D.L. McCracken / Halifax Live | January 15 2006

Sometime later in 2006 the 52nd meeting of the Bilderberg Group will begin and continue over a period of four days in a five-star hotel resort. In attendance will be no more than 100 of some of the west's chief political movers, business leaders, bankers, industrialists, strategic thinkers and even a trusted journalist or two. All participants will be absolutely forbidden from disclosing what they discussed during the four days although the invited journalists are provided with a vague press release for the curious.

For instance, last year's Bilderberg Meeting which allegedly took place at the Dorint Sofitel Uberfahrt hotel near Munich, Germany dealt with such wide-ranging topics as American-European relations, Russia, Iran, Iraq, the Middle East, Asia, economic problems and nuclear nonproliferation. No details will ever be known as will be the case this year.

When the four-day meeting is over various minor tidbits of information will make mostly non-mainstream news and conspiracy theorist’s websites which is exactly what the Bilderbergers want to occur - their thinking is as long as the conspiracy theorists keep up a constant barrage of "whacko" dialogue about the secret society, the longer their secret and their real agenda will remain safe.

The name 'Bilderberg' derives from the very first meeting of the group way back in 1954. The first group met at the Bilderberg Hotel in Holland. The first meeting was called by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands in response to his concerns regarding the increasingly antagonistic relationship between the U.S. and Western Europe thus providing the Group with a declared purpose - to further the understanding between Western Europe and North America through informal meetings between powerful individuals. The Group has grown since that first meeting in 1954 and has met once a year every year since that time. Most of the world has no knowledge of the society or their meetings.

The Group has incorporated two official languages into their meetings - English and French. Spouses of all invitees are banned from attendance and invitations go exclusively to residents of Europe and North America. The list of invitees will never be more than 100. As mentioned earlier, journalists are invited but are banned from reporting any of it and are not allowed entrance into the actual meetings. Everyone invited whether they are kings or prime ministers or world renowned business tycoons are expected and required to leave all official credentials at the door - when they enter into official discussion, they are participating as members of the human race only. Security is provided by military intelligence. Which military intelligence is not known. Of course, this only perpetuates the conspiracy theorists belief that the Bilderberg Society are the puppet masters of a New World Order and have been pulling the strings of humankind since at least 1954.

Even though this could very well be the truth, the Bilderbergers continue to feel secure and safely protected by these same conspiracy theorists, the "whackos" who no sane person would believe for a moment.

Every year before the official announcement of the next Bilderberg Meeting, the Group releases a list of the year's attendees. One might ask why such a secret society would be so foolish as to release the names of those invited. Actually it's quite simple - how else are these famous movers and shakers going to explain a mass four-day disappearance? Far better to be up front in the beginning then to say nothing and invite intrusive snooping later.

There has been no mention of the dates for the 53rd annual Bilderberg Meeting of 2006 and subsequently, no list of this year's attendees. But to place the meetings into even more perspective, it is quite easy to find lists of last year's meeting or the year before. Keep in mind, there is no reason supplied by the Bilderbergers as to why a specific person has been invited nor will there be. They have wisely left that supposition up to the conspiracy theorists.

So let's take a look at a few of the past and current attendees to the annual Bilderberg Meetings:

-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld;
-Former US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz;
-Henry Kissinger who helped found the Group;
-U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright;
-Dean Acheson (Secretary of State under Truman);
-President Johnson’s Under Secretary of State, George Ball
-Nelson Rockefeller
-David Rockefeller
-Kennedy’s Secretary of State Dean Rusk
-Gerald Ford
-Prince Philip
-Lord Louis Mountbatten
-Robert S. McNamara
-Margaret Thatcher
-Lester Pearson
-Helmut Schmidt
-Donald S. MacDonald (former Canadian Defence Minister)
-Henry Ford III
-Gen. Walter Bedell Smith (former CIA Director)
-Gen. Alexander Haig
-Michael Dukakis
-Bill Clinton
-Vice President Dan Quayle
-Conrad Black
-Raymond A.J. Chretien
-Stephane Dion
-Preston Manning
-Frank McKenna
-Paul Martin (while Minister of Finance)
-Stephen Harper (while Leader of The Opposition in 2003)

While I have presented an extensive list here, the full roster goes on for pages.

Interestingly enough, no actual proof can be found that George W. Bush ever attended a Bilderberg Meeting. The closest one can come to associating Bush with the Bilderbergs is the fact that he was visiting several Bilderberg venue cities at the time of the meetings. His name however is not on any official lists.

So where does all this leave us? Really, no further ahead then the beginning. Anyone can Google 'Bilderberg' and be provided with reams of material. But not one word in all those pages will be officially sanctioned by the Group. Because they're secret. If Paul Martin or Stephen Harper were pointedly questioned about their participation in a Bilderberg Meeting, they might affirm that they were in attendance because that is public knowledge. But they will not reveal why they were invited nor will they reveal what they discussed while behind closed doors.

This bothers me. Someone at one time coined a little phrase in an attempt to sum up the Bilderberg Group and it goes like this: The Bilderberg Group is a “little clique of powerful men who meet secretly and plan..."

Scary little phrase, isn't it..