From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThe
Trilateral Commission is a private organization, founded in 1973 at the initiative of the heads of the Council of Foreign Relations and of the Bilderberg Group, among them David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski. It consists of approximatively 300-350 private citizens from Europe, Pacific Asia (Asia & Oceania), and North America, and exists to promote closer cooperation between these areas.
Membership is divided into amounts apportioned to each of its three areas. Members who gain a position in their respective country's government leave the commission.
The organization has come under much scrutiny and criticism by political activists and academics working in the social and political sciences. The Trilateral Commission has found its way into a number of conspiracy theories, especially relating to the Round table groups.The North American continent is represented by 107 members (15 Canadians, 7 Mexicans and 85 US citizens). The European group has reached its limit of 150 members, including citizens from Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and United Kingdom.
At first, Asia and Oceania were represented only by Japan. However, in 2000, the Japanese group of 85 members expanded itself, becoming the Pacific Asia group, composed of 117 members: 75 Japanese, 11 South Koreans, 7 Australian and New Zealand citizens, and 15 members from the ASEAN nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand). The Pacific Asia group also includes 9 members from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Membership
The three current chairmen are:
Tom Foley, North America (Democratic Congressman, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and ambassador to Japan)
Peter Sutherland, Europe (Irish businessman and former politician associated with the Fine Gael party; former Attorney General of Ireland and European Commissioner in the first Delors Commission; former director general of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the precursor to the World Trade Organization)
Yotaro Kobayashi, Pacific Asia (chairman of the Fuji Xerox company)
Some other people who are or have been members:
Georges Berthoin
Ritt Bjerregaard (Danish Social Democrat MP, member of various cabinets; European Commissioner for Environment, Nuclear Safety and Civil Protection in the Santer Commission from 1995 to 1999)
John H. Bryan (former CEO of Sara Lee bakeries, affiliated with the World Economic Forum and part of the Board for Sara Lee, Goldman Sachs, General Motors, British Petroleum and Bank One)
Zbigniew Brzezinski (US National Security Advisor to U.S. President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981)
James E. Burke (CEA of Johnson & Johnson from 1976 to 1989)
George H.W. Bush (former President of the United States)
Frank Carlucci (President of Carlyle Group, US Secretary of Defense from 1987 to 1989)
Jimmy Carter (former President of the U.S.)
Catherine Ann Bertini (former United Nations Under Secretary General in Management, former Director of World Food Program)
Gerhard Casper (constitutional scholar, faculty member at Stanford University; successor trustee of Yale University and part of the Board of Trustees of the Central European University in Hungary)
Dick Cheney (current vice-president of the US)
Bill Clinton (former President of the U.S.)
William Cohen (Republican Congressman and Senator, U.S. secretary of Defense under President Clinton)
Tim Collins (CEO of Ripplewood Holdings LLC investment company; also part of the Yale Divinity School and Yale School of Management board of advisors and US-Japan non-profit organizations)
Bill Emmott (former editor of The Economist magazine)
Bettie Estes
Dianne Feinstein (Democratic US Senator, former mayor of San Francisco, member of the Council on Foreign Relations; ranking member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security)
Martin Feldstein (professor of economics at Harvard University; president and CEO of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1982 to 1984; former director of the Council on Foreign Relations; member of the Bilderberg Group and of the World Economic Forum, etc.)
Hugh Fletcher (Chancellor of Auckland University and CEO of Fletcher Challenge)
David Gergen (political consultant and presidential advisor during the Republican administrations of Nixon, Ford and Reagan; also served as advisor to Bill Clinton)
Allan Gotlieb (Canadian ambassador to Washington from 1981 to 1989, chairman of the Canada Council from 1989 to 1994)
Bill Graham (former Canadian Minister of National Defence and Minister of Foreign Affairs under Paul Martin; since 2006, interim parliamentary leader of the Liberal Party)
Hank Greenberg (former chairman and CEO of American International Group (AIG), the world's largest insurance and financial services corporation)
Mugur Isarescu (Governor of the National Bank of Romania since 1990 and prime minister from December 1999 to November 2000; he worked for the Minister of Foreign Affairs then for the Romanian Embassy in the US after the 1989 Romanian revolution)
Henry Kissinger (US diplomat, National Security Advisor and Secretary of State in the Nixon administration and Ford administration; inventor of the term Realpolitik and main actor of the US foreign policy from 1969 to 1977)
Otto Graf Lambsdorff (Chairman of the German Free Democratic Party from 1993 to 1998; Economic Minister for West Germany from 1977 to 1984)
Liam Lawlor (Irish politician who resigned from the Fianna Fáil party; died in a car-crash in Moscow in 2005)
Pierre Lellouche (French MP of the conservative Union for a Popular Movement party led by Nicolas Sarkozy)
Jorge Braga de Macedo
Kiichi Miyazawa (Japanese Prime minister in 1991-1993; Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1974 to 1976, Chief Cabinet Secretary from 1984 to 1986, Minister of Finance in 1987 and again from 1999 to 2002)
Akio Morita (co-founder of Sony Corporation; vice-chairman o fthe Keindanren (Japan Federation of Economic Organizations) and member of the Japan-U.S. Economic Relations Group)
Andrzej Olechowski (Polish director of Euronet, USA; on the supervisory boards of Citibank Handlowy and Europejski Fundusz Hipoteczny; president of the Central European Forum; deputy governor of the National Bank of Poland from 1989 to 1991; minister of Foreign Economic Relations from 1991 to 1992; minister of Finance in 1992 and of Foreign Affairs from 1993 to 1995; economic advisor to president Lech Wa³êsa from 1992 to 1993 and in 1995, etc.)
Carl Palme
Lucas Papademos (European Central Bank Vice-president)
Lee Raymond (ExxonMobil Former CEO and Chairman, vice chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Enterprise Institute, director of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., director and member of the Executive Committee and Policy Committee of the American Petroleum Institute)
Mary Robinson (elected president of Ireland from 1990 to 1997 as a candidate for the Labour party; United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002)
David Rockefeller (chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank board from 1969 to 1981 and its CEO from 1969 to 1980; vice-director of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1949 to 1985, vice-president from 1950 to 1970 and chairman from 1970 to 1985; member of the Bilderberg Group)
Gerard C. Smith (first U.S. Chairman of the Commission; chief U.S. delegate to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks of 1969)
George Vasiliou (president of the Republic of Cyprus from 1988 to 1993, founder and leader of the Cypriot United Democrats party; widely regarded as the father of Cypriot accession to the EU)
Paul Volcker (chairman of the US Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987, main actor of the transition from Keynes-based policy to monetarist-based policy)
Isamu Yamashita
Lorenzo Zambrano (Mexican chairman and CEO of CEMEX since 1985, the third largest cement company of the world; member of the board of IBM, Citiroup, etc.)
Personally, I'm quite skeptical about this whole thing..