plenty of representatives attending the meetings. A member of the Royal family usually attends the London diners.As you'll find out by looking at the membership list, the Pilgrims Society has clearly fused together the business centers of New York and London, together with a large portion of the political centers of both nations. Ninety percent of the American members are top-level bankers and businessmen from New York city.Only a couple of Pilgrims own or chair companies with headquarters in Boston or Philadelphia. Businesses that have their headquarters in any other location than this small part of the north-east corner of the United States don't seem to be represented at all (do keep in mind that recent data is sketchy). Relatively few government officials from Washington are recruited into the Pilgrims Society. Officials from outside the UK or US visit the club occasionally. In the past they usually came from countries incorporated within the British Empire or the Commonwealth, most notably Canada and Australia. A mistake usually made when people refer to this society, is when they call it the 'Pilgrim Society', because this name hasn't been used that often. The most often used name is the 'Pilgrims Society', sometimes spelled as 'Pilgrim's Society'. You might think this isn't such a big deal, but when you search the internet or some archives for the 'Pilgrim Society', you will hardly find any official sources, simply because they all refer to the 'Pilgrims Society'. The name 'Pilgrims Society' is also unique, so you won't confuse it with this one. Also try searching on 'The Pilgrims' or more specifically, the 'Pilgrims of the United States' and the 'Pilgrims of the United Kingdom'/'Pilgrims of Great Britain'. The club is secret. It might be one of those 'open-secrets', but it's secret nonetheless. If it wasn't, we would have read about it in the history books, we would know all the details of the meetings, and we would have membership lists in the public domain. It is possible to find quite a bit of information in regular newspaper archives, but you really have to look for it. It takes forever to piece the story together. For example, The Scotsman made numerous references to it in the first half of the century (archives are only available up to 1950 atm). Time Magazine made them much less, but still referred to the club once every few years. After 1958, Time only mentioned the club 2 or 3 times, even though meetings continued as usual. Other newspapers in the U.S., like the New York Times and the Washington Post have referred the Pilgrims at times. The Wall Street Journal on the other hand never mentioned a whole lot about this dining club at any time in the past century. The Times of London mentioned the society a couple of times in the past 10 years, even though, as all the other papers, it didn't give many details about who's attending. Most other newspapers, including the Scotsman, New York Post, Washington Times, or even the Guardian, seem to have been (almost) completely silent about the Pilgrims in the last 5 to 7 years (that's how far the digital archives go back). In other countries it's virtually impossible to get any information on the Pilgrims. Not one large Dutch newspaper has mentioned the name in the past 20 years. References in German or French newspapers are just as uncommon. One thing you actually càn find, is different speeches on official websites; One at NATO, another one at the State Department, and yet another one from 1999 on the MoD website. They all deal with one little speech and when you ask for some background information you won't get any replies. And that's strange. Maybe it's done to give people the impression there's nothing unusual about the club. Indeed, looking at the speeches there certainly isn't. All they do is talk about regular pro-NATO politics and kiss up to their "brothers" on the other side of the ocean. Two recent examples: [1] January 2002, Lord Robertson, 'NATO after September 11' [2] November 2002, Richard Boucher on Foreign policy, the EU, and NATO You can find other speeches in the references at the bottom of this article. Of course, it's probably not because of the speeches that the Pilgrims Society keeps itself out of the public eye. More likely it's because of who's being informed and for what purpose. Also, it's obvious that members discuss a lot of other business among themselves. More in depth As already stated, those who own or run the major banking houses, law firms, and insurance companies in the London and New York area will be invited to join, together with a few very specific government officials. This always includes the president of the United States, the U.S. Secretary of State and the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain. On the right you can see which other delegates traditionally are recruited into Pilgrims. Chancellors, Chief Justices, and Attorney Generals seem to be frequent members also. Occasional exceptions have been made to allow writers, composers and art collectors into the society. An example of that was Mark Twain. The patron of the Scanned by Charles Savoie of Silver Investor. Pilgrims Society is the king or queen of England and a member from the royal family usually attends the Pilgrim dinners in Great Britain. That's basically all there is to this Pilgrims Society; it's a dining club. Several times a year a dinner is planned and the board chooses which members it will invite this time, usually somewhere between 300 and 500. A few additional people are invited to hold a speech on a variety of political topics and someone is made the guest of honor. This guest of honor is usually a new member or a Pilgrim who has accomplished something worth remembering. In addition, the chairman of the Society (in Britain it is Robert M. Worcester atm) might give a speech to the CFR or the RIIA once in a while. As already demonstrated, the speeches are both boring and interesting at the same time. Boring because of their substance, and interesting because they show us that Pilgrims, as a whole, aren't privy to many state secrets. A great example of the cooperation between the London and American Pilgrims is the London Bush House, which was ordered to be built in 1919 by Pilgrim Irving T. Bush, a N.Y. businessman. At the time it was the most expensive building in the world and was meant to be an Anglo-American trade center where buyers could purchase goods in one place. It lost its original function after a couple of decades, but still exists today as an office to the BBC World Service. Above the entrance there's a large statue, which represents this Anglo-American cooperation. Britain is represented on the left by the lions, the USA is represented on the right by the Eagle. The Celtic cross indicates their common heritage. The torch can represent freedom, wisdom, victory, or something along that line. Below the statue you'll find the inscription "To the friendship of English Speaking Peoples". The Pilgrims Society is allied with the English-Speaking Union, which is an organization that promotes the use of the English language all over the world. The patron is the English queen and the president is prince Philip. The chairman, as far as we know, is always a member of the Pilgrims. The institutions the Pilgrims control All the important members of the 1910 Jekyll Island meeting were Pilgrims; Vanderlip, Strong, Warburg, Davison, Norton, and Aldrich. Senator Aldrich's closest ally in congress, Edward B. Vreeland, was a Pilgrim too, together with his brother. Vreeland helped Aldrich establish a privately owned central bank. Of course, J.P. Morgan, George F. Baker, John D. Rockefeller, and Jacob Schiff were members also. Keep in mind these people were often competing with each other and weren't necessarily friends, as so many (conspiracy-oriented) people seem to think. N.Y. FED 'Pilgrim-presidents' Benjamin Strong 1914-1928 George Harrison 1928-1940 Allan Sproul 1941-1956 Alfred Hayes 1956-1975 Paul Volcker 1975-1979 Anthony Solomon 1980-1985 E. Gerald Corrigan 1985-1993 William J. McDonough 1993-2003 Timothy Geithner 2003-present Red = confirmed Pilgrim Pilgrim-presidents of the New York Federal Reserve Bank cover the period from 1914 to 1979. The 4 presidents since then have not been members as far as we know, although that's probably because of a lack of recent data. Pilgrim-chairmen of the New York Federal Reserve cover almost the entire period from the 1920s up to 1990, so we can safely assume that the New York Federal Reserve Bank is owned by the Pilgrims. That's not that unusual, because New York itself is Pilgrims property. Because the Pilgrims have a large influence on Washington politics, it would be interesting to see if they have any members on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, also located in D.C. If we have those names, we can estimate the Pilgrims' level of control over the Federal Open Market Committee. The FOMC is the main body of the Federal Reserve that decides on the monetary policy. The New York FED then carries out those directives through its daily 'open market operations'. In the words of the official Federal Reserve website that I just gave a link to: "Finally, the Committee [FOMC] must reach a consensus regarding the appropriate course for policy, which is incorporated in a directive to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York—the Bank that executes transactions for the System Open Market Account. The directive is cast in terms designed to provide guidance to the Manager in the conduct of day-to-day open market operations. The directive sets forth the Committee's objectives for long-run growth of certain key monetary and credit aggregates. It also sets forth operating guidelines for the degree of ease or restraint to be sought in reserve conditions and expectations with regard to short-term rates of growth in the monetary aggregates." The FOMC consists of the 7 FED governors, 1 permanent New York FED president, and 4 presidents of the other 11 FED banks that rotate each year. The chairman of the board of governors is also the chairman of the FOMC, and the president of the permanently represented New York FED is the vice chairman of the FOMC. We quote from the same page: "...Traditionally, the Chairman of the Board of Governors is elected Chairman and the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is elected Vice Chairman..." When sifting through the members list, it turns out that at least 4 of the 13 Federal Reserve chairmen are confirmed Pilgrims (they cover the years 1933-1934 & 1959-1987). Two other chairmen, Eugene Meyer and Alan Greenspan, have all the trademarks of being Pilgrims members. If that could be confirmed, the FED's Board of Governors has had Pilgrims as chairman from at least 1930 to 1934 & from 1959 on to 2005. In any case, the Pilgrims Society seems to be represented a disproportionate amount on the most influential places inside the U.S. monetary system, especially for a society that doesn't want its existence to be known to the general public. It is likely that at least since 1959 the chairman and vice chairman of the FOMC were Pilgrims, together with the persons carrying out the directives of the FOMC through the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Function---------------------------------Amount CFR non-executive members 45 45 CFR executive members 33 33 Carnegie Institute executives 21 21 FED executive positions 21 21 J.P. Morgan executives 17 17 Chase Bank executives 16 16 Skull & Bones 11 11 President World Bank 4 (of 10) 4 (of 10) After analyzing the Pilgrims Society members list of about 360 names (updated in the meantime), I found that the institutions you see on the left were the most often represented. About 75% of this list is American and 25% British (rough estimate). This means that about 1 in 3 of the U.S. members of the Pilgrims Society is a confirmed member of the CFR. Striking is the fact that such a large percentage of CFR members are executive officers. About 50% of all the CFR executive officers have been confirmed members of the Pilgrims Society, which seems to indicate that quite possibly all of them are. I remember looking at an old documentary about the CFR "master conspiracy". The usual stuff came by; banking, the Illuminati and the dollar bill. At the end they showed these concentric rings, indicating the CFR had unknown inner circles. Guess we can now say for sure what the second circle is, counting from the outside. It's the Pilgrims Society and it undeniably shows the close link between American and British foreign policy. Of course, it has long been speculated that the same group that set up the RIIA, set up the CFR, but I was never convinced enough though, because the group connecting both organizations has never been fully identified. The existence of the Round Table, however likely, has never been proven. For now, the Pilgrims Society, a seemingly larger body, is a fine substitute, because it shares many similarities with the "association of helpers" from the Round Table. Read this text from the 1966 book 'Tragedy and Hope - A history of the world in our time', written by Oxford professor Carroll Quigley: "In 1891, Rhodes organized a secret society with members in a "Circle of Initiates" and an outer circle known as the "Association of Helpers" later organized as the Round Table organization. In 1909-1913, they organized semi-secret groups know as Round Table Groups in the chief British dependencies and the United States.. The Round Table Groups were semi-secret discussion and lobbying groups whose original purpose was to federate the English speaking world along lines laid down by Cecil Rhodes. By 1915, Round Table groups existed in seven countries including England, South Africa, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and the United States. Money for their activities originally came from Cecil Rhodes, J.P. Morgan, the Rockefeller and Whitney families and associates of bankers Lazard Brothers and Morgan, Grenfell and Company. The chief backbone of this organization grew up along the already existing financial cooperation running from the Morgan Bank in New York to a group of international financiers in London led by Lazard Brothers. Lionel Curtis established in England and each dominion a front organization to the existing local Round Table Group. This front organization called the Royal Institute of Public Affairs, had as its nucleus in each area the existing submerged Round Table Group. In New York, it was known as the Council on Foreign Relations and was a front for J.P. Morgan and Company in association with the very small American Round Table Group. The American organizers were dominated by the large number of Morgan "experts" including Lamont and Beer, who had gone to the Paris Peace Conference and there became close friends with the similar group of English "experts" which had been recruited by the Milner group. In fact, the original plans for the Royal Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations. In 1928, the Council on Foreign Relations was dominated by the associates of the Morgan bank. Closely allied with this Morgan influence were a small group of Wall Street lawyers whose chief figures were Elihu Root, John W. Davis, the Dulles Brothers, John J. McCloy... ...There does exist and has existed for a generation, an international Anglophile network which operates to some extent in the way the Radical Right believes the Communists act. In fact, this network, which we may identify as the Round Table Groups, has no aversion to cooperating with the Communists, or any other groups, and frequently does so... ...It might be pointed out that the existence of this Wall Street Anglo-American axis is quite obvious once it is pointed out. It is reflected by the fact that such Wall Street luminaries such as John W. Davis, Lewis Douglas, [John] Whitney and Douglas Dillon were appointed to be American ambassadors in London." If we forget about the other groups, the description of the U.S. and U.K. Round Table Groups as submerged nucleuses of respectively the CFR and the RIIA is the perfect description of the Pilgrims Society. Also, the only name of a person in the quote above, that is not represented in my incomplete Pilgrims members list, is Lionel Curtis. All the other names are confirmed Pilgrims. And what is said here about the large number of Morgan representatives is something I also immediately noticed when I was filling in all the biographies. Even though Rockefeller interests, especially in later times, were just as dominant, the history of the Morgan family really shows their ties to England through George Peabody and Junius S. Morgan. At the turn of the century, the Morgans wielded enormous power over the United States economy [1]. Besides the organizations I put in the table above, you will also find that institutions like the Atlantic Institute for International Affairs, Bilderberg, the Bohemian Grove, the Trilateral Commission, the Brookings Institution, the Ford Foundation, the Ditchley Foundations, the Fabian Society, the Japan Society, the Asia Society, the American-Australian Association, and some others, are quite frequently represented. I didn't specifically look for these institutions though, simply because it takes me too much time. Often, these institutes aren't mentioned in the bios of the person you're researching. The reason that you find quite a few Skull & Bones members (or members who have family in Skull & bones) in the Pilgrims Society is probably because Yale is a prestigious University and a first choice for many law and MBA students. It's also located close to New York. Don't kid yourself however, 20 year old boys don't rule anything. You'll also find at least 5 Scroll & Key members and many more Yale students who haven't been into any society. But as far as I can see, the Pilgrims Society is open to anyone who learns enough, works enough, and winds up in the right place for a Pilgrims invitation. Harvard and Columbia are other common universities where Pilgrims have studied. Some examples of involvement of the Pilgrims over the last 100 years 1906 - Pilgrims are involved in the secret Algeciras Conference to settle a dispute among the British, Germans, and French about the division of Morocco. 1913 - The earlier mentioned establishment of the Federal Reserve and of course the 1910 Jekyll Island meeting that preceded it. 1917 - Some Pilgrims are said to have been financing the Communist revolution of 1917. Most is known about the partners of Kuhn, Loeb & Co.; Pilgrims Jacob Schiff, Paul Warburg and Otto Kahn. 1919 - Many Pilgrims played an important role in the Versailles peace conferences following WWI. In all the history books I've seen, only the discussions of the 'big three', Woodrow Wilson, Lloyd George and Georges Clemenceau, are emphasized. I'm still looking for all the names involved, but I've already seen quite a few Pilgrims and suspected Pilgrims. In any case, Robert Cecil, chairman of the Supreme Economic Council of the Versailles Peace Treaty was a member. In the same year, he was the chairman of the committee that established the Royal Institute of International Affairs. 1924 - After the German economy was completely taken apart and they couldn't pay their imposed debts anymore, the Reparations Commission Committee of Experts was set up. President Coolidge appointed Pilgrim Charles G. Dawes as chairman. The committee comes up with the so called 'Dawes-plan'. 1927 - It is said that Pilgrim Benjamin Strong (head FED) and Pilgrim Montagu Norman (head Bank of England) had at least one secret meeting in July of this year with their friend Hjalmar Schacht of the German Reichsbank. 1930 - The Young plan, which is named after committee chairman and Pilgrim Owen D. Young, is introduced as a follow up of the Pilgrims concocted Dawes plan, because Germany still can't pay their debts. Hjalmar Schacht doesn't agree with the reparations and quits as the head of the German Reichsbank. The same year Schacht becomes a Fascist, starts bringing all the German industrialists together and becomes the most crucial person for bringing Hitler to power in 1933. 1933 and on - J.P. Morgan and Rockefeller associates are financing Nazi germany. Pilgrims Watson and Watson Jr. of IBM are involved. Pilgrims Douglas Dillon Sr. and Jr. are involved. Pilgrim Averell Harriman is involved. Ford was involved, and looking at the prominent presence of the Ford Foundation in the Pilgrims Society, he probably was a member too. 1934 - Because general Smedley Butler exposes the planned coup, FDR is not overthrown and replaced by a fascist government. The persons financing various fascist elements turn out to be the Pilgrims Morgan Jr., the du Ponts, Louis S. Cates through Phelps-Dodge company, and undoubtedly many other, but unconfirmed, Pilgrims. As for Phelps-Dodge, the Rockefellers had married into that fortune in 1907 through a marriage between Geraldine Rockefeller, daughter of William Rockefeller, and Marcellus Hartley Dodge. 1945 - Nazis, Knights of Malta (SMOM), and elements in the OSS create the so called 'Vatican rat lines', through which thousands of Nazis are smuggled into Spain, South-Africa, and South-America. Pilgrim and SMOM member Allen Dulles played a large role in this project. He also plays a crucial role in releasing and recruiting Nazi intelligence chief Reinhard Gehlen (Le Cercle) so this person can establish the Gehlen Organization. This Gehlen Org becomes the eyes and ears of the CIA in eastern Europe. Reinhard recruits many serious nazis in his organization. 1946 - Pilgrim Francis Beverly Biddle was one of the four primary judges at the Nuremberg trials representing the United States. I'll bet the British judge (and president) of the trials was a member of the British Pilgrims. 1947 - Pilgrims Society member, five-star general and U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall introduces his European Recovery Program (ERP). around 1948 - Pilgrim John J. McCloy oversees the release of Fritz Thyssen, Hjalmar Schacht, Friedrich Flick and Alfred Krupp. They are the main industrialists who built up the Nazi war machine and are close associates of different Pilgrims Society members. 1949 - Pilgrims member and ambassador Lewis Williams Douglas had a daughter, Sharman Douglas, who, according to a very sure ITV (competitor of the BBC), had a 2-year lesbian affair with Queen Elizabeth II's younger sister, Princess Margaret Windsor. Sharman also married Andrew Hay of the Pilgrims. (Normally I wouldn't dive into tabloid topics, but this is just too funny to pass over) 1951 - General Douglas MacArthur, who has just driven back the North-Koreans, is removed from his command when he doesn't accept the decision from the US government to not attack the Chinese forces. Pilgrims Harry Truman, Dean Acheson and George C. Marshall are his main adversaries on this issue. MacArthur is replaced by Pilgrim Matthew B. Ridgway. Senator McCarthy attacks Truman, Acheson and Marshall for being in the communist camp. 1954 - Some of the earliest invites to the Bilderberg conference are Pilgrims Society members; David Rockefeller, George Ball, and Henry Heinz. 1961 - Howard Hughes, owner of Trans World Airlines, is charging Pilgrim Charles C. Tillinghast, Jr., the president of his company, with conspiring with others to take over the ownership the company. 1963 - Pilgrims John J. McCloy and Allen Dulles are members of the Warren Commission. Gerald Ford, a future honorary Pilgrim, is a third member. 1965-1973 - During the Vietnam war, Pilgrim Henry Kissinger is the chief US negotiator for the communist regimes. At the same time, Kissinger and many of his Pilgrims Society buddies were investing massive amounts of capital into the Soviet Union, even though this country continued to supply about 50% of North-Vietnams military arms. Of course, these were allowed to enter North-Vietnam almost unobstructed, because the US government was afraid for an escalation of the conflict if Haiphong harbor was closed off and bombed into oblivion. Pilgrims Society members controlled at least some of the institutions that had to check the goods that were imported into the USSR. 1973 - Pilgrim Edward W. Simon was chairman of the President's Oil Policy Committee from February to December of 1973 (oil crisis started in October in the midst of the Yom Kippur war). He also was an administrator of the Federal Energy Office since December 1973 and was charged with the responsibility of minimizing the effects of the energy crisis and preventing future crises (decided the oil prices and the distribution). Together with Pilgrim Henry Kissinger he was the most important speaker of the 1974 International Energy Conference. In 1973, Henry Kissinger first informed the Pilgrims about the creation of an "International Energy group", which became the International Energy Agency. 1975 - Pilgrim Nelson Rockefeller heads the U.S. President's Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States. It was created in response to a December 1974 report in The New York Times that the CIA had conducted illegal domestic activities, including experiments on U.S. citizens, during the 1960s. The commission was, among other things, responsible for the investigation and publication of Project MKULTRA, a CIA mind control study. 1977 - Pilgrims Society member Edmund de Rothschild attends the 1st World Wilderness Conference. At the 4th conference Maurice Strong will inform everyone that Edmund was the founder of the environmental movement and climate debates everyone has become so accustomed to. 1992 - Pilgrim Lord Bingham of Cornhill heads an inquiry into the Bank of England to find out their responsibility in the BCCI drug laundering scandal. Turns out the Bank of England was just a bit lazy, but didn't do anything on purpose. The persons that owned the BCCI were 1001 Club member like Agha Hasan Abedi and Salem Bin Laden. Kalid bin Mahfouz was another one. Lord Bingham became a member of the very elite Order of Garter in 2005. Some other persons involved with the BCCI scandal were members of the secret international intelligence group Le Cercle. 2001 - Henry Kissinger, who was picked as the first chairman of the 9/11 Commission, was a Pilgrim, not to mention one of the pioneers of psychological warfare in the aftermath of WWII; all in all, a great asset to have on a truth commission. The old vice-chairman of the 9/11 Commission, George John Mitchell, became a director of the CFR in 1995, so chances are very substantial he's a Pilgrim too. The new chairman, Thomas H. Kean, is from a very prominent New Jersey family and has been a chairman of the Carnegie Foundation, so don't be surprised if it turns out that he also attends Pilgrims dinners (or 1001 Club meetings in his case). 2002 - In December of this year, Pilgrims Society member Lord Guthrie, former chief of the Defense Staff and out of office by then, is send to Turkey to discuss a possible invasion of Iraq via Turkey. He becomes an apologist for the Bush and Blair administrations, and warns the public for biological and nuclear attacks by terrorists. According to him, Syria is one of the largest supporters of terrorism. But who else is Lord Guthrie? He's a member of the Knights of Malta, a patron of the Cardinal Hume centre, a director of N.M. Rothschild & Sons, and represents the latter to the Trilateral Commission since 2002. In the past, Guthrie has been appointed Gold Stick to the Queen and Freeman of the City of London. He was also appointed Aide-de-Camp General to the Queen in 1993. 2004 - Pilgrims Society member Lord Peter Inge is part of a five-member panel that looks into the gathered intelligence that was used to justify an invasion in Iraq the year before. All 5 are Privy Councillors and just as the panel's chairman, Lord Inge is a knight of the Order of the Garter. Conclusion It is obvious that the Pilgrims Society has a very interesting history and that its membership consists of very influential people. Above all, it seems that the Pilgrims Society represents that old dream of Cecil Rhodes to create a worldwide English-speaking free-trade zone (his exact words), with the dominant position for the Anglo-Saxon race. Rhodes had also been speculating about a network of secret societies that had to absorb the wealth of the world. In fact, the enormous fortune he left behind was probably used to set up the Pilgrims Society just 4 months after he died. But especially these days, 'free-trade' policies seem to be nothing more than a tool by which western companies wrestle control of foreign markets. This makes it hard to say if their ultimate goal of 'global peace' really is that noble. In the course the 20th century, especially after WWII, many organizations with similar objectives have sprung up worldwide. Among them are Bilderberg, the Trilateral Commission, the British Invisibles, the European Round Table, the Group of thirty, the European Institute, the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue, the 1001 Club, the EU-Japan Business Dialogue, the Pacific Basin Economic Council, Le Cercle, the Multinational Chairman's Group, and dozens more. In every single case, British and American interests are represented more than adequately, at the very least in leadership positions. Even though recent names are in rather short supply it has already become obvious that we can find most, if not all of these leaders back in the Pilgrims Society. This indicates that we are dealing with one of the most important privately funded institutions of the globalist movement. But, like I already said, let's not exaggerate by saying that we found 'the puppet masters' or something like that. At any time, there are loads of intelligence operations going on most of the well over a 1000 members know nothing about. Also, looking at the bios, it's obvious that there is considerable infighting going on and that different members can't get along with each other at all. So, as for now, I suggest that we focus our energy on gathering as many names as possible. Then the picture will become clear by itself. A lot of additional information on the Anglo-American establishment and/or the British Empire can be found in the books of professor Carroll Quigley. The articles on Executive Intelligence Review also contain a lot of insightful information. 

References 

[1] October 1901, #6, McClure’s Magazine, ‘J. Pierpont Morgan’ [2] February 05, 1903, Reuters, 'Lord C. Beresford in Washington' [3] March 3, 1903, The Scotsman, 'Great Britain and the United States - Banquet in London' [4] June 20, 1903, The Scotsman, 'MP George Wyndham at the Pilgrims Club' [5] February 20, 1908, New York Times, ‘Ambassador Reid – the Pilgrims guest’ [6] April 24, 1910, Associated Press, Mark Twain deceased - Pilgrims visit [7] February 6, 1913, The Scotsman, King George delivers message at Pilgrims Society [8] December 24, 1915, The Scotsman, 'Closer Unity of the British Empire' [9] June 1, 1918, Press Association, 'Hands off the Southern Pacific' [10] December 22, 1919, The Scotsman, Pilgrims celebrate 299th birthday of original Pilgrims [11] March 17, 1924, Time Magazine, 'A Summing-Up' [12] April 21, 1924, Time Magazine, 'The Judgment' [13] December 2, 1926, The Scotsman, 'Duke of York - Pilgrims God Speed' [14] May 4, 1928, The Scotsman, Nicholas Butler becomes the new president of the U.S. club [15] July 6, 1931, Time Magazine, '30 Years of Picasso' [16] October 26, 1939, The Scotsman, Pilgrims speaker denounces the Nazis as Barbarian Pagans [17] November 6, 1939, Time Magazine, ‘Aims and Rights’ [18] 1940, John Whiteford, ‘Sir Uncle Sam, Knight of the British Empire’ [19] January 20, 1941, Time Magazine, 'Churchill & the U.S.' [20] March 20, 1941, The Scotsman, Nazis denounce Churchill's Pilgrims speech and the Anglo-Saxons [21] December 3, 1942, The Scotsman, 'New World Order - Path of Equality and Human Brotherhood' [22] E.C. Knuth, 1946, ‘The Empire of the City’ [23] December 13, 1947, The Scotsman, 'Marshall on his Mission' [24] October 23, 1950, Time Magazine, No Pushing [25] November 7, 1950, The Scotsman, 'No Slackening after Korea' [26] Oct. 27, 1952, Time Magazine, 'No Pushing' [26] July 2, 1956, Time Magazine, 'Give 'Em Hell, Harricum!' [27] Dec. 8, 1958, Time Magazine, 'The Double Dare' [28] April 16, 1965, Time Magazine, Ambassador Patrick farewell [29] 1966, Carroll Quigley, 'Tragedy and Hope - A history of the world in our time' [30] December 1973, Kissinger addresses the Pilgrims and suggests an "International Energy group" [31] June 1975, American Opinion, William P. Hoar, ‘Henry Kissinger: This Man Is On The Other Side’ [32] January 30, 1981, Reuters, 'Mrs. Thatcher Detects No Sign Of Moscow's Interest in Detente' (excerpt) [33] 1983 (original from 1952), Eustace Mullins, ‘Secrets of the Federal Reserve’ [34] December 10, 1985, New York Times, ' Excerpts From Shultz Remarks on Aid to Rebels' (excerpt) [35] Official Federal Reserve websites [36] April 20, 1994, The Times, 'Britain belongs to Europe' [37] April 20, 1994, The Times, 'US ambassador leaves with rebuke for Euro-sceptics; Raymond Seitz' [38] November 16, 1994, The Times, 'US tries to forge pact on eastward expansion of Nato' [39] April 6, 1995, The Times, 'FDR and The Times' [40] June 30, 1999, MOD, Speech of George Robertson [41] 2002, Anne Baker Pimlott, ‘The Pilgrims of Great Britain – a centennial history’ [42] 2002, Antony Sutton, ‘America’s Secret Establishment’ [43] Watch.pair.com, ‘The Pilgrim Society & The English Speaking Union’ [44] January 31, 2002, nato.int, ‘NATO After September 11’ [45] November 28, 2002, U.S. State Department, ‘State's Boucher on U.S. Foreign Policy, EU and NATO, Iraq, Freedom’ [46] 2002, University of Dundee, 'Laureation Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne - Professor Alan Newell' [47] January 21, 2004, Royal.gov.uk, 'Diary of engagements of the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh...' [48] February 4, 2004, Times Online, 'Today's royal engagements' [49] February 12, 2004, The UK Mission to the United Nations, 'Speech to Pilgrims of the United States on "A Multilateral Journey"' [50] September 16, 2004, Chatham House, internal program list names Robert Worcester as a Pilgrim [51] September 2004, English Speaking Union, 'Panel Discussion on the US Election' [52] Charles Savoie, Silver Investor, 2004-2005, ‘Meet the World Money Power’-series. [53] Kansas City Infozine, biography of Robert M. Worcester (again) confirms he is a chairman of the Pilgrims. [54

Corporate Entertainer Magazine, 'Banking on Hospitality' (article on Rupert Hambro, year unknown) Author: Joël van der Reijden

Original: May 3, 2005

Last update: October 14, 2006Version: 1.9