George Mitchell

Shown here with Richard Holbrooke and Barack Obama is George Mitchell, a former US senator, former CFR director and, of course, a Bilderberger.

Mitchell got his start in federal politics after being appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a fellow CFR member.

Mitchell sits on the steering committee of the American Friends of Bilderberg, along with such luminaries as Conrad Black, Henry Kissinger, and David Rockefeller.

He was chairman of the Walt Disney Corporation from March 2004 until January 2007. He was also chairman of the international law firm DLA Piper and Chancellor of Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

As special envoy to the Middle East, former Senator George Mitchell, is facing the wrath of Israeli government ministers and the Israel Lobby's most strident supporters in Congress over his threat of withholding U.S. loan guarantees to Israel if the Israelis continue to build illegal settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. Photo ops with terrorists like Yassir Arafat may not help the situation.

Mitchell's threat, aired during an interview on PBS, with Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz saying Israel could live without U.S. loan guarantees. Jailed Wall Street fraudster Bernie Madoff had parked much of his ill-gotten money in Israeli banks, so Steinitz's statement that Israel can live without loan guarantees from the United States is not merely an idle boast.