Bilderberg 2011

This week at the Suvretta House hotel in Saint Moritz, Switzerland, the world's elite power brokers gather once again for the annual Bilderberg conference. The Bilderberg Group, which holds meetings all over the world, has previously been responsible for wide scale policy changes such as the formation of the European Union and the Euro currency, according to an interview with Bilderberg chairman and EU comissioner Étienne Davignon, published in the EU Observer.

Mainstream media has recently began reporting on Bilderberg. For many decades, up until the late 90's, mainstream media largely denied or ignored the existence of the group. These days, apparently the cat is out of the bag, as Bilderberg is increasingly covered by mainstream news, even publishing partial lists of attendees (mostly very high level politicians, kings and queens, and wealthy industrialists). However, these usually tepid mainstream stories rarely scratch the surface of the significance of the global group.

For the past few years, as news of the Bilderberg Group trickled out into public knowledge, concerned activists have played a cat-and-mouse game with the conference, chasing the attendees and staging public protests as they hold meetings across Switzerland in cities like Zurich and Geneva. Independent investigative journalists such as Alex Jones insist that the intentions of Bilderberg are nefarious, and that the origins of the Bilderberg Group involves Nazi roots. Journalists like Jones also question the right of these global elites to dictate the public policy of sovereign countries. The Bilderberg Group are not elected by any electorate, and are not subject to any governmental oversight, despite the fact that they seem to be hugely influential in enacting policy decisions.

According to the book The True Story of the Bilderberg Group by Daniel Estulin, the group began in 1954 when they held their first meeting at the Bilderberg Hotel in Oosterbeek, Holland, organized by the Netherlands' Prince Bernhard, American businessman David Rockafeller, and others. According to Estulin's research, German-born Prince Bernhard served as an officer in the Reiter SS Corps. He was also on the board of an IG subsidiary, Farben Bilder, which may be where the Bilderberg Group's name is actually derived. Bernhard has ties to Royal Dutch Shell, a powerful oil company which is deeply involved in the group.

This year's conference in Switzerland may prove to be particularly controversial, as Swiss People’s Party representative Dominique Baettig has publicly called for the arrest of George W. Bush and Henry Kissinger, former U.S. officials and regular Bilderberg attendees, on the accusation of war crimes.

A partial list of Bilderberg attendees is published on Wikipedia.

Several years of Bilderberg meeting reports have been released on Wikileaks.

Image courtesy of John LeGear under Creative Commons.

Tristan Gulliford is a writer, dreamer, and aspiring myth-keeper
who makes electronic music under the name "Dreamcode."