: Hi Jana, I don't know if you are aware of this or your posting
: is pure coincidence. but even as I write a Bilderberg
: meeting is taking place. According to The SPOTLIGHT a
: Bilderberg meeting is schedualed to take place at
: Gotesberg, or Gothenberg, Sweden May 24-28. I'd like to see
: a guest list and if I come across one I'll post it here.
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Received from Tony Gosling's PEPIS mailing list;
Agenda for this year's meeting - leaked to Swedish journalist for Dagens Nyhetter
Enlargement of EU;
the future of NATO;
the EU Army;
agriculture and food safety;
Russia;
China.
and some of this year's participants:
Henry Kissinger, ordförande
Giovanni Agnelli
Paul Allaire
Percy Barnevik
Conrad Black
Michel Camdessus
Peter Carrington
Kenneth Clarke
Bertrand Collomb
Christoffer Dodd
Stanley Fischer
Katherine Graham
Chuck Hagel
Vernon Jordan
John Kerry
Peter Mandleson
Leif Pagrotsky
Karl Otto Pöhl
Jürgen Schrempp
Jean-Claude Trichet
James Wolfensohn
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Swedish media article;
SECRET MEETINGS FOR ALMOST 50 YEARS
13 May 2001 - Dagens Nyheter - Swedish Daily Newspaper
Peter Bratt
On the 24th of may the secretive Bilderberg-group starts their meeting in Stenungsund, Sweden. Host for the meeting is the Wallenberg-group´s
powerful corporation Investor which has booked the entire conference hotel Stenungsbaden. More than one hundred of the world´s most powerful and
wealthy people are gathering in total seclusion to discuss the problems of the world.. DN is the first newspaper able to disclose what is going on behind
the curtains.
The power-holders meeting at Hotel Stenungsbaden
The hotel - is situated on an island outside Stenungsund on the Swedish westcoast. This is where the members of the Bilderberg-group is going to be meeting from the
24. to 28. of May. In the spacious Bohus-salongs with a view over Hakefjord some of North America´s and Europe´s most influential persons will discuss big politics and
business. The meeting is “private”, so nobody needs to worry about being quoted in media.
Security measures
Investor is host of the meeting and has hired the entire hotel. The Swedish secret police, SÄPO, is responsible for the Swedish participants - and responsible for
surveillance of the perimeters of the hotel and beyond. Prominent foreign participants have protection of their own respective state security services. These have
contacted Säpo and required permission to carry arms. A person like Henry Kissinger still has protection of the US Secert Service. Drawings over the layout of the hotel
has been classified and the staff of the hotel has been instructed not to discuss the meeting with media.
The delegations - each country sends a delegation of, usually, 3 persons:
1 prominent industry- or business-leader.
1 politician of high ranking (minister, primeminister, senator).
1 intellectual (an academic or chief editor, for instance).
Sweden often has had more than three participants, and this year probably will have an extra surplus - being that the meeting is held in Sweden. The United States has
most participants because of it´s size. Individual participants are seated in alphabetical order, not delegation by delegation.
The “Chatham House-rule”:
Citing direct quotes is forbidden according to this rule, which was created in 1927 by the Royal British Foreign Policy-Institute, whose seat is in the Chatham House.
Nobody is allowed to tell who said what. The purpose for this rule is supposed to be, that every participant should be able to speak freely, without any risk of being
criticised by their employer, by parlament - or by media.
Meeting-behaviours:
Six “panels”, with three members in each, leads the conversations. Each panel lasts for the duration of approximately two hours. After an introductionary speech of
about ten minutes, the rest of participants choose - when they want to enter into the conversation - whether they want to speak for one, three or five minutes - by raising
one, three or five fingers. One-minute-speakers get to speak first.
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NB. The above two items came with a graphic illustration of the seating arrangements in the plenary - surrounded by 21 photos of certain named participants (maybe
you could get lucky and find this on the homepage of the newspaper: www.dn.se - or by getting a copy of the actual newspaper. PH).
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Facts/ previous meetings in Sweden:
This year´s meeting in Stenungsund will be the fourth time that the Bilderberg-group gathers in Sweden.
- The first time was in 1962 at Saltsjöbaden. At that time there were 8 Swedes participating, headed by Stateminister Tage Erlander, industry-tycoon Marcus Wallenberg
and the national labour union leader Arne Geier. The press was astonished by the near total secrecy - and DN´s editorial described it as ludicrous.
- In 1973 was the next occasion and again it was staged at the Wallenberger´s Grand Hotel in Saltsjöbaden. Now Stateminister Olof Palme was attending together with
Financeminister Gunnar Sträng and Foreign Minister Krister Wickman. And, of course, Marcus Wallenberg.
- In 1984 the meeting again was held at Saltsjöbaden - and this time Wallenberg had been replaced by the boss of Saab-Scania, Sten Gustafsson. Palme was there again,
and previous Army Chief in Command, Stig Synnergren, Peter Wallenberg from the SE-Bank and Hans Werthén from Electrolux. Representatives from “The
Economist”, Le Monde and New York Times were included at that time. Palme explained to DN about the Bilderberg-meetings that “they are of great informational
value and that is why I have participated from time to time since 1965”.
The Bilderberg-group publishes an “information”-folder: The latest is dated January 2001. General Secretary and Chairman is Martin Taylor from Goldman Sachs. In the
Steering Committee´s Secretariat of 30 persons, Jacob Wallenberg (SEB) is the only Swede. The membership register includes 110 names. Four of them are Swedish:
Percy Barnevik (Investor), Sten Gustafsson (Saab-Scania), Björn Lundvall (Ericsson) and Marcus Wallenberg (Investor). Most strikingly is the fact, that all Swedes -
with permanent positions in Bilderberg - belong to the Wallenberg-empire.
INFILTRATION and NUCLEAR POWER has been on the agenda down through the years.
What can be found out from the agendas of the Bilderberg-meetings from 1954 to 2000?
The Soviet Union, Communist infiltration, NATO, Nuclear Power, the German unification, the Satelite- states - these have all been standing topics of discussion.
Economic-, military- and police-coordination against the Soviet Union seems to have been the main theme. In 1969 one topic was the instability of the West, which
logically must have concerned the 68-revolts. After the fall of the Iron-curtain, the topics have shifted to such as “threats against Globalisation” and the unrest in the
Balkans. In 1995 they were asking whether the “IT-society is creating a new set of political behaviour ?”. In 1997 they were worrying about “whether continual
economic growth may threathen social solidarity in the West ?”. And last year it was questioned whether rightist-extremism might pose a threat?
Main Article:
“SECRET MEETINGS FOR ALMOST 50 YEARS”
The Bilderberg-group is having a meeting in Stenungsund on the west-coast 24 - 28th of May.
“The secret highpriests of capitalism and globalisation”, their critics claim. “Nonsense”, says Minister of Trade, Leif Pagrotsky, who is going to participate - “the
meetings serve a purpose to reduce prejudices and misunderstandings”.
The Bilderberg-group is often depicted as some sort of free-masons, where the powerful of the world, in secrecy, are drawing up the guidelines for how capital may rule,
without interference from either people or public scrutiny.
It sounds tantalising, but the picture becomes quite different when you speak with persons who´ve participated frequently in the meetings.
On the Internet and in the newspaper files, even in the big international ones, there is very little to be found about the Bilderberg-group. What you´ll find is mostly the
“run-of-the mill conspiracies” - not any accounts of what actually takes place at the meetings.
The group was formed in 1954, on initiative of the Netherlands - and was named after the first conference- hotel, Bilderberg. It had a lot to do with trying to strengthen
the ties between USA and Europe in the face of the threat from the Soviet Union and communism. Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands served as the front figure.
Carl Bildt, who has participated in six meetings, says: “There are several conferences of this sort of type, where people are gathered for a concentrated discussion on
subjects of acute importance. Most of the time they are carried out under what is called Chatham House rules, which means that you may use the information given -
but you must never tell who have told what. This is normal.
Bilderberg is an old and merited group. There are others which are somewhat more dynamic. Discussions may be on a variety of subjects. Last year I remember a real
battle over the sanctions against Austria. I am not going to be participating this year. I have to be at the Aspen-conference instead, which has a similar purpose, in the
north of Italy and at the same time”, says Carl Bildt. Prophessor Anders Åslund, peace-researcher at the Carnegie Fund in Washington and previous economic advisor
for the Russian government, says: “Bilderberg is a private network of influential persons from Western Europe and North America. Approximately 110 people are
participating each year. The idea is to have a discussion of the world´s big economic and political issues.
Every country has a coordinator, who is permitted to invite participants. In Sweden it has been from the beginning Marcus Wallenberg (senior) and later on, Sten
Gustafsson from Saab - and now it is Percy Barnevik. Normally, small countries are allowed to have three participants, but Sweden usually has a few more. Carl Bild is
admitted on an “international quota”. A typical delegation is comprised of one person from industry - a businessman or a chief of a bank - one prominent politician,
preferably a primeminister, a finance- or foreignminister, and some intellectual, who usually is an academic or some chief editor.
Swedish politicians don´t seem particularly interested in international issues - Björn Rosengren was present once in Portugal, and Leif Pagrotsky is one of the few who is
genuinely interested. There are usually six panels on different subjects which are staged in two-hour sessions. All meetings are held in a pleni-auditorium, the participants
are sitting in alphabetical order - and also the panels are put together according to the principal: industry, politics, analysts. I find it to be valuable meetings with a strong
disciplin. The introductionary speaker usually confines himself to a ten minutes speech - and after that you may raise one, three or five fingers signifying as many
minutes. One-minute speakers get the floor first. This is no conspiracy - it is stimulating and one learns a lot. They are very prominent participants, often strong
personalities and in the duration of the meetings one will usually get the chance to speak with half of them.
Jurgen Schrempp (Daimler-Chrysler) is usually there plus Conrad Black (The Telegraph, Canada) and Bertrand Collomb (Lafarge), the chiefs of the German and
French National Banks, Giovanni Agnelli (Fiat) and the bosses of IMF, the World Bank - and the World Trade Organisation, WTO.
I usually end up sitting next to Bernard Arnault from the french luxury-firm LVMH and Paul Allaire (Xerox), because of the alphabetical order. Vernon Jordan is usually
always there (Lazard Brothers) - and either the owner of Washington Post, Katherine Graham - or her son. There are usually three senators from the USA - like John
Kerry (democrat), Chuck Hagel (republican) and Christopher Dodd (democrat). Kenneth Clarke (previous British conservative Minister of Finance) is often there.
There are few representatives from labour unions, at most a couple from USA. But social democrats are usually well represented through european politicians, such as
Peter Mendelsohn. Henry Kissinger or Peter Carrington is usually chairman. Percy Barnevik normally brings along Marcus or Jacob Wallenberg - one year it was Tom
Hedelius and a minister and an intellectual, like myself. But this year I am not attending.
The normal agenda covers Russia, Japan, China, big economic questions like the cooperation east-west and the Balkans”, ends mr Åslund.
The Swedish Minister for this year is Leif Pagrotsky, who also attended last year. He explains: “Industry often has an odd perception of those of us who are working in
politics. Even in such a small country as Sweden - we are living in seperate worlds. When we are invited, I think we should participate and not remain standing on the
sideline claiming that this is just too conservative... Last year, I didn´t see many social democrats in the assembly, but it is good that persons like myself, from a small
european party on the left, get to meet senators from the USA - and vice versa”, says the Minister of Trade.
“When I have travelled the anglo-saxon business-world, I have often been met by a belief, that a Swedish socialdemocratic minister is some kind of half-communist, who
hasn´t got any grasp on economy. It is very useful to be able to air out prejudices and misconseptions. The fact, that the meetings are secret, or rather, private - in the
way that one doesn´t disclose what other people have said, is actually quite normal - this is the same way of things within the EU and OECD, too.
What is not really good, is all the strange conceptions about the Bilderberg-group that abound. Between the EU and the USA there have been a lot of suspicion and
struggle. That is why it is important that representatives from both sides are given the opportunity to understand the reasoning of the other side. Last year year´s meeting
was concerned with the expansion of the EU, the situation in Eastern Europe and the situation in the USA, before the presidential elections. What it will be this year, I
don´t know”, says Minister of Trade, Leif Pagrotsky.
Kissinger not welcome during the Vietnam - years.
Henry Kissinger was invited for the meeting in Saltsjöbaden in 1973. That was one year after Olof Palme´s scourching attack on the bombings of the United States´ in
Vietnam, which he compared to the nazi atrocities during the Second World War. Foreign Minister Krister Wickman let the emmessary of the USA know, that
Kissinger´s visit was not appropriate and only would make matters worse - as both Palme and Wickman were going to participate in the meeting. And they would not be
able to only “talk about theweather”... Kissinger became furious and ordered the State Department, Foreign Ministry of the USA, to give Wickman a genuine scolding.
The State Department leaked it to the press, that the Swedish government had informed Kissinger, that he was not wellcome. Now it became the Bilderberger´s turn to
react. Prince Bernhard became so angry at the Swedish government, that he threatened to move the entire meeting. This, in turn, got Marcus Wallenberg´s attention - so
he rushed up to Olof Palme, who straightaway telephoned prince Bernhard, and sent Sverker Åström on an errand to the American Embassy to assure them, that the
whole matter, naturally, was a misunderstanding. The Swedish government hadn´t said that Kissinger wasn´t wellcome, of course not... Palme claimed the same thing in
front of the press.
But that it definitely was so - and that Palme was not telling the truth - is proven by documents, which DN´s Kurt Mälarstedt has located in Washington.
Peter Bratt.......................
(NB. The above item was accompanied with a photocopy of part of the document - sub-titled: “Furious Kissinger. Letter from the archives of the American
Statedepartment sent from Henry Kissinger to Ernst Beuget in the Bilderberger-group´s council. PH).
"Schlaug a hard critic of the group"
The previous spokesman of the Greens (Miljöpartiet), Birger Schlaug, is one of the critics of the Bilderberg-group:
- Their motivation is, that the elite shall be able to act in secrecy. It is not because they are evil, but because they believe in what they are doing. International capital
wants to remove all obstacles to globalisation - and all obstacles to the right of capital to act freely without constrictions such as regard for the environment, social
responsibility or human rights. Demands from local democracies are such obstacles.
- The Bilderberg-group is striving after a consensus, a mutual understanding, in their view of the role of capital. Both Liberals (Moderates) and Social-democrats have
subjected themselves to this view, or share it - however you choose to see it.
- What I´m reacting to, is that the participants deny that the meetings have such great significanse, when in fact they have amassed such an unheard of and uncontrolled
power.”
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Bilderberg article on Reuters;
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/010523/80/brbbh.html
Secretive Bilderberg group meeting in Sweden
By Peter Starck - Wednesday May 23, 05:00 PM -
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - EU enlargement and the bloc's military role, NATO's future and developments in Russia and China will top the agenda when senior Western business leaders, politicians and a sprinkle of royalty meet in Sweden this week.
The Bilderberg group, a semi-secret discussion forum for the Western world's power elite, will hold its annual meeting in the town of Stenungsund on the Swedish west coast on May 24-28, Swedish newspapers reported on Wednesday.
A 900-metre long metal fence has been erected around Hotel Stenungsbaden, the meeting venue, to keep intruders away, regional daily Goteborgs-Posten said, publishing a picture of the fenced-in hotel.
Anti-globalisation demonstrators are expected to protest outside and local police see the event as a useful training exercise ahead of the mid-June European Union summit in the city of Gothenburg 50 km (30 miles) to the south.
The Bilderberg group, named after the hotel where it first met in 1954, was formed early in the Cold War era in reaction to a growing Communist threat. Today, many critics see it as a conspiracy and an agent of a new capitalist world order.
Bilderberg member Jacob Wallenberg, chairman of the board of commercial bank SEB and head of Sweden's influential Wallenberg family whose empire has a finger in most big Swedish industries, played down the group's importance.
"This is one of many meetings all over the world where decision-makers get together," he told the daily Dagens Nyheter, which earlier published the main agenda topics.
Invited as speakers, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair were groomed at Bilderberg meetings before rising to fame as U.S. President and British Prime Minister respectively.
EU Commission President Romano Prodi, NATO Secretary-General George Robertson and European Central Bank Governor Wim Duisenberg all have a past as Bilderbergers.
SHAPING CAPITALISM
"Even though no formal decisions are made...this group, together with many others, has contributed to shaping the kind of capitalism we have today and cemented the world's leading business elites together," Goran Greider, editor-in-chief of Dala-Demokraten, a regional Swedish daily, said in a live studio debate on Sweden's TV4 television.
Bilderberg participants abide by the so-called Chatham House rule, which forbids everyone present from disclosing what anybody else has said.
"The secrecy is regarded as very provocative. Men in power talk towards consensus behind closed doors on timely issues on the political agenda," Ulf Bjereld, a political science professor at Gothenburg University, said.
Bilderberg members include former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, U.S. Senators Christopher Dodd, John Kerry and Chuck Hagel, World Bank chief James Wolfensohn, France's central bank governor Jean-Claude Trichet and former IMF heads Michel Camdessus and Stanley Fischer.
Also listed are the chairmen of car makers Fiat, Giovanni Agnelli, and DaimlerChrysler, Juergen Schrempp, former British finance minister Kenneth Clarke, Dutch Queen Beatrix and Xerox Corp CEO Paul Allaire.
