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Over the past five days, Greece and Italy, two countries experiencing severe economic problems and political turmoil have gradually reached the same solution to the political impasse.

Two of the participants in the Trilateral Commission - economists with experience in central bank institutions have headed the two countries, without being elected by their citizens. The Trilateral Commission is a very powerful international think-tank established in 1973. It involves the elite of international economics, businessmen and economists, bankers and lawyers at a very high level.

The Greek electronic edition zougla.gr indicates in an article that both prime ministers have been 'appointed' in Greece and Italy through the drastic intervention of the powerful countries in Europe. Are Lucas Papademos and Mario Monti "saviours" and "Messiahs" or are they simply performing preliminary decisions taken by specific circles?

The Trilateral Commission was founded by the powerful representative of the American and international economy, David Rockefeller in 1973, at the height of the first oil crisis. The founding declaration was signed in Tokyo at a meeting that lasted from October 21 to 23. David Rockefeller had proposed that a similar commission should be founded at the annual meeting of the Bilderberg Club in 1972 and its members approved the proposal. The meeting took place in Tokyo, because Rockefeller believed that it was necessary to include Japan in the core of the Club and for it to participate in the political and economical decision-making processes at world level. Before then, the Bilderberg Club had involved only countries of the North Atlantic Society - North America and Europe.

 
The first meeting of the Trilateral Commission was held in the Japanese city of Kyoto in 1976. Shortly before the end of the Vietnam War and the growing international influence of the Soviet Union, Rockefeller attempted to create a world government by introducing a model of "technocratic rationalization" that ignores state bodies and institutions specified in the constitution of each country. The Commission involved North America, Europe and Japan, i.e. the former "Western world".

A man of considerably growing international importance had influenced chairman of Chase Manhattan, David Rockefeller. Journalist Bill Moyers, who had recommended the creation of the Trilateral Commission, said in 1980, "David Rockefeller is the most conspicuous representative today of the ruling class, a multinational fraternity of men who shape the global economy and manage the flow of its capital... Private citizen David Rockefeller is accorded the privileges of a head of state ... He is untouched by customs or passport offices and hardly pauses for traffic lights." In short, David Rockefeller is above institutions, governments and government departments. He provides smooth movement of capital and manages the development of the global economy.

The first head of the Trilateral Commission was Zbigniew Brzezinski – the right-hand man of the U.S. president at that time, Jimmy Carter and a significant factor in outlining the U.S. foreign policy. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the orientation of the Commission has changed.

However, its main idea remains ​​a world ruled by technocrats. These are representatives of the banking and business elite. It formulates the economic and social policies, controls and stimulates the production of academic knowledge. It also takes part in the control of religious activity through "anti-dogmatism" although in 1983, Pope John Paul II "blessed" in public the activities of the Commission and participated in the dynamic shaping of political correlations.

The Commission is the enemy of conservative dogmatism and its power is based on the international banking system, financial markets and the power of cartels of multinational companies. It consists of three subgroups. Of its members, 170 are Europeans, 120 are from North Africa and more than 100 are from Asia and the Pacific region.

Who are the recently high-profile personalities involved in the Commission? A quick glance is enough to explain the complex situation, in which Greece, the euro area and the global economy have ended up.

The famous Italian economist and European Commissioner, Mario Monti, is the head of the European department of the Commission and a member of its executive body. He has received the mandate to form the new Italian government.

The new Prime Minister of Greece, Lucas Papademos, is a member of the Trilateral Commission and he is not the only Greek representative in it. He is a banker and professor at Harvard University, former Vice-President of the European Central Bank, former Governor of the Bank of Greece. He graduated from Athens College and collaborated with former Greek Prime Ministers Andreas Papandreou and Costas Simitis.

The Former Cypriot President George Vassiliou participates in the executive body of the Commission despite his communist past. He is a businessman, a former principal interlocutor of the European Union on Cyprus’ membership and the main interlocutor for resolving the Cyprus problem.

Other members of the Trilateral Commission are:

Businessman and former chairman of the Federation of Greek Industries, Odysseus Kyriakopoulos, who has also graduated from the Athens College.

Famous Greek journalist and managing editor of Kathimerini newspaper, also a graduate of the prestigious school in Athens, Alexis Papahelas.

Former head of the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization OTE, former senior member of the board of Alpha Bank and former member of Rothschild Consortium, Panagiotis Vourloumis - member of the executive body of the Commission.

In 1980, the far-right member of the Congress Lawrence MacDonald decided to reveal the activities of the Trilateral Commission. He wrote a report and submitted it to the presidium of the Congress. Interestingly, the man who is considered a "banner of anticommunism" has exposed the Rockefeller family and denounced the plan for global ruling.

Strangely enough, the famous and persecuted representative of the American left, Noam Chomsky, stated the same. With his sharp tongue and vocal progressive position, the professor of comparative linguistics condemned the Commission's objectives.

In 1983, MacDonald died over the Sakhalin Peninsula. He was on Korean Airlines’ flight KAL 007 that was shot down by Soviet military aircraft with the known consequences. Later, Goldwater’s  book entitled With No Apologies: The Outspoken Political Memoirs of America’s Conservative Conscience was published, containing all the criticism of the Trilateral Commission.

Since then, the United States Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, the famous Minister for Foreign Affairs of the European Union, Javier Solana, the former head of USA intelligence, John Negroponte, Henry Kissinger, the former president of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, prime ministers and senior members of the European Union have been members of Rockefeller's organization. After the changes in Eastern Europe, representatives of those countries were also included in the Commission.

It involves a large part of the university elite in Europe, USA, Japan and other countries from Indonesia to Turkey as well as prominent lawyers and members of the global banking system. The list is long. Clearly, the Trilateral Commission is a global source of agents that make up crisis groups to address emergency needs, as in the case of Greece and Italy. It also involves bank consortia, centres of political communication and moulds internal and wider political correlations across the world.

The first meeting of the famous Bilderberg Club, which often becomes the subject of comments of conspiracy or political content, took place in 1954 in Bilderberg, near the Dutch city of Arnhem. Its founders were conservative and super conservative politicians from Europe, particularly concerned about the increasing anti-Americanism in Europe. Therefore, they decided to discuss the matter and take action to change this trend. At the meeting, they decided to hold annual meetings involving individuals from the USA and Europe. Gradually, these meetings have grown into forums, the participants of which take decisions about changes in politics and economy and outline long-term strategies. Since then, the closed and mysterious Club gathers together the distinguished businessmen, bankers and politicians from the USA and Europe, who invite third parties as guests to the meetings. Subsequently, and according to the positions held by them, they gradually become part of the main Club. Among the guests are members of the North Atlantic political and business elite, and prominent academics, journalists and intellectuals who present their positions and opinions.

 
At the end of meetings, the results are considered and applied if possible. The results are fast (as in Yugoslavia), medium-term (the financial crisis) or long-term (the relations between the West and China, the accession of Russia to Western organizations, etc.).

The Club was established before the Trilateral Commission. The founder of the Commission, David Rockefeller, subsequently became advisor to the Club. Active members of the Commission are frequent guests at the meetings of the Club. In practice, they operate as vehicles of communication. Currently, a member of the Board of the Club is the professor and head of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy ELIAMEP, Loukas Tsoukalis. The businessman, George David, is a permanent member of the core of the Bilderberg Club.

Prime ministers, ministers and politicians who are not members of the Commission or the Club are invited to attend the annual meetings. Several years ago, the then Greek Minister of Economy and Finance, George Alogoskoufis, and the present Minister of Education Anna Diamandopoulou attended such a meeting. For years, the professor of history at the English University, Ioannis Karas, was a standing senior member of the Club and actively participated in outlining the policy of consent and cooperation in the Balkans (Macedonia, Greek-Turkish relations, relations between the Balkan countries, Southeast Europe, the former Eastern Bloc, etc.). There were also specific initiatives for measures to create confidence in the Balkans after the fall of the Berlin Wall, to found an Institute for Balkan and Eurasian Studies (Caucasus, Middle East, Far East, Arab countries, Israel) based in Thessaloniki.

The Trilateral Commission marks the end of the philosophy to weaken the state government. It believes that business is able to deal with "current" issues, including societies, more effectively, hence at lower prices and mostly, without any restrictions. This was the time, when states and governments placed obstacles in the way of the absolute and uncontrolled expansion of the power of private interests of companies, multinational consortia and banks. The Commission’s founder David Rockefeller clearly stated, "somebody has to take the government’s place, and business seems to me to be a logical candidate."

It has become clear over time, that governments and politics have lost their power. The dominance of the banking sector, the huge rise of the non-banking sector, in which rating agencies have the power to impose their findings and change them according to market requirements, the spread of bank and non-bank toxic products, i.e. the institutionalized emergence of speculators, have contributed to the development of today's financial environment.

Impressive is the fact that theorists like Samuel Huntington, the author of the highly conservative and threatening work Clash of Civilizations - the Holy Grail of the dominance of the Bush dynasty and Protestant evangelicals in the American political scene – were the original inspiration for the Commission’s prospects.

Much later, when Western intellectuals found out that the U.S. and subsequently other Western societies have been led to approve the democracy limiting process, they engaged actively with the logic of the Rockefeller’s initiative. It is also impressive how European countries like France and Germany are following this logic. Their leaders are those who take the responsibility to determine when, how and with whom the provinces of Greece and Italy will be taken to elections. Typical is the statement of Nicolas Sarkozy: "We will show the right way to Greece and Italy."

This new trend in Berlin and Paris needs the people who will implement it. The experiment continues with two specific factors that are accidentally members of the Trilateral Commission. The first is Mario Monti, whose relations with the dark past of the main players in the scandal of Christian-democrats "P2", i.e. the mixture of extreme right, mafia, Catholics, Masonic lodge and banking corruption, are the subject of debate in Italy. The other one – Lucas Papademos – is one of the most prominent participants in the "Technocrats" operation.

In an interview for zougla.gr, the former chairman of the Union of Greek Industrialists Odysseas Kyriakopoulos, who took part in the Commission's last meeting in The Hague last weekend, said that several Greeks had been invited to attend it and that Mario Monti and Lucas Papademos were not present at the meeting because they had assumed the governments of their countries, Italy and Greece. "Alexis Papahelas did not come, apparently because of the political developments in Athens," said Odysseas Kyriakopoulos.

The Australian academic Sharon Beder writes in her book Suiting Themselves: How Corporations Drive the Global Agenda:

"The Trilateral Commission is an example of the way in which business networks can incorporate high-level government leaders and officials within their coalitions as allies against democracy. It was established in order to ‘mould’ public policy at a time when democracy posed a particularly vexing problem for corporations."
 
After many years and following the election of Barack Obama, Western societies are returning to the scene of the clash between political and non-political mechanisms, which are currently represented by the banking sector. Europe is solving the problem with a delay. America is ahead of it. The outcome is uncertain, said in conclusion the author of the article in zougla.gr.