From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
The 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.)
