I wonder which of these craft were used to transport the Governor there?
Posted on 05/26/2005 1:01:12 PM PDT by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
RICHMOND -- Gov. Mark R. Warner quietly slipped away earlier this month to Germany for a secretive weekend conclave of global economic and foreign policy figures.
Warner confirmed Monday that he took part in the annual Bilderberg Meeting the weekend of May 6-8 at a resort hotel near Munich. Other U.S. participants included Henry Kissinger, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, Ford Motor Co. chairman and CEO Bill Ford and Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder addressed the group, Warner said.
"My sense was you had the opportunity here to interact with the leading business leaders not only of the United States but in all of Europe," Warner said in an interview.
Participants are forbidden to disclose what they discussed. "I think I should honor the ground rules," Warner said when asked for details.
The organizers closely guard the identity of those it invites and the venue and times of the meetings.
"Out of deference to the inviters, this was something we weren't volunteering," said Warner's communications director, Ellen Qualls.
"We asked if we could get an attendees list, ... and they wouldn't give it to us," she said.
The Bilderberg Meeting was not on Warner's public schedule, and reporters were not told of his trip more than a week after his return. First word came in an unguarded remark from an administration official Monday. Warner's office confirmed the trip when asked by The Associated Press.
Using his personal money, Warner booked a commercial flight to Germany, Warner said. Just days earlier, he had returned feeling ill and eight pounds lighter from a two-week trade mission to Japan and India.
"It was an opportunity for him, as chairman of the NGA (National Governors Association) to talk about the challenges of the global economy for American workers, for companies and for schools, and, as governor of Virginia, to learn a bit more about how we as a state can compete," Qualls said.
A year ago, John Edwards, then a U.S. senator from North Carolina who became John Kerry's Democratic running mate, attended the Bilderberg Meeting.
Warner has been mentioned prominently as a possible contender for the 2008 Democratic nomination.
The secretive annual forum of prominent politicians, thinkers and businessmen began in 1954 in Holland at the Bilderberg Hotel, from which it takes its name.
Bilderberg! OH NO! THEY'VE GOT ANOTHER ONE! BLACK HELICOPTERS ARE COMING!..........
BILDERBERG MEETINGS
Rottach-Egern, Germany
5-8 May 2005
On the 2005 agenda: Iran, Iraq, The Middle East, Non-Proliferation, Asia, Economic Problems, Russia, European-American relations.
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
B, Davignon, Etienne, Vice Chairman, Suez-Tractebel
GB, Taylor, J. Martin, International Advisor, Goldman Sachs International
NL, Aartsen, Jozias J. van, Parliamentary Leader, Liberal Party (VVD)
PNA, Abu-Amr, Ziad, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council; President of the Palestinian Council on Foreign Relations; Professor of Political Science, Birzeit University
D, Ackermann, Josef, Chairman, Group Executive Committee. Deutsche Bank AG
INT, Almunia Amann, Joaquin, Commissioner, European Commission
GR, Alogoskoufis, George, Minister of Economy and Finance
TR, Babacan, Ali, Minister of Economic Affairs
P, Balsemão, Francisco Pinto, Chairman and CEO, IMPRESA, S.G.P.S.; Former Prime Minister
INT, Barroso. José M. Durão, President, European Commission
S, Belfrage, Erik, Senior Vice President, SEB
I, Bernabè, Franco, Vice Chairman, Rothschild Europe
F, Beytout, Nicolas, Editor-in-Chief, Le Figaro
A, Bronner, Oscar, Publisher and Editor, Der Standard
GB, Browne, John, Group Chief Executive, BP plc
D, Burda, Hubert, Chairman of the Board of Management, Hubert Burda Media
IRL, Byrne, David, WHO Special Envoy on Global Cornmunicable Diseases; Former Commissioner, European Commission
F, Camus, Philippe, CEO, EADS
F, Castries, Henri de Chairman of the Board, AXA
E, Cebrián. Juan Luis, CEO, PRISA
USA, Collins, Timothy C., Senior Managing Director and CEO, Ripplewood Holdings, LLC
F, Collomb, Bertrand, Chairman, Lafarge
CH, Couchepin, Pascal, Head, Department of Home Affairs
GR, David, George A., Chairman, Coca-Cola H.B.C. S.A.
F, Delpech, Thérèse, Director for Strategic Affairs, Atomic Energy Commission
GR, Diamantopoulou, Anna, Member of Parliament
NL, Docters van Leeuwen, Arthur W.H., Chairman of the Executive Board, Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets
USA, Donilon, Thomas E., Partner, O’Melveny & Myers
D, Döpfner, Mathias, CEO, Axel Springer AG
DK, Eldrup, Anders, President, DONG A/S
I, Elkann, John, Vice Chairman, Fiat S.p.A.
USA, Feldstein, Martin S, President and CEO, National Bureau of Economic Research
USA, Ford, Jr., William C., Chairman and CEO, Ford Motor Company
USA, Geithner, Timothy F., President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
TR, Gencer, Imregul, Member of the Board, Global Investment Holding
ISR, Gilady, Eival, Strategic Advisor to Prime Minister Sharon
IRL, Gleeson, Dermot, Chairman, AIB Group
USA, Graham, Donald E., Chairman and CEO, The Washington Post Company
N, Grydeland, Bjørn T., Ambassador to the EU
P, Guterres, António, Former Prime Minister; President, Socialist International
USA, Haass, Richard N., President, Council on Foreign Relations
NL, Halberstadt, Victor, Professor of Economics, Leiden University
B, Hansen, Jean-Pierre, CEO, Suez-Tractebel S.A.
A, Haselsteiner, Hans Peter, CEO, Bauholding Strabag SE (Societas Europea)
DK, Hedegaard, Connie, Minister for the Environment
USA, Holbrooke, Richard C., Vice Chairman, Perseus
INT, Hoop Scheffer, Jaap G. de Secretary General, NATO
USA, Hubbard, Allan B., Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council
B, Huyghebaert, Jan, Chairman of the Board of Directors, KBC Group
USA, Johnson, James A., Vice Chairman, Perseus LLC
INT, Jones, James L., Supreme Allied Commander Euope, SHAPE
USA, Jordan, Jr.,Vernon E., Senior Managing Director, Lazard Frères & Co. LLC
USA, Keane, John M., President, GSI, LLC; General, US Army, Retired
GB, Kerr, John, Director, Shell, Rio Tinto, Scottish Americal Investment Trust
USA, Kissinger, Henry A., Chairman, Kissinger Associates, Inc.
D, Kleinfeld, Klaus, President and CEO, Siemens AG
TR, Koç, Mustafa V., Chairman, Koç Holding A.S.
D, Kopper, Hilmar, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, DaimlerChrysler AG
F, Kouchner, Bernard, Director, "Santé et développement", CNAM
USA, Kravis, Henry R., Founding Partner, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
USA, Kravis, Marie-Josée, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute, Inc.
INT, Kroes, Neelie, Commissioner, European Commission
CH, Kudelski, André, Chairman of the Board and CEO, Kudelski Group
F, Lamy, Pascal, President, Notre Europe; Former Commissioner, European Commission
USA, Ledeen, Michael A., American Enterprise Institute
FIN, Liikanen, Erkki, Govemor and Chairman of the Board, Bank of Finland
N, Lundestad, Geir, Director, Norwegian Nobel Institute; Secretary, Norwegian Nobel Committee
USA, Luti, William J., Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs
DK, Lykketoft, Mogens, Chairman, Social Democratic Party
CDN, Manji, Irshad, Author/Founder of "Project Ijtihad”
USA, Mathews, Jessica T., President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
CDN, Mau, Bruce, Bruce Mau Design
CDN, McKenna, Frank, Ambasssador to the US
USA, Medish, Mark C., Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
USA, Mehlman, Kenneth B., Chairman, Republican National Committee
D, Merkel, Angela, Chairman, CDU; Chairman CDU/CSU-Fraction
SVK, Miklos, Ivan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
F, Montbrial, Thierry de, President, French Institute of International Relations (IFRI)
INT, Monti, Mario, President, Bocconi University; Former Commissioner for Competition, European Commission
CDN, Munroe-Blum, Heather, Principal and Vice Chancellor, McGill University
N, Myklebust, Egil, Chairman of the Board of Directors, SAS
D, Nass, Matthias, Deputy Editor, Die Zeit
RUS, Nemirovskaya, Elena, Founder and Director, Moscow School of Political Studies
NL, Netherlands, H.M. tihe Queen of The
PL, Olechowski, Andrzej, Leader Civic Platform
FIN, Ollila, Jorma, Chairman of the Board and CEO, Nokia Corporation
INT, Padoa-Schioppa, Tommaso, Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank
E, Palacio, Loyola de, President, Council on Foreign Relations, Partido Popular
GR, Papandreou, George A., President, Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK)
USA, Pearl, Frank H., Chairman and CEO, Perseus, LLC
USA, Pearlstine, Norman, Editor-in-Chief, Time Inc.
FIN, Pentikäinen, Mikael, President, Sanoma Corporation
USA, Perle, Richard N., Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
D, Pflüger, Friedbert, Member of Parliament, CDU/CSU Fraktion
B, Philippe, H.R.H. Prince
CDN, Prichard, J. Robert S., President. Torstar Media Group and CEO, Torstar Corporation
IN'T, Rato y Figaredo, Rodrigo de, Managing Director, IMF
CDN, Reisman, Heather, President and CEO, Indigo Books & Music Inc.
USA, Rockefeller, David, Member, JP Morgan International Council
USA, Rodin, Judith, President, The Rockefeller Foundation
E, Rodriguez Inciarte, Matias, Executive Vice Chairman, Grupo Santander
USA, Ross, Dennis B., Director, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
F, Roy, Olivier, Senior Researcher, CNRS
P, Sarmento, Nuno Morais, Former Minister of State and of Presidency; Member of Parliament
I, Scaroni, Paolo, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Enel S.p.A.
D, Schily, Otto, Minister of the Interior
A, Scholten, Rudolf, Member of the Board of Executive Directors, Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG
D, Schrempp , Jürgen E., Chairman of the Board of Management, DaimlerChrysler AG
D, Schulz, Ekkehard D., Chairman of the Executive Board, ThyssenKrupp AG
E, Sebastián Gascón, Miguel, Chief Economic Adviser to Prime Minister
ISR, Sharansky, Natan, Former Minister for Jerusalem & Diaspora Affairs
I, Siniscalco, Domenico, Minister for Economy and Finance
GB, Skidelsky, Robert, Professor of Political Economy, Warwick University
E, Spain, H.M. the Queen of
IRL, Sutherland, Peter D., Chairman, Goldman Sachs International; Chairman, BP p.l.c.
PL, Szwajcowski, Jacek, CEO, Polska Grupa Farmaceutyczna
FIN, Tiilikainen, Teija H., Director, University of Helsinki, Network for European Studies
NL, Tilmant, Michel, Chairman, ING N.V.
INT, Trichet, Jean-Claude, Governor, European Central Bank
TR, Ülsever, Cüneyt, Columnist, Hürriyet
CH, Vasella, Daniel L., Chairman and CEO, Novartis AG
NL, Veer, Jeroen van der, Chairman Committee of.Managing Directors, Royal Dutch Shell Group
USA, Vinocur, John, Senior Correspondent, International Herald Tribune
S, Wallenberg, Jacob, Chairman of the Board, Investor AB; Vice-Chairman, SEB
USA, Warner, Mark R., Governor of Virginia
GB, Weinberg, Peter, CEO, Goldman Sachs International
D, Wissmann, Matthias, Member of Parliament, CDU/CSU Fraktion
GB, Wolf, Martin H., Asscociate Editor and Economics Commentator, The Financial Times
INT/USA, Wolfensohn, James D., President, The World Bank
USA, Wolfowitz, Paul, President designate, The World Bank
USA, Zakaria, Fareed, Editor, Newsweek International
D, Zumwinkel, Klaus, Chairman of the Board of Management, Deutsche Post AG
GB, Micklethwait, R., John, United States Editor, The Economist
GB, Wooldridge, Adrian D., Foreign Correspondent, The Economist
Manchurian disagreement?
I better sign off before they find me.
Is there any relationship between Mark Warner, Gov of VA, and one of the RINO 7 John Warner who also represents VA as senator?
Maybe he went over to find out what the world thinks of us so he could report back to Senator Voinivich before the Bolton hearing.
The story conveniently omitted the fact that fully HALF of the participants at the convention were SPACE ALIENS.
No, Mark Warner is a democrat. John Warner is a RINO.
I wonder which of these craft were used to transport the Governor there?
ouch !
THE ROVING EYE
Bilderberg strikes again
By Pepe Escobar
"It would have been quite impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national autodetermination practiced in past centuries ..."
- David Rockefeller, Bilderberg club permanent member, 1991
This conversation never happened. Well, it actually did. Date: March 5 to 8, 2005. Location: the isolated, fully-booked Dorint Sofitel Seehotel Ueberfahrt in Rottach-Egern, 60 kilometers east of Munich, Germany. Essential amenities: luxury rooms, a lake, a golf course, no suits - and no wives. Participants: 120-odd Western movers and shakers - politicians, tycoons, bankers, captains of industry, so-called strategic thinkers - invited for the 2005 meeting of the ultra-secretive Bilderberg club. Security: absolutely draconian. Global media coverage: non-existent.
Talk about white man's burden: Bilderberg is strictly "Western" elite, ie American-European. Bilderberg resolutely excludes Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. Bilderberg operates in strictly master of the universe territory: what we say goes. Only when events happen will corporate media report them, even though selected media people would have been aware of what has been decided weeks or even months in advance. The New York Times, the Big Three American networks, the Financial Times have all been represented at many Bilderbergs. But they are constrained by the silence of the lambs (see Asia Times Online's report on Bilderberg 2003 in Versailles The masters of the universe May 22, 2003)
Bilderberg has an address - in Leiden, Holland - and even a phone number - always on female answering-machine mode. No website though. In an annual ritual, Bilderberg meeting places and agendas have to be painstakingly uncovered by a small group of independent sleuths like Briton Tony Gosling or American James Tucker - who has been following Bilderberg for 30 years. Tucker is publishing a book on Bilderberg later this year. Historian Pierre de Villemarest and journalist William Wolf have already published Facts and Chronicles Denied to the Public, volumes 1 and 2, which include a secret history of Bilderberg. Belgian sociologist Geoffrey Geuens from the University of Liege has also included a full chapter on Bilderberg in one of his books. Although Geuens condemns Bilderberg's obsessive secrecy, he does not subscribe to conspiracy theories: he prefers to study how Bilderberg unmasks the way power works and the incestuous relations between politics, economics and the media.
Whenever corporate media approaches Bilderberg it mirrors the silence of the lambs. In 2005, the Financial Times released a classic pre-emptive story downplaying what it qualifies as conspiracy theories. In fact, anyone who questions the most powerful club in the world is derided as a conspiracy theorist. Bilderbergers like British lords or American policy-makers meekly justify it as "just a place to discuss ideas", an innocent "forum" where anyone can "speak frankly", and other assorted cliches.
Bilderberger Etienne Davignon, a former vice president of the European Commission, adamantly stresses "this is not a capitalist plot to run the world". Thierry de Montbrial, director of the French Institute of International Relations and a Bilderberg member for almost 30 years, says this is only "a club". The official Bilderberg 2002 press release, for instance, said that "Bilderberg's only activity is its annual conference. At the meetings, no resolutions are proposed, no votes taken and no policy statements issued." Bilderberg is just "a small flexible, informal and off-the-record international forum in which different viewpoints can be expressed and mutual understanding enhanced". This is, in fact, what the much-lauded "trans-Atlantic relationship" is all about.
Members only
The Bilderberg group - which took its name from a Dutch hotel - was founded in 1954 by Prince Bernhard from the Netherlands. German-born Bernhard was a card-carrying Nazi and member of the SS. As it is well-known, Prescott Bush was an officer of W A Harriman & Co, which financed Adolf Hitler and the Nazis with the help of Averell Harriman and German tycoon Fritz Thyssen. Alden Hatch wrote a biography of Prince Bernhard where he insists that Bilderberg was the cradle of the European Community - later rebranded European Union. He describes Bilderberg's ultimate goal as a one-world government.
Bilderberg's membership is heavily crossed with the Council on Foreign Relations, the Pilgrims Society, the Trilateral Commission and the famous "Round Table" - a British, Oxford-Cambridge elite group crystallized in the homonymous journal of empire founded in 1910. The Round Table - which also denied its existence as a formal group - called for a more efficient form of global empire so that Anglo-American hegemony could be extended throughout the 20th century.
Bilderberg regulars include Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller (of JP Morgan's International Council), Nelson Rockefeller, Prince Philip of Great Britain, Robert McNamara (J F Kennedy's secretary of defense and former president of the World Bank), Margaret Thatcher, former French president (and main redactor of the EU constitution) Valery Giscard D'Estaing, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski and the chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan. The Rothschild family has hosted many Bilderbergs. In 1962 and 1973, on the island resort of Saltsjobaden, Sweden, the hosts were the Wallenberg banking family.
Some of these masters control more of the universe than others. They are the members of the steering committee, which includes Josef Ackermann (Deutsche Bank), Jorma Ollila (Nokia), Jeurgen Schrempp (DaimlerChrysler), Peter Sutherland (former North Atlantic Treaty Organization - NATO - general and now with Goldman Sachs), James Wolfensohn (the outgoing World Bank president) and the "Prince of Darkness" Richard Perle. Iraq war conceptualist and incoming World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz is a also a Bilderberg permanent member. George W Bush happened to be in the neighborhood - the Netherlands, for the World War II commemorations - during Bilderberg 2005. He may have dropped in. Bush did meet Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, who must be present at every Bilderberg.
To whose advantage?
Bilderberg certainly is not an executive council. British economist Will Hutton may have gotten closer to the truth when he said that the consensus reached at each Bilderberg meeting "is the backdrop against which policy is made worldwide". What Bilderberg decides can be expected to be later implemented by a G-8 meeting, and International Monetary Fund and World Bank decisions.
No matter what, for innumerable, serious critics in Europe as well as the US, Bilderberg is everything from a Zionist plot to a megalomaniac secret cult. Serbs, not without some reason, blamed Bilderberg for the 1999 Balkan war and the fall of Slobodan Milosevic: after all, the US needed to control vital, Balkan pipeline routes. Bilderberg 2002 - although not without controversy - is thought to have cemented the invasion and conquest of Iraq. In his seminal A Century of War: Anglo-American oil politics and the New World War, F William Engdahl details what happened at Bilderberg 1973 in Sweden. An American outlined a scenario for an imminent 400% hike in the oil prices of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Bilderberg did not prevent the oil shock; instead it planned how to manage with mega-profits - what Kissinger described as "recycling the petrodollar flows". Everyone that mattered was present at this Bilderberg: oil majors and major banks. Engdahl's conclusion:
What the powerful men grouped around Bilderberg had evidently decided that May was to launch a colossal assault against industrial growth in the world, in order to tilt the balance of power back to the advantage of Anglo-American financial interests and the dollar. In order to do this, they determined to use their most prized weapon - control of the world's oil flows. Bilderberg policy was to trigger a global oil embargo, in order to force a dramatic increase in world oil prices. Since 1945, world oil had by international custom been priced in dollars, since American oil companies dominated the post-war market. A sudden sharp increase in the world price of oil, therefore, meant an equally dramatic increase in world demand for US dollars to pay for that necessary oil.
Saudi petrodollars then moved to the "right" banks in London in New York to finance US government deficits. Game, set, match to Bilderberg - where the mandarins of global finance always win.
Plutocracy international
Although not a single word uttered inside the Bilderberg vaults is allowed to reach public opinion, it's possible to take an educated guess as to what they're talking about. Last week, the ubiquitous Kissinger started the proceedings by illuminating the meaning of "freedom" - the Bush version. Natan Sharansky, Bush's democratic guru, was a participant.
Issues that would logically have interested Bilderberg 2005 include the role of NATO and the necessary approval in 2005 of the European constitution by all 25 members of the EU - the consequences of a French "no" in the upcoming May 29 referendum to approve the constitution need to be considered. Widespread job outsourcing in Europe to the Ukraine, China and India may sound the death knell to the constitution: French protesters - who have awakened the German and the Dutch - are insisting that what is good for big corporations may not be necessarily good for Western European workers. Critics say that chapter III of the constitution in fact details the way free trade may effectively kill the European welfare state.
They have their reasons to be concerned. In his book The Great Chessboard, Bilderberger Zbigniew Brzezinski hails "a Western Europe ... staying in a large measure an American protectorate". Brzezinski also insists that "Europe has to solve the problem caused by its social redistribution system", which "prevents European initiative". The father of the European constitution is none other than Bilderberger Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who happens to be very close to Kissinger.
From a geopolitical perspective, the heart of the whole matter is that the constitution legally confirms that Europe cannot have a defense force apart from NATO, ie outside the control of the US. Bilderberg beliefs would point to only one direction: an ever-expanding, US-controlled NATO, an ever-eastward-expanding EU, mass delocalization, mass corporate profits and unchallenged US military supremacy. No wonder this is the focus of a bitter debate inside EU corridors in Brussels, where scores of diplomats and commission officials openly complain of Washington's bullying and accuse their governments of selling out. Gunther Verheugen, the European commissioner in charge of expanding the EU, happens to be a Bilderberger. When members of the European Commission go to a Bilderberg, their travel expenses and their daily allowance is provided by the commission. This certainly disqualifies Bilderberg's self-presentation as a "private club".
Bilderberg 2005 has - coincidentally? - merged with Bush's tour among his Baltic friends and the tense meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The containment of Russia was likely top of the agenda for Bilderberg. Russia is very much worried about its "near abroad" and sees no reason to remove its army from bases in Georgia or its navy from Sebastopol, in Ukrainian Crimea - no matter how many color-coded revolutions happen at its doorstep.
European Commission sources assure that Brzezinski remains an extremely influential figure. The Bilderberg discussion on the control of Eurasia still refers to The Grand Chessboard. Washington is such an avid cheerleader of Turkey's accession to the EU because this means increased American influence near the Caspian and over the eastern Mediterranean. And it also works towards the containment of Iran, Russia and China - which, according to Brzezinski, may not be allowed to emerge as rival powers to the US in Eurasia.
Another contentious issue that must have occupied the minds of those at Bilderberg 2005 is preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon - this is just a detail: the point is how to prevent Iran from becoming a first-rate Eurasian power. Some in Brussels do not discount the possibility of a scenario of massive propaganda buildup to try to convince American and European public opinion of the necessity of a strike against Iran. How to force Beijing to appreciate the yuan must also have been a topic.
Is it just me or does that phrase connote a certain disparagement of and dissatisfaction with the US and aggrandizement and worship of all things Euro by this guy?
Why is Vernon Jordan (ol' buddy of Bill Clinton's) always in attendance at these annual meetings?
Behind closed doors in a Bavarian hotel, a group of powerful men and women will this week debate the future of the world.
The 120-strong gathering, known as the Bilderberg group after the Dutch hotel where it first met in 1954, has spawned countless conspiracy theories, fuelled by the gathering's off-the-record nature and the renown of its participants. The group's steering committee includes Josef Ackermann of Deutsche Bank; Jorma Ollila of Nokia; Richard Perle, the former Pentagon adviser; Vernon Jordan, the confidant of former US president Bill Clinton; Jürgen Schrempp of DaimlerChrysler; Peter Sutherland of Goldman Sachs International; Daniel Vasella of Novartis; and James Wolfensohn of the World Bank.
Guests speakers have included Alan Greenspan, US Federal Reserve chairman, and Donald Rumsfeld, US secretary of defence.
The wilder corners of the world wide web have speculated that projects such as the euro and the European Union itself have been hatched by the Bilder-bergers.
But the aim of the group's organisers is more modest than the hectic cyber-chatter might suggest. They see it as a forum in which officials, academics and businessmen from both sides of the Atlantic can speak frankly and come to understand each other a little more.
They have wrestled with many of the world's biggest topics from the rise of south-east Asia in 1956, to the technological gap between the US and Europe in 1967, to corporate fraud in 2004.
"It's not a capitalist plot to run the world," says Etienne Davignon, Bilderberg's unpaid chairman and a former vice-president of the European Commission. "If we really believed we were running the world we would immediately resign in complete despair."
For business people, a big attraction is the chance to make the kind of informal contacts that can be hard to achieve at other gatherings, where aides are likely to be present. This is particularly true for European executives who tend to be less well acquainted with political figures than their US counterparts.
However, despite the insistence that Bilderberg does not set out to shape a consensus among the world's movers and shakers, Mr Davignon and his predecessors have tried to steer the group towards the broad conclusion that Europe and the US need to engage more.
The hope is that even the most recalcitrant politicians and executives often specially selected by the steering committee will embrace a more collaborative approach.
The collective meals, the traditional informality the sports jackets of 20 years ago have been replaced by open-necked shirts and the ban on spouses are all meant to boost a spirit of camaraderie.
It does not always work. In 2003, tensions over the Iraq war boiled over, although last year's meeting was a calmer affair.
This year's event will open with a discussion chaired by Henry Kissinger, former US secretary of state, on the meaning of "freedom" a hot topic since President George W. Bush's liberal use of the word in his inauguration speech sparked off speculation about a worldwide US agenda for regime change.
Natan Sharansky, the author of Mr Bush's favourite book on democracy, will participate, as will Bernard Kouchner, the founder of the charity Medecins sans Frontières and former United Nations envoy to Kosovo.
Other panels during the long weekend that stretches from Thursday dinner to Sunday lunch will address issues such as non-proliferation, the role of Russia, Israel-Palestine, US attempts at social security reform and Europe's benighted Lisbon agenda for economic liberalisation.
"We actually met in the late 1990s to see if we should still bother to have meetings now that the Berlin wall had fallen," says Martin Taylor, Bilderberg's secretary-general and a former chief executive of Barclays. "But we decided rather presciently that the security issues had not gone away. The transatlantic relationship is not something to take for granted."
The beginning of this century also saw the group reach out to the US's newly empowered Republicans, a move that caused some mutterings about the influence of neo-conservatives.
Yet figures such as Paul Wolfowitz, the controversial incoming president of the World Bank, are long-standing members, while a broad mass of participants from both Europe and the US have more traditional Atlanticist views.
As the years have passed, Bilderberg has softened its original focus on security and encompassed more economic and business themes.
Yet Mr Davignon believes that the task of eradicating the caricatures Europeans and Americans have of each other remains as vital as it was half a century ago.
"One rediscovers things occasionally," he says, referring to the interplay of business and politics and the mutual dependence of Europe and the US. "Then when you look at them more deeply, you find out that they have always been there."
Behind closed doors in a Bavarian hotel, a group of powerful men and women will this week debate the future of the world.
The 120-strong gathering, known as the Bilderberg group after the Dutch hotel where it first met in 1954, has spawned countless conspiracy theories, fuelled by the gathering's off-the-record nature and the renown of its participants. The group's steering committee includes Josef Ackermann of Deutsche Bank; Jorma Ollila of Nokia; Richard Perle, the former Pentagon adviser; Vernon Jordan, the confidant of former US president Bill Clinton; Jürgen Schrempp of DaimlerChrysler; Peter Sutherland of Goldman Sachs International; Daniel Vasella of Novartis; and James Wolfensohn of the World Bank.
Guests speakers have included Alan Greenspan, US Federal Reserve chairman, and Donald Rumsfeld, US secretary of defence.
The wilder corners of the world wide web have speculated that projects such as the euro and the European Union itself have been hatched by the Bilder-bergers.
But the aim of the group's organisers is more modest than the hectic cyber-chatter might suggest. They see it as a forum in which officials, academics and businessmen from both sides of the Atlantic can speak frankly and come to understand each other a little more.
They have wrestled with many of the world's biggest topics from the rise of south-east Asia in 1956, to the technological gap between the US and Europe in 1967, to corporate fraud in 2004.
"It's not a capitalist plot to run the world," says Etienne Davignon, Bilderberg's unpaid chairman and a former vice-president of the European Commission. "If we really believed we were running the world we would immediately resign in complete despair."
For business people, a big attraction is the chance to make the kind of informal contacts that can be hard to achieve at other gatherings, where aides are likely to be present. This is particularly true for European executives who tend to be less well acquainted with political figures than their US counterparts.
However, despite the insistence that Bilderberg does not set out to shape a consensus among the world's movers and shakers, Mr Davignon and his predecessors have tried to steer the group towards the broad conclusion that Europe and the US need to engage more.
The hope is that even the most recalcitrant politicians and executives often specially selected by the steering committee will embrace a more collaborative approach.
The collective meals, the traditional informality the sports jackets of 20 years ago have been replaced by open-necked shirts and the ban on spouses are all meant to boost a spirit of camaraderie.
It does not always work. In 2003, tensions over the Iraq war boiled over, although last year's meeting was a calmer affair.
This year's event will open with a discussion chaired by Henry Kissinger, former US secretary of state, on the meaning of "freedom" a hot topic since President George W. Bush's liberal use of the word in his inauguration speech sparked off speculation about a worldwide US agenda for regime change.
Natan Sharansky, the author of Mr Bush's favourite book on democracy, will participate, as will Bernard Kouchner, the founder of the charity Medecins sans Frontières and former United Nations envoy to Kosovo.
Other panels during the long weekend that stretches from Thursday dinner to Sunday lunch will address issues such as non-proliferation, the role of Russia, Israel-Palestine, US attempts at social security reform and Europe's benighted Lisbon agenda for economic liberalisation.
"We actually met in the late 1990s to see if we should still bother to have meetings now that the Berlin wall had fallen," says Martin Taylor, Bilderberg's secretary-general and a former chief executive of Barclays. "But we decided rather presciently that the security issues had not gone away. The transatlantic relationship is not something to take for granted."
The beginning of this century also saw the group reach out to the US's newly empowered Republicans, a move that caused some mutterings about the influence of neo-conservatives.
Yet figures such as Paul Wolfowitz, the controversial incoming president of the World Bank, are long-standing members, while a broad mass of participants from both Europe and the US have more traditional Atlanticist views.
As the years have passed, Bilderberg has softened its original focus on security and encompassed more economic and business themes.
Yet Mr Davignon believes that the task of eradicating the caricatures Europeans and Americans have of each other remains as vital as it was half a century ago.
"One rediscovers things occasionally," he says, referring to the interplay of business and politics and the mutual dependence of Europe and the US. "Then when you look at them more deeply, you find out that they have always been there."
I'm kinda peeved myself that I wasn't invited this year.
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