Bilderberg Group

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The front cover of the privately circulated report of the 1980 Bilderberg conference in Bad Aachen, Germany. 1
The front cover of the privately circulated report of the 1980 Bilderberg conference in Bad Aachen, Germany. 1

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.

Due to discussions by public officials and powerful business leaders (and others) being off the record, these annual meetings are the subject of much criticism (for circumventing the democratic process of discussing issues openly and publicly) and numerous conspiracy theories.

The elite group meets annually at exclusive, four or five-star resorts throughout the world, normally in Europe, once every four years in the United States or Canada. It has an office in Leiden, South Holland, Netherlands.

Contents

[edit] Origin of the name "Bilderberg"

The "Bilderberg" title comes from what is generally recognized to be the location of its first official meeting in 1954 — the Hotel de Bilderberg in Oosterbeek near Arnhem in the Netherlands. Although the conference is not officially regarded as a club of any sort, many members are regular attendees, and guests are often seen as belonging to a secretive Bilderberg Group.

[edit] 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 30, 1954. The meeting was initiated by Polish emigre and political adviser, Joseph Retinger. Concerned about the growth of anti-Americanism in Western Europe, he 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. 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 danger.

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 Japanese Lockheed scandal. 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 Germany, Eric Roll, former head of SG Warburg and Lord Carrington, former Secretary-General of NATO.[1]

[edit] Declared 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 only extended 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. Although the agenda and list of participants are openly available to the public meanwhile - mainly in the internet and posted there by outsiders - whose sources and reliability are not known — it is not clear that such details are disclosed by the group itself. Also 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. However, it could easily be argued that the elite and secretive nature of the meeting antithetical to the democratic ideals of public debate.

[edit] 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 energy company ABB. Former U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary and current 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.[2]

[edit] Meetings


[edit] References

  1. ^ Rockefeller, David (2002). Memoirs. Random House, p.412. ISBN 0-679-40588-7. 
  2. ^ Bill Hayton (29th September, 2005). Inside the secretive Bilderberg Group. BBC.
  3. ^ Westfield Marriott hotel
  4. ^ Gosling, Tony (2002). Bilderberg Conference 2002. Bilderberg Conferences reference page: Secret lobbying for Anti-Democratic European Superstate by Western Elite. Tony Gosling. Retrieved on June 12, 2006.
  5. ^ The Brookstreet Hotel, Kanata (Ottawa)
  6. ^ Panetta, Alexander (2006). Secretive Bilderbergers meet. www.thestar.com. Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. Retrieved on June 12, 2006.
  • 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. 

[edit] External links

Note: the Bilderberg Group does not have a website.[7]

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