Although the American people have never been informed by the public media that the Bilderberg Group is the successor organization to the Anglo-American Establishment, more than a few have surmised that it is because only the Group has the wherewithal (the experienced personnel, the agenda, and the resources) to manage such an undertaking.

Pursuant to the ambitious vision of the Milner group that the Establishment should develop a worldwide base with universal appeal, i.e., an enterprise without borders, they likely decided that the very name ‘Anglo-American’ implied both geographic and ethnic constraints. Consequently, that name was dropped and the distinguished members became known simply as the “Bilderbergers” or the Bilderberg Group, i.e., by the name of the hotel in which the organization happened to hold its first general meeting. However, no known or acknowledged official linkage has as yet been established between the old Anglo-American Establishment and today’s Bilderbergers, other than the fact that both groups of ambitious industrialists and bankers were and remain in the same business, namely to advance the cause of globalism, and increase world trade and wealth to the profit of its members.

The Bilderberg Group consists of three core organizations, each with its own area of responsibility: the Bilderbergers with their main focus of interest on NATO and Europe; the Trilateralists who work with representatives from the East Asian states; and the Council on Foreign Relations which is part of the State Department. Other important outside groups like the Carnegie Endowment for Peace also cooperate when called upon. Membership overlaps in each of the core organizations with individuals freely transferring from one to the other or as a member in two or three of the components simultaneously. Some members may also move in and out of US Government offices almost at will.

The first annual private conference of the Bilderberg Group was held in the Netherlands in May 1954. It was (and continues to be) attended by approximately 120–150 political leaders and experts from government, industry, finance, academia and the media. This group’s main stated aims are to promote Atlanticism and NATO, develop better understanding between the United States and Western Europe, and to foster cooperation on political, economic and defense issues. Part lobby, part think tank, part policy-forming body, the Bilderberg Group is a driving force and guiding light in globalization, European integration, and Anglo-American relations. Members are the global elite – the power brokers of the West.

At the 1991 Bilderberg meeting Rockefeller [Ref. 2, p. 61] himself stated his goal was to create a “supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers, which is surely preferable to the national auto determination practiced in past centuries.”

Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, one of the earliest members, helped to promote the idea, together with former Belgian Prime Minister Paul Van Zeeland and the head of Unilever at that time, Dutchman Paul Rijkens. The lowland countries of Belgium and the Netherlands geographically constitute the transition zone between continental Europe and the British Isles. Bernhard in turn contactedWalter Bedell Smith, then head of the CIA, to ask Eisenhower adviser Charles Douglas Jackson to review the Group’s plans. The annual guest list is drawn up by inviting at least two attendees from each nation, one of each to represent conservative and liberal points of view.

Besides organizing the conferences the Steering Committee maintains 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. In addition to the official post of Chairman, an Honorary Secretary General is also appointed. The following gentlemen have served as Chairman: Prince Berhard (1954–1975); Walter Scheel (1975–1977); Alec Douglas-Home (1977–1980); Baron Eric Roll (1986–1989); Peter Carrington (1990–1998); Etienne Davignon (1998–2001); and Henri de Castries (since 2001). No other formal hierarchy of Bilderberg officers appears to exist.

The Rockefeller and Rothschild [Ref. 3, pp. 1-3; Ref. 2, p. 24] enterprises collaborated in the founding of the Bilderberg Group as a way for the “movers and shakers” of the various countries to get together and discuss outstanding world problems with a minimum of governmental red tape and publicity. David Rockefeller, now a nonagenerian, has devoted much of his time to the development of the Bilderbergers. He and Evelyn Rothschild are present at most conferences. Representatives from postwar Germany are perhaps the third (after the US and UK) most important supporters of the Group. In the early days of the Group Dr. Hermann Josef Abs, formerly on the board of directors of I.G. Farben, Daimler-Benz, and Siemens as well as being chairman of the Deutschebank, was a major player. Other regular attendees: Henry Kissinger, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Vernon Jordan, Lord Peter Carrington, Henry F.Heinz II, Nelson Rockefeller, and others.

Among the prominent political figures who, like perennial and annual flowers, regularly or only occasionally attend Bilderberg confererences are the heads of foreign governments; US Secretaries of State, Vice Presidents, Senators, etc. No sitting US President may attend, but they may send a representative in their place. Once out of office former presidents may take a more active role, and do so. Thus, for example, ex-president Ford was associated with the Bilderbergers, ex-president Carter with the Trilateralists, Bush the Elder with the Trilateralists, and Clinton with the Bilderbergers. Other more controversial political figures like Neocons Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, and Paul Wolfowitz attend quite often. [Ref. 3, p. 205]

The Trilateral Commission, which is a second sister organization, is also a non-governmental, non-partisan discussion group. It was founded by David Rockefeller in July 1973 to foster closer cooperation between North America, Western Europe, and Japan. Zbigniew Brsezinski, National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981, and a professor at Columbia University helped organize the group. Its officers are Joseph S. Nye, Jr. (North American chairman); Yasuchika Hasegawa (Pacific Asian chairman); and Jean-Claude Trichet (European chairman).

The mission of the third sister organization, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), is to be “a support resource for its members, government officials, business executives, journalists, educators and students and other interested citizens in order to help them better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries”. The CFR promotes globalizaion, free trade, reducing financial regulations on transnational corporations, and economic consolidation into regional blocs such as NAFTA or the European Union, and develops policy recommendations that reflect these goals.

The CFR’s think tank, the David Rockefeller Studies Program, is composed of about fifty adjunct and full-time scholars, as well as ten in-residence recipients of year-long fellowships, who cover the major regions and significant issues shaping today’s international agenda. These scholars contribute to the foreign policy debate by making recommendations to the presidential administration, testifying before Congress, serving as a resource to the diplomatic community, interacting with the media, authoring books, reports, articles, and op-eds on foreign policy issues. Its views reach the general public through its journal Foreign Affairs.

Its officers include: Carla A. Hills (Co-Chairman), Robert E. Rubin (Co- Chairman), David M. Rubenstein (Vice Chairman), Richard N. Haass (President), Madeleine Albright, Tom Brokaw, Fareed Zakaria, and others.

Media moguls invited to attend conferences have a special responsibility to all three related organizations. Their special responsibility and pledge to the Bilderbergers is strange indeed. It is not to publish any news concerning the activities of any of the three sister organizations, nor even to mention the word “Bilderberg” in their publications. This prohibition pertains only to the American media people. The European media are quite free to publish whatever they chose about the Bilderbergers, and they do.

Among the publications of the American media that have scrupulously complied with the Bilderberg black-out requirement are The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Time, National Review, and other Establishment news vehicles. The owners, editors, and reporters of these large companies are often invited to attend the yearly conferences and do so. [Ref. 3, pp. 5, 7, 18, 19]

Some of the policies that the Bilderberg Group has promoted over the years include: aid to the African peoples and support for Black rule in South Africa and Rhodesia; supporting global environmental projects; increasing US taxes to provide a safety net for the international financiers in the event that Third World and former communist countries default on loans made to them; subduing racial and cultural differences in a world without boundaries; developing the United Nations along the path to world government; encouraging like-thinking US candidates to high office; merging national currencies into as few as possible (e.g., the Euro); merging national armies into grand alliances (e.g., NATO). [Ref. 3, pp. 150-154; 127, 143, 149]. The Group would not object to the US Army doing jobs that the UN cannot yet manage like, for example, fighting Ebola in West Africa

Although Dr. Quigley was initially impressed by the overall elitist nature of the individual Bilderbergers to cope with their mission, he had certain doubts and concerns about the Group’s organizational modus operandi. In time all of Quigley’s concerns became unpleasant realities. Thus, the first of Dr. Quigley’s concerns, namely, that the organization’s insistent demand for privacy would give cause for outsiders to suspect some sort of conspiracy, was evident from the very first conference. It became known somewhat later that other important individuals also disapproved of Bilderberg policies and aims, including President Eisenhower, President Nixon, Lady Margaret Thatcher, and others.

In 1961 President Eisenhower, in a speech a few days before leaving office, warned the American people about the dangers of the new “military industrial complex” without ever mentioning the word “Bilderbergers:” [Wikipedia, Military-Industrial Speech, 1961]

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations. This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, and even spiritual — is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

Although the president failed to mention the role played by bankers in his warning, Dr. Quigley made it quite clear:

Since it is quite impossible to understand the history of the twentieth century without some understanding of the role played by money in domestic and foreign affairs, as well as the role played by bankers in economic and political life, we must take a glance at each of these subjects. [Ref. 4, p. 45]

The Bilderberg Group is definitely not a debating society. It has its own specific “one world” agenda against which opposing points of view are not even heard. They find almost all nationalistic initiatives unacceptable. When, for example, President Nixon opposed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) for fear that it would have led to the NAFTA agreements and the eventual amalgamation of the United States, Mexico, and Canada, the president’s troubles began, culminating in Watergate. When in 1989 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher made it manifestly clear that she had absolutely no intention of surrendering any part of British sovereignty to the European Union, such as dropping the British pound for the Euro – much desired by the Bilderbergers – she was criticized as being a provincial. Soon thereafter her career began to decline and by 1990 she was out of office. [Ref. 3, pp. 106-108]

In an informal chat with American Free Press reporter Jim Tucker in 1995 Lady Thatcher shared her opinion about the Bilderbergers. Following are excerpts from that talk:

It is an honor to be denounced by Bilderberg. Anyone who would surrender the sovereignty of their country…They [the Bilderbergers] are a stuck-up set…They said ‘nationhood should be suppressed.’ But there will never be a New World Order…I reject the notion that we should effectively cease to govern ourselves.

Lady Thatcher warned against “passing on more powers to a Brussels bureaucracy” and a European court that “can overrule our country” and those who would “destroy nationhood and national sovereignty.” Lady Thatcher, who was removed from her office as Prime minister by her own Conservative Party in 1990, concluded her remarks by declaring:

The European superstate [EU] is an empire, and empires collapse!

The situation remains the same today — the choice between nationalism and one-worldism. Certain questions must still be answered with respect to the role and authority of the Bilderberg Group to involve itself in such high-level affairs of State: Does this private Group have the constitutional right to engage in the highest levels of Government? Does the Group have the right to control what the media reports? Is the Bilderberg Group violating the Logan Act prohibiting unauthorized citizens to negotiate with foreign governments? Does the US Government pay any of the expenses incurred in the Group’s activities? Which group members take responsibility for any violations of US law? Does America want a small unelected “elite” to govern some of the country’s most important affairs?

Because the affairs of the Bilderberg Group are shrouded in secrecy, there is an understandable tendency to produce conspiracy theories and to exaggerate their power. Greater transparency on the above questions would go a long way toward making Americans breathe more easily.

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