Diary of a UK journalist being hassled by goons at the Bilderberg conference
Alan sez, "Charlie Skelton, reporting for the Guardian from outside the apparent location of this year's Bilderberg Conference [ed: s33kr1t high-powered meeting of financial leaders and politicos], has been intimidated out of the area and is still being hassled on the Athens subway - series of reports and photos of the goons, who are by turns terrifying and comically incompetent."
Charlie Skelton's Bilderberg files (Thanks, Alan!)
In comes the chief. Bossios Hoggios. "What the problem?" I tell him that I am being followed by the police, and that I would like it to stop, or be told the reason. "Why you here?" he barks. I tell him I am here for the Bilderberg conference at the Astir Palace. "Well, that is the reason! That is why! We are finished!" And he washes his hands of me, dismissing me with a gesture, striding back to his office. "Idiot," I mutter, unheard.Back to the photograph.
"How you know he is a policeman?"
"I know that he is, I've seen him talking to your colleagues at the checkpoint."
"You are not allowed to take photos of policemen."
"So I am being followed by policemen?"
He gestures out of the window.
"Where is he now, this man you say following you? Show me him."
I'm standing in a police station. I don't know what to say. They tell me to ring the police if I see them again. To ring the police if I see the police following me.
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These cops have never heard of The Guardian?
I thought this was one of Britain's more established media outlets. If he'd been from the Daily Mail, would that have been ok?
Charlie Skelton's blog is both hilarious and deeply disturbing to me.
Thank Mr. Skelton, and give my regards to Bossios Hoggios, Starsky and Hutch, without whom none of this would have been possible.
Cory:
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that." Martin Luther King Jr.
Thank you!
Those clowns remind me of casino goons.
"These cops have never heard of The Guardian?"
They don't exactly come off as Guardian readers.
Greek cops are the absolute worst, the force is highly corrupt and they have no problems abusing their power.
Jon Ronson (another Guardian journalist, This American Life contritubtor, etc., etc.) made a really good documentary about him trying to visit a Bilderberg meeting a few years ago.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3725493129921826227
He starts being (very obviously) followed 16m40secs in. At about 21m in he's freaked out enough to call The British Embassy for help as he's being followed by security from the Bilderberg group and he's told by the embassy that dealing with Bilderberg issues is "way out of their league".
As with anything by Ronson, it's a jolly good jaunt in to the world of the weird.
What is that one guard in the picture, like 12 maybe?
This is interesting. There was a British journalistic presence: http://www.prisonplanet.com/bilderberg-2009-attendance-list.html
"Martin Wolf, Britain (Financial Times Journalist)"
Someone feel like asking him for an interview,or at least details of any NDA he had to sign (how ironic).
Judging by the picture, it looks like they deputized a junior high class to run security. Seriously, you got hassled by that guy?
It would explain why police don't want their pictures taken though, teenage guys hate getting their photos taken (by adults, anyway).
That looks like the album cover/band photo for a really bad local indie band.
You know, after reading the attendee list linked above, this doesn't seem nearly as menacing as it sounds.
Most of the list seems to be from western Europe. There's, like, no one from Asia at all. If the people at the conference are actually running the world, why isn't there a single Chinese name on the list? I don't think I saw any Middle-Eastern names on there either. It's a bunch of old white dudes and a few old white dudettes.
Still no excuse for intimidation by security, of course.
The comments on the Guardian are giving Charlie a hard time for not getting further than he did, or getting any real information about the conference. But what I read was a vivid portrait of how it feels to be systematically terrified into helplessness. Disproportionate aggression for trivial offenses, rapid escalation of force, belittlement, discounting, and outright accusations of lying (i.e. "crazymaking") are all well known tactics to any survivor of domestic abuse. They work, very well, even on strangers, and it only takes a few days to reduce a person to questioning one's own sanity.
The guy should have done more homework about the police in Greece. There are several types and it looks like the type he had a problem with were the type that most Greeks avoid. Even average Greeks do not like them (for obvious reasons) and have learned to avoid them when possible. They are affiliated with the government and are not local.
Ehm, dude... No kidding. Messing around with police in greece, only talking in English... not a good idea.
Seriously he's damn lucky he didn't get beaten up or thrown in Jail or something worse...
i'd be surprised if a uk journalist was entirely unaware of the quagmire you can stumble into taking photos of official subjects in Greece
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/1363004/Plane-spotters-face-new-charges.html
#15: oh, sure. Look, I'm Greek myself and I hate the Greek police (well, all of police actually) for being a bunch of coward, inforant, untrained bullues.
But you mean to tell me that there's a country in the world where you can take photos of military installations and NOT get arrested? Wow.