Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About The Bilderberg Group

Bilderberg Club, also known as the Bilderberg conference or the Bilderberg group is a private, yearly conference consisting of about one hundred twenty to one hundred forty guests invited from Europe or North America most of who are considered to be influential people. About one third of the group are from politics and government are two thirds are from communications, education, labour, industry and finance.

Origins

The conference was originally held at Oosterbeek, Netherland’s Hotel de Bilderberg from the twenty-ninth to the thirty-first of May in the year nineteen fifty-four. There were several individuals initiating the group including Jozef Retinger, exiled politician from Poland. Retinger had concerns about Western Europe anti-Americanism growth and made a proposal in a global conference where European country leaders and those from America would be united in the aims of Atlanticism promotion, a better comprehension between Western Europe and USA cultures fostering cooperation on defence issues, economic issues and political issues. The Netherland’s Prince Bernhard was approached by Retinger and he had agreed to help in promoting the concept along with Paul Van Zeeland, former Prime Minister of Belgium along with Paul Rijkens, Dutchman and Unilever head. In turn, Bernhard got in touch with CIA head Walter Bedell Smith who had requested that the suggestion be dealt with by Charles Douglas Jackson, adviser of Eisenhower. The list of guests was drawn up by the invitation of 2 attendees from every one of the nations, 1 of each representing liberal and conservative viewpoints. From eleven countries, 50 delegates in Europe’s western parts attended the first of the conferences along with eleven people from the USA.

Success

The meeting success led the annual conference to be arranged by organizers. A steering committee that was permanent was established with the appointment for permanent secretary going to Retinger. Aside from conference organization, a committee for steering also maintained a register of attendee contact details and names, with the objecting creating an individual information network who would be calling upon each other in a capacity that was private. A conference was held in Denmark, Germany and France over the next 3 years. In the year nineteen fifty-seven, the first conference in the USA was held in Georgia’s St. Simons Island with thirty thousand USD from the Ford Foundation. This foundation gave even more funding for the conferences of nineteen fifty-nine and nineteen sixty-three.

Participants

The lists of attendees have historically been weighted towards large business directors, politicians and bankers. State heads including Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, King Juan Carlos I of Spain have been attendants of the meetings. Past attendees include Europe and North America prominent politicians. In years past, members of the board from many corporations that were publicly traded and large have attended including Daimler, Nokia, Royal Dutch Shell, Xerox and IBM. In Greece, the meeting participants in the year two thousand nine included Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Queen Sofia of Spain, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and World Bank President Robert Zoellick and Deputy Secretary of State for the USA James Steinberg. Part of the participant list also included foreign minister of Sweden Carl Bildt, prime minister from Finland Matti Vanhanen and prime minister from Greece Kostas Karamanlis.

Chateau of Val Duchesse

In the year two thousand and nine, there was a dinner meeting hosted by the group in Brussels’ Chateau of Val-Duchesse on the twelfth of November for the promotion of Herman Van Rompuy’s candidacy for the European Council President. In the year two thousand and thirteen, one source stated that at times, persons without getting their names issued publicly could sometimes turn up just for that particular day. In particular, this was for the meeting of the group that year in Watford, United Kingdom.

Etienne Davignon, chairman of the group stated that one big attraction that the group meetings of Bilderberg had was that they provided participants with the opportunities to debate and speak candidly to find out what primary figures truly think without having to risk comments off the cuff becoming food for media controversy. On the other hand, due to the methods it works out to risk privacy, the group had at one point in time been criticized for lacking in accountability and transparency. There has also been a rise of concerns about lobbying. Because it is private, conspiracy is something that the Bilderberg was accused of. This is a popular outlook on both political spectrum extremes even if they made disagreements about what exactly the nature was of the intentions of the group. Some left partisans have accused the group Bilderberg for conspiracies of imposing domination of capitalists. On the other hand, some rightists have made accusations that the group conspires to impose a planned economy and a world government.

One founder of the Bilderberg group was Denis Healey and in the year two thousand and one he had been a committee steering member for thirty years. He stated that for people to say that the group strived for a government of 1 world is an exaggeration but it is not exactly unfair. Some members of the group feel that they are unable to go on fighting each other for no particular reason and rendering people homeless by the millions. For this reason they do feel that having 1 community singly through the world wouldn’t be too much of a bad thing. In the year two thousand five, there were discussions with BBC made by Davignon about these accusations. It did not matter and that it was unavoidable, he stated. He also added that things do happen in a fashion that is incoherent and that there would always be persons who believe in one conspiracy after another. When individuals claim that this is a world government that is secret, he says that if this were true they should be ashamed of themselves. In a published nineteen ninety-four report, Political Research Associated featured a Right Woos Left report where there were arguments about conspiracy theories of right wing populists about the group Bilderberg dating back to nineteen sixty four, promoting theories of conspiracy where elitist individuals secretly controlled the Republican Party, paving the way for communism of the world. The group’s proponents in the USA also include groups and individuals like Alex Jones, radio host, Lyndon LaRouche, political activist, Jim Tucker, writer, Phyllis Schlafly, political activist and Jesse Ventura, politician. Proponents who were not from America include Daniel Estulin, Canadian-Russian writer.

Bilderberg 2013

For the first time this year at the conference for Bilderberg, there will be an office of the press hosted by the welcoming committee of Bilderberg location on the grounds of the hotel. The press office aim is for the facilitation of the alternative media and the mainstream in their meeting coverage. The office of the press will be found in the larger zone for reception within The Grove Hotel grounds near the gates. This provides researchers, bloggers, photographers and journalists with information of the conferences of this year including delegate photographs ID services and details of each delegate. Besides the office of the press, the zone for reception features a place for lavatories, speakers and a hotel drive view for photographers. For recharging phones and cameras, there will also be available electricity at the office of the press.

The Press

Famous for being shy about attention from the press, the group Bilderberg had at one time featured how a security and secrecy veil was drawn over the event in the year nineteen fifty seven. This year 2013, however, it seems the group wants to remain as transparent as they possibly can.