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Bilderberg Group

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The Bilderberg Group or Bilderberg conference is an unofficial annual invitation-only conference of around 130 guests, most of whom are persons of influence in the fields of business, media and politics. The elite group meets annually at exclusive, five-star resorts throughout the world — normally in Europe — and once every four years in the United States or Canada. It has an office in Leiden, South Holland, Netherlands.[1] The Bilderbergers met from May 31 to June 3 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey, for the 2007 meeting.[2]

Contents

Origin of the name "Bilderberg"

The Hotel de Bilderberg is a hotel in Oosterbeek in the Netherlands where the Bilderberg Group first met in 1954. The hotel gave its name both to the Group and those who participate in its activities (Bilderbergers).

Origin and purpose of the first annual conference

The original Bilderberg conference was held at the Hotel de Bilderberg, near Arnhem, from May 29 to May 31, 1954. The meeting was initiated by several people. Polish emigre and political adviser, Joseph Retinger, concerned about the growth of anti-Americanism in Western Europe, proposed an international conference at which leaders from European countries and the United States would be brought together with the aim of promoting understanding between the cultures of United States of America and Western Europe. Retinger approached Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, who agreed to promote the idea, together with Belgian Prime Minister Paul Van Zeeland, and the head of Unilever at that time, the Dutchman Paul Rijkens. The guest list was to be drawn up by inviting two attendees from each nation, one each to represent conservative and liberal (both terms used in the American sense) points of view. The success of the meeting led the organizers to arrange an annual conference. A permanent Steering Committee was established, with Retinger appointed as permanent secretary. As well as organizing the conference, the steering committee also maintained a register of attendee names and contact details, with the aim of creating an informal network of individuals who could call upon one another in a private capacity. The declared purpose of the Bilderberg Group was to make a common political line tie between the United States of America and Europe in their opposition to the USSR and the global communist threat to their common monetary interests. Conferences were held in France, Germany, and Denmark over the following three years. In 1957, the first U.S. conference was held in St. Simons, Georgia, with $30,000 from the Ford Foundation. The foundation supplied additional funding of $48,000 in 1959, and $60,000 in 1963.[3] Dutch economist Ernst van der Beugel took over as permanent secretary in 1960, upon the death of Retinger. Prince Bernhard continued to serve as the meeting's chairman until 1976, the year of his involvement in the Lockheed affair. There was no conference that year, but meetings resumed in 1977 under Alec Douglas-Home, the former British Prime Minister. He was followed in turn by Walter Scheel, ex-President of West Germany, Eric Roll, former head of SG Warburg and Lord Carrington, former Secretary-General of NATO.[4]

Purpose

The original intention of the Bilderberg Group was to further the understanding between Western Europe and North America through informal meetings between powerful individuals. Each year, a "steering committee" devises a selected invitation list with a maximum of 100 names. Invitations are extended only to residents of Europe and North America. The location of their annual meeting is not secret, but the public and press are strictly kept at distance by police force and private security guards so the group can work their agenda. The contents of the meetings are kept secret and attendees pledge not to divulge what was discussed. The group's stated justification for secrecy is that it enables people to speak freely without the need to carefully consider how every word might be interpreted by the mass media.

Criticism and conspiracy theories

The group's secrecy and its connections to power elites has provided fodder for many who believe that the group is part of a conspiracy to create a New World Order. Reporter Jonathan Duffy, writing in BBC News Online Magazine states "In Yugoslavia, leading Serbs have blamed Bilderberg for triggering the war which led to the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic. The Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, the London nail-bomber David Copeland and Osama Bin Laden are all said to have bought into the theory that Bilderberg pulls the strings with which national governments dance." [5] One critic of the Bilderberg meetings, American paleoconservative conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones, claims that the group intends to dissolve the sovereignty of the United States and other countries into a supra-national structure similar to the European Union or a possible North American Union structured around the NAFTA trade agreements.[6] Daniel Estulin, a Madrid-based author, claims that the long-term purpose of Bilderberg is to "Build a One-World Empire". He states the group "is not the end but the means to a future One World Government" whose ultimate goal is to transform Earth into a prison planet "...policed by a United World Army, financially regulated by a World Bank, and populated by a microchipped population whose life's needs have been stripped down to materialism and survival — work, buy, procreate, sleep — all connected to a global computer that monitors our every move." [7] Biblical Fundamentalist Tony Gosling registered the domain name bilderberg.org, and uses the web site to spread his theory that the group's alleged efforts towards a world government are a sign of a biblically-predicted apocalypse. [8] Denis Healey, a Bilderberg founder and former British chancellor, decries such theories as "crap." He was quoted by BBC News as saying "There's absolutely nothing in it. We never sought to reach a consensus on the big issues at Bilderberg. It's simply a place for discussion," [9] A weekly british newsletter, schNews, published an account of the 1999 Bilderberg meeting on their website [10], from which no material supporting the conspiracy claims emerges.

Attendees

Main article: List of Bilderberg attendees

Attendees of Bilderberg include central bankers, defense experts, mass media press barons, government ministers, prime ministers, royalty, international financiers and political leaders from Europe and North America. Some of the Western world's leading financiers and foreign policy strategists attend Bilderberg. Donald Rumsfeld is an active Bilderberger, as is Peter Sutherland from Ireland, a former European Union commissioner and chairman of Goldman Sachs and of British Petroleum. Rumsfeld and Sutherland served together in 2000 on the board of the Swedish/Swiss engineering company ABB. Former U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary and former World Bank head Paul Wolfowitz is also a member, as is Roger Boothe, Jr. The group's current chairman is Etienne Davignon, the Belgian businessman and politician.

Meetings

See also

References

  1. ^ The masters of the universe, Asia Times, May 22 2003, accessed on August 18 2007
  2. ^ a b What was discussed at Bilderberg?, Turkish Daily News, June 5 2007, accessed on August 18 2007
  3. ^ Valerie Aubourg (June 2003). Organizing Atlanticism: the Bilderberg Group and the Atlantic Institute 1952-63. 
  4. ^ Rockefeller, David (2002). Memoirs. Random House, p.412. ISBN 0-679-40588-7. 
  5. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3773019.stm
  6. ^ Endgame. A blueprint for global enslavement., documentary by Alex Jones (radio).
  7. ^ http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/Bilderberg2007.html
  8. ^ http://www.bilderberg.org/
  9. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3773019.stm
  10. ^ http://www.schnews.org.uk/bilderberg/introduction.html
  11. ^ High-security fences surround resort town in preparation for summit, Edmonton Journal, August 18 2007, accessed on August 19 2007
  12. ^ Asia Times Online :: Asian News, Business and Economy.. Retrieved on 2007-08-22.
  13. ^ Panetta, Alexander (2006). Secretive Bilderbergers meet. www.thestar.com. Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. Retrieved on 2006-06-12.
  14. ^ Bilderberg 2007 - Towards a One World Empire?, Nexus Magazine, Volume 14, Number 5 (August - September 2007), accessed on August 18 2007
  • Hatch, Alden (1962). "The Hôtel de Bilderberg", H.R.H.Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands: An authorized biography. London: Harrap. ISBN B0000CLLN4. 
  • Ronson, Jon (2001). THEM: Adventures with Extremists. London: Picador. ISBN 0-330-37546-6. 
  • Eringer, Robert (1980). The Global Manipulators. Bristol, England: Pentacle Books. ISBN 0906850046. 

External links

Note: the Bilderberg Group does not have a website. (From Bilderberg: The ultimate conspiracy theory (BBC News story).)

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