Bilderbergers celebrate half a century of intrigue, secrecy.

The Bilderberg Group, one of the most secretive clubs of global movers and shakers, held its 2004 meeting June 3-6 in Stresa, Italy, near Milan. The four-day event at the secluded, palatial Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees marked the 50th anniversary of the high-powered group, an ultra-exclusive assembly of European royalty, central bankers, corporate titans and media representatives, as well as past and present government leaders.

The group takes its name from the historic Hotel de Bilderberg near Oosterbeek, Holland. There Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (Royal Dutch Shell oil wealth) convened the group's first meeting in 1954. This year, as at its annual meetings of the past, the Bilderbergers met behind a wall of mystery, shielded by police and private security.

The list of the hundred or so invitees to Bilderberg meetings is usually a closely guarded secret, but identities of some usually slip out. David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger are regulars from America. Attendees from the U.S. this year reportedly included: Senators Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) and John Edwards (D-N.C.); Melinda Gates, wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates; Donald Graham, chairman and CEO of the Washington Post Company; Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations; Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Douglas Feith, U.S. Undersecretary of Defense; Walter Isaacson, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute; Jessica T. Mathews, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Indra K. Nooyi, president and CEO of Pepsico; Peter Weinberg, CEO of Goldman Sachs International; and James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank.

Commenting on the king-making power of the Bilderberg set, Gary Allen noted in an April 1975 article in American Opinion (a forerunner of THE NEW AMERICAN): "Perhaps the best way to illustrate what we are dealing with here is to note the names of a handful of then rather inconsequential guests who were invited to attend the 1966 meeting. They were Kissinger of America, Schmidt of West Germany, Rumor of Italy, Palme of Sweden, Biesheuvel of The Netherlands, and Gerald Ford of America. Giscard d'Estaing of France missed the 1966 affair but attended the secret conference in 1968. These men were then comparative unknowns, but eight years later they were the chief executives of Germany, Italy, Sweden, The Netherlands, France, and the United States.... Do you think all of that is mere coincidence?"

More recent examples of relatively unknown politicians who have been lifted to the political heights following their Bilderberg debuts include Tony Blair and Bill Clinton.