Wisnewski - The Bilderbergers - Puppet-Masters of Power?: an Investigation into Claims of Conspiracy at the Heart of Politics, Business and the Media

GERHARD WISNEWSKI was born in 1959. He studied political science, and since 1986 has worked as an author and documentary filmmaker. The author of One Small Step?: The Great Moon Hoax and the Race to Dominate Earth from Space, his other bestselling books (in German) include Das RAF-Phantom (The RAF Phantom), Operation 9/11, Mythos 9/11 and Verschluss-Sache Terror (The secret files of terror). The film Das Phantom, based on the book Das RAF-Phantom, was awarded the Grimme Prize in 2000.

THE BILDERBERGERS

PUPPET-MASTERS OF POWER?

AN INVESTIGATION INTO ALLEGATIONS OF CONSPIRACY AT THE HEART OF POLITICS, BUSINESS AND THE MEDIA

GERHARD WISNEWSKI

Translated by J. Collis

CLAIRVIEW

Published in Great Britain in 2014 by:
Clairview Books,
Russet, Sandy Lane,
West Hoathly,
W. Sussex RH19 4QQ

E-mail:

www.clairviewbooks.com

First published in 2010 under the title Drahtzieher der Macht by Knaur Taschenbuch, Munich

Gerhard Wisnewski 2010
This translation Clairview Books 2014

All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Inquiries should be addressed to the Publishers

All images are from the author's private collection or public domain, with the exception of the following: The Nafsika Astir Palace..., The crossing in front of... and Civilian vans..., Ch. Klppner and S. Mahdi and Richard Toibin is arrested..., Dorneanu

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Print book ISBN 978 1 905570 75 1
Ebook ISBN 978 1 905570 66 9

Cover by Morgan Creative featuring puppeteer image AG Photographer and flags image Angelika Bentin

... the world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.

Benjamin Disraeli
British Prime Minister 1868 and 1874-1880

Contents

Part 1
Tracking Down the Bilderbergers

Part 2
The Secret Background

Part 3
Global Mafia?

Part 4
A German Mafia?

Part 5
The Global Government

Prologue

An Encounter Greek Style

Vouliagmeni, 17 May 2009, to the south of Athens. The sea in the bay shimmers blue, sun umbrellas on the restaurant terrace flutter lazily in the hot wind, a few teenagers splash about on the shore. A cool beer and salmon on a bed of spinach are well deserved. For days, together with a handful of journalists, Ive been chasing after participants at the Bilderberg Conference and letting myself in for a sometimes more, sometimes less amusing game of hide-and-seek with security personnel and police. Im about to order another beer when my mobile rings. A colleague is telling me that he and the other journalists have just been released from police custody after hours of interrogation. He's in our hotel lobby and Id better come over straight away.

No more relaxing, then. I pay and leave the terrace via the exit to the street. Just as Im about to set off for the crossing in the direction of the hotel, I notice two policemen standing there, pointing towards me. As inconspicuously as possible I return to the terrace by the next entrance, switch off my mobile and lock myself in the toilet for half an hour. When nothing happens I leave the restaurant again, this time by the main entrance. On the opposite side of the street a steep stone stairway leads up and over towards the hotel. Surely I can get to it without having to pass the police presence at the crossing, I think. Ten seconds later Im panting my way up the exceedingly steep stairs. Im nearly at the top and watching my step when I suddenly glimpse two female feet dangling idly from the parapet. Somehow they remind me of Kaa the snake in the Jungle Book lying in wait for Mowgli. Ive scarcely reached her when she says Hello in English as I pause for breath: Where are you from? Germany, I say. Oh, yes? Germany! Quite by chance her father lives there, or her brother or a nephew.

A Greek woman all alone accosting strange men at the top of a steep flight of steps? Hang on, I think. She is, moreover, nothing like other charming young Greek women tripping around here in their high heels. She's a rather more austere, sporty type not unattractive, no, but austere, without make-up and with short hair, obviously dyed blonde.

I ask if she happens to know Litous Street, which is where my hotel is. Oh! Litous Street, sure, she replies eagerly. Id have to go back down the steps and turn right. Shell come with me and show me the way! Just a minute so she wants to escort me directly to her colleagues. Well, no, I declare jokingly, sounding like a harmless tourist, I havent struggled all the way up these stairs only to turn round and go down again. Ill carry on over this hill to my hotel. She rather sees the point, but just then a sporty young man appears from nowhere and settles down, smiling, beside her on the low wall. Our little chat now develops into an interrogation: What am I doing here? What's my job? She comes to the point immediately. Are you a journalist?

A journalist? Me? No, I reply. No? she repeats. No! I also repeat. Had I heard about the conference, she persists. What conference? I ask, sounding decidedly nonchalant. Well, the Bilderberg Conference of course, she says. Bilderberg? Never heard of it, I counter. What kind of a conference is it, then? I want to know, but she doesnt want to tell me. Well, the one in the Nafsika Astir Palace. That's the conference hotel, is it, I conjecture vaguely. Yes, she confirms. But what's my job, she insists. Political scientist, I say. Ah! Political science and Bilderberg; this combination is a wake-up call to her policewoman's brain. What do you do, then, in political science? I write, I reply. Wrong again. The effect is like dangling a mouse in front of a cat. Political science and writing this appears to be the greatest crime one can commit in the vicinity of the Bilderbergers. The street might as well be full of signs saying Writing forbidden! And of course Thinking forbidden! and No questions! So what did I write about, then? Marxism, I say, choosing the most uninteresting answer possible as I turn to leave. I block off further questions with a Nice to have met you. Such a pleasant little chat by the wayside.

Introduction

Many things can be found on the internet. For example that there's a power group which meets once a year known as the Bilderbergers. This club is supposed to be much mightier than any government or even the G8 Summit, that annual meeting of eight global giants. If the latter amounts to a circle of elephants, then the Bilderbergers must be a whole herd, 100 to 150 personages: former and future US Presidents, former and current NATO General Secretaries, former and current CEOs, current, and above all future, German Chancellors! From Germany, for example, Josef Ackermann, Joschka Fischer, Guido Westerwelle, Wolfgang Schuble and Otto Schily. But also Kurt Georg Kiesinger, Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt, Helmut Kohl and Angela Merkel!

Any number of heavyweights, then. And, if one believes the internet, these heavyweights are supposed to belong to a kind of world government. According to some, indeed, to the world government. Whatever the case may be, it is interesting to note that while the G8 circle of elephants gallops loudly across the media landscape once a year, the shadows of the Bilderberg pachyderms tiptoe around in silence. Not a word is breathed by the media about them, or if they do come up once in a while, then only as an aside.