No one knows when they take place, no one talks about them, and no one protests against this private body for planning global politics, consisting of the political and economic elite of the United States, Europe, and Japan (hence the name): two hundred heads of state, government ministers, bankers, directors of multinational corporations, economists, and generals meet every year for four days in one of the cities of the triad to decide, behind closed doors, the guidelines for the international politics and economics that the member governments are to follow. This year the meeting was held in Washington, beginning on April 25th and ending on the 28th.
The US press of that era defined the Trilateral Commission as a "direct descendant" of the Bilderberg Group, an international secret society which shares many Trilateral members and goals, especially that of a world order managed by a restricted, super-national political and economic aristocracy.
French philosopher and sociologist Gilbert Larochelle has commented, "The Trilateral citadel is a protected zone where the "best," in their inspired superiority, elaborate regulations to be passed down to those below."
It maintains a very discreet website providing dates and places of their meetings, and where viewers can order texts of the "Trialogues" - the public records of their meetings - which, however, take place behind closed doors.
The names of the members are protected by great reserve: in theory, the lists of current members are available to t he public, but we placed a request for the list quite some time ago and have yet to receive a response. The lists of past members are easier to obtain (see below the list of Italian members).
They also cover international crises and war, the management of dissent, and placing limits on "democratic excesses." The theme of each report depends of historical contingency. For example, after the September 11 attacks, the annual meeting in 2002 was dominated by Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, and Alan Greenspan, who demanded a "global response" to terrorism, with all the western nations following the lead of the United States.
In a November 2003 article in Le Monde, the author of an article on the Trilateral Commission, professor Olivier Boiral, wrote, "Like the philosopher kings of the Platonic Republic who contemplated the realm of Ideas to sow their transcendent wisdom into worldly affairs, the elite of this hardly democratic institution work to define the criteria of international "good government."
They are a vehicle of a Platonic ideal of order and control maintained by a privileged class of technocrats who consider their expertise and experience to grant them authority over the profane claims of simple citizens."
Peace Repoter