WorldNetDaily

Do you believe in conspiracies?

Do you believe there are powerful people who conspire together annually to solidify their grip on world domination?

Do you believe all of this happens in secret, with the quiet complicity of the world media?

Well, I've got news for you. There really are conspiracies at work. There really are powerful people plotting world domination. And they really operate in near-total secrecy as the world press sits on its collective duff.

In fact, it's happening right now as you read this column.

The venue is Versailles, France. Today is the last day of a two-day confab of the Bilderberg Group, an international lobby representing the interests of the power elite of Europe and America.

You would be surprised at the membership of the organization. One of the founding members, for instance is Otto Wolff von Amerongen ?Ea man credited with reviving business ties between Germany and the old Soviet bloc. For more than 50 years, according to the Moscow Times, he "walked the corridors of power and influence on both sides of the Iron Curtain," serving as Bonn's informal ambassador to Russia while heading numerous trade committees and commissions over the decades. He has been at the forefront of closer economic relations between Russia and Germany.

He was the first German to join the board of Esso, now Exxon-Mobil. He has served on 26 boards of directors, including the Deutsche Bank and other leading corporations.

Never heard of von Amerongen? Many have not. He keeps his resume quiet for a good reason. His past links the 84-year-old to Nazi Germany's theft of Jewish holdings during World War II.

You might not see much of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld this weekend. He, too, is a member of the Bilderberg Group. So, too, is Ireland's Gen. Peter Sutherland, a former European Union commissioner and chairman of Goldman Sachs and BP. Rumsfeld and Sutherland served together in 2000 on the board of a Zurich-based energy company, ABB, which sold two light-water nuclear reactors to North Korea.

You've heard Rumsfeld talk about this member-state of the "axis of evil" and its nuclear ambitions. He made similar noises about North Korea's nuclear ambitions in 1998. But, in between, he served on the board of a company that sold the totalitarian regime two nuclear reactors.

Hard to believe? It's true.

The Bilderberg Group has been described as "50 people who run the world and 20 hangers-on." It's actually a slightly bigger conspiracy.

In the words of another observer, it is comprised of "120 or so of the most influential men in Europe and North America."

Since 1953, the Bilderberg Group has convened government, business, academic and journalistic representatives from the U.S., Canada and Europe. The locations and agendas of the conferences are closely guarded secrets.

Last year, the BBC described the annual meetings this way: "It's officially described as a private gathering, but with a guest list including the heads of European and American corporations, political leaders and a few intellectuals, it's one of the most influential organizations on the planet."

British journalist Jon Ronson, who is the author of a book on Bilderberg, had this to say: "I'm a sort of semi-conspiracy theorist when it comes to Bilderberg because I think they wouldn't go to that much trouble of having this incredibly expensive international conference every year and they'd go to all this trouble to keep themselves out of the press and be really secret and invite the world's most powerful people if it was just a chat and a game of golf, which is basically what they say it is. So I do think they have some impact on world affairs."

If my news organization had the financial resources, I would do everything in my power to give you the scoop on what is taking place at this annual meeting and future conferences by this secretive group of elitists. That's my excuse. I wonder what excuse CNN has, or the New York Times, or NBC, or the Washington Post, or the Associated Press?

Nevertheless, though I couldn't put reporters on the ground at this Bilderberg meeting in France, I can give you something perhaps even more valuable: The May issue of our monthly Whistleblower magazine, titled "THE NEW WORLD RE-ORDER," takes on the globalists big-time. If you've ever wanted to understand what international elitists ?Efrom the Bilderbergers to the Council on Foreign Relations to the United Nations ?Eare really up to, here's your answer.