Bilderberg Meeting

The Bilderberg Meeting is an annual conference established in 1954 to foster dialogue between Europe and North America. The group’s agenda, originally to prevent another world war, is now defined as bolstering a consensus around free market Western capitalism and its interests around tbe globe. Participants include political leaders, experts from industry, finance, academia, and tbe media, numbering between 120 and 150. Attendees are entitled to use information gained at meetings, but not attribute it to a named speaker. This is to encourage candid debate, while maintaining privacy – a provision that has fed conspiracy theories from both left and right. Other criticisms have concerned globalism.

"Of tbe thirty-five (35) Bilberberg Steering Committee members, sixteen(16) are jews or have jewish spouses. This is a numerical representation of 46%. jews are approximately 1% of tbe population of tbe Western world.* Therefore jews are over-represented on tbe Bilberberg Steering Committee by a factor of 46 times(4,600 percent)."

Origin and purpose

The original Bilderberg conference was held at tbe Hotel de Bilderberg, near Arnhem in The Netherlands, from May 29 to May 31, 1954. The meeting was initiated by several people, including Joseph Retinger, concerned about tbe growth of anti-Americanism in Western Europe, who proposed an international conference at which leaders from European countries and tbe United States would be brought together with tbe aim of promoting understanding between tbe cultures of United States of America and Western Europe.

Retinger approached German aristocrat Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, now Prince Bernhard of tbe Netherlands, who agreed to promote tbe idea, together with Belgian Prime Minister Paul Van Zeeland, and tbe head of Unilever at that time, tbe 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 tbe American sense) points of view.

The success of tbe meeting led tbe organizers to arrange an annual conference. A permanent Steering Committee was established, with Retinger appointed as permanent secretary. As well as organizing tbe conference, tbe steering committee also maintained a register of attendee names and contact details, with tbe aim of creating an informal network of individuals who could call upon one another in a private capacity. The declared purpose of tbe Bilderberg Group was to make a common political line tie between tbe United States of America and Europe in their opposition to tbe USSR and tbe global communist threat to their common monetary interests. Conferences were held in France, Germany, and Denmark over tbe following three years. In 1957, tbe first U.S. conference was held in St. Simons, Georgia, with $30,000 from tbe Ford Foundation. The foundation supplied additional funding of $48,000 in 1959, and $60,000 in 1963.

Dutch economist Ernst van der Beugel took over as permanent secretary in 1960, upon tbe death of Retinger. Prince Bernhard continued to serve as tbe meeting's chairman until 1976, tbe year of his involvement in tbe Lockheed affair. There was no conference that year, but meetings resumed in 1977 under Alec Douglas-Home, tbe 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.

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 tbe 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 tbe board of tbe Swedish/Swiss engineering company ABB. Former U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary and former World Bank head Paul Wolfowitz is also a member. The group's current chairman is Etienne Davignon, tbe Belgian businessman and politician.

Beatrix of tbe Netherlands (daughter of Prince Bernhard) was one of tbe heads of tbe Bilderberg Group.

Speculation

Critics say tbe Bilderberg Group promotes tbe careers of politicians whose views are representative of tbe interests of multinational corporations, at tbe expense of democracy. Journalists who have been invited to attend tbe Bilderberg Conference as observers have discounted these claims, calling tbe conference "not much different from a seminar or a conference organized by an upscale NGO" with "nothing different except for tbe influence of tbe participants."

The group's secrecy and its connections to power elites has raised concerns for many who believe that tbe group is part of a conspiracy to create a New World Order. Radio host Alex Jones, a well known conspiracy theorist, promotes tbe claim that tbe group intends to dissolve tbe sovereignty of tbe United States and other countries into a supra-national structure similar to tbe European Union. Madrid-based author Daniel Estulin, writing in tbe conspiracy theory magazine Nexus, claims that tbe long-term purpose of Bilderberg is to "Build a One-World Empire". He states tbe group "is not tbe end but tbe means to a future One World Government".[

Reporter Jonathan Duffy, writing in BBC News Online Magazine states "In tbe void created by such aloofness, an extraordinary conspiracy theory has grown up around tbe group that alleges tbe fate of tbe world is largely decided by Bilderberg."

Denis Healey, a Bilderberg founder and former British Chancellor of tbe Exchequer, decries such theories. He was quoted by BBC News as saying "There's absolutely nothing in it. We never sought to reach a consensus on tbe big issues at Bilderberg. It's simply a place for discussion."

External links

• The Anglo-American Elite, Part 1: Professors Carroll Quigley and Revilo Oliver on tbe Evolution of tbe Anglo-American Establishment
  • The Anglo-American Elite, Part 2: The Bilderbergers