Portugal's National Weekend Newspaper in English

FRONT PAGE STORY - 31/05/2003

Barroso bombed-off to Bilderberg meeting?

Had it not been for a bomb scare on Saturday May 17th at an official function following the WTTC summit at the Casino Vilamoura, the Prime Minister would have had to explain why he was in Paris attending the annual meeting of the secretive geopolitical Bilderberg Group, instead of the tourism summit’s closing ceremony.

An investigative journalist working on behalf of The Portugal News has obtained a list of the attendees at the Paris meeting, which was held at the Trianon Hotel between the 15th and 18th of May. Durão Barroso was in the company of former Prime Minister, Francisco Balsemão, who is presently chairman and chief executive officer of Impresa Corporation. Also in tow was Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, leader of the opposition Socialist Party. The opposition leader’s press officer told The Portugal News that Mr. Rodrigues attended the conference for three and a half days.

Mr. Rodrigues is currently fighting off a paedophile scandal, following the arrest of Socialist MP Paulo Pedroso and claims, in some newspapers that the PS leader has also been accused of limited involvement.

The Bilderberg Group is made up of international bankers, industrialists, media moguls and politicians, who are accused of meeting annually, in secret, to map out the future of the world.

Among this year’s gathering were James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, David Rockefeller of banking fame, and former French president, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, who is presently chairman of the European Convention in charge of drawing up the first ever EU Constitution.

The Portugal News can confirm that at the top of the meeting’s agenda were EU-USA relationships regarding the post war reconstruction of Iraq and its political make-up, the future of the Middle East and the formation of a European army. The proposed new EU Constitution and global economic problems also figured prominently in the discussions.

Among the 105 guests were several EU ministers and their advisers. In a repeat of last year’s row, Irish MEP, Patricia McKenna, has demanded that the EU Commission President, Romani Prodi, gives a full and frank account to the European Parliament as to why it is necessary for commissioners to attend Bilderberg meetings. According to Mr. Prodi they do so as private individuals and it is therefore not required that they make any public declaration of their attendance. He also dismissed critics of the Bilderberg Group as being “paranoid conspiracy theorists”.

But according to Tony Gaia, an independent UK journalist, who has covered the Bilderberg meetings for the past 20 years, the annual get-togethers are all about the ‘Money Power’ handing out instructions to the political classes. He told The Portugal News that world events do not occur by accident: “They are made to happen”, he said “whether it is to do with national issues or commerce, most of it is staged managed by those who hold the purse strings”.

Although it has been acknowledged by the Bilderberg Group’s Belgium headquarters that Mr. Barroso did attend the May 15th - 18th meeting, along with the press officer of PS leader Ferro Rodrigues, the Prime Minister’s press office was unable to comment when contacted by The Portugal News.