Confessions of a Would-Be Bilderberger

Secretive meetings are increasingly shaping our world and setting the global agenda

Let me confess this: I just love hobnobbing as a "journalistic courtesan" -- a term used by author Daniel Estulin in The True Story of the Bilderberg Group.

The Bilderberg group met early this month in Virginia, USA. And they forgot to invite me.

It might be unconscionable of me to be shamelessly attempting to pander to the all powerful on this planet. But since I do not own a "big chunk of land" like Dutch royalty, the Rockefellers or the Rothschilds do, which apparently is a prerequisite to becoming a Bilderberger inductee, my chances of being invited to this very private cafe klatch are slim indeed.

Can a Secret Society Wannabe Be a Citizen Journalist?

Thanks to good fortune and contacts, I have attended similar though less well known events. One of them is now called the Salzburg global seminar. These very select and small gatherings are weeklong "brainstorming" sessions held in the Austrian Alps. Against a backdrop that includes a Baroque castle and mountain peaks that recall the "Sound of Music," future Bilderbergers are groomed and polished to be the next generation's leaders and statesmen, CEOs and other such "agents of influence."

Although given a formal discussion agenda (in my case it was the seminar's session 336, which dealt with European Union institutional reform), the privileged few participants really spend much or their time exchanging confidences and their unique insights with "mind-pickers" on topical international issues while strolling the woods nearby.

Both the Bilderberg and Salzburg meetings were initially intended to forge closer transatlantic ties in the wake of World War II, attenuate mutual suspicions and growing anti-Americanism and forge a common front against the Soviet empire in the early years of the Cold War.

Yet the whole point of these seminars, like that of the Bilderberg meetings, is evidently to form a discreet network of likeminded people that will last a lifetime. This network then translates into the implementation of policy initiatives on a long-term and global basis.

So, in a nutshell the Salzburg global seminar was for young "upstarts" (or "fellows") like me, who aspired to be bona fide Bilderbergers one day. Some instead, ended up questioning and at times even challenging the group's goals and objectives.

In order to expose the "men behind the curtains," as Estulin calls the members of Bilderberg, and get to the truth, it's better to be in the loop than out of it.

These powerful people who control the "movers and shakers" (or as conspiracy theorists say, who are intent on reducing the world's population by means of Malthusian-Machiavellian machinations using eugenics and bio-warfare and who manipulate the outcome of elections or start wars for "big oil") are really entertaining folk to chat with over lunch or a coffee. Or so I have heard from some Bilderberg watchers.

For me, the fun thing about going to meetings inspired by and modeled on the Bilderberg format, besides the good food, is listening to the sideline discussions of financiers, diplomats, ministers and corporate bigwigs. The key is to come to these meetings without a preset agenda, to be as open minded and ideologically flexible as possible.

At high-profile meetings of the global elite open to the media, such as the World Economic Forum, most participants are naturally reluctant to talk with reporters and for good reason. But once you charm them and inveigle yourself into their confidence there's a lot to find out. For instance, where else can you learn "off the record" about Turkey's civil nuclear energy ambitions (and the future sites of power plants) or who the big bidders are for the lucrative contracts to build them. Such highly prized information was imparted to me at a meeting of very influential individuals.

This particular public but very pricey event, to which I was graciously given a complimentary invitation, took place last spring in Istanbul and focused on Turkey's financial and macroeconomic health. It was held at the highly modern almost brand new Istanbul stock exchange. I heard eminent speakers such as Minister of State Mehmet Simsek give a glowing assessment of Turkey to the potential foreign investors, currency speculators and bankers present at the meeting.

All those present were reassured that despite the global downturn due the subprime mess Turkey's highly capitalized banking systems made it almost immune to the side effects of the "credit crunch." All those dreadful memories of the 2002 Turkish banking meltdown seemed as distant and faded as the death pangs of the Ottoman Empire.

The minister emphasized all the extraordinary efforts his country had undertaken to meet the EU's membership criteria, such as reforming social security (which means huge cuts to pensioners' benefits of course) and pursuing privatization full speed ahead whatever the social costs. He skated around the Turkish high court's decision to ban the ruling AKP party and what this might mean for political stability.

However, it was a very important event for the participants, including the reporters, who could listen and share their views "freely and openly" -- and discreetly -- on topics that ranged from privatization of Turkish telecoms to the international impact of the declining US dollar.

From Salzburg and Istanbul to Montreal

My last stop on this would be Bilderberger tour is a very public meeting in Montreal, Canada. The striking thing about this event is that the list of participants is made up of some of those secretive and cabalistic Bilderbergers. Among those who addressed the business and corporate elite of Canada where Henry Kissinger, Charlie Rose and Paul Volker.

I listened most intently to Kissinger's address.

"The rise of China and India brings about a shift in the international system," said Kissinger, a former US secretary of state and noble peace prizewinner. To cast China as a rival to American interests, as happened with the Soviet Union, would in his sagacious view be a "very dangerous approach." He warned the captivated audience: if Sino-US relations are polarized further, "We will do to each other what the Europeans did to themselves."

This grim, ominous and sobering admonition will likely not go unnoticed in Washington.

Kissinger, who is also a member of the Trilateral Commission, also stressed that mass migration, climate change and the current energy and food crises must all be addressed on a global level.

So are we ready for one world-government to rule over us all, as the Bilderberg groupies advocate? Maybe. In the meantime, this "journalistic courtesan" will continue to seek answers at the next meeting that a Bilderberger might attend.

Michael Werbowski
OhMy News