(MintPress) – It’s a philosophy perhaps taken from pop culture lore: Rule #1 about the Bilderberg Club is that no one talks about Bilderberg Club. The secretive meeting of the world’s most influential government officials and private industry figures is the target of called-upon protests with the help of the Occupy movement. Radio host Alex Jones has signaled for a large-scale demonstration of the meetings that are scheduled to take place May 31-June 3. Bilderberg insists its private meetings are informal and do not lead to new policies, but critics, such as Jones, argue that transparency is needed when so many powerful figures convene at one place.
Bilderberg has traditionally been a collection of 120 to 140 of the world’s most influential figures. Since 1954, on an invitation-only basis, meetings have been conducted in isolated areas across the world behind closed doors with the pretense of global relations and economic policy as topics covered. Recent United States representatives at the meetings have included Google Inc. executive chairman Eric Schmidt, former U.S. President Bill Clinton and David Rockefeller, former chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank.
The group’s official website explains the governance of the group as a member-elected process by which a Steering Committee appoints a Chairman and other members are elected to four-year terms. The current chairman is Henri de Castries, chairman and CEO of AXA Group – a French global insurance group. Steering Committee members are comprised of academics, financial and banking officials and government figures.
Bilderberg says its meetings have no purpose “other than to allow participants to speak their minds openly and freely.” But skeptics say the secrecy and remote privacy of the conference makes it ripe for fraud and conspiracy.
While meeting locations are often secret, this year’s location is reported to be in Chantilly, Virginia, the same location as the 2008 convention. Jones said the known location and dates allow protesters to organize themselves ahead of time.
“I’m calling to occupy Bilderberg; to protest it. And I’m calling for tens of thousands to be there in one month,” Jones said. “In the past, they really wanted to be secretive.”
BBC has reported that past skeptics and conspiracy theorists have accused the Bilderberg Group of “everything from deliberately engineering the credit crunch to planning to kill 80 percent of the world population.”
Jones identifies with those skeptics. At a past Bilderberg meeting, Jones was kicked off the host property of the meeting after yelling, “We know you are ruthless. We know you are evil. We respect your dark power” through a megaphone.
Speculation by Jones over what this year’s Bilderberg meeting what consist of includes bank bailouts, a single, global government and the presidential election.
“Should the elite get behind Mitt Romney or Barack Obama?” Jones questioned. “Both men are bought and paid for by the same financial interests, and so the discussion will be which candidate can basically con the American people to lay down the tyranny for another four years.”
Disclosure
But Bilderberg claims only the meetings themselves are private. Those in attendance and the covered agenda are published on the group’s website. According to the site, the following topics were covered during the 2011 meeting in St. Moritz, Switzerland:
- The Middle East: What Does Democracy Mean?
- Emerging Economies: Roles and Responsibilities
- Economic and National Security in a Digital Age
- Technological Innovation in Western Economies: Stagnation or Promise?
- The Appetite for Reform: Can Governments Deliver?
- Switzerland: Can It Remain Successful in the Future?
- European Union’s Challenges
- A Sustainable Euro: Implications for European Economies
- China’s Domestic Challenges
- China’s Regional and Global Challenges
- Connectivity and the Diffusion of Power
- Current Conflict Areas
- Demographic Stresses
Other than those notes, nothing is reported about Bilderberg meetings. No transcripts are released and press conferences are not held. Bilderberg says this is because meetings are not formal and are off the record.
The Bilderberg Group is the only known and organized secretive gathering of select world leaders and industry moguls. Critics tout it as a political Illuminati or Freemasonry. Bilderberg says the meetings keep dialogue between American and European nations open.
“The Cold War has now ended. But in practically all respects there are more, not fewer, common problems – from trade to jobs, from monetary policy to investment, from ecological challenges to the task of promoting international security. It is hard to think of any major issue in either Europe or North America whose unilateral solution would not have repercussions for the other,” the group’s website says. “The dialogue between these two regions is still – even increasingly – critical.”