Dealing in secrecy and power: a secret global meeting of government officials and private power elites was just held in Ottawa. Why are they exempt from accountability? Why does the media ignore them?

Another Bilderberg gathering has concluded. As usual, this exclusive annual conclave of some of the world's richest and most powerful individuals was shrouded in secrecy. Central bankers, financiers, corporate moguls, government ministers, and political movers and shakers arrived in limousines with dark-tinted windows amid tight security at the plush Brookstreet Hotel in Kanata, a fashionable suburb of Ottawa, Canada's capital city. As with previous Bilderberg meetings, the world's major media organizations remained curiously silent and apparently uninterested in the goings-on behind the closed doors as the global power elites "discussed" global economic and political issues and policies that will impact the lives of virtually every person on the planet.

No press conferences were held before, during, or following the four-day confab, which is the standard Bilderberger modus operandi. On the first day of the event, an unsigned five-page press release was faxed to various Canadian media groups. "The 54th Bilderberg Meeting will be held in Ottawa, Canada, 8-11 June 2006," the fax announced. "The Conference will deal mainly with European-American relations, Energy, Russia, Iran, the Middle East, Asia, Terrorism, and Immigration."

The Bilderberg press release continued in language virtually identical to the organization's statements of previous years: "Approximately 130 participants will attend of whom about two-thirds come from Europe and the balance from North America. About one-third is from government and politics, and two-thirds are from finance, industry, labor, education, and communications. The meeting is private in order to encourage frank and open discussion."

Energy. Iran. Terrorism. Immigration. These and other topics mentioned (and unmentioned) in the press release are of paramount importance to all the world's peoples. And Bilderberg attendees wield the kind of power (of the official type and the behind-the-scenes type) that can decide international policy. The accumulated evidence of the past half century indicates that they have indeed used this power to effect some of the major tectonic shifts in the geopolitical landscape.

There is a stunning list of virtual unknowns who have catapulted to the heights of the political firmament following their debut performances at Bilderberg meetings: Gerald Ford, Henry Kissinger, and Bill Clinton of the United States, Tony Blair of Great Britain, Giscard d'Estaing of France, Olof Palme of Sweden, Helmut Schmidt of Germany, and Paul Martin and Stephen Harper of Canada--to name a few. Presidents, prime ministers, secretaries of state, foreign ministers, congressional and parliamentary leaders, and other public servants have been "made" at Bilderberg, according to some political observers who closely follow these events.

Others prefer to see these spectacular political trajectories of Bilderberg initiates as pure coincidences. That being said, many eyes are now on New York Governor George Pataki, a 2006 Bilderberg alum considered to be a top Republican contender for the 2008 Republican nomination for U.S. President.

Proud "One-World Internationalists"

The Bilderberg group has always been synonymous with the dynastic banking empires of the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds. David Rockefeller, now 91, attended the first Bilderberg meeting in 1954 (at the Bilderberg Hotel in Holland, from whence the group takes its name) and is believed to be the only person to have attended all of the annual meetings since, including this year's in Ottawa. As chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank for many years, Mr. Rockefeller was banker to the world's elite, with unparalleled access to presidents, prime ministers, dictators, and kings. He was also chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the Trilateral Commission (TC), and the Council of the Americas (COA), all institutions that the Rockefeller family has used to promote the United Nations and to push for world government.

In his 500-page Memoirs, published by Random House in 2002, Rockefeller took a defiant swipe at critics who have opposed and exposed his one-world agenda. In Chapter 27, entitled "Proud Internationalist," he wrote:

   For more than a century ideological
   extremists at either end of the political
   spectrum have seized upon well-publicized
   incidents such as my encounter
   with [Fidel] Castro to attack the
   Rockefeller family for the inordinate
   influence they claim we wield over
   American political and economic institutions.
   Some even believe we are
   part of a secret cabal working against
   the best interests of the United States,
   characterizing my family and me as
   "internationalists" and of conspiring
   with others around the world to build
   a more integrated global political and
   economic structure--one world, if
   you will. If that's the charge, I stand
   guilty, and I am proud of it.

Of course, the "integrated" global structure Bilderberg confreres envision necessitates many very radical transformations, such as getting rid of our Bill of Rights, along with the U.S. Constitution and its intricate checks and balances. Hence the need for secrecy and for the dissembling on the part of public officials who insist that when attending Bilderberg they do so only as "private citizens."

Here are the federal U.S. officials listed as Ottawa conference participants in a Bilderberg press release:

* Timothy Geithner, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York

* Allan B. Hubbard, assistant to the president for economic policy and director of President Bush's National Economic Council

* William J. Luti, special assistant to the president for defense policy and strategy and a member of President Bush's National Security Council

* Robert Zodlick, deputy secretary of state and formerly the president's trade representative

* Philip Zelikow, counselor of the U.S. State Department and formerly executive director of the 9/11 Commission

Why Is Congress AWOL?

Should the fact that top members of the U.S. government participate in Bilderberg conferences (and have done so since the group was founded) concern American citizens? It would seem not, to judge by the near-total absence of expressed concern by the peoples' representatives in Congress. Why this blase attitude with regard to Bilderberg when a junket to Hoboken from the widget manufacturers association, or acceptance of complimentary tickets to the tobacco-chewing tournament from the sheepherders lobby, are routinely considered sufficient cause for charges of corruption and influence peddling? After all, Bilderberg affairs provide a venue for "insider trading" at its zenith.

The power that these officials exercise as a public trust is enormous and can easily be abused for personal, political, and economic gain, as well as to advance political and economic agendas harmful to freedom and open, representative government. This simple fact seems to be well enough recognized in some foreign countries that it has been raised as an issue. Conservative Members of Parliament Christopher Gill, Nicholas Winterton, and John Bercow, and Liberal Democrat MP Paul Keetch, for instance, attempted to call British Prime Minister Tony Blair to account in 1998 and 1999 for Bilderberg influence on his government policies. It is noteworthy that Blair publicly lied about his own Bilderberg participation. In 1998, MP Gill asked Mr. Blair, from the floor of the House of Commons, "which members of his Government have attended meetings of the Bilderberg Group," To which Blair responded: "None." However, several sources reliably impeach his denial: not only does the official 1993 Bilderberg press release list him as a participant in that year's meeting in Athens, Greece, but two fellow attendees--MP Kenneth Clarke and Lord William Rees-Mogg, a columnist for the Times of London--have stated in writing that Blair was there.

But in the U.S. Congress, no member has raised a voice of opposition to official involvement in the Bilderberg conferences since Rep. John Rarick (R-La.) did so in the 1970s. One reason this is so, no doubt, is that top leaders of both the Democrat and Republican Parties are regulars at these secret events. "Outing" one's own party leaders, obviously, is not a career-enhancing move.

Another reason for the silence on this subject in the political halls is the censorship imposed by the major press. Media moguls and editorial mavens have always been key Bilderberg participants. As reported in the French publications Lectures Francaises and Minute, David Rockefeller paid tribute to his media allies at the 1991 Bilderberg meeting in Germany with these comments:

   We are grateful to the Washington
   Post, the New York Times, Time magazine,
   and other great publications
   whose directors have attended our
   meetings and respected their promises
   of discretion for almost forty
   years. It would have been impossible
   for us to develop our plan for the
   world if we had been subject to the
   bright lights of publicity during these
   years. But the world is now more sophisticated
   and prepared to march
   towards a world government.

This year's media participants included: Paul Gigot, editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal; Anatole Galetsky, editor at large for the Times of London; Norman Perlstine, senior adviser to Time Warner; Martin H. Wolf, associate editor and economic commentator for the Financial Times; and John Vinocur, senior correspondent for the International Herald Tribune. The official "rapporteurs" for the conference were Vendeline von Bredow and Adrian D. Wooldridge, both correspondents for the Economist. In keeping with Rockefeller's ideal of "discretion," the media participants breathed nary a word to their respective audiences about their Bilderberg activities at Ottawa.