| http://www.babelmagazine.com/ An Update on the Bilderberg Meeting: May 30-June 2 by David Martin Concerning your article on the Bilderberg meeting. The Westfields Marriott Hotel in Chantilly is not 7 miles south of Washington, DC, but about 25 miles slightly south, due west of Washington. The interesting thing about that hotel and conference center is that it is only a couple of tenths of a mile from the new National Reconnaissance Office complex where a security guard was mysteriously murdered shortly before it became operational. The funny thing is that the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center has always had an eerie quality about it that gives me a bigger case of the creeps than even the NRO building. I fancy that some very sinister and nefarious things go on in that building. I ride my bike by there frequently because the traffic is very light on the weekends. Here is what I have posted about the NRO murder and cover-up on Usenet: Is James Bamford Real? Carol Valentine's deduction that James Bamford is a false secret-government critic, I'm afraid, rings all too true. See http://www.public-action.com/911/northwds.html . Let me relate my brief experience with the man. A few years ago the Fund for Constitutional Government organized a panel discussion in a large room of the Capitol Building regarding a book whose late author they had partially funded. The book was "Secrets, the CIA's War at Hom," by the deceased Angus MacKenzie and David Weir, who finished it up for him. On the panel were Bob Woodward of Watergate fame; Scott Armstrong, his co-author of "The Brethren" and founder of The National Security Archive; Tim Weiner, who writes on spook matters for The New York Times, and Bill Clinton's first National Security Adviser, Anthony Lake. I would estimate that 100 or so people were in attendance, virtually all of whom were spooks and/or "journalists." I had been given a heads-up about the program by its organizer and my friend at the Fund, Ernest Fitzgerald. (The days when regular citizens like me can just show up at a gathering in the Capitol Building, alas, appear to be long gone.) I was told later that when they opened the floor for questions, the first person recognized was the stooge standing next to me in the back of the room. I conveniently thought they were recognizing me and beat the stooge to the punch with my question. I asked Woodward why the Washington Post had never written anything about the unsolved murder of the young female security guard at the super secret National Reconnaissance Office complex shortly before the purpose of the new buildings was revealed. I'm sure the panel was made uncomfortable by the question, and Woodward looked more pained than usual. He pleaded ignorance and asked me to fill him in after the meeting. I did so, giving him (by mail) the clipping that is excerpted as the "Tina Ricca Story" at http://www.thepacc.org/Rica.html. I asked Woodward to alert me when The Post did its own story, but I'm still waiting. Interestingly, of the large number of writers and journalists present, the only one to approach me afterward and ask for more details was James Bamford. To my knowledge, he never wrote anything about the murder and apparent cover-up either. Now that I see what kind of person Bamford likely is, I think it's a very good thing that the only information I had about the Ricca case was already out in the public arena. It's pretty clear to me now that the role of these "investigative reporters" is not that of a watchdog on government corruption, but that of a bird dog on the citizenry, pointing out to the corrupt authorities the ones they might have a problem with. After all, suppose I had some private information that pointed to, say, the CIA as the culprits. Who would I go to, the FBI, the local cops? Valentine speculates that convicted FBI agent Robert Hanssen might have gone to rotten FBI higher-ups with advance warning of 9-11. Maybe it was Bamford he went to, and that was his big mistake. The odd cozy relationship they had reminds me of the ties between the Washington Post's CIA-beat reporter, Walter Pincus and the late Vincent Foster. Pincus' revelations about Foster, as I point out in part One of my "America's Dreyfus Affair: The Case of the Death of Vincent Foster," represented "the first instance of anyone publicly saying that he noticed any behavior in Foster that one might describe as, at most, agitated." As such, it played a very large role in planting in the public mind the notion that Foster had been "depressed" enough to commit suicide. These are the kinds of friends our journalists make these days. |
