What do you know about the Bilderberg Group?

by Thierry Meyssan – VoltaireNet
An improvement to the Google translation from the French of the original VoltaireNet article

For several years, the idea has spread that the Bilderberg Group is an embryo world government. Having had access to the archives of this very secret club, Thierry Meyssan shows that this description is a red herring used to mask the true identity and function of the Group: Bilderberg is a creation of NATO. It aims to convince leaders and to manipulate public opinion through them to make it adhere to the concepts and actions of the Atlantic Alliance.

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Each year since 1954, one hundred of the most eminent personalities of Western Europe and North America have met – in camera – and under very high-security conditions, within the Bilderberg Group. Their seminars last three days and there is next to no MSM publicity of their debates.

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, journalists have been interested in this  elitist and secretive organization. Some authors have seen an embryo world government and allocate the major political decisions, cultural, economic and military of the second half of the twentieth century to the Group. An interpretation backed by Fidel Castro, but with nothing to either confirm nor deny it.

To know what is or is not the Bilderberg Group, I looked for documents and witnesses. I had access to all of its records for the period 1954-1966 and many later meetings, and I  chatted with one of its former guests that I have known for a long time. No journalist to date, and certainly not successful authors who popularized the present stereotypes, has had such access to internal Bilderberg documents.

Here’s what I discovered and understood.

The first meeting

70 personalities from 12 countries attended the first meeting of the Group. It is a three-day seminar, from 29 to 31 May 1954, near Arnhem (Netherlands). The guests are divided in two other hotels nearby, but the debates are held in the principal one which gave it’s name to the Group.

Invitations, letterhead Soestdijk Palace, are oracular. “I earnestly request your presence at the international conference, not an official, to be held in the Netherlands in late May. This conference wishes to explore a number of issues of great importance for Western civilization and is intended to stimulate mutual understanding and goodwill through a free exchange of views. ” They are signed by the Prince Consort of the Netherlands, Bernhard zur Lippe-Biesterfeld, and accompanied by several pages of administrative information on transportation and accommodation. At most, we learn that the delegates will come from the United States and 11 Western European states, and 6 sessions of 3 hours each are scheduled.

Given the Nazi past of Prince Bernhard (who had served in the SS cavalry until his marriage in 1937 to Princess Juliana) and in the context of McCarthyism, it is clear that the “issues of great importance for Western civilization” revolve around the struggle against communism.

The meeting debates are moderated and controlled  by the two chairmen: U.S. entrepreneur John S. Coleman and outgoing Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Paul van Zeeland. The first is an activist of free trade, the second is a supporter of the European Defence Community (EDC) [ 1 ].  At the the end of the forum we see  Joseph Retinger, the eminence grise of the British. All this suggests that the Dutch and British monarchies sponsored this meeting to support the European Defence and the economic model of free-market capitalism against the anti-Americanism that communists and Gaullists promoted.

However, appearances are deceiving. This is not to campaign for the EDC, but to mobilize elites to the Cold War.

HRH Prince Bernhard was chosen to convene this conference because his status as a prince consort gives it a state character without being formal. It hides the sponsor: an inter-governmental means manipulating the governments of some of its Member States.

John S. Coleman is not even the President of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, but he created the Citizens Committee for a National Trade Policy (Citizen’s Committee for a National Trade Policy – CCNTP). According to him, absolute free trade, that is to say, the renunciation of all customs duties, will allow countries allied with the United States to increase their wealth and finance the European Defence Community (ie to rearm Germany and integrate its potential military power within NATO)

However, the documents in our possession show that the Citizen’s Committee is  “CCNTP” in name only. It is actually an initiative of Charles D. Jackson, the psychological warfare adviser in the White House. The operation is controlled upstream by William J. Donovan, the former commander of the OSS (the U.S. intelligence service during the war) now in charge of building the American branch of the new secret service of NATO, Gladio [ 2 ].

Paul van Zeeland is not only the promoter of the European Defence Community, but also a politician of great experience. At the Liberation, he chaired the Independent League for European Cooperation (ILAE) whose objective is to create a customs and monetary union. This organization was established by Joseph Retinger, already cited.

Specifically Retinger, who acts as secretary to the Bilderberg conference, served during the war in the English secret service (OES) General Colin Gubbins. The Polish adventurer Retinger, found himself  advisor to the Sikorski government in exile in the United Kingdom. In London, he hosted the governments in exile and thus had the best address book of liberated Europe.

His friend Sir Colin Gubbins has officially left the service and the SOE was disbanded. He runs a small business of carpets and textiles, which serves as a “cover”. In fact, alongside his counterpart Donovan, he is responsible for creating the English branch of Gladio. He participated in all preparatory meetings of the Bilderberg conference and is present among the guests, seated next to Charles D. Jackson.

Unbeknownst to the participants, the secret services of NATO are the host power. Bernhard, Coleman and Van Zeeland are used as fronts.

Pace imaginative journalists who believe they discern  in Bilderberg a desire to create a secret government world, this club is an influential lobbying tool to promote NATO’s interests. It is much more serious and dangerous, because it is NATO which aims to be a secret world government guaranteeing the sustainability of international status quo and U.S. influence.

Moreover, the security of each subsequent meeting will not be provided by the host police, but by the soldiers of the Alliance.

Among the ten speakers, there are two former prime ministers (Guy Mollet, France, Alcide de Gasperi, Italy), three officials of the Marshall Plan, the falcon of the Cold War (Paul H. Nitze) and especially a very powerful financier ( David Rockefeller).

According to the preparatory documents, a score or so of participants are in on the secret. The smallest details have been adjusted and there is no element of improvisation.  The fifty or so other participants know nothing of what is happening. They were chosen to influence their respective governments and public opinion in their countries. The seminar is organized to convince them and push them to commit to spread the message that to be disseminated.

Interventions do not address major international problems, but analyze the ideology of the Soviets and set out how it must be countered in the “free world”.

Early interventions assess the communist threat. The “conscious communists” are individuals who intend to place their homeland in the service of the Soviet Union to impose a collectivist world. They must be fought. But this struggle is difficult because these “communists conscious” in Europe are embedded in a mass of Communist voters who know nothing about their evil plans and follow them in hopes of better social conditions.

Gradually, the rhetoric has hardened. The “free world” must face the “world communist conspiracy,” not only in general but also by responding to specific questions on U.S. investments in Europe or on decolonization.

Finally, the speakers come to the main problem – the Soviets, they said, are exploiting their profit – : for cultural and historical reasons, political leaders of the “free world” use different arguments in the U.S. and Europe , arguments that contradict each other sometimes. The most emblematic case is that of the purges organized by Senator McCarthy in the United States. They are essential to save democracy, but the method chosen is perceived in Europe as a form of totalitarianism.

The final message is that no diplomatic negotiation, no compromise is possible with the “Reds”. The Communists must be prevented at any cost  from playing a role in Western Europe, but it will take cunning: as we can not arrest them and shoot them; it will neutralize them with discretion, and deprive them of their voters. In short, the ideology that is developed is that of NATO and Gladio. It was never said that we rig elections, or that it would murder opponents, but all participants agreed that to save the “free world”, there should be freedom in parentheses.

Although the proposed European Defence Community (EDC) has failed three months later under the battering of Communist deputies and “nationalist extremists” (that is to say, Gaullist) in the French Parliament, the Congress was considered a success. Despite appearances, it had not intended to support the creation of the EDC or any other specific policy, but to spread the ideology of the ruling class, and then through it in society. Objectively, the Western Europeans had less and less perception of the freedoms they were denied and they were increasingly aware of the freedoms that were not available to the people of Eastern Europe.

Bilderberg is an organization

A second conference is held in France from 18 to 20 March 1955. At Barbizon.

Gradually the idea that these conferences will be annual and that they require a permanent secretariat is needed. Prince Bernhard is deposed when caught influence peddling ( The Lockheed Martin scandal). He yields to the former British Prime Minister Alec Douglas Home (1977-80), the Presidency will then be held by former German Chancellor and President Walter Scheel (1981-85), former Governor of the Bank of England Eric Roll (1986-89), former NATO Secretary General Peter Carrington (1990-98), and finally the former vice-president of the European Commission Etienne Davignon (since 1999).

For many years the chairman of the Bilderberg Group has been assisted by two secretaries general, one for Europe and Canada (vassal states) and one for the U.S. (the suzerain), however,  since 1999there is no one general secretary.

From one year to another, the debate is highly redundant, so guests are changing. There is always a hard core who prepare the seminars in advance and newcomers who are taught the  Atlanticist rhetoric of the moment.

Currently, annual seminars bring together over 120 participants, including a third or so  from the core. They are selected by the Alliance based on the importance of their relationships and their ability to influence, irrespective of their functions in society. Thus, they remain members of the core when changing jobs.

Here is the exact list of that hard core, including members of the Board of Directors, which serve as fronts for the guests, and less visible members so as not to scare newcomers.

Board of Directors

Josef Ackermann	Swiss banker, head of Deutsche Bank, Vice-Chairman of the Forum in Davos.
Roger C. Altman	U.S. Banker, a former campaign adviser to John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, director of investment bank Evercore Partners Inc..
Francisco Pinto Balsemão	Former Socialist Prime Minister of Portugal (1981-83), president and founder of the largest group of Portuguese television SIC. (T)
Fran Bernabè	Italian banker, the current boss of Telecom Italia (T)
Henri de Castries	CEO of the French insurer AXA
Juan Luis Cebrián	Director of media group Prisa and broadcasting Spanish.
W. Edmund Clark	Canadian banker, PDF, Toronto-Dominion Bank Financial Group
Kenneth Clarke	Former Vice Chairman of British American Tobacco (1998-2007), Keeper of the Seals and British Minister of Justice, Vice-President of the European Movement UK.
George A. David	CEO of Coca-Cola.
Etienne Davignon	Belgian businessman, former Vice-President of the European Commission (1981-85), current Vice-President of Suez-Tractebel.
Anders Eldrup	CEO of the Danish company DONG Energy oil and gas.
Thomas Enders	Director of Airbus.
Victor Halberstadt	Professor of Economics at the Dutch University of Leiden, he advises various companies such as Goldman Sachs or Daimler-Chrysler.
James A. Johnson	U.S. financial, it was a major contributor to the Democratic Party and an architect of the nomination of Barack Obama. He is vice-chairman of the investment bank Perseus.
John Kerr of Kinlochard	Former UK ambassador to Washington, Vice President of Royal Dutch Shell oil group (T)
Klaus Kleinfeld	German CEO of the giant U.S. aluminum, Alcoa.
Mustafa V. Koç	CEO of Koç Holding, the first Turkish company.
Marie-Josée Drouin-Kravis	Economic columnist in print and broadcast media in Canada. Researcher at the Hudson Institute very militaristic. It is the third wife of Henry Kravis.
Jessica T. Mathews	Former Director of Global Affairs at the National Security Council of the United States. Current director of the Carnegie Foundation.
Thierry de Montbrial	Economist, founding director of the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI) and the World Policy Conference.
Mario Monti	Italian economist, former European Commissioner for Competition (1999-2005), co-founder of the Spinelli Group for European federalism.
Egil Myklebust	Former president of the board Norwegian director of Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS).
Matthias Nass	Deputy Director of the German newspaper Die Zeit
Jorma Ollila	Finnish businessman, former CEO of Nokia, the current chairman of Royal Dutch Shell oil group.
Richard N. Pearl	Former Chairman of the Advisory Council of Defense at the Pentagon, it is a key leader of the Straussian (Leo Strauss’s disciples) and as such, a major figure in the neo-conservatism.
Heather Reisman	Canadian business woman, CEO of Publishing Group Indigo-Chapters.
Rudolf Scholten	Former Austrian Finance Minister, Governor of the Central Bank.
Peter D. Sutherland	Former Irish European Commissioner for competition, then director general of the World Commerce.Ancien director of BP. Current chairman of Goldman Sachs International. Former President of the European section of the Trilateral Commission, and Vice-President of the European Round Table of Industrialists, now honorary president of the European Movement Ireland.
J. Martin Taylor	Former British MP, CEO of the giant chemical and agribusiness Syngenta.
Peter A. Thiel	Owner U.S., CEO of PayPal, president of Clarium Capital Management and as shareholder of Facebook.
Daniel L. Vasella	CEO of Swiss pharmaceutical group Novartis.
Jacob Wallenberg	Swedish banker, he is a director of many transnational companies.

 

Members of the hidden nucleus

Carl Bildt	Former Liberal Prime Minister of Sweden (1991-94), former special envoy of the European Union and the UN in the Balkans (1995-97, 1999-2001), the current Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs. (T)
Oscar Bronner	CEO of Austrian daily Der Standard.
Timothy C. Collins	U.S. financial, director of investment fund Ripplewood. (T)
John Elkann	CEO of the Italian group Fiat Auto (his grandfather Gianni Agnelli was for forty years one of the leaders of the Bilderberg Group. He inherited the family fortune after the death of natural death of his grandfather Giovanni and premature death Edoardo his uncle. However, police sources were convinced that Edoardo was murdered after he converted to Shia Islam, so that wealth back to the Jewish branch of the family).
Martin S. Feldstein	Former economic adviser to Ronald Reagan (1982-84), and current economic adviser to Barack Obama. He was also adviser to George W. Bush’s Foreign Intelligence. He teaches at Harvard. (T)
Henry A. Kissinger	Former national security adviser and U.S. secretary of state, central figure of U.S. military-industrial complex, the current president of the consulting firm Kissinger Associates.
Henry R. Kravis	U.S. financial manager investment fund KKR. It is a major fundraiser for the Republican Party.
Neelie Kroes	Former Dutch liberal minister of Transport, European Commissioner for Competition Commissioner and current digital society.
Bernardino Leon Gross	Spanish diplomat, Secretary General of the Presidency of the Socialist government of Jose Luis Zapatero.
Frank McKenna	Former member of the Supervisory Commission Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Canada’s ambassador in Washington (2005-06), Vice-President of the Toronto-Dominion Bank.
Beatrix of the Netherlands	Queen of Holland. She is the daughter of Prince Bernhard.
George Osborne	British finance minister. This neo-conservative is seen as a eurosceptic. We must understand by this that he is opposed to the participation of the United Kingdom to the European Union, but he is a supporter of the organization on the continent within the Union.
Robert S. Prichard	Canadian economist, director of print and audiovisual Torstar.
David Rockefeller	The patriarch of a long line of financiers. He is the oldest member of the core Bilderbergers. He is also chairman of the Trilateral Commission, a similar organization incorporating Asian participants.
James D. Wolfensohn	Australian financial who took U.S. citizenship to become President of the World Bank (1995-2005), now director of consulting firm Wolfensohn & Co.
Robert B. Zoellick	U.S. diplomat, a former delegate to the United States Trade (2001-05), current president of the World Bank.

 

The Bilderbergers do not bind companies or institutions in which they work. However, it is interesting to observe the diversity of their industries.

According to international news reports, the number of topics discussed at annual seminars has increased in recent years . But this tells us nothing, because these discussions are not in themselves relevant;  they are merely channels to promote messages. Unfortunately, we do not have access to the most recent preparatory documents and can only speculate about the slogans as NATO tries to spread its message via these opinion leaders.

The reputation of the Bilderberg Group has led some authors to assign it capabilities of appointment;  a stupid notion obscuring the real string-pullers who are within the Atlantic Alliance.

For example, it was reported that during the last presidential election in the United States, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton attended for one day,  6 June 2008, to negotiate the end of their rivalry. They actually went to the annual seminar of the Bilderberg Group, Chantilly (Virginia, USA) and  the next day, Mrs. Clinton announced her retirement from the race. Some authors have concluded that the decision was taken during the Bilderberg meeting. This is not logical, since the decision was certain at least three days earlier given the number of votes for Senator Obama in the Committee of the Democratic nomination.

According to our source, something else happened. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton concluded an agreement to spread financial and political campaign costs. Senator Obama bailed out the funds of his rival and offered her a position in his administration (Clinton denied the vice-presidency and chose the Department of State) in exchange for his active support during the campaign against McCain . Then, the two leaders were introduced by James A. Johnson’s Bilderberg conference, where they assured the participants that they would work together. Long ago, Barack Obama was the candidate of NATO. Obama and his family have always worked for the CIA and the Pentagon [ 3 ]. Moreover, the initial finance for his campaign was provided by the Crown of England via the businessman Nadhmi Auchi. In presenting the black senator to Bilderbergers, the Atlantic Alliance organized the international public relations of the future president of the United States.

Similarly, it was reported that the Bilderberg Group held an impromptu dinner, excluding seminar, 14 November 2009 at the Chateau de Val Duchesse, owned by the King of Belgium. Former Prime Minister of Belgium Herman van Rompuy delivered a speech. Five days later he was elected president of the European Council. Again, some authors are wrong to conclude that the Bilderberg Group was the “kingmaker”.

In reality, the president of the European Union could not be chosen outside of NATO circles. As you may recall, the European Union grew out of secret clauses of the Marshall Plan  and this choice has top be endorsed by Member States. This type of decision requires lengthy negotiations and is NOT taken at an impromtu dinner with friends.

Also according to our source, the Bilderberg Group President, Etienne Davignon, convened this special dinner to present and relay van Rompuy influence. The thing was all the more necessary because the first person to occupy the new post of president of the Union was totally unknown outside his country. During the meal, Mr. Van Rompuy outlined his program for creating a European tax to directly fund the institutions of the Union without the Member States. It remained for the Bilderbergers to proclaim wherever they could, that they knew Herman von Rompuy well and could testify to his qualities to chair the Union.

The reality of the Bilderberg Group is less romantic than some successful authors have imagined. The incredible deployment of military forces to ensure security is not so much intended to protect, rather to impress those who participate. It does not illustrate  the power of non-core Bilderberg participants;  it shows that the only real power in the West is NATO.  They (we) are Free to them to support and be supported by it, or fight it and be relentlessly crushed by it.

In addition, although the Bilderberg Group has developed its debut anti-communist rhetoric, it was not turned against the USSR and now is not turned against Russia. It follows the strategy of the Alliance is not a pact against Moscow, but for defense-and-possibly extending the zone of influence in Washington. At its inception, NATO had hoped to integrate the Soviet Union, which would have amounted to a commitment from Moscow not to challenge the division of the world from the Potsdam Conference and Yalta. Recently the Alliance has welcomed President Dmitry Medvedev at the Lisbon Summit and proposed that Russia also  join. It would not then need to be subservient, but would recognise the reality of the New World Order, in which all Central and Eastern Europe has fallen into the U.S. orbit. Russian membership would become a defacto  Peace Treaty: Moscow concedes defeat in the Cold War and formally recognises the new division of the world – or New World Order.

In this case, the Bilderberg Group would invite Russian personalities at its annual meetings. It would not ask them to influence public opinion in Russia to ‘Americanize’, but to convince Russians to renounce dreams of past Russian grandeur.

Notes

[1] The EDC is a project aimed at creating a European army in NATO. It was rejected by Parliament in 1954 at the instigation of French Gaullist and Communist Party. It was not until 2010-11 for this project is a directorial debut with the Franco-British NATO and the War of Libya.
[2] ” Operation Gladio “, by Daniele Ganser.
[3] ” The Hidden biography of Obama: a family service at the CIA “(2 parts), by Wayne Madsen, Voltaire Network, August 30 and September 20, 2010.