Guess who's at super-secret Bilderberg meeting today (original) (raw)

from WorldNetDaily

2004 - June - 4

Italy hosts 50th-anniversary confab of mysterious society of world leaders
The 50th anniversary conference of the elite Bilderberg group -- which many believe conspires semi-annually to foster global government -- is under way in Stresa, Italy.

The conference, which began yesterday and will run through Sunday, is being hosted at the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees.

Since 1953, the Bilderberg group has convened government, business, academic and journalistic representatives from the U.S., Canada and Europe with the express purpose of exploring the future of the North Atlantic community.

According to sources that have penetrated the high-security meetings in the past, the Bilderberg meetings emphasize a globalist agenda and promote the idea that the notion of national sovereignty is antiquated and regressive.

�Shadowy aura�

"It�s officially described as a private gathering," noted a BBC report last year, "but with a guest list including the heads of European and American corporations, political leaders and a few intellectuals, it�s one of the most influential organizations on the planet."

And according to a current BBC report on the conference in Stresa:

"Not a word of what is said at_Bilderberg_ meetings can be breathed outside. No reporters are invited in and while confidential minutes of meetings are taken, names are not noted. The shadowy aura extends further -- the anonymous answerphone message, for example; the fact that conference venues are kept secret. The group, which includes luminaries such as Henry Kissinger and former UK chancellor Kenneth Clarke, does not even have a website."

But, counter participants, the secrecy is not evidence of a grand conspiracy, but only an opportunity to speak frankly with other world leaders out of the limelight of press coverage and its inevitable repercussions.

"There�s absolutely nothing in it," argues the UK�s Lord Denis Healey, one of the four founders of Bilderberg. "We never sought to reach a consensus on the big issues at Bilderberg," he told the BBC. "It�s simply a place for discussion."

Here is the partial guest list of the current meeting obtained by WorldNetDaily -- which includes

In addition, according to the Bilderberg.org website, two reporters ("rapporteurs") from the British publication The Economist will also be attending: Gideon Rachman, Brussels correspondent, and Adrian D. Wooldridge, the magazine�s foreign correspondent.

[Bilderberg has two Economist reporters in attendance every year, and they never disclose a word about the event. -AMPP Ed.]

That may afford slightly more transparency than in the past. In 1998, British free-lance journalist Campbell Thomas attempted to cover the conference in Turnberry, Scotland, for the Daily Mail. Thomas began by seeking the opinions of neighbors to the secret meeting being held nearby. One of those was a young woman who told him he was in the hotel�s staff quarters and should leave immediately, which he did. A short while later, two local police officers arrested Thomas, who reportedly remained in custody for eight hours.

British journalist Jon Ronson, who is the author of a book on Bilderberg, had this to say:

"I�m a sort of semi-conspiracy theorist when it comes to Bilderberg because I think they wouldn�t go to that much trouble of having this incredibly expensive international conference every year and they�d go to all this trouble to keep themselves out of the press and be really secret and invite the world�s most powerful people if it was just a chat and a game of golf, which is basically what they say it is. So I do think they have some impact on world affairs."

Some observers are even speculating that President Bush will make an appearance at this year�s event, just as Bill Clinton did at the group�s 2000 meeting. By coincidence, it just happens that Bush will be in Italy over the weekend ...