Bilderberger

The Bilderberg Group is an informal, secretive and international association of influential people, meetingevery year. Its name is that of the hotel in the Netherlands where the groupfirst met in 1954 . Its founder members were Denis Healey , Joseph Retinger , David Rockefeller and Prince Bernhard of theNetherlands .

It has an office in Leiden , in the Netherlands.

Declared purpose

The original intention of the Bilderberg group was to further understanding between Western Europe and North America through informal meetings betweeninfluential individuals. Each year, a "steering committee" devises a selected invitation list with a maximum of 100 names. Thelocation of their annual meeting is not secret, and the agenda and list of participants are openly available to the public, butthe meetings themselves are shrouded in secrecy. Security is managed by military intelligence .

The Bilderberg Group is for Europeans and North Americans – Asians , Middle Easterners , LatinAmericans and Africans are not invited. Of course, the classification is made onthe basis of residence and nationality, rather than ethnicity.

Attendees pledge absolute secrecy on what has been discussed.

Conspiracy Theories

The idea behind the secrecy is to enable people to speak freely without need to carefully consider how each word might beinterpreted by the mass media. On the other hand, this secrecy has also made conspiracy theorists claim that the meetings have a sinister purpose. This feeling is enhanced by thefact that some say that they are merely a front for the Round tablegroups , or even a semi-public front for the Illuminati or assorted other secret societies .

Depending on the ideological prism applied, the Bilderberg club may beconsidered:

• a harmless "discussion group" of politicians, academics and business leaders
• an ultra-exclusive international lobby of the power elite of Europe and North America, capable of influencing internationalpolicy
• a capitalist secretsociety operating entirely through self-interest.

Attendees

Attendees of Bilderberg include central bankers , defense experts, press barons, government ministers, prime ministers , royalty , international financiers andpolitical leaders from Europe and America. Guests in 2003 included US Secretary of Defense DonaldRumsfeld , neoconservative Richard Perle , banker David Rockefeller as well as various other members of the Rockefeller family, Henry Kissinger , Queen Beatrix , King JuanCarlos and Queen Sofia , and high officials of assortedgovernments.

Some of the Western world's leading financiers and foreign policy strategists attend Bilderberg. Rumsfeld is an activeBilderberger; so is Peter Sutherland from Ireland , a former European Union commissioner andchairman of Goldman Sachs and of BP .Rumsfeld and Sutherland served together in 2000 on the board of the Swedish / Swiss energy company ABB . US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz is also a member.

2004

In the 2004 meeting from June 3 to June 6, held in Stresa , Italy , reported attendees included many of the people attending in2003, British Petroleum chief John Browne , US Senator John Edwards , World Bank president James Wolfensohn , and Melinda Gates , wife of Bill Gates .

External links

• BBC online article on group
• Guardian article on the group
• Bilderberg.org (unofficial, anti-Bilderberg Group website)
• Bilderberg article
• Bilderberg: Secret World Government

Books

Them: Adventures with Extremists — Jon Ronson (Paperback — Simon & Schuster — January 1 , 2003 ) — ISBN 0743233212 — contains an interviewwith Denis Healey about Bilderberg and the author's tale of investigating the group.