Who's Who of the global elite?

BILDERBERG GROUP: Takes its name from the hotel in Holland where the group met in 1954, during the earliest period of its inception. It meets regularly (presumably on a once-a-year basis) at various locations around the world, always in extreme secrecy, often at resorts controlled by either the Rockefeller or Rothschild families. The Rothschild family is the leading European force within the Bilderberg Group, sharing its power with the American-based Rockefeller empire. The internationalist group has a revolving membership of several hundred participants composed of elites from the United States and Western Europe, primarily -- almost exclusively -- from the NATO countries. (Representatives from the former Soviet Union and East Bloc countries attended the 1992 gathering, however.) Bilderberg maintains an extremely low profile and seldom, if ever, publishes reports or studies (for the public, at least) under its own official aegis. Bilderberg participants denied the groups very existence for decades until forced into the open by the glare of media publicity, generated largely by The SPOTLIGHT and its publisher, Liberty Lobby.

TRILATERAL COMMISSION (TC): Organized exclusively by David Rockefeller in 1973. TC holds an official annual conclave closed to the independent press, but conducts seminars and other gatherings that are less exclusive. Membership is limited to elites from the United States and Canada, Western Europe and Japan, several and has several hundred members. It issues periodic reports known as the "Triangle Papers" and press releases and published a journal called Trialogue (now defunct). David Rockefeller has continuously served, since its inception, as "North American chairman" but is acknowledged as its prime mover.

THE COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS (CFR): Based in New York and comprised solely of U.S. citizens. Publishes the quarterly journal Foreign Affairs and conducts regular meetings and seminars. Key meetings are strictly confidential and offthe record. CFR was created in 1921 with Rockefeller funding and emerged as the American branch of the British Royal Institute on International Affairs (RIIA), succeeding an earlier, less organized entity already established in that role. The RIIA was the brainchild of English financier Cecil Rhodes (founder of the Rhodes scholarship) and devoted to the concept of reuniting the United States with the British Empire. CFR members, beginning with the Republican Herbert Hoover's administration on through the present day in administrations Democrat and Republican alike, have continuously been appointed to key policymaking posts. David Rockefeller himself served as a longtime chairman of the CFR and remains it virtual master.