The Bilderberg Group, Bilderberg conference, Bilderberg meetings or Bilderberg Club is
an annual private conference of approximately 120–150 political leaders and experts from
industry, finance, academia and the media. About two thirds of the participants come
from Europe and the rest from North America; one third from politics and government and
the rest from other fields.
Origin The original conference was held at the Hotel
de Bilderberg in Oosterbeek, Netherlands, from 29 to 31 May 1954. It was initiated by
several people, including Polish politician-in-exile Józef Retinger, concerned about the growth
of anti-Americanism in Western Europe, who proposed an international conference at which
leaders from European countries and the United States would be brought together with the
aim of promoting Atlanticism – better understanding between the cultures of the United States
and Western Europe to foster cooperation on political, economic and defense issues.
Retinger approached Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands who agreed to promote the idea,
together with former Belgian Prime Minister Paul Van Zeeland, and the head of Unilever
at that time, Dutchman Paul Rijkens. Bernhard in turn contacted Walter Bedell Smith, then
head of the CIA, who asked Eisenhower adviser Charles Douglas Jackson to deal with the suggestion.
The guest list was to be drawn up by inviting two attendees from each nation, one of each
to represent conservative and liberal points of view. Fifty delegates from 11 countries
in Western Europe attended the first conference, along with 11 Americans.
The success of the meeting led the organizers to arrange an annual conference. A permanent
steering committee was established with Retinger appointed as permanent secretary. As well
as organizing the conference the steering committee also maintained 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. Conferences were held in France,
Germany, and Denmark over the following three years. In 1957 the first U.S. conference was
held on St. Simons Island, Georgia, with $30,000 from the Ford Foundation. The foundation
supplied further funding for the 1959 and 1963 conferences.
Organizational structure
Meetings are organized by a steering committee with two members from each of approximately
18 nations. Official posts, in addition to a chairman, include an Honorary Secretary
General. There is no such category in the group's rules as a "member of the group".
The only category that exists is "member of the Steering Committee". In addition to the
committee, there also exists a separate advisory group, though membership overlaps.
Dutch economist Ernst van der Beugel became permanent secretary in 1960, upon Retinger's
death. Prince Bernhard continued to serve as the meeting's chairman until 1976, the
year of his involvement in the Lockheed affair. The position of Honorary American Secretary
General has been held successively by Joseph E. Johnson of the Carnegie Endowment, William
Bundy of Princeton, Theodore L. Eliot, Jr., former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, and
Casimir A. Yost of Georgetown University's Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.
A 2008 press release from the "American Friends of Bilderberg" stated that "Bilderberg's only
activity is its annual Conference. At the meetings, no resolutions are proposed, no
votes taken, and no policy statements issued" and noted that the names of attendees were
available to the press. The Bilderberg group's unofficial headquarters is in Leiden in the
Netherlands. According to the American Friends of Bilderberg,
the 2008 agenda dealt "mainly with a nuclear free world, cyber terrorism, Africa, Russia,
finance, protectionism, US-EU relations, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Islam and Iran".
Chairmen of the Steering Committee Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld
Walter Scheel Alec Douglas-Home
Eric Roll, Baron Roll of Ipsden Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington
Étienne Davignon Henri de Castries
Participants
Historically, attendee lists have been weighted towards bankers, politicians, and directors
of large businesses. Heads of state, including King Juan Carlos
I of Spain and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, have attended meetings. Prominent politicians
from North America and Europe are past attendees. In past years, board members from many large
publicly traded corporations have attended, including IBM, Xerox, Royal Dutch Shell, Nokia
and Daimler. The 2009 meeting participants in Greece included
Greek prime minister Kostas Karamanlis, Finnish prime minister Matti Vanhanen, Swedish foreign
minister Carl Bildt, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg, U.S. Secretary of
the Treasury Timothy Geithner, World Bank president Robert Zoellick, President of the
European Commission José Manuel Barroso, Queen Sofia of Spain, and Queen Beatrix of
the Netherlands. In 2009 the group hosted a dinner meeting
at the Château of Val-Duchesse in Brussels on 12 November to promote the candidacy of
Herman Van Rompuy for President of the European Council.
In 2013, a source involved in the planning for the group's meeting that year in Watford,
UK, was reported to have said that people whose names are not publicly issued may sometimes
turn up "just for the day". Recent meetings
2014 at the Marriott hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark
2013 at the Grove Hotel, Watford, United Kingdom 2012 at Westfields Marriott hotel in Chantilly,
Virginia, USA 2011 at the Suvretta House in St. Moritz,
Switzerland 2010 at the Hotel Dolce in Sitges, Spain
2009 at the Astir Palace resort in Vouliagmeni, Greece
2008 at the Westfields Marriott in Chantilly, Virginia, USA
2007 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, in Şişli, Istanbul, Turkey.
2006 at the Brookstreet Hotel in Kanata, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
2005 at the Dorint Sofitel Seehotel Überfahrt in Rottach-Egern, Germany
Criticism According to chairman Étienne Davignon, a
major attraction of Bilderberg group meetings is that they provide an opportunity for participants
to speak and debate candidly and to find out what major figures really think, without the
risk of off-the-cuff comments becoming fodder for controversy in the media. However, partly
because of its working methods to ensure strict privacy, the Bilderberg Group has been criticised
for its lack of transparency and accountability. Concerns about lobbying have also arisen.
Due to its privacy, Bilderberg is also accused of conspiracies. This outlook has been popular
on both extremes of the political spectrum, even if they disagree about the exact nature
of the group's intentions. Some on the left accuse the Bilderberg group of conspiring
to impose capitalist domination, while some on the right have accused the group of conspiring
to impose a world government and planned economy. In 2001, Denis Healey, a Bilderberg group
founder and, for 30 years, a steering committee member, said: "To say we were striving for
a one-world government is exaggerated, but not wholly unfair. Those of us in Bilderberg
felt we couldn't go on forever fighting one another for nothing and killing people and
rendering millions homeless. So we felt that a single community throughout the world would
be a good thing." In 2005 Davignon discussed these accusations with the BBC: "It is unavoidable
and it doesn't matter. There will always be people who believe in conspiracies but things
happen in a much more incoherent fashion... When people say this is a secret government
of the world I say that if we were a secret government of the world we should be bloody
ashamed of ourselves." In a 1994 report Right Woos Left, published
by the Political Research Associates, investigative journalist Chip Berlet argued that right-wing
populist conspiracy theories about the Bilderberg group date back as early as 1964 and can be
found in Phyllis Schlafly's self-published book A Choice, Not an Echo, which promoted
a conspiracy theory in which the Republican Party was secretly controlled by elitist intellectuals
dominated by members of the Bilderberg group, whose internationalist policies would pave
the way for world communism. Paradoxically, in August 2010 former Cuban president Fidel
Castro wrote a controversial article for the Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma in
which he cited Daniel Estulin's 2006 book The Secrets of the Bilderberg Club, which,
as quoted by Castro, describes "sinister cliques and the Bilderberg lobbyists" manipulating
the public "to install a world government that knows no borders and is not accountable
to anyone but its own self". Proponents of Bilderberg conspiracy theories
in the United States include individuals and groups such as the John Birch Society, political
activist Phyllis Schlafly, writer Jim Tucker, political activist Lyndon LaRouche, radio
host Alex Jones, and politician Jesse Ventura, who made the Bilderberg group a topic of a
2009 episode of his TruTV series Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura. Non-American proponents
include Russian-Canadian writer Daniel Estulin. Former members of Steering Committee
Jens Christian Hauge See also
Council on Foreign Relations List of Bilderberg Group participants
Trilateral Commission World Economic Forum
References
Further reading Ronson, Jon. Them: Adventures with Extremists.
London: Picador. ISBN 0-330-37546-6. Eringer, Robert. The Global Manipulators.
Bristol, England: Pentacle Books. OCLC 26551991. Estulin, Daniel. The True Story of the Bilderberg
Group. Oregon, United States of America: Trine Day. ISBN 0-9777953-4-9.
Hodapp, Christopher; Alice Von Kannon. Conspiracy Theories & Secret Societies
For Dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. ISBN 0-470-18408-6. Richardson, Ian N.; Andrew P. Kakabadse; Nada
K. Kakabadse. Bilderberg People: Elite power and consensus in world affairs. Hoboken, NJ:
Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-57635-2. Klimczuk, Stephen; Gerald Warner. Secret Places,
Hidden Sanctuaries: Uncovering Mysterious Sites, Symbols and Societies. Sterling. ISBN 1-4027-6207-0.
External links Official website of the Bilderberg conference
"Elite power brokers meet in secret". BBC News. 15 May 2003.
"Bilderberg mystery: Why do people believe in cabals?". BBC News. 8 June 2011.
Guardian article on the group – an excerpt from Jon Ronson's book Them
Iain Hollingshead, "The Bilderberg Group: fact and fantasy" Daily Telegraph 4 June 2010
Charlie Skelton's Bilderblog Bilderberg Group? No conspiracy, just the
most influential group in the world Ken Clarke: Bilderberg conspiracy claims are
nonsense Bilderberg meeting reports from WikiLeaks
Minutes of 1973 Bilderberg Meeting Minutes of 1999 Bilderberg Meeting