Trilateral Commission

The Trilateral Commission is a private organization, founded in 1973 at the initiative of the heads of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the Bilderberg Group, among them David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski. It groups approximatively 300-350 elite corporate and political figures from Europe, Japan, and North America. The Trilateral Commission is one of the three most important global elite planning groups (the others being the World Economic Forum and the Bilderberg Group).

Origins

Holly Sklar notes:

In 1973 the Trilateral Commission was founded by David Rockefeller, Chase Manhattan Bank chairman, Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter's national security advisor, and other like-minded "eminent private citizens." Some 300 members (up from about 200 members in 1973) are drawn from international business and banking, government, academia, media, and conservative labor. The Commission's purpose is to engineer an enduring partnership among the ruling classes of North America, Western Europe, and Japan-hence the term "trilateral"-in order to safeguard the interests of Western capitalism in an explosive world. The private Trilateral Commission is attempting to mold public policy and construct a framework for international stability in the coming decades. ..."trilateralism" refers to the doctrine of world order advanced by the Commission...

Trilateralists don't make a habit of speaking directly and openly to us, the mass of world citizens (whether they are in government or out of government). But from their publications and other statements as well as by their actions, we can glean a clear sense of their ideology, goals, and strategy...

To put it simply, trilateralists are saying: (1) the people, governments, and economies of all nations must serve the needs of multinational banks and corporations; (2) control over economic resources spells power in modern politics (of course, good citizens are supposed to believe as they are taught; namely, that political equality exists in Western democracies whatever the degree of economic inequality); and (3) the leaders of capitalist democracies-systems where economic control and profit, and thus political power, rest with the few-must resist movement toward a truly popular democracy. In short, trilateralism is the current attempt by ruling elites to manage both dependence and democracy-at home and abroad.

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 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.)
• 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 (editor of The Economist magazine)
• 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 S 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.). Feldstein is also reported to be on the Board of Directors for Eli Lilly and Company, a director of American International Group, a member of the American Philosophical Society and the Institute of Medicare of the National Academy of Sciences. He is a fellow of the British Academy, the Econometric Society and the National Association for Business Economics. Feldstein is a a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is reported to be a regular contributer to The Wall Street Journal. His previous involvements include serving as President Ronald Reagan's chief economic advisor. He also previously served as a fellow at Nuffield College (1964-67), was a lecturer in public finance for Oxford University and served as an assistant professor (in 1967), associate professor (in 1968) and full professor (in 1969) at Harvard University.

• 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 Isărescu (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 Walesa from 1992 to 1993 and in 1995, etc.)
• Carl Palme
• Lucas Papademos (Greek Prime Minister (12 November 2011)and Former Vice-president of the European Central Bank )
• 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)
• 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.)
• Bettie Estes

External links

• Official website
• The Global Elite: Who are they?
• Noam Chomsky: The Carter Administration: Myth and Reality (commentary on The Crisis of Democracy, a 1975 Trilateral Commission report)
• The Trilateral Commission: Effect on the Middle East
• The Political Graveyard's (incomplete) list of Trilateral Commission members
• Trilateral Commission members list
• It's in the Book
• The 'C' Word: An American Taboo

Further Reading

• Trilaterals Over Washington, Vol. I and II by Antony C. Sutton and Patrick M. Wood, The August Corporation (1979/81), ISBN 0-933482-01-9
• American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission (Cambridge Studies in International Relations) (collective), Cambridge University Press (November 7, 1991), 318 pages, ISBN 052142433X
• Trilateralism: The Trilateral Commission and elite planning for world management, Black Rose Books (1980), 604 pages, ISBN 091961843X
• Trilateralism the Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management by Holly Sklar, South End Press (November 1, 1980), 616 pages, ISBN 0896081036
• The Rockefeller triangle: A country editor's documented report on the Trilateral Commission plan for world government by Bill Wilkerson, Idalou Beacon (1980), 44 pages, ASIN B0006E2ZE4
• Who's who of the elite: members of the Bilderbergs, Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, and Skull & Bones Society by Robert Gaylon Ross. - 2nd revision. - San Marcos, Tex : RIE, 2000, ISBN 0964988801
• Tous pouvoirs confondus : Etat, capital et médias à l'ère de la mondialisation by Geoffrey Geuens, EPO (15 March 2003), 470 pages, ISBN 2872621938