This is the first instalment in a series examining the activities and individuals behind the Bilderberg Group. Meet the Bilderberg Group – an annual gathering of 130 of the Western world's top financial, corporate, political, academic, media, military and policy elites, held every year since 1954. They meet behind closed doors, at five-star hotels, where participants are encouraged to speak frankly – meaning "off the record" and away from the prying eyes and piercing ears of the public. Some journalists and media executives are invited, but they don't actually cover the meetings: they simply attend them as guests. The famous exclusivity and secrecy of the Bilderberg Group, we are told, is designed to encourage frank and open discussions among some of the most influential people in North America and Western Europe. But unlike its portrayal as a place where powerful people simply "talk shop," critics for years have considered the meetings a form of secret world g