The guest list for meetings certainly includes names weighty enough to set any sensitive terrorist’s paranoid antennae vibrating. George W. Bush and his neo-conservative cohorts Colin Powell, Richard Armitage, Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz (quondam president of the World Bank), Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Lord Healey, Henry Kissinger and the conspiracy theorists’ favourite, David Rockefeller, have all been invited. One-third of the invitees are drawn from North America and the rest from Europe, with well over half being from the business, media and education worlds, while the rest are politicians or even royalty: the Queen of the Netherlands and the Crown Prince of Belgium have both attended, as have more unlikely candidates such as Jonathon Porritt from Friends of the Earth. There’s no suggestion that Prince Charles has joined the club yet.
Members of the Bilderberg Group stress that it’s only an upmarket talking-shop, but it’s hard to believe that members do not influence each other or that the guest list is not manipulated to put the right people together. Will Hutton, editor of the Economist and ex-Bilderberger, came close to breaking the self-imposed code of silence when he likened Bilderberg to the World Economic Forum, where “the consensus established is the backdrop against which policy is made worldwide”.
If Hutton is correct, then the Group will have surpassed its creators’ intentions. The original aim was to bring America and a united Europe closer together in the face of the emerging threat from Stalin’s Soviet Union and post-war anti-American feeling. The first meeting was masterminded by one Joseph Retinger, a Polish American with contacts in the top ranks of governments and the military, who believed peace was too important to be left to democratic means and was best brokered by powerful multinational organizations. The chosen group met in May 1954 at the Hotel de Bilderberg in Oosterbeck, near Arnhem, and was hosted by former SS officer Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands.
Since then it has met annually, and occasionally twice a year, to encourage trans-Atlantic co-operation, always with the CIA on hand to handle security (guaranteed to get any conspiracy theorist’s blood racing) and sheltered from prying eyes by a self-imposed ban by the world’s media; newspaper editors and media moguls are also invited to attend. It is this need for absolute privacy which seems to stick in the throats of Bilderberg’s critics. Tony Gosling, a former journalist and organizer of an anti-Bilderberg website, puts his fears succinctly: “My main problem is the secrecy. When so many people with so much power get together in one place I think we are owed an explanation of what is going on . . . One of the first places I heard about the determination of the US forces to attack Iraq was from leaks that came out of the 2002 Bilderberg meeting.”
According to conspiracy-theory students David Southwell and Sean Twist, the way the secrecy is maintained also suggests there is more than a polite discussion of current affairs going on behind those closed doors. They cite the occasion of the 2003 Bilderberg meeting in Versailles, which almost coincided with the beginning of a Group of Seven meeting of finance ministers in nearby Paris. The proximity of the two events made local French security police uneasy and they tried to have the Bilderberg meeting cancelled. Someone in the force even went so far as to leak an internal memo complaining of the huge numbers of mercenaries being used to protect members, and hinted they believed the event was merely a front for something “much more sinister”.
On the other hand, defenders of the Group would say that, in the face of often biased reporting from the world’s press, business leaders and politicians have much to gain from being able to voice opinions freely without the risk of their views being taken out of context, and it is this honesty which allows a greater understanding of political situations to be reached. Financial Times journalist Martin Wolf supports this view: “It’s privacy, rather than secrecy, that is key to such a meeting. The idea that such meetings cannot be held in private is fundamentally totalitarian. It’s not an executive body; no decisions are taken there.”
Is the average citizen to assume, then, that all that happens at the Bilderberg’s meetings is talk with no action? Some credit the Group with responsibility for the creation of the Treaty of Rome in 1957; only 18 months earlier, the Group’s 1955 meeting had concluded there was a pressing need for a closely knit European market. Others say that the 1996 delegation, which included Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, Helmut Kohl, Henry Kissinger and Margaret Thatcher, plotted the war in Kosovo that would ultimately bring down Serbia’s Slobodan Milosević, a view apparently broadcast by Serbian news agencies at the time.
On other occasions it would appear that a mere invitation is enough to set a train of events in motion. Bill Clinton was brought to the 1991 meeting in Germany when Governor of Arkansas; two years later he was US President. Tony Blair got his call to address the meeting in 1993. Good talent-spotting on the part of the Bilderberg committee, or a cynical boost to those politicians whose views are friendly to big business?
As the machinations of multinational boardrooms remain beyond the realm of “public interest”, there is no way of telling what effect the Group’s meetings have had on the business and financial worlds. Company directors are not democratically elected and are accountable only to their shareholders, but the same cannot be said of the politicians who count themselves as Bilderbergers. These people are the democratic leaders of the Western world, accountable to millions of people and supposedly upholders of free speech and open government. Why then would they need to discuss major issues “off the record”? The answer may lie in the very economic system which they claim is integral to democracy. As conspiracy-theory journalist Alasdair Spark says, “The idea that a shadowy clique is running the world is nothing new . . . Shouldn’t we expect that the rich and powerful organize things in their own interests? It’s called capitalism.”
The Bilderberg Group secretly rule the world: ALERT LEVEL 4
Further Reading
Brian Crozer, Free Agent, 1993
Robert Eringer, The Global Manipulators, 1980
Dennis Healey, The Time of Life, 1990
Robin Ramsay, Conspiracy Theories, 2006
David Rockefeller, Memoirs, 2002
Jon Ronson, Them: Adventures Among Extremists, 2001
www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3773019.stm
www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4290944.stm
www.bilderberggroup.net
DOCUMENT: DELEGATES & AGENDA, 47TH BILDERBERG MEETING, JUNE 3–6 1999
Introduction
The forty-seventh Bilderberg Meeting was held at the Caesar Park Hotel, Penha Longa, Sintra, Portugal, from June 3–6 1999. There were 111 participants from 24 countries. The participants represented government, diplomacy, politics, business, law, education, journalism and institutes specializing in national and international studies. All participants spoke in a personal capacity, not as representatives of their national governments or employers. As is usual at Bilderberg Meetings, in order to permit frank and open discussion, no public reporting of the conference took place.
This booklet is an account of the 1999 Bilderberg Meeting and is distributed only to participants of this and past conferences and to prospective participants of future conferences. It represents a summary of the panellists’ opening remarks for each session, and of the comments and interventions in the subsequent discussion.
[Page 4]
Participants
HONORARY CHAIRMAN
Belgium
Etienne Davignon Chairman, Société Générale de Belgique
HONORARY SECRETARY GENERAL
Netherlands
Victor Halberstadt Professor of Economics, Leiden University
PARTICIPANTS
Italy
Umberto Agnelli Chairman, IFIL-Finanziaraia di Partecipazioni
Spain
Esperanza Aguirre y Gil de Biedma President of the Spanish Senate
United States of America
Paul A. Allaire Chairman, Xerox Corporation
Portugal
Joaquim F. do Amaral
Member of Parliament
Sweden
Anders Aslund Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Portugal
Francisco Pinto Balsemao Professor of Communication Science, New University, Lisbon; Chairman, IMPRESA
Sweden
Percy Barnevik Chairman, Investor
United States of America
Evan Bayh Senator (Democrat, Indiana)
Italy
Sweden
Carl Bildt Member of Parliament
Canada
Conrad M. Black Chairman, Telegraph Group
United States of America
Charles G. Boyd Executive Director, National Security Study Group
Canada
John A. D. de Chastelain Chairman, Independent International Commission on Decommissioning
Great Britain
Kenneth Clarke Member of Parliament
Norway
Kristin Clemet Deputy Director General, Confederation of Business and Industry
France
Bertrand Collomb Chairman and CEO, Lafarge
United States of America
Jon S. Corzine Retired Senior Partner, Goldman Sachs & Co.
Portugal
João Cardona G. Cravinho Minister for Infrastructure, Planning and Territorial Administration
Greece
George A. David Chairman of the Board, Hellenic Bottling Company
United States of America
Christopher J. Dodd Senator (Democrat, Connecticut)
[Page 5]
United States of America
Thomas E. Donilon Attorney-at-Law, O’Melveney & Meyers
Turkey
Gazi Ercel Governor, Central Bank of Turkey
Turkey
Sedat Ergin Ankara Bureau Chief, Hürriyet
United States of America
Martin S. Feldstein President and CEO, National Bureau of Economic Research
International
Stanley Fischer First Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund
Italy
Paolo Fresco Chairman, Fiat
Italy
Francesco Giavazzi Professor of Economics, Bocconi University, Milan
Canada
Peter Godsoe Chairman and CEO, Bank of Nova Scotia
United States of America
Donald E. Graham Publisher, The Washington Post
Netherlands
Frank H. G. de Grave Minister of Defence
Portugal
Eduardo C. Marçal Grilo Minister of Education
United States of America
Chuck Hagel Senator (Republican, Nebraska)
Sweden
Tom C. Hedelius Chairman, Svenska Handelsbanken
Norway
Per Egil Hegge Editor, Aftenposten
Canada
Peter A. Herrndorf Former Chairman and CEO, TVOntario; Senior Visiting Fellow, University of Toronto
United States of America
Jim Hoagland Associate Editor, The Washington Post
Norway
Westye Höegh Chairman of the Board, Leif Höegh & Co.; Former President, Norwegian Shipowners’ Association
United States of America
Richard C. Holbrooke Ambassador to the UN designate
Belgium
Jan Huyghebaert Chairman, Almanij N.V.
International
Otmar Issing Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank
United States of America
Vernon E. Jordan Jr Senior Partner, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP (Attorneys-at-Law)
Bulgaria
Nikolai Kamov Member of Parliament
Turkey
Suna Kiraç Vice-Chairman of the Board, Koç Holding
United States of America
Henry A. Kissinger Chairman, Kissinger Associates
Germany
Hilmar Kopper Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Deutsche Bank
[Page 6]
Greece
Yannos Kranidiotis Alternate Minister for Foreign Affairs
United States of America
Marie-Josée Kravis Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute
United States of America
Jan Leschly CEO, SmithKline Beecham
International
Erkki Liikanen Member of the European Commission
Canada
Roy MacLaren High Commissioner for Canada in Britain
Canada
Margaret O. MacMillan Editor, International Journal
Great Britain
Peter Mandelson Member of Parliament
United States of America
Jessica T. Mathews President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
United States of America
William J. McDonough President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
United States of America
Richard A. McGinn Chairman and CEO, Lucent Technologies
Portugal
Vasco de Mello Vice Chairman and CEO, Grupo José de Mello
Ukraine
Ihor Mityukov Minister of Finance
France
Dominique Moïsi Deputy Director, IFRI
Mario Monti Member of the European Commission
Portugal
Francisco Murteira Nabo President and CEO, Portugal Telecom
Germany
Matthias Nass Deputy Editor, Die Zeit
Netherlands
Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands
Iceland
David Oddsson Prime Minister
Poland
Andrzej Olechowski Chairman, Central Europe Trust
Finland
Jorma Ollila Chairman of the Board and CEO, Nokia Corporation
International
Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank
Germany
Werner A. Perger Political Correspondent, Die Zeit
Great Britain
Jonathon Porritt Programme Director, Forum for the Future
Italy
Alessandro Profumo CEO, Credito Italiano
Switzerland
David de Pury Chairman, de Pury Pictet Turrettini & Co.
Austria
Gerhard Randa CEO and Chairman, Bank Austria
United States of America
Steven Rattner Deputy Chief Executive, Lazard Freres & Co.
United States of America
Bill Richardson Secretary of Energy
[Page 7]
United States of America
David Rockefeller Chairman, Chase Manhattan Bank International Advisory Committee
Spain
Matías Rodriguez lnciarte Executive Vice Chairman, BSCH
Sweden
Mauricio Rojas Associate Professor of Economic History, Lund University; Director of Timbro’s Centre for Welfare Reform
Great Britain
Eric Roll Senior Adviser, Warburg Dillon Read
Sweden
Björn Rosengren Minister for Industry, Employment and Communication
Portugal
Ricardo E. S. Salgado President and CEO, Grupo Espirito Santo
Portugal
Jorge Sampaio President of Portugal
Portugal
Nicolau Santos Editor-in-Chief, EXPRESSO
Netherlands
Ad J. Scheepbouwer Chairman and CEO, TNT Post Group