Secrect Societies among the Leaders of America

This is a lengthy post so I urge all to take time to get an understanding of the information being presented.  -Bobby

Conspiracy Theory: Secret Societies Splashed Across Headlines

AOL news reports:

(Feb. 6) – Several conservative politicians in America have found themselves in hot water lately over their participation in the burgeoning Tea Party movement. But in the United Kingdom, tea party politics of a wholly different sort are causing a stir: Documents released Thursday indicate the leading British conservative sipped tea with the Freemasons secret society.

David Cameron is a member of Parliament who has led the Conservative (Tory) Party and the opposition to Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labor Party since 2005. Until recently, Cameron was widely expected to be a shoo-in for the post of prime minister whenever the next general election occurs, which can be no later than June.

However, his lead has shrunk in the polls as the result of perceptions of infighting within the Conservative Party and a widely mocked ad campaign. The revelation that he hosted the West Oxfordshire Lady Freemasons at Parliament (and 16 other groups) is just the latest bit of amusement that the British press has found at Cameron’s expense.

Alastair Grant, AP

Conservative Party leader David Cameron was considered a shoo-in to be Britain’s next prime minister, but polls show his lead has shrunk considerably.

Of course, the convergence of politics and secret societies is scarcely a new phenomenon, as any historian or loyal Dan Brown reader knows well. To place Cameron’s association in context, here are some of the more notable instances of clandestine quasi-political groups sneaking into current headlines:

Freemasons

Freeemasonry is a staple in popular depictions of conspiratorial organizations. The international fraternity is made up of some 5 million people, making it the world’s largest secret society. It is organized into autonomous local “lodges,” which each have their own rules, hierarchies and ceremonies. All are centered on a belief in supreme being and rational human morality and camaraderie not necessarily related to the teachings of any single world religion. According to literature from the Freemasons online: “Freemasonry does not try to replace religion or substitute for it. Every candidate is exhorted to practice his religion to regard its holy books as the unerring standard of truth.”

However, over the years, Freemasonry’s emphasis on elaborate, secretive rituals and archaic symbolism – including robes, stone-cutting materials and medieval weaponry – have made it the target of numerous conspiracy theories. Masons have been accused of cultism, Satanism, aspirations of world domination and influencing the architectural layout of the U.S. capital, among many other bizarre activities. Interestingly, while most lodges are nominally male and don’t admit women into their ranks, several Women Freemasons organizations have sprung up over the years, including the one that Cameron met with in Parliament. Freemasons in India and Boston briefly opened their halls to the public in 2009, seeking to dispel some of the rumormongering.

The Family, aka ‘The Fellowship,’ ‘C Street Church’

On Thursday morning, President Obama, the first lady and prominent members of Congress attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. The annual event, according to Harper’s, draws “3,000 dignitaries, representing scores of nations.” Typically, “it passes with little notice,” maintains The New York Times. But this year the event drew controversy because of the criticism surrounding its sponsor organization, The Family. The top-secret, wealthy fundamentalist Christian organization includes powerful leaders in business and government among its members. The Family has attracted increasingly negative attention because several of its high-profile members – South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and Sen. John Ensign of Nevada – are embroiled in salacious sex scandals.

Last year, The Family was linked to an anti-homosexual bill introduced in Uganda that proposed the death penalty for certain violations. As such, some activists have protested the National Prayer Breakfast and called upon the president and members of Congress to boycott it. According to a Huffington Post essay by Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington:

The Family is a cult-like secret society with unknown funding and intolerant views. It is tied to ruthless dictators abroad and unethical politicians at home. It mixes religion and diplomacy to a frightening extent, all while remaining in the shadows. In short, there is nothing about this organization that any American official, much less the president of the United States, should support.

It should be noted that Obama took his speaking opportunity at the National Prayer Breakfast to condemn the proposed Ugandan anti-homosexual legislation.

Word Economic Forum

Founded in 1971, the World Economic Forum describes itself as “an independent, international organization incorporated as a Swiss not-for-profit foundation … striving towards a world-class corporate governance system where values are as important a basis as rules.” The organization hosts an annual conference of business magnates, political leaders (including David Cameron!) and media personnel in Davos, Switzerland, during which many hush-hush, off-the-record meetings take place. The private nature of these meetings has led to the belief that the Forum has a secret agenda for manipulating the world’s economy.

Conspiracy theories about the 2010 conference, which concluded on Jan. 31, have been furthered by the untimely death of the head of security. Investigators told the media that “all indications” pointed toward suicide, but some readers still don’t buy that explanation, speculating that he was covertly murdered. Yet for all of its apparent intrigue, rumors about the World Economic Forum pale in comparison to those spoken about the two other, more secretive global economic organizations: The Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg Group.

Skull and Bones

This ultrasecret Yale fraternity is infamous for its list of high-powered alumni, or “Bonesmen,” which includes Standard Oil heir Percy Rockefeller, three generations of the Bushes (Prescott, George H.W. and George W.), Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, Time magazine founder Henry Luce and National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr. As New York Times reporter Alexandra Robbins writes: “Given the society’s history as an incubator and meeting point for rising generational elites … one doesn’t need to scratch deeply to uncover accusations of sinister ties with the CIA, the Trilateral Commission, the Illuminati, the Council on Foreign Relations, even the Nazis.” The lore surrounding the society is compounded by its somewhat gory imagery.

There is a longstanding rumor that the admittedly thieving Bonesmen have robbed famous gravesides to procure the remains of three leaders: Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, Native American chief Geronimo and and U.S. President Martin Van Buren. In 2004, a writer at La Voz de Aztlan, a Mexican-American news agency, called upon then-president George W. Bush to return the skull of Pancho Villa “to its proper resting place” in Parral, Mexico. Last year, descendants of Geronimo “filed a lawsuit against Skull and Bones, Yale University and members of the U.S. government (including Barack Obama), calling for the return of their ancestor’s remains from New Haven, Fort Sill and ‘wherever else they may be found,’ ” reports NPR. It is still pending, but NPR doesn’t think there’s much chance that the bones will be ever found. Finally, just last month, a Bonesman was prepared to auction off a $20,000 human skull turned ballot box at Christie’s, but was forced to remove the artifact when another party claimed rights over the remains.

Disneyland‘s Club 33

In 1967, Disney’s illustrious founder and namesake, Walt, commissioned a private five-star restaurant for dignitaries visiting his California theme park that today commands a nine-year-long waiting list capped at 1,000 people, according to the Los Angeles Times. It’s located in the New Orleans Square area behind a nondescript green door marked “33.” Why 33? One enterprising New York Times blogger thinks it might have something to do with Skull and Bones, but that remains a matter of debate.

AOL WalletPop says there are 475 members of Club 33, who are each charged “an initiation fee of $27,500 (if they are a corporation) or $10,450 (for individuals). On top of that, they pay annual fees of about $6,100 or $3,275, respectively.” The membership grants them a litany of goodies: The right to make reservations at the club, valet parking, free daily admission to the whole park, six fast passes for rides, and invitations to behind-the-scenes tours and holiday events. Club 33 is also the only place in the Magic Kingdom where alcohol can be sold and consumed. It has faced criticism from some Disney fans, however, for being an ostentatious waste of money.