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GB, Peter Carrington; Chairman of the board Christies International plc; former secretary-general, NATO
NL, Victor Halberstadt; Professor of Public economics, University of Leiden, Netherlands
USA, Theodore L Eliot Jr.;Dean Emeritus, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, former US ambassador
I, Giovanni Agnelli; Chairman, Fiat SpA
USA, Paul Allaire; Chairman, Xerox Corporation
GB, Barbara Amiel; Columnist, Sunday Times
USA, Dwayne O Andreas; Chairman, Archer-Daniels-Midland Company Inc.
GR, Stellios Argyros; Chairman, Federation of Greek Industries
USA, George W Ball; Former Under Secretary of State
P, Fransisco Pinto Balsaemao; Chairman, Soujournal-aarl; Former Prime Minister
S, Percy Barnevik; President and CEO, ABB Asea Brown Boveri Ltd.
D, Christoph Bertram; Diplomatic correspondant, Die Zeit; Former Director, International Institute for Strategic Studies
NL, Ernst H van de Beugel; Emeritus Proffessor of International Relations, Leiden University; Former Honorary Secretary-General of Bilderberg meetings for Europe and Canada
TR, Selahattin Beyazit; Director of Companies
S, Carl Bildt; Prime Minister
ICE, Bjorn Bjarnason; Member of Parliament
CDN, Conrad M Black; Chairman, The Telegraph plc
GB, Tony Blair; Member of Parliament (Shadow Home Secretary, Labor)
N, Erik G.; Managing Director and CEO, Braathens SAFE
IL, Connor Brady; Editor, The Irish Times
GB, Rudric Braithwaite; Foreign Policy adviser to Prime Minister
P, Nuno Brederode Santos; Member of the Socialist party; Columnist, Expresso
NL, Elco Brinkman; Parliamentary Leader of CDA (Christian Democrats)
GR, Costa Carras; Director of Companies
D, Ulrich Cartellieri; Member of the Board of Managing Directors, Deutsche Bank AG
E, Jaime Carvajal Urquija; Chairman and General Manager, Iberfomento
E, Juan Luis Cedrian; CEO, PRISA (El Pais)
GB, Kenneth Clarke, Home Secretary
GR, Yannis S Costopoulos; Chairman, Credit Bank
CDN, Kenneth S Courtis; First Vice President, Deutsche Bank Capital Markets Asia Ltd, Tokyo
USA, Kenneth W Dam; Max Pam Proffessor of American and Foreign Law, University of Chicago Law School; Former Deputy Secretary of State
E, Guillermo de la Dehesa; CEO, Banco Pastor
F, Patrick Divedjian; Member of Parliament (Capital UDF-Hauts de Seine)
CDN, Marie-Josee Drouin; Executive Director, Hudson Institute of Canada
INT, Arthur Dunkel; Director, General Agreement on Tarriffs and Trade
DK, Uffe Ellemann-Jensen; Member of Parliament
E, Carlos Ferrer Salat; Chairman UNICE (The European Employers Federation)
USA, Stephen Friedman; Senior Partner and Chairman, Goldman Sachs & Co.
USA, John R Galvin; John M Olin Distinguished Professor of National Security Studies, US Military Academy, West Point; Former Supreme Allied Commander Europe SHAPE
CDN, Anthony G S Griffin; Director of Companies
GR, Gregory Hadjieleftheriadis; Vice-President, Eletson Corp
TR, Talat S Halman; Proffessor of Near Eastern Languages and Literature, New York University
USA, James Hoagland; Associate Editor/Senior Foreign Correspondant, The Washington Post
N, Westye Hoegh; Chairman of the Board, Leif Hoegh & Co AS
B, Jan Huyghebaert; Chairman, Almanij-Kreditbank Group
SF, Jaakko Ilonicmi; Managing Director, Centre for Finnish Business and Policy Studies; Former Ambassador to the USA
A, Peter Jankowitsch; Chairman, Joint Parliamentary Committee Austria EC; Former Foreign Minister
CH, Robert A Jeker; Managing Director of the Stephan Schmidheiny Holdings
D, Josef Joffe; Foreign Editor, Suddeutsche Zeitung
USA, Vernon E Jordan Jr.;Senior Partner, Akin Gump Straise Hauer & Feld LLP (Attorneys-at-Law)
CH, Jakob Kellenberger; State Secretary for Foreign Affairs
USA, Lane Kirkland; President AFL-CIO
GB, Andrew Knight; Executive Chairman, News International Plc
SF, Jarl Kohler; President, Finnish Forestry Industries Federation
NL, Wim Kok; Minister of Finance, Depouty Prime Minister
SF, Johannes Koroma; Director General, Confederation of Finnish Industry and Employers
NL, Pieter Korteweg,; President and CEO, Robeco Group; Honorary Treasurer of Bilderberg Meetings
USA, Henry R Kravis; Founding PArtner, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
USA, Samuel W Lewis; Director of Policy Planning Staff, Department of State
A, Paul Lendvai; Director, Austrian International Radio
GR, George P Livanos; Ship Owner
GR, John C Lyras; Vice Chairman, Union of Greek Shipowners
CDN, Donald S Macdonald; Senior Partner, McCarthy Tetrault; Former Minister of Finance
NL, Floris A Maljers; Chairman of the Board, Unilever NV
GR, Stefanos Manos; Minister of National Economy
B, Wilfred Martens; Minister of State; Former Prime Minister
USA, Charles Mathias; Partner, Jones Day Reavis & Pogue; Former US Senator (Republican, Maryland)
CDN, Barbara McDougall; Secretary of State for External Affairs
INT, Karel van Miert; EC Commissioner
GR, Constantine Mitsotakis; Prime Minister
F, Thierry de Montbrial; Director, French Institute of International Relations; Professor of Economics, Ecole Polytechnique
I, Mario Monti; Rector and Professor of Economics, Bocconi University, Milan
USA, William E Odom; Director of National Security Studies, The Hudson Institute; Former Director, National Security Agency
P, Fernando Faria de Oliviera; Minister of Trade and Tourism
F, Francois d'Orcival; Editor, Valgurs? Actuelles
GB, David Owen; EC Mediator, International Conference on Former Yugoslavia
NL, HM The Queen of the Netherlands
GR, Theodoros Pangalos; Spokesman for Foreign Affairs, Socialist Party
GR, Michalia G Papaconstantinou; Minister for Foreign Affairs
GR, Theodore Papalexopoulos; Deputy Chairman, Titan Cement Company SA
GR, Michael C Peraticos; Chairman, Pegasus Ocean Services
USA, LArry Pressler; Senator (Republican South Dakota)
CH, David de Pury; Chairman of the Board, BBC Brown Bovari Ltd.;Co-Chairman of ABB Asea Brown Bovei Group
GB, William Rees-Mogg; Chairman, Broadcasting Standards Council; Chairman The American Trading Company Ltd.; Former Editor, The Times
D, Wolfgang Reitzle; Member of the Board, BMW AG
DK, Chresten W Reves; President and CEO Berlingske Tidende (Newspaper)
USA, David Rockefeller; Chairma, Chase Manhattan Bank International Advisory Committee
USA, Sharon Percy Rockefeller; President and CEO, WETA TV and FM
GB, Eric Roll of Ipsden; President SG Warburg Group plc
I, Renato Ruggiero; Member of the Board Fiat sPa; Former Minister of Trade
D, Volke Ruhe; Minister of Defense
TR, Rusdu Saracoglu; Govenor, Central Bank of Turkey
B, Phillipe de Schoutheete de Tervarent; Permanent Representative of Belgium to the European Communities
F, Louis Schweitzer; Chairman and CEO, Renault SA
GB, Patrick Sheehy; Chairman BAT Industries
ICE, Jon Sigurdsson; Minister of Trade and Industry
D, Theo Sommer; Editor in Chief, Die Zeit
D, Lothar Spath; CEO, Jenoptik; Former Prime Minister of Baden-Wuertemberg
I, Barbara Spinelli; Editorialist and European Correspondant La Stampa, Paris
INT, Helga Steeg; Executive Director, International Energy Agency
IRL, Peter D Sutherland; Chairman, Allied Irish Banks plc.; Former Commissioner of the European Communities
GB, MArtin Taylor; CEO, Courtaulds Textiles plc.
I, Marco Tronchetti Provera; Executive Vice President and CEO, Pirelli SpA
GR, Thanos M Vererois; Professor of Political History, Universityy of Athens; Director, Hellenic Foundation for Defence and Foreign Policy
GR, Themistocles Volkos; Chairman, The Seatrade Organisation
A, Franz Vranitzky; Federal Chancellor
N, Niels Werring; Director, Wilh. Wilhelmson Limited AS
USA, John Whitehead; Chairman AEA Investors Inc.; Former Secretary of State
USA, Lynn R Williams; International President, United Steelworkers of America
USA, James D Wolfenson; President, James D Wolfenson Inc.
D, Otto Wolff von Amerongen; Chairman and CEOof Otto Wolff Industrieberatung und GmbH
INT, Manfred Werner; Secretary General of NATO
USA, Casimir A Yost; Executive Director, The Asia Foundation's Center for Asian Pacific Affairs
B, HRH Prince Philippe
USA, Grant F Winthrop; Partner Millbank Winthrop & Co.
USA, Alice Victor; Executive Assistant to David Rockefeller, Rockefeller Financial Services Inc.
NL, Maja Banck; Executive Secretary, Bilderberg Meetings
GR, Stephan Farrant; Managing Director, Newsfront Naftilaki; Local Organiser 1993
SF, Mirja Lehtinen; Local Organiser 1994
USA, Charles Muller; President, Murden and Company; Adviser, American Friends of Bilderberg Inc.
April 22-25, 1993
REVISED AGENDA
THU APRIL 22
17.30 Business meeting Steering Committee and Advisory Group
19.00 Cocktails
20.00 Buffet Dinner
FRI APRIL 23
09.00-09.10 Opening remarks by Lord Carrington, Chairman
09.15-10.45 WHAT KIND OF EUROPE WILL THE U.S. HAVE TO DEAL WITH?
Speaker: Owen Moderator: Bertram
10.45-11.15 Coffee Break
11.15-12.30 CURRENT EVENTS: Former Yugoslavia
Speaker: Owen Moderator: Carrington
12.30-14.00 Buffet Luncheon
14.00-15.30 RESTORING CONFIDENCE IN LEADERSHIP AND INSTITUTIONS
Speaker: Haagland Moderator: Jordan
15.00-16.30 Tea Break
16.00-17.15 PROSPECTS FOR GLOBAL TRADE
Speaker: Dunkel Moderator: Sutherland
19.00 Cocktails
20.00 Buffet Dinner - Address by Prime Minister Mitsotakis
SAT APRIL 24
09.00-10.30 U.S. DOMESTIC CONCERNS
Speaker: Jordan Moderator: Ruggiero
10.30.11.30 Coffee Break
11.00-12.00 THE OUTLOOK FOR JAPAN'S ECONOMY
Speaker: Courtis Moderator: Wolfenson
12.00-14.00 Buffet Luncheon
14.00-17.00 AFTERNON FREE
17.00-18.30 COST OF INDIFFERENCE TOWARDS THE FORMER SOVIET UNION
Speaker: Braithwaite Moderator: Whitehead
18.30-19.00 CURRENT EVENTS: Italy
Speaker: Ruggiero Moderator: Roll
19.00 Cocktails
20.00 Buffet Dinner
SUN APRIL 25
08.30-09.45 FOREIGN POLICY CONSIDERATIONS OF THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION
Speaker: Lewis Moderator: De Montbrial
09.45-10.15 Coffee Break
10.15-11.15 CRISIS MANAGEMENT
Speaker: Werner Moderator: Carrington
Closing remarks by Lord Carrington, Chairman
Buffet Luncheon
DEPARTURES
[courtesy again of Spotlight]
VOULIAGMENI, Greece--Behind the guarded walls of the elite Nafsika Astir Palace Hotel, situated high on a hill a few miles south of Athens, the secret Bilderberg group plotted to exploit the rich natural resources of the former Soviet Union and Indochina.
Also high on the Bilderberg agenda is establishment of a new, huge United Nations bureaucracy on the environment, so the industrialists can reap immense profits from new technology to clean the world's air and water.
They also celebrated the collaboration of one of their own, President Bill Clinton.
"It's really a direct message to us through the newspapers," said Dwayne Andreas, referring to reports that Clinton promised to sign the Rio Treaty, which calls for billions of American tax dollars to be circulated around the world in the name of 'clean environment'.
"Yes, and he's doing it early in his first term," said Andreas's companion. "George [Bush] wanted to wait until his second term, make a few changes to pacify the American right. Bill seems to understand that if certain things go undone in a first term, there may be no second term."
It was the first indication that there may have been a Bilderberg "tilt" toward Clinton to punish Bush for stalling on the Rio Treaty and resisting more new taxes after his broken pledge of 1990 turned into political suicide.
Bush is a longtime member of the Trilateral Commission, which also holds annual closed-door meetings and has interlockng leadership with the senior Bilderberg group. Clinton had been a Trilateralist for seven years and was promoted to the Bilderberg in 1991. Thus, the world shadow government owned both presidential candidates in a typical win-win race.
If George [had had] a second term, he [might] have moved on health care and new taxes, since he would not have worried about re-election. And he certainly would have signed the Rio Treaty, possibly with a little political posturing by insisting on nit-picking changes," Andreas said.
"But we would not have fast action, as with Clinton," said the other.
The Rio Treaty calls for establishing a UN commission on the environment. Americans will pay most of a multibillion-dollar program to clean the air and water, preserve topsoil and prevent erosion in undeloped countries. The rationale is that Americans consume and pollute more than the rest of the world.
Adding a new UN agency to police the environment among once-sovereign nations also advances the Bilderberg goal of turning the UN into a de jure-- rather than de facto--world government.
Thus, Bilderberg also celebrated public acceptance of a permanent UN army, in which Americans would fight under a foreign commander who would be accountable only to the Security Council, not the president or Congress.
They found it significant that Americans remaining in Somalia are serving under a Turkish general under UN command and, contrary to the Constitution, the president is not their commander in chief.
There will be "more and more Somalias to help the world become accustomed to UN supremacy," said one. "There must be at least five places on earth so full of misery that we can break American hearts whenever we choose."
There was much discussion of the fighting in Bosnia, but most Europeans urged Americans to shun air strikes and simply enforce the economic embargo.
"It would not be like Somalia, with few casualties and pictures of soldiers feeding starving children," one said. "Planes will be shot down, airmen will die. And if you get into ground action, there will be many casualties."
"You can't compare it to the Persian Gulf, either, where the terrain made it easy to deploy an overwhelming force, bomb Iraq into rubble, take few casualties and proclaim a great victory," said another. "Your people will not see this as some sort of sporting contest."
Nevertheless, Bilderberg sources said Americans from the State and Defense departments joined NATO Secretary-General Manfred Woerner in calling for the UN to authorize air strikes.
"There will be much for the UN forces to do in the years ahead, of the type that will gain public acceptance for its role anywhere in the world," said another. "UN troops could go into Sudan with food supplies if we made an issue of the people starving there and spread films of misery on the network news."
Bilderberg men expressed some nervousness about getting all West European states to surrender their national sovereignty to a European super state under the terms of the Maastricht Treaty but were confident the North American Free Trade Agreement would be ratified. This too is important to the Bilderberg goal of a world government.
A third "regional government" is to be formed in the Pacific Rim, and the UN is to be the seat of the world government.
To exploit the natural resources of the former Soviet Union and in Indochina, Bilderberg agreed to establish a "High Council" of 12 members. A committee was named to select the 12.
Members must be "of such status that they have instant access to heads of state and parliamentary leaders throughout the world," a Bilderberg speaker said.
The 12 will pressure Western nations to send more and more billions to the former Soviet Union. They will claim credit for this help in talking with the leaders of the former Soviet republics.
The 12 will demand of the republics the right, at an absurdly low price, to extract oil, gold and other precious metals. "The gold in the ground, the oil undrilled, do you no good," the 12 will argue. "Cooperating on this will mean that we continue to use our influence to get more financial assistance from the West."
It is a typical Bilderberg project: Use public funds--the lion's share coming from American taxpayers--to "pay" for the right to extract oil and precious metals from the former Soviet Union and reap immense profits.
The only barrier to exploiting the resources in Indochina is America's refusal to "normalize" relations with Vietnam until the POW-MIA issue is resolved.
The Bilderbergers are considering urging the Vietnamese government to take a dramatic step: Admit that some communist troops held some Americans after the war ended and shot them all a few months later. Hanoi is to say, under this scenario, that the officer who ordered the executions was shot as punishment, it was done against the orders from the communist regime, that Vietnam apologizes and wants normal relations.
"It may take something dramatic like this," one said. Otherwise, the issue may never go away."
The Bilderberg group's concern is oil, not American soldiers being held as slaves in filthy prison camps.
From THE SPOTLIGHT May 10, 1993
New York City--Mainstream news organizations boastful about their no-holds barred investigative exploits, have been strangely reluctant to lift the blackout curtain hiding a major event: the Bilderberg group's secret annual meeting for the world's most powerful financiers, industrialists, and political figures.
At the United Nations where 50 or more journalists gather for even a routine conference, there was ironic laughter in the press room when this populist newspaper's diplomatic correspondent raised a question about the silence surrounding this conspiratorial conclave.
"The Bilderbergers have been removed from our assignment list years ago by executive order," said Anthony Holder, a former UN correspondent for the [London] Economist, the leading international business weekly.
"Our policy seems to be that if the Bilderbergers want to parley in private, leave them alone," added Holder, now a reporter for the 'European'.
The reason why this imperious assembly should be granted the sort of secrecy for its deliberations the mass media would never accord to any government--not even to Europe's reigning royalty--was, in the consensus of UN correspondents, simple: "The Bilderbergers are too powerful and omnipresent to be exposed," as French broadcaster Thierry de Segonzac put it.
On Wall Street, experienced American economic analysts voiced similar views.
Says Michael Thomas, the patrician Wall Street investment banker who has won wide acclaim as an author and as the Reagan-Bush era's most incisive commentator: "If the Bilderbergers seem more publicity shy than ever, that is, among other reasons, because their proposals, implemented by subservient agencies such as the IMF [International Monetary Fund], have caused more mass devastation in recent years than World War II ever did."
Commercial news organizations have become more interested in managing their own corporate debt and occasionally even sharing a financial coup with successful speculators than in exposing the seamy realty of manipulated markets, Thomas suggested.
There is, moreover, concern among the megabankers and corporate magnates that the worldwide tide of frenzied speculation "may end up eroding the power of even such established economic elites as the Bilderbergers themselves," Thomas, known among financial columnists as "the last truth teller," told a Sun Radio news correspondent.
For the present, however, the extraordinary influence wielded by the Bilderberg elite is apparent even in the reluctance of some leading journalists to discuss it.
"We are barely aware of the [Bilderbergers'] existence, and we don't report on their activities," asserted William Glasgow, the senior writer responsible for covering such international organizations at 'Business Week.'
Attempting to explain why his magazine, a leadng US business publication, would avert its eyes from such a strategic, trend-setting event as the Bilderberg conference, veteran newsman Glasgow sounded embarrassed: "Maybe it is a question of cost cutting," he told a SPOTLIGHT interviewer. "After all, we can't afford to cover everything, can we?"
>From THE SPOTLIGHT May 10, 1993
"I tried to reason with Perot," George Ball told a group of Bilderberg colleagues sitting in a lush lobby a few steps down from the Nafsika Astir's main lobby in Greece.
"Of course, I was circumspect," said the under secretary of state for presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.
"I never used the word 'Bilderberg,' because I didn't want Ross to have license to run around the country helping about some 'secret society' trying to influence him.
"No, I told Ross that we had a small, informal group of men influential in government and business and that we met privately each year so we would freely exchange ideas without worrying about tomorrow's headlines," Ball said.
"How did he react, George?"
"Well, I told Ross that I hoped he could join us, because we would welcome his views. And do you know what the little bastard said to me?"
Imitating his high-pitched, Texas-twang, Ball quoted Perot: "'You boys don't want to hear my views; you want to impose your views on me. If any of 'em have anything to tell me, tell 'em to call or write.'
"Perot is a loose cannon, and we'd better leave him alone," Ball said.
>From The SPOTLIGHT May 10, 1993
VOULIAGMENI, Greece--Never has security been so extensive and yet had so many holes. As a result, I was able to penetrate Bilderberg every night. And I received oral reports from the "committee" daily. Sometimes they spoke from notes as I made notes, which is why I am able to use so many direct quotes.
It was about 7 pm on Monday April 19 by the time I had checked into the sister hotel, the Arion Astir Palace. But it was 2 am in Washington according to my body clock, so I took a loving look at my bed, then headed outside. There was still daylight, and there were no signs of security yet.
I knew that in two days--on Wednesday--armed guards would surround the Nafsika Astir Palace, barely 100 yards away. But tonight and tomorrow, I would have free run of the place. It was time to "case the joint."
About 30 yards to my right, as I faced the entrance to the Nafsika, I observed a playground for children. I judged this to be my most likely penetration point so I rehearsed. There was an entrance and I was able to walk among the trees until I reached the far side of the Nafsika. By emerging at that point, I was obviously a hotel guest enjoying a pleasant walk.
Inside the Nafsika lobby, the first signs of the approaching Bilderberg meeting greeted me: an L-shaped table holding computers manned by several young women. Noticing that there were no documents to acquire, I feigned indifference.
Down about eight steps was a second lobby, lushly furnished with chairs. There was not a soul in sight, so I took some photos. It was at this location where I was to hear George Ball tell colleagues about approaching Ross Perot.
Down a few more steps, which put me one full floor down, in a lounge, I found a solitary hotel employee. I observed an open door across the room where more Bilderberg staffers were bustling about.
The employee spoke fluent English, and we talked about the important "economic conference" that was to take place. I told him it was a group called Bilderberg and something of its history. He was fascinated to learn exactly who these people were. I gave him a copy of The SPOTLIGHT, which contained a detailed story on the meeting. He read it completely, commenting from time to time. I told him to keep the paper.
"I am an American journalist, and I wrote that story, and I'm here to find out what these characters are up to," I told him.
"Don't take any chances for me; you will be fired if we are caught collaborating," I continued. "Don't answer yet; you must think it over. But I hope you will be my eyes and ears and, if safe opportunity arises, grab any documents for me."
Heavy silence.
"Meet me for lunch or dinner tomorrow, at some safe place away from here, and we can talk more freely," I said. "You will be my guest, of course."
He remained silent, expressionless. Was I losing him? Would he be a good company man and report my presence?
He wrote something on a piece of paper and handed it to me. It was the name and address of a restaurant in downtown Athens. Would I meet him there at noon tomorrow? Of course I would.
"Sir, my name is..."
"Don't tell me; I don't want to know. That way, I couldn't give your name even if they catch me and put me on the rack. I will call you 'Charlie.' If you need to call me at the Arion, just identify yourself as 'Charlie from New York.'"
I took out a business card and wrote "Arion, room 410" on it and handed it to Charlie.
At noon the next day, we closed the deal. Charlie told me he would form a "committee" and report daily. Did I have more SPOTLIGHTs? I gave him all but two of the bundle in my briefcase. The other two would be left in the hotel lobby when I departed early Sunday, my traditional calling card.
"My boss is all for the staff helping you as long as we are discreet and the Bilderberg people never know," Charlie said. "He was glad to get the [Bilderberg] contract because it is a lot of money, but he was suspicious of their demands for clearing any other guests out of the hotel and sealing it off with police. He said he thought it may be the Mafia.
"I told him that you said they never meet at the same place twice, so future business is not at risk."
"I'm very glad and grateful to hear that," I said, "But we must be careful anyway."
It was agreed to hold daylight meetings at one of three quaint restaurants about a mile down the hill from the Arion-Nafsika complex.
To my surprise, he suggested that nighttime meetings be held at a bar in the Arion, less than 100 yards from the scene of the crime.
"Isn't that terribly risky?" I asked.
"No, there is no commingling of the two staffs. When I walk into the Arion in my business suit, I am another customer. As you know there are two other groups meeting at the Arion now, and in the evening we will be just two of many sitting around a table talking and taking notes."
Of course, this arrangement was convenient, and the idea of talking to sources right under Bilderberg noses amused me.
* * * *
The nightly penetrations were uneventful. I would stroll the beach behind the Arion, in shirtsleeves, to a point where I could observe the children's playground without being seen by police.
Greek police heavily manned the main entrance to the Nafsika, of course, and posted one officer at the outside footpath entrance to the playground. But, utterly bored by so many uneventful hours, the cop would stroll over to the main gate to chat a bit. As he headed that way, I would slip in and begin my circuitous route to the opposite end of the Nafsika.
Of these balmy evenings, even some Billderberg people were in shirtsleeves, which nicely accounted for my lack of a name tag.
With external security so heavy, Bilderberg people inside the Nafsika relaxed. I deliberately kept at long range from Bilderberg staffers and others, such as Henry Kissinger, who might recognize me. (I once went eyeball to eyeball with Kissinger about Bilderberg and have confronted him and David Rockefeller a number of times.)
Still, as has been their rule in recent years, Bilderberg men would never let their documents leave their hands, never carelessly leave a paper on a table.
At Thursday's penetration, I nursed a beer at the downstairs bar across from the Bilderberg office. The room was empty, except for the bartender and one Bilderberg staffer at a deesk just outside their office.
I had earlier noted through the open door that there were no people inside the office, and no one had entered in the hour I had been sitting there.
I kept the Bilderberg staffer in my peripheral vision so she would not feel that she was being observed. She seemed somewhat agitated and made two phone calls. Moments later she darted into the ladies' room. Once the door was closed behind her, I grabbed the only two papers on her desk, slipped them into my briefcase and began my journey to the Arion.
It turned out to be the first page of an alphabetical listing of Bilderberg participants and a separate page listing Bilderberg staff.
The participants listing began with Giovanni Agnelli, Fiat's mogul, and ended with Kenneth Dam. Such regulars as George Ball, Dwayne Andreas and Lord Carrington were listed.
The only name on the "personal staff" listing that meant anything to me was "W. Muller." Charles Muller has been Bilderberg's North American functionary, operating out of his "Murden Co." office in New York, for at least a decade. But "W." Muller?
Nor did I see my friend, "Rog," who made me feel so unwelcome so many times at the Harrison Conference Center on Long Island in 1990.
Don't Bilderberg people live forever?
>From THE SPOTLIGHT May 10, 1993
VOULIAGMENI, Greece--"Good evening, Mr. Tucker," said the dark-haired, medium-built man of about 40, as he settled himself onto the next stool at a bar in the Arion Astir Palace.
"Good evening," I replied. "You apparently know me. May I have the privilege of knowing who you are?"
"I'm sorry, I am under instructions to be discreet, but may we talk off the record for a few moments?"
"I don't usually talk to people who have no name, and I never talk off the record," I responded. "We can talk, but nothing is off the record. Every word I say you can tell Henry, David or any of your Bilderberg cronies."
He sat in stony silence on this Friday night, April 23, Day Five of my penetrations of the Bilderberg group, which was meeting behind the guarded walls of the Nafsika Astir Palace, the brother hotel barely 100 yards away from where we were staring each other down.
"I wish we could reach an understanding, some kind of accommodation," the Bilderberg staff man finally said. "Every year, wherever in the world we meet, you are there. Why do you press so hard? Why do you write such angry stuff? It causes us a great deal of embarrassment, especially those in government who hear from your readers."
"First, you tell me," I said. "In the 18 years we at the SPOTLIGHT have been covering the Bilderberg group, has there been any time--even once--when there were any factual errors? Has the publisher, Liberty Lobby, ever said anything about Bilderberg that was in any way untrue?"
"No, I am not saying that at all," the Bilderbergers' envoy said. "But you report in an angry way that inflames your readers, and that causes problems for our members. And, as you know, it is a private meeting, and they very much prefer it to stay that way. Privacy is a right you take away."
The entire dialog was being conducted in a quiet, low-key way, neither of us exhibiting anger or hostility.
"There are many answers to your claim of the privilege of privacy," I said. "I will give them to you, one at a time, and invite your response.
"First, American taxpayers finance, to a significant extent, these Bilderberg meetings."
"No, you are wrong," he said. "Members pay their own costs for travel."
"No, you are wrong," I insisted. "The American taxpayers pay the cost of congressmen, and the high officials of the White House, State, Defense, and Treasury departments gathered here."
"Now, how could you know that?"
"I have held in my hand a copy of a memo signed 'DDE'--as in 'President Dwight David Eisenhower'--ordering his administrative assistant, Gabriel Hauge, to attend the Bilderberg meeting in 1955. On the margin of the typed memo, the president had written 'at gov't expense.' When Henry Kissinger was secretary of state, I examined a copy of his travel voucher--at government expense. I could go on, but you get the idea."
"How could you possibly have come into possession of such papers?" the Bilderberg man asked.
"I didn't, personally," I explained. "I am backed in these ventures by, of course, The SPOTLIGHT and Liberty Lobby, its publisher. This is no one-man crusade; the whole institution is committed to exposing the Bilderbergers."
A momentary silence followed.
"So, if everybody in government paid their own costs, would you be satisfied?"
"Of course not--I told you there are many reasons, and I have only give you one," I said.
"Please continue," he said.
"Bilderberg and the Trilateral Commission--and you need no lessons from me on the interlocking leadership involved--conduct public business behind closed doors. They make decisions that affect the lives of every American and have the power and influence, in most cases, to impose their policies on the United States and other nations."
"For example?"
This came with the slightest hint of a challenge in his voice.
"Here's a few examples for you:
"In 1983, The SPOTLIGHT reported the secret pledge the Bilderbergers extracted from President Reagan, to provide $50 billion to Third World and communist countries. That pledge was more than kept and became known as the Brady plan.
"We've reported the Bilderberg decision to throw Margaret Thatcher out as prime minister of Britain because she opposed surrendering British sovereignty to the European super state, which the Bilderberg group crafted. And we watched as her own party dumped Mrs. Thatcher in favor of one of your parrots, John Major.
"We reported your secret dealings with [Mikhail] Gorbachev when he was head of what was then the Soviet Union, and foretold the weighty political shifts that transpired. We reported your order to President [George] Bush to increase taxes in 1990 and watched him sign off on the tax-hiking 'budget agreement' that lost him the election. There's more, but I think you can understand why we insist that Bilderberg business is our business too."
"Tell me, Mr. Tucker. If Bilderberg should agree to meet only in a way that satisfies you, what would that be?
"First, you would announce your meetings, the time and location, and provide the press with a copy of the agenda and a complete list of participants.
"Then you would set up a press table where reporters could observe your meetings and listen to the proceedings, taking notes and using recorders if they desired.
"Finally, instead of sealing off an entire hotel, there would be no guards at all. Reporters would interview participants between sessions and during the evenings."
The Bilderberg man shook his head, a resigned look on his face. "You know we can't do that," he said.
"Then you may as well become accustomed to my annual visits," I replied.
"Good night," he said.
"Good night."