Washington/Prague - Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg attended a secret annual conference of the Bildberg Club in Chantilly, Virginia, on June 5-8, the server i.Dnes writes today.

Schwarzenberg is the only Czech participant in this year's forum.

Most Czech politicians did not know about Schwarzenberg's presence in the conference, i.Dnes writes.

Bilderberg Club, also called the "Group of the Powerful," is an informal invitation-only organisation of politicians, representatives of the military and industrial complex, bankers and businessmen.

The list of its personalities is not permanent and participants speak as private persons at the conferences that are strictly secret.

This year, they dealt with the problem of elimination of nuclear weapons, the situation in Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Islamic radicalism, the relations between the EU and the USA and international financial situation.

Almost 140 persons met in Chantilly such as president of the World Bank Robert Zoellick, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, European commissioner for trade Peter Mandelson and U.S. financier David Rockefeller.

Most Czech politicians, including Minister without Portfolio Cyril Svoboda (the Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL) and leader of the opposition Social Democrats (CSSD) Jiri Paroubek, did not know about Schwarzenberg's trip.

"I learnt about it today (on Sunday) and I was furious," Communist leader Vojtech Filip said.

Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek has not spoken about the affair.

The Bilderberg Club is named after the hotel Bilderberg in the Dutch town of Oosterbeek, in which the first conference was held in 1954. It has held annual conferences since that are always kept carefully secret.


Source (Czech): Czech Press Agency 09.06.2008


Czech Press Agency (Česká tisková kancelář, ČTK) is the official main Czech press agency, whose reports are usually reproduced by the majority of Czech newspapers and news servers. Some of the CTK's reports are released in English as well.

Not surprisingly, the Bilderberg Chantilly meeting has not been covered by the mass media, especially on the West.
Yet some information or at least an allusion on this event can be found at:

Indymedia (famous worldwide activist's network) /article in English/

RIA Novosti (official Russian press agency/news server) /article in French/

Xinhua (official Chinese press agency/news server) /article in French/

AD (mainstream Dutch newspaper) /article in Dutch/

FrankfurterRundschau /article in German/

die Tageszeitung junge Welt (German leftist journal) /article in German/