BBC News Online Magazine
Bilderberg: The ultimate conspiracy theory
Fri May 6, 2005 13:09
64.140.159.112
Bilderberg: The ultimate conspiracy theory
By Jonathan Duffy
BBC News Online Magazine
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3773019.stm
The Bilderberg group, an elite coterie of Western thinkers and power-brokers, has been accused of fixing the fate of the world behind closed doors. As the organisation marks its 50th anniversary, rumours are more rife than ever.
Given its reputation as perhaps the most powerful organisation in the world, the Bilderberg group doesn't go a bundle on its switchboard operations.
Telephone inquiries are met with an impersonal female voice - the Dutch equivalent of the BT Callminder woman - reciting back the number and inviting callers to "leave a message after the tone".
Anyone who accidentally dialled the number would probably think they had stumbled on just another residential answer machine.
Leiden in Holland, the inauspicious base of the Bilderberg group
But behind this ultra-modest façade lies one of the most controversial and hotly-debated alliances of our times.
On Thursday the Bilderberg group marks its 50th anniversary with the start of its yearly meeting.
For four days some of the West's chief political movers, business leaders, bankers, industrialists and strategic thinkers will hunker down in a five-star hotel in northern Italy to talk about global issues.
What sets Bilderberg apart from other high-powered get-togethers, such as the annual World Economic Forum (WEF), is its mystique.
Not a word of what is said at Bilderberg meetings can be breathed outside. No reporters are invited in and while confidential minutes of meetings are taken, names are not noted.
The shadowy aura extends further - the anonymous answerphone message, for example; the fact that conference venues are kept secret. The group, which includes luminaries such as Henry Kissinger and former UK chancellor Kenneth Clarke, does not even have a website.
DISCREET AND ELITE
This year Bilderberg has announced a list of attendees
They include BP chief John Browne, US Senator John Edwards, World Bank president James Wolfensohn and Mrs Bill Gates
In the void created by such aloofness, an extraordinary conspiracy theory has grown up around the group that alleges the fate of the world is largely decided by Bilderberg.
In Yugoslavia, leading Serbs have blamed Bilderberg for triggering the war which led to the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic. The Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, the London nail-bomber David Copeland and Osama Bin Laden are all said to have bought into the theory that Bilderberg pulls the strings with which national governments dance.
And while hardline right-wingers and libertarians accuse Bilderberg of being a liberal Zionist plot, leftists such as activist Tony Gosling are equally critical.
A former journalist, Mr Gosling runs a campaign against the group from his home in Bristol, UK.
"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.
Timothy McVeigh was among those who believed the conspiracy theory
Mr Gosling seizes on a quote from Will Hutton, the British economist and a former Bilderberg delegate, who likened it to the annual WEF gathering where "the consensus established is the backdrop against which policy is made worldwide".
"One of the first places I heard about the determination of US forces to attack Iraq was from leaks that came out of the 2002 Bilderberg meeting," says Mr Gosling.
But "privacy, rather than secrecy", is key to such a meeting says Financial Times journalist Martin Wolf, who has been invited several times in a non-reporting role.
"The idea that such meetings cannot be held in private is fundamentally totalitarian," he says. "It's not an executive body; no decisions are taken there."
As an up-and-coming statesmen in the 1950s, Denis Healey, who went on to become a Labour chancellor, was one of the four founding members of Bilderberg (which was named after the hotel in Holland where the first meeting was held in 1954).
The alternative - the WEF welcomes journalists
His response to claims that Bilderberg exerts a shadowy hand on the global tiller is met with characteristic bluntness. "Crap!"
"There's absolutely nothing in it. We never sought to reach a consensus on the big issues at Bilderberg. It's simply a place for discussion," says Lord Healey.
Formed in the spirit of post-war trans-Atlantic co-operation, the idea behind Bilderberg was that future wars could be prevented by bringing power-brokers together in an informal setting away from prying eyes.
"Bilderberg is the most useful international group I ever attended. The confidentiality enabled people to speak honestly without fear of repercussions.
"In my experience the most useful meetings are those when one is free to speak openly and honestly. It's not unusual at all. Cabinet meetings in all countries are held behind closed doors and the minutes are not published."
That activists have seized on Bilderberg is no surprise to Alasdair Spark, an expert in conspiracy theories.
"The idea that a shadowy clique is running the world is nothing new. For hundreds of years people have believed the world is governed by a cabal of Jews.
"Shouldn't we expect that the rich and powerful organise things in their own interests. It's called capitalism."
=============
RELATED INTERNET LINKS:
Tony Gosling's anti-Bilderberg site
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites
http://www.bilderberg.org/
============
What's A Conspiracy?
con·spir·a·cy
1 : the act of conspiring together
2 : an agreement among conspirators
con·spire
1 : to join in a secret agreement to do an unlawful or wrongful act or an act which becomes unlawful as a result of the secret agreement
Imagine a group of the most powerful individuals in the world. Bankers, oil executives, arms dealers, European royalty, heads of state and future heads of state, media barons and their obedient cronies, all coming together to speak in secrecy.
Each year select individuals are chosen to attend the most privileged of all the world’s secret gatherings: The Bilderbergs. The group is named after the Bilderberg Hotel in the Netherlands, where the group met for the first time in 1954. For many years, their mere existence was considered to be an outlandish Conspiracy Theory, and dismissed without thought or rational debate.
Once a year. The world’s elite. Complete secrecy.
What do you think they are saying behind those heavily fortified doors, protected by armed security forces? Are they discussing the plight of the poor and famished and how they can alleviate their suffering? Are they formulating a plan to stop the terrible violence and plague spreading across Africa? Rallying the medical industry to find a cure for AIDS and cancer? Looking for a way to stop narcotics from destroying our cities? Drafting policy to create new jobs in America? To eliminate our massive debt and our enslavement to the privately-owned Federal Reserve? Do you think they want to spread peace and freedom and respect to all the people of the world?
Do you? Do you really?
We can all pretend that they congregate in shadows to look out for our best interests. We can pretend that the arms dealers and oil executives actually care about “liberation” and outdated notions of “freedom” and “democracy.” We can pretend that the media barons are devoted to truth and integrity, that the news you see at six o’clock is the real story.
They are already your Masters. They just want to make it official.
Bilderberg: The Ultimate Conspiracy Theory (BBC)
Bilderberg Propaganda Rules the Planet (Online Journal)
More information to come as Bilderberg '05 commences!
SECRET MEETING EXPOSED:
Above, the Dorint Sofitel Seehotel Ueberfahrt, where the globe’s richest and most powerful men and women will be meeting to decide the fate of the rest of us.
MEETING TO BE HELD IN POSH GERMAN RESORT HOTEL
ROTTACH-EGERN, Germany—European Bilderberg hunters have found the hiding place of this secretive cabal at a posh resort in this charming little city 40 miles from Munich. Their annual meeting is May 5-8.
Bilderberg is gathering at the Dorint Sofitel Seehotel Ueberfahrt, a five-star conference and business hotel with 188 luxury rooms. It is on a lake and near a golf course—typical Bilderberg requirements. High officials of the U.S. government and possibly a few congressional leaders will participate in three days of secret meetings to plan global policy. Heads of state and other high officials from Europe and Britain will participate, along with world financiers.
David Rockefeller and his valet, Henry Kissinger, are longtime Bilderberg regulars. Donald Graham, publisher of The Washington Post, and associate editor Jimmy Lee Hoagland regularly attend, upon their promise to report
nothing.
The New York Times, LA Times and all major networks—ABC, CBS and NBC—have participated. All participants are sworn to secrecy. Bilderberg denies its existence, and all the resorts at which they hold their meetings require their employees to lie and deny they are present.
Three times the Dorint told AFP they were fully booked—but that Bilderberg was not there. All but Bilderberg participants and their staffs, wives or, in some cases, someone else’s wife, will be required to leave. The hotel staff will be warned to reveal nothing of what they see and hear.
Armed guards will patrol not only the main entrance but the perimeters.
Exposing Bilderberg meetings has provided advance warning—months ahead of the mainstream media—of U.S. wars, tax increases, and the downfall of Margaret Thatcher as prime minister of Britain, among other exclusives.
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/bilderberg_found_.html
Blackout on Trilaterals:
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/trilaterals.html
By Jonathan Duffy
BBC News Online Magazine
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3773019.stm
The Bilderberg group, an elite coterie of Western thinkers and power-brokers, has been accused of fixing the fate of the world behind closed doors. As the organisation marks its 50th anniversary, rumours are more rife than ever.
Given its reputation as perhaps the most powerful organisation in the world, the Bilderberg group doesn't go a bundle on its switchboard operations.
Telephone inquiries are met with an impersonal female voice - the Dutch equivalent of the BT Callminder woman - reciting back the number and inviting callers to "leave a message after the tone".
Anyone who accidentally dialled the number would probably think they had stumbled on just another residential answer machine.
Leiden in Holland, the inauspicious base of the Bilderberg group
But behind this ultra-modest façade lies one of the most controversial and hotly-debated alliances of our times.
On Thursday the Bilderberg group marks its 50th anniversary with the start of its yearly meeting.
For four days some of the West's chief political movers, business leaders, bankers, industrialists and strategic thinkers will hunker down in a five-star hotel in northern Italy to talk about global issues.
What sets Bilderberg apart from other high-powered get-togethers, such as the annual World Economic Forum (WEF), is its mystique.
Not a word of what is said at Bilderberg meetings can be breathed outside. No reporters are invited in and while confidential minutes of meetings are taken, names are not noted.
The shadowy aura extends further - the anonymous answerphone message, for example; the fact that conference venues are kept secret. The group, which includes luminaries such as Henry Kissinger and former UK chancellor Kenneth Clarke, does not even have a website.
DISCREET AND ELITE
This year Bilderberg has announced a list of attendees
They include BP chief John Browne, US Senator John Edwards, World Bank president James Wolfensohn and Mrs Bill Gates
In the void created by such aloofness, an extraordinary conspiracy theory has grown up around the group that alleges the fate of the world is largely decided by Bilderberg.
In Yugoslavia, leading Serbs have blamed Bilderberg for triggering the war which led to the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic. The Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, the London nail-bomber David Copeland and Osama Bin Laden are all said to have bought into the theory that Bilderberg pulls the strings with which national governments dance.
And while hardline right-wingers and libertarians accuse Bilderberg of being a liberal Zionist plot, leftists such as activist Tony Gosling are equally critical.
A former journalist, Mr Gosling runs a campaign against the group from his home in Bristol, UK.
"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.
Timothy McVeigh was among those who believed the conspiracy theory
Mr Gosling seizes on a quote from Will Hutton, the British economist and a former Bilderberg delegate, who likened it to the annual WEF gathering where "the consensus established is the backdrop against which policy is made worldwide".
"One of the first places I heard about the determination of US forces to attack Iraq was from leaks that came out of the 2002 Bilderberg meeting," says Mr Gosling.
But "privacy, rather than secrecy", is key to such a meeting says Financial Times journalist Martin Wolf, who has been invited several times in a non-reporting role.
"The idea that such meetings cannot be held in private is fundamentally totalitarian," he says. "It's not an executive body; no decisions are taken there."
As an up-and-coming statesmen in the 1950s, Denis Healey, who went on to become a Labour chancellor, was one of the four founding members of Bilderberg (which was named after the hotel in Holland where the first meeting was held in 1954).
The alternative - the WEF welcomes journalists
His response to claims that Bilderberg exerts a shadowy hand on the global tiller is met with characteristic bluntness. "Crap!"
"There's absolutely nothing in it. We never sought to reach a consensus on the big issues at Bilderberg. It's simply a place for discussion," says Lord Healey.
Formed in the spirit of post-war trans-Atlantic co-operation, the idea behind Bilderberg was that future wars could be prevented by bringing power-brokers together in an informal setting away from prying eyes.
"Bilderberg is the most useful international group I ever attended. The confidentiality enabled people to speak honestly without fear of repercussions.
"In my experience the most useful meetings are those when one is free to speak openly and honestly. It's not unusual at all. Cabinet meetings in all countries are held behind closed doors and the minutes are not published."
That activists have seized on Bilderberg is no surprise to Alasdair Spark, an expert in conspiracy theories.
"The idea that a shadowy clique is running the world is nothing new. For hundreds of years people have believed the world is governed by a cabal of Jews.
"Shouldn't we expect that the rich and powerful organise things in their own interests. It's called capitalism."
=============
RELATED INTERNET LINKS:
Tony Gosling's anti-Bilderberg site
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites
http://www.bilderberg.org/
============
What's A Conspiracy?
con·spir·a·cy
1 : the act of conspiring together
2 : an agreement among conspirators
con·spire
1 : to join in a secret agreement to do an unlawful or wrongful act or an act which becomes unlawful as a result of the secret agreement
Imagine a group of the most powerful individuals in the world. Bankers, oil executives, arms dealers, European royalty, heads of state and future heads of state, media barons and their obedient cronies, all coming together to speak in secrecy.
Each year select individuals are chosen to attend the most privileged of all the world’s secret gatherings: The Bilderbergs. The group is named after the Bilderberg Hotel in the Netherlands, where the group met for the first time in 1954. For many years, their mere existence was considered to be an outlandish Conspiracy Theory, and dismissed without thought or rational debate.
Once a year. The world’s elite. Complete secrecy.
What do you think they are saying behind those heavily fortified doors, protected by armed security forces? Are they discussing the plight of the poor and famished and how they can alleviate their suffering? Are they formulating a plan to stop the terrible violence and plague spreading across Africa? Rallying the medical industry to find a cure for AIDS and cancer? Looking for a way to stop narcotics from destroying our cities? Drafting policy to create new jobs in America? To eliminate our massive debt and our enslavement to the privately-owned Federal Reserve? Do you think they want to spread peace and freedom and respect to all the people of the world?
Do you? Do you really?
We can all pretend that they congregate in shadows to look out for our best interests. We can pretend that the arms dealers and oil executives actually care about “liberation” and outdated notions of “freedom” and “democracy.” We can pretend that the media barons are devoted to truth and integrity, that the news you see at six o’clock is the real story.
They are already your Masters. They just want to make it official.
Bilderberg: The Ultimate Conspiracy Theory (BBC)
Bilderberg Propaganda Rules the Planet (Online Journal)
More information to come as Bilderberg '05 commences!
SECRET MEETING EXPOSED:
Above, the Dorint Sofitel Seehotel Ueberfahrt, where the globe’s richest and most powerful men and women will be meeting to decide the fate of the rest of us.
MEETING TO BE HELD IN POSH GERMAN RESORT HOTEL
ROTTACH-EGERN, Germany—European Bilderberg hunters have found the hiding place of this secretive cabal at a posh resort in this charming little city 40 miles from Munich. Their annual meeting is May 5-8.
Bilderberg is gathering at the Dorint Sofitel Seehotel Ueberfahrt, a five-star conference and business hotel with 188 luxury rooms. It is on a lake and near a golf course—typical Bilderberg requirements. High officials of the U.S. government and possibly a few congressional leaders will participate in three days of secret meetings to plan global policy. Heads of state and other high officials from Europe and Britain will participate, along with world financiers.
David Rockefeller and his valet, Henry Kissinger, are longtime Bilderberg regulars. Donald Graham, publisher of The Washington Post, and associate editor Jimmy Lee Hoagland regularly attend, upon their promise to report
nothing.
The New York Times, LA Times and all major networks—ABC, CBS and NBC—have participated. All participants are sworn to secrecy. Bilderberg denies its existence, and all the resorts at which they hold their meetings require their employees to lie and deny they are present.
Three times the Dorint told AFP they were fully booked—but that Bilderberg was not there. All but Bilderberg participants and their staffs, wives or, in some cases, someone else’s wife, will be required to leave. The hotel staff will be warned to reveal nothing of what they see and hear.
Armed guards will patrol not only the main entrance but the perimeters.
Exposing Bilderberg meetings has provided advance warning—months ahead of the mainstream media—of U.S. wars, tax increases, and the downfall of Margaret Thatcher as prime minister of Britain, among other exclusives.
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/bilderberg_found_.html
Blackout on Trilaterals:
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/trilaterals.html
- According to Bilderberg's draft document of 1989: —the world's élite, Fri May 6 14:12
- Bush trip a tough diplomatic test —BBC News, with President Bush, Fri May 6 13:58
- Will Bush Be Attending The Bilderberg Meeting? —Free Press International, Fri May 6 14:30
- George W. Bush: Getting His Orders at Bilderberg? —URI DOWBENKO, Fri May 6 14:20
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