What is the Bilderberg Group?

The fact that the Bilderberg Group exists is undisputed. After that, the facts get a little murky. Daniel Estulin has written a book called The True Story of the Bilderberg Group, which was released in English in September of this year. According to Wikipedia, Estulin is an expert in investigative journalism. The Wikipedia site and many others also attest to the fact that Estulin has devoted much of his research to the Bilderberg Group.

The Bilderberg Group, which meets annually, was started in 1954 when it met in a Dutch town called Oosterbeek at the Bilderberg Hotel. The ones who attend come by invitation only and the list of attendees is made up of world leaders, wealthy company CEO's, former Presidents, European prime ministers and royalty. The group has been the subject of many conspiracy theories, but has not received very much attention from the main press. The topics discussed are not made public.

Estulin states in the book that he was able to penetrate the meetings and is making public what went on behind the closed doors. It has been said that they meet to "decide" the direction that world politics and economy is going to take for the next year. Observations by some state that the only U. S. candidates who become viable are those who have either been members of this group, or as in the case of Ronald Reagan, those who have the backing of the group. Reagan's last minute choice of George Bush Sr. as Vice President spurred rumors that he did so under pressure from members of the Bilderberg group. George Bush Sr. was a member of the group.

According to an article in USA Daily, the proponents of the Bilderberg group state that it is only a group for the leaders of the world to meet in private and discuss world issues without their remarks being scrutinized. In 1991, David Rockefeller made this statement: "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 those years but the world is now more sophisticated & prepared to march towards a world government which will never again know war but only peace and prosperity for the whole of authority."

According to World Net Daily, most of the candidates for the 2008 elections are members of the group or groups that are related to the group, such as the Trilateral Commission or the Council on Foreign Relations. The list of candidates include: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, John McCain, John Edwards, Fred Thompson, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd and and Bill Richardson. The USA Daily states that these groups are ones that "advocate replacing the U.S. government with a North American Union and furthering the long term goal of a world government". As reported in the USA Daily, the Council on Foreign Relations has proposed this plan for replacing the US. Branches of Government:

1) North American Advisory Council
This council would be made up of 5 members from each of the 3 nations who would hold meetings bi-annually and set the agendas for the three presidents and be a collective voice for the North American Union

2) Merge Parliamentary groups
These groups would replace all of the parliamentary groups of each nation and
form one North American parliament (would mean replacing the U.S.Congress)

3) One North American Court
This would replace the U.S. Supreme Court

There is far more information on this group than this article can cover. Although, the facts are controversial, it does seem that there is more to this issue than a casual review can define. There are several popular videos on YouTube about Bilderberg. One of them, which is CNN coverage of the Bilderberg issue can be seen here. There are many Internet sites you can visit to find out more about this issue. Some appear to be reputable and some do not. It would be helpful if our main news outlets covered this more in depth. Because they do not, Wikipedia seems to be one of the best sources of information.

Other sources I have listed may also be helpful if you want to do your own investigation and decide for yourself if this group is one that benefits America and the world or if Daniel Estulin and some of the other independent news sources are correct and we should be very concerned.

Sources used:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Cite?page=Daniel+Estulin
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Cite&page=2007_Bilderberg_Meeting&id=169059930

www.usadaily.com/article.cfm?articleID=146787
www.usadaily.com/article.cfm?articleID=139103

www.nogw.com/illuminati.html
David Rockefeller, CFR/Bilderberg/TC, 5 June 19

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58425

www.danielestulin.com/?op=noticias¬icias=ver&id=340&idioma=en

http://wanttoknow.info/051115secretsocietiesbilderberg