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Bilderberg Group
Formation29 May 1954; 69 years ago (1954-05-29)
Membership
~150 invitees, smaller core group
Chairmen of the Steering Committee
Étienne Davignon
Websitewww.bilderbergmeetings.org

The Bilderberg Group, Bilderberg conference, or Bilderberg Club is an annual, unofficial, invitation-only conference of approximately 120 to 140 guests from North America and Western Europe, most of whom are people of influence.[1] About one-third are from government and politics, and two-thirds from finance, industry, labour, education and communications. Meetings are closed to the public and often feature future political leaders shortly before they become household names. [1]

Because of its exclusivity and privacy, the Bilderberg group is frequently accused by conspiracy theorists of being an all-powerful secret society fixing the fate of the world behind closed doors for nefarious ends.[1] Critics of Bilderberg conspiracy theories counter that it is nothing more than a policy discussion forum and social club, which only serves as a means to brainstorm, reach consensus, and create social cohesion within the power elite of North American and Western European nations, to better promote Atlantic free-market capitalism and its interests around the globe.[1][2][3]

Origin

The original conference was held at the Hotel de Bilderberg, near Arnhem in the Netherlands, from 29 May to 31 May 1954. It was initiated by several people, including Polish politician Józef Retinger, concerned about the growth of anti-Americanism in Western Europe, who proposed an international conference at which leaders from European countries and the United States would be brought together with the aim of promoting Atlanticism – better understanding between the cultures of the United States and Western Europe to foster cooperation on political, economic, and defense issues.[4] Retinger approached Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands who agreed to promote the idea, together with former Belgian Prime Minister Paul Van Zeeland, and the head of Unilever at that time, Dutchman Paul Rijkens. Bernhard in turn contacted Walter Bedell Smith, then head of the CIA, who asked Eisenhower adviser Charles Douglas Jackson to deal with the suggestion.[5] The guest list was to be drawn up by inviting two attendees from each nation, one of each to represent conservative and liberal points of view.[4] Fifty delegates from 11 countries in Western Europe attended the first conference, along with 11 Americans.[6]

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.[citation needed] Conferences were held in France, Germany, and Denmark over the following three years. In 1957, the first US conference was held in St. Simons, Georgia, with $30,000 from the Ford Foundation. The foundation supplied further funding for the 1959 and 1963 conferences.[5]

Organizational structure

Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld in 1942.

Meetings are organized by a steering committee with two members from each of approximately 18 nations.[7] Official posts, in addition to a chairman, include an Honorary Secretary General.[8] There is no such category in the group's rules as a "member of the group". The only category that exists is "member of the Steering Committee".[9] In addition to the committee, there also exists a separate advisory group, though membership overlaps.[10]

Dutch economist Ernst van der Beugel became permanent secretary in 1960, upon Retinger's death. Prince Bernhard continued to serve as the meeting's chairman until 1976, the year of his involvement in the Lockheed affair. The position of Honorary American Secretary General has been held successively by Joseph E. Johnson of the Carnegie Endowment, William Bundy of Princeton, Theodore L. Eliot, Jr., former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, and Casimir A. Yost of Georgetown's Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.[11]

A 2008 press release from the 'American Friends of Bilderberg' stated that "Bilderberg's only activity is its annual Conference. At the meetings, no resolutions are proposed, no votes taken, and no policy statements issued" and noted that the names of attendees were available to the press.[12] The Bilderberg group's unofficial headquarters is the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.[13]

According to the 'American Friends of Bilderberg', the 2008 agenda dealt "mainly with a nuclear free world, cyber terrorism, Africa, Russia, finance, protectionism, US-EU relations, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Islam and Iran".[12]

Chairmen of the Steering Committee

Participants

Main article: List of Bilderberg participants
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke leaving the 2008 Bilderberg Conference

Historically, attendee lists have been weighted towards bankers, politicians, and directors of large businesses.[16]

Heads of state, including Juan Carlos I of Spain and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, have attended meetings.[8][17] Prominent politicians from North America and Europe are past attendees. In past years, board members from many large publicly-traded corporations have attended, including IBM, Xerox, Royal Dutch Shell, Nokia and Daimler.[8]

The 2009 meeting participants in Greece included: Greek prime minister Kostas Karamanlis; Finnish prime minister Matti Vanhanen;[18] Sweden foreign minister Carl Bildt; United States Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg; U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner; World Bank president Robert Zoellick; European Commission head José Manuel Barroso; Queen Sofia of Spain; and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.[19]

In 2009 the group hosted a dinner meeting at Castle of the Valley of the Duchess in Brussels on 12 November to promote the candidacy of Herman Van Rompuy for President of the European Council.[20]

According to policy analyst and strategist Holly Sklar, Western elites have grown increasingly upset with the idea that the United Nations is no longer ruled by Western powers (led by the United States) and this frustration is registered in the Bilderberg group.[21] About the Bilderberg's participant selection process, human rights journalist Caroline Moorehead observes: "No invitation go out to representatives of the developing countries. 'Otherwise you simply turn us into into a mini-United-Nations, said one person [a Bilderberger] with scorn. And more revealingly, 'we are looking for like-thinking people and compatible people. It would be worse to have a club of dopes.'"[16]

Recent meetings

Main article: List of Bilderberg meetings

Recent meetings:

Privacy

The meeting hotels are inaccessible for any other guest for the full period of the conferences and sentineled by private security staffs as well as by local police authorities and secret services. Journalists attempting to report from the conferences are often subject to reprisal. During the Bilderberg Meeting at Vouliagmeni (Greece) in 2009, for instance, the British Guardian reporter Charlie Skelton was arrested twice after having taken pictures of vehicles.[29] On June 9, 2011 the Italian Lega Nord member of the European Parliament Mario Borghezio was arrested by the police, remanded for some hours and then banished from the Canton of Graubünden for the full period of the conference. Thereupon the Italian embassy at Berne appealed to the Swiss government and demanded investigations on that subject.[30]

Conspiracy theories

According to chairman Étienne Davignon, a major attraction of Bilderberg group meetings is that they provide an opportunity for participants to speak and debate candidly and to find out what major figures really think, without the risk of off-the-cuff comments becoming fodder for controversy in the media.[31] However, because of its working methods to ensure strict privacy, the Bilderberg group is frequently accused of conspiracies, ranging from the plausible to the absurd.[3][31][32][33] This outlook has been popular on both extremes of the ideological spectrum, even if they disagree on what the group wants to do. Left-wingers accuse the Bilderberg group of conspiring to impose capitalist domination,[34] while some right-wing groups have accused the group of conspiring to impose a world government and planned economy.[35]

For decades, the exclusive roster of globally influential figures who attend Bilderberg conferences has captured the interest of an international network of conspiracy theorists, who are convinced powerful elites are moving the planet toward a political and economic “new world order”.[36] Their populist worldview, characterized by a deep and angry suspicion of the ruling class rather than any prevailing partisan or ideological affiliation, is widely articulated on overnight AM radio shows and a collection of Internet websites. The video sharing website YouTube alone is home to thousands of Bilderberg-related videos.[36] Proponents of Bilderberg conspiracy theories in the United States include individuals and groups such as the John Birch Society,[35][37] political activist Phyllis Schlafly,[37] writer Jim Tucker,[38] political activist Lyndon LaRouche, radio host Alex Jones, and politician Jesse Ventura, who made the Bilderberg group a topic of a 2009 episode of his TruTV series Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura.[39] Non-American proponents include Russian-Canadian writer Daniel Estulin.[40]

In 2001, Denis Healey, a Bilderberg group founder and, for 30 years, a steering committee member, said: "To say we were striving for a one-world government is exaggerated, but not wholly unfair. Those of us in Bilderberg felt we couldn't go on forever fighting one another for nothing and killing people and rendering millions homeless. So we felt that a single community throughout the world would be a good thing."[41] In 2005 Davignon discussed these accusations with the BBC: "It is unavoidable and it doesn't matter. There will always be people who believe in conspiracies but things happen in a much more incoherent fashion... When people say this is a secret government of the world I say that if we were a secret government of the world we should be bloody ashamed of ourselves."[42]

In a 1994 report Right Woos Left, published by Political Research Associates, investigative journalist Chip Berlet argued that right-wing populist conspiracy theories about the Bilderberg group date back as early as 1964 and can be found in Schlafly's self-published book A Choice, Not an Echo[43], which promoted a conspiracy theory in which the Republican Party was secretly controlled by elitist intellectuals dominated by members of the Bilderberger group, whose internationalist policies would pave the way for world communism.[44] Paradoxically, in August 2010 former Cuban president Fidel Castro wrote an article for the Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma in which he cited Estulin’s 2006 book The Secrets of the Bilderberg Club [45], which, as quoted by Castro, describes "sinister cliques and the Bilderberg lobbyists" manipulating the public "to install a world government that knows no borders and is not accountable to anyone but its own self."[34]

G. William Domhoff, a research professor in psychology and sociology who studies theories of power,[46] sees the role of policy discussion forums and social clubs such as the Bilderberg group as being nothing more than a means to brainstorm, reach consensus, and create social cohesion within a power elite. He adds that this understanding of forums and clubs such as the Bilderberg group fits with the perceptions of the members of the elite. In a 2004 interview with New Internationalist magazine, Domhoff warns progressives against getting distracted by conspiracy theories which demonize and scapegoat such forums and clubs. He argues that the opponents of progressivism are conservatives within the corporate elite and the Republican Party. It is more or less the same people who belong to forums and clubs such as the Bilderberg group, but it puts them in their most important roles, as capitalists and political leaders, which are visible and therefore easier to fight.[2]

Author James McConnachie comments that conspiracy theorists have a point, but that they fail to communicate it effectively. He argues that the Bilderberg group acts in manner consistent with a global conspiracy, but does so without the same "degree of nefariousness", a difference not appreciated by conspiracy theorist, who "...tend to see this cabal as outright evil."[1][47] McConnachie concludes: "Occasionally you have to give credit to conspiracy theorists who raise issues that the mainstream press has ignored. It's only recently that the media has picked up on the Bilderbergers. Would the media be running stories if there weren't these wild allegations flying around?"[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f BBC News Online (7 June 2011). "Bilderberg mystery: Why do people believe in cabals?". Retrieved 14 June 2011. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ^ a b Berlet, Chip (September 2004). "Interview: G. William Domhoff". Retrieved 1 October 2009. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. ^ a b Wilford, Hugh (September 2003). "CIA plot, socialist conspiracy, or new world order? the origins of the Bilderberg group, 1952-55". Diplomacy & Statecraft, Volume 14, Issue 3, pages 70 - 82. Retrieved 28 March 2011.
  4. ^ a b Hatch, Alden (1962). "The Hôtel de Bilderberg". H.R.H.Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands: An authorized biography. London: Harrap. ISBN B0000CLLN4. The idea was to get two people from each country who would give the conservative and liberal slant
  5. ^ a b Valerie Aubourg (2003). Organizing Atlanticism: the Bilderberg Group and the Atlantic Institute 1952–63. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  6. ^ a b c Rockefeller, David (2002). Memoirs. Random House. p. 412. ISBN 0-679-40588-7.
  7. ^ a b "Inside the secretive Bilderberg Group". BBC News. 29 September 2005. Retrieved 5 August 2008.
  8. ^ a b c "Bilderberg Meeting of 1997 Assembles". PR Newswire. 13 June 1997.
  9. ^ "Parliamentary questions: Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission". European Parliament. 15 May 2003.
  10. ^ Entry for Conrad Black, The International Who's Who. Europa Publications. 2000.
  11. ^ "Bilderberg: List of Invitees" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. 31 January 1996. Retrieved 6 June 2009.
  12. ^ a b c "Bilderberg Announces 2008 Conference". businesswire.com. BusinessWire. 2008. Retrieved 7 June 2008.
  13. ^ Marcus Klöckner (17 May 2009). "Bilderberg meetings remain a mystery". Stars and Stripes.
  14. ^ a b "Twenty-fifth Bilderberg meeting held in St joseph MO". Facts on File World News Digest. 14 May 1977.
  15. ^ Who's Who. 1999.
  16. ^ a b Caroline Moorehead (18 April 1977). "An exclusive club, perhaps without power, but certainly with influence: The Bilderberg group". The Times.
  17. ^ Mark Oliver (4 June 2004). "The Bilderberg group". The Guardian. London.
  18. ^ "Prime Minister Vanhanen and Minister of Finance Katainen to attend Bilderberg Conference". Finnish Government. 13 May 2009.
  19. ^ "Bilderberg Group Meets In Athens Amid Tight Security". NASDAQ.
  20. ^ Bruno Waterfield (16 November 2009). "EU Presidency candidate Herman Van Rompuy calls for new taxes". during a secret dinner to promote his candidacy hosted by the elite Bilderberg Group.
  21. ^ Sklar, Holly (1999). Trilateralism: The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management. South End Press. ISBN 0896081036.[1]
  22. ^ "Asia Times Online :: Asian News, Business and Economy". Retrieved 22 August 2007.
  23. ^ Panetta, Alexander (2006). "Secretive Bilderbergers meet". www.thestar.com. Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. Retrieved 12 June 2006.
  24. ^ What was discussed at Bilderberg?, Turkish Daily News, 5 June 2007. Retrieved 18 August 2007.
  25. ^ "Balkenende to Meet Bush in Washington". nisnews.nl. NIS News Bulletin. 2008. Retrieved 25 May 2008.
  26. ^ "The most powerful elite will meet in Athens". GRReporter. 23 March 2009. the club will organize its meeting in Athens between 14 and 16 May
  27. ^ "Charlie Skelton's Bilderberg files". The Guardian. London. 15 May 2009. Retrieved 15 May 2009.
  28. ^ "Bilderberg 2010: Plutocracy with palm trees". The Guardian. London. 2 June 2010. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  29. ^ The Guardian
  30. ^ Schweizer Fernsehen am 11.06.11 - Italien fordert Aufklärung nach Bilderberg-Vorfall
  31. ^ a b "A special report on global leaders". The Economist. 22 January 2011. pp. 12–14.
  32. ^ Madeleine Bunting (25 May 2001). "Weekend break for the global elite". London: The Guardian.
  33. ^ Duffy, Jonathan (3 June 2004). "Bilderberg: The ultimate conspiracy theory". BBC News.
  34. ^ a b Weissert, Will (10 August 2010). "Fidel Castro fascinated by Bilderberg Club conspiracy theory". Retrieved 16 October 2010. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  35. ^ a b Wallechinsky, David; Wallace, Irving (1975). The People's Almanac. Doubleday. ISBN 0385040601.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)[2]
  36. ^ a b Vogel, Kenneth P. (15 March 2009). "Bilderbergers excite conspiracists". Retrieved 3 November 2010. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  37. ^ a b Berlet, Chip (2000). "John Birch Society". Retrieved 6 October 2010. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  38. ^ Jim Tucker, Jim Tucker's Bilderberg Diary: Reporter's 25year Battle to Shine the Light on the world Shadow Government (American Free Press, 2005). ISBN 0974548421
  39. ^ "List of episodes for Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura". truTV. Retrieved 11 January 2011.
  40. ^ Bruce Ramsey (30 July 2009). "That Bilderberg Book". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 23 January 2011.
  41. ^ Ronson, Jon (10 March 2001). "Who pulls the strings? (part 3)". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 May 2009. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Text "location London" ignored (help)
  42. ^ "Inside the secretive Bilderberg Group". BBC News. 29 September 2005. Retrieved 19 March 2011.
  43. ^ Phyllis Schlafly, A Choice Not An Echo: The Inside Story of How American Presidents Are Chosen (Pere Marquette Press, 1964) ISBN 0-686-11486-8
  44. ^ Chip Berlet (1994). "The New Right & The Secular Humanism Conspiracy Theory".
  45. ^ Daniel Estulin, Los secretos del club Bilderberg (Ediciones del Bronce, 2006).
  46. ^ Domhoff, G. William (2005). Who Rules America? Power, Politics, and Social Change. McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; 5 edition. ISBN 0072876255.
  47. ^ James McConnachie, Robin Tudge, The Rough Guide to Conspiracy Theories (London: Rough Guides Ltd, 2005) ISBN 9781843534457
  48. ^ "Japan–U.S. Relations—Past, Present and Future". The Daily Yomiuri. 8 December 1991. Rockefeller: The idea (of creating the Trilateral Commission) was incorporated in a speech that I made in the spring of 1972 for the benefit of some industrial forums that the Chase held in different cities around Europe,... Then Zbig (Zbig Brzezinski) and I both attended a meeting of the Bilderberg Group ... and was shot down in flames. There was very little enthusiasm for the idea. I think they felt that they had a very congenial group, and they didn't want to have it interfered with by another element that would—I don't know what they thought, but in any case, they were not in favor.

Further reading

External links

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