North American Forum Held In Secret At Banff Springs Hotel

...John Larsen, spokesman for the North American Forum, said that the public was not notified of the closed and private meeting and would not confirm or deny that Rumsfeld or anyone else was in attendance. He said he did not know who paid for the forum. “There are all kinds of conferences going on at the Banff Springs that draw illuminaries and if those conferences are private in nature then I think we also have to respect that these people, by nature of the offices that they hold, still have a right to a certain degree of privacy,” Larsen said. He added that the meetings are not meant to be secret and that individuals are allowed to say if they attended the forum. “People that are relatively senior in business… if they’re going to come to these things and put their open and frank discussions on the table in order for those conversations to be as fruitful as possible they want to think that there’s some (confidentiality). “You can imagine that if this was all televised or open to public scrutiny, the nature of the conversations and ultimately what you would be able to do with those conversations and how far you might be able to advance the solutions around it would be different.” The only media member invited to the event was the Wall Street Journal’s Mary Anastasia O’Grady, according to the list of participants provided to the Crag... Full article: http://www.banffcragandcanyon.com/story.php?id=255375 [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on September 20, 2006]

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