Occupy Bilderberg faces off with secretive gathering

Around 150 of the world’s elite approached the grounds of a suburban Virginia hotel on Thursday for the first day of the 2012 Bilderberg Conference, but also on hand were throngs of protesters who gathered to opposed the top-secret gathering.

Journalists and critics of the annual clandestine conference stationed themselves outside of a Chantilly, Virginia Marriott hotel near Washington, DC early Thursday to catch a glimpse of the government officials, entrepreneurs and other assorted members of the privileged elite who had gathered for this year’s event.

In year’s past, it is rumored that leaders of the United States and Britain were agreed on by global figureheads behind closed doors during the Bilderberg Conference; this week in Virginia, speculators have introduced the notion that international big-wigs will be brought with questions surrounding both who to back during the 2012 US presidential election and who will be picked to run alongside GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

“Policy is being set there and this is one of the most elite meetings out there,” radio host Alex Jones told RT weeks before the event. On Thursday, Jones and his media crew were in Chantilly, VA to expose this year’s attendees.

­Before the event went underway, the only person confirmed to accept an invitation to the 2012 conference was Canadian politician Alison Redford, although frequent guests Henry A. Kissinger and David Rockefeller were all but certain to stop by the Westfield Marriott hotel, although last year’s roster included names such as Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Greek Minister of Finance George Papaconstantinou. In a peculiar change of police, however, the Bilderberg Group formally released a roster of their own invited members days before this week’s event. Whether or not people liked such as Citigroup Vice Chairman Peter Orszag or Finish Minister of Finance Jutta Urpilainen will actually show is a matter that only those at the behind-closed-doors event can confirm, but the action of actually releasing a list of attendees-real or not — suggests that opponents of the secret society have finally made their unrest heard to the point that organizers decided to attempt for at least some transparency.

Asked to be in attendance this year, according to a memo released by the Bilderberg Group, were many of the usual names as well as Sen. Marco Rubio, whose name has been floated as a possible nominee for Mitt Romney’s running mate.

Those without an invite weren’t so lucky, though — Jones revealed only two days before the event began that his reservation at the hotel had been revoked and that anyone not directly affiliated with the conference that planned to stay at the Marriott had their accommodations transferred to a separate facility. Thanks in part to exposing the conference, however, journalists such as Jones made it possible for a longstanding media blackout of Bilderberg to finally be removed in 2012. Speaking to RT earlier in the year, Jones appealed to viewers to stage an “Occupy Bilderberg” protest outside the hotel’s grounds and the subsequent media coverage that followed allowed for mainstream outlets to cover the event with an attention unmatched in years before.