Is Bill Gates really the Antichrist? Inquiring paranoids want to know. Chairman Bill Wines & Dines the Global Elite by Ruffin Prevost Special Assignments Team pscpruffin@parascope.com Do you believe in conspiracies? What about "the Beast?" How about conspiracies involving the Beast? How abut a conspiracy yarn that includes the Beast and the planet's top executives, bankers and politicians? Skeptical? Alarmed? Keep reading! If Americans were asked to pick a single living person that is most likely to turn out to be "the Beast" or Antichrist referred to in the Bible's book of Revelation, there's little doubt that Microsoft's Bill Gates would be a strong contender. And among the online and computer set, he's sure to top the list. But despite the best efforts of the Microsoft public relations machine to make Chairman Bill a lovable nerd who just wants to help us make the 21st century a more user-friendly place to live, he remains the digital age robber baron we most love to hate. (Important message to Bill and the gang: Stunts like last week's "CEO Summit" aren't helping your image among the commoners!) Last week in Seattle, William Henry Gates III went beyond the stereotypical "smoke-filled room with a dozen powerful white men." He invited more than 100 of the world's most powerful corporate executives, politicians and policy czars to tour Microsoft headquarters and then take a cruise ship ride to Gates's lakeside bunker-cum-mansion. In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that America Online's own Steve Case was invited and did attend. But, when ParaScope contacted AOL's corporate communications office for a comment from Steve Case on the summit, the representative we spoke to had never heard of ParaScope. (This despite the fact that AOL owns a minority interest in ParaScope, which was launched via the company's Greenhouse program and has since become one of the top 50 Members' Choice areas on AOL.) A representative from Case's office confirmed that he did attend, but did not contact us by deadline with details or comments from Case. But like so many other "visionary ideas" attributed to Bill Gates, the CEO Summit was neither original nor particularly unique among such events. Shadowy organizations like the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bilderberg Group and the Trilateral Commission have been organizing secret clubhouse get-togethers for the rich and powerful for years. (Fourteen heavy-hitters that were on Gates' invitation list are corporate members of the CFR.) President Bill Clinton is fond of his closed-door Renaissance Weekend retreats, the super-secret Bohemian Grove meets yearly in Northern California, and Davos, Switzerland plays host to a huge (also secret) elite-fest every year as well. In fact, Gates himself (or his ghost writer) gushed about his experience at the Davos World Economic Summit in one of his infamously bland columns for the New York Times. The article amounted to little more than a cheerleader's rant in support of such secret meetings between global power brokers, so it's little surprise that Gates decided to steal yet another good idea, make it his own, and hoodwink everyone into buying into it whole-hog. But perhaps what is most disturbing is that Gates tried to keep his little party's guest list a secret, and the corporate press scarcely reported on the event at all. Gates apparently has nothing to fear from the press, having played cover-boy for Time, Fortune and countless other magazines, and being the subject of a prime time love-fest with NBC's Tom Brokaw. (Never mind that Microsoft and NBC co-own the accurately named MSNBC[http://www.msnbc.com] cable network.) In fact, among the summit's invited guests was Anthony Ridder of Knight-Ridder, Inc., the nation's second-largest newspaper chain, which owns such publications as the inaccurately named Detroit Free Press, Miami Herald and Philadelphia Inquirer. Luckily, the less corporate and more responsible Seattle daily Eastside Journal obtained a copy of the guest list and leaked it to Wired News for all the web to read. ParaScope is happy to pass along the Gates CEO Summit guest list, and is quick to point out the presence of many Microsoft allies and the conspicuous absence of such Microsoft foes as representatives from Apple, Oracle or Motorola. Let's not forget such neck-hair-raising names as alleged info-highway-lover Vice President Al Gore and the National Security Agency's Kenneth Minihan, who aren't "on the list" but attended anyway. For those who would argue that meetings such as Gates's summit or the other secret gatherings on the growing "star chamber" circuit amount to little more than a private ego trip for those who organize and attend them, then why all the secrecy? Why bar the press? Since public policy is likely to be addressed, and since elected officials are often included in such meetings, there's even merit in the argument that keeping such meetings secret may violate local, state and federal open meetings laws. The bottom line: if there's nothing to hide, why act like you're hiding so much? Still not worried? Well, then perhaps taking our Microsoft Monopoly Quick Quiz or glancing over the CEO Summit Guest List will give you that queasy feeling so many other folks have lately. (c) Copyright 1997 ParaScope, Inc. Take the Microsoft Monopoly Quick Quiz! The CEO Summit Guest List What do you think? Share your views in the message boards!