CONTENTS INTRODUCTION A Question of Conspiracy • 5 Rule by the Few • 10 A View from the Few • 13 PART I: MODERN SECRET SOCIETIES The Trilateral Commission • 22 Council on Foreign Relations • 31 Bilderbergers • 39 Rockefellers • 44 Morgans • 54 Rothschilds • 58 Secrets of Money and the Federal Reserve System • 64 Empire Building • 79 The Royal Institute of International Affairs—Round Tables • 83 Rhodes and Ruskin • 85 Skull and Bones • 90 Tax-Exempt Foundations and Alphabet Agencies • 96 It's News to Us • 102 Commentary • 107 PART II: THE FINGERPRINTS OF CONSPIRACY Report from Iron Mountain • 113 Persian Gulf • 117 Who Pays the Tab? • 121 Vietnam - 124 JFK Opposed Globalists • 126 All the Way with LBJ • 131 Trading with the Enemy • 137 Korea • 140 Rise of the Nazi Cult • 145 Theosophists, Thulists, and Other Cultists • 153 The Leader Arrives • 157 Hitler's Support Group • 163 Hitler's Fortune Turns • 170 Japan Against the Wall • 172 World War II • 176 Business as Usual • 178 World War I • 183 A Stimulus for War • 186 The Russian Revolution • 192 The Rise of Communism • 197 Commentary • 200 PART III: REBELLION AND REVOLUTION War Between the States - 207 Secret Society Agitation - 209 Preemptive Strikes - 214 The Anti-Masonic Movement • 217 The French Revolution • 221 Jacobins and Jacobites • 223 Sir Francis Bacon and the New Atlantis • 227 The American Revolution • 232 The Illuminati • 235 Freemasonry • 242 Count Saint-Germain and Other Magicians • 251 Masonic Plots • 254 Freemasonry vs. Christianity • 259 Rosicrucians • 265 Commentary - 268 PART IV: ELDER SECRET SOCIETIES Knights Templar • 274 Assassins • 280 Templar Bankers and Builders • 285 Cathars • 291 The Albigensian Crusade • 299 The Templars' Demise • 303 The Priory of Sion - 315 Merovingians - 326 A Far-Reaching Web • 332 Commentary - 337 PART V: ANCIENT MYSTERIES The Road to Rome • 346 The Cabala • 355 Ancient Secrets and Mysteries • 360 Was There More to Moses? • 367 All Roads Lead to Sumer • 374 The Anunnaki • 378 Floods and Wars • 390 Commentary • 403 Sources • 411 Index • 451 INTRODUCTION The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes. — BENJAMIN DISRAELI Be forewarned. If you are perfectly comfortable and satisfied with your own par- ticular view of humankind, religion, history, and the world, read no further. If you truly believe that humanity has almost reached the peak of its scientific and spiritual fulfillment and that the corporate-owned mass media is keeping you well enough informed, stop here. But if you are one of those millions who look at the daily news, scratch your head in wonder; and ask, "What in the world is going on?," or if you entertain questions of who we are, where we came from, and where we're all going, you are in for a joy ride. This book deals with the secrets of government, hidden history, and clandestine religion; the secrets of wealth, power, and control; the secrets rarely recorded in the history books and never mentioned in the mass media. This material may be disturbing and unsettling to some. But no one has ever gained wisdom by studying material that only reinforced their own predetermined ideas. Addressed here will be issues many would have us believe occupy only the fringe of knowledge. But how often have fringe issues suddenly become areas of major concern? Older readers might recall that irritating but seemingly inconsequential German radical who gained power in Europe in the 1930s. Then there was that small conflict halfway around the world in an obscure place called Vietnam. Or we might remember that little-noticed burglary of Democratic Party headquarters in 1972. The book also deals with conspiracy, an activity long decried by the major media despite the fact that the American judicial system regu- larly convicts people for criminal conspiracy. Do secret societies truly exist? Is there really a secret government? Is there a worldwide conspiracy bent on the subversion of freedom and democracy? Or is such talk just the irrational ramblings of "conspiracy theorists"? The answer all depends to whom you choose to listen. And too many people writing about conspiracy—on both sides of the question—have their own particular agenda. It is time we step back and take the broader view of our world and its history. As the new millennium begins, the American public is becoming more aware of one Dot-so-secret conspiracy: that for half the year they work for the government. About the first six months of any given year is spent making money which disappears into taxes before the worker even gets his or her check. Withholding this invisible tax money has, over the years, caused mast citizens to forget just how much tax burden they really carry. And this is not to even mention the daily sales, state, city, and other taxes which openly burden us. The simple British tax on tea said to have pre- cipirated the American Revolution was a pittance by comparison. Despite assurances of a healthy economy by the skewed statistics of the mass media and politicians, polls indicate the public feel an increas- ing uneasiness about the direction of our national life. This may be why more and more thoughtful people are taking a seri- ous look at conspiracies and the secret groups that spawn them. The Internet is filled with Web sites and chat rooms where conspiracy is the watchword. More and more books and periodicals are being published filled with conspiracies ranging from the secrets of the Crusaders to the JFK assassination. Yet despite the length and breadth of the Information Highway, the average American remains woefully ignorant. That is not to imply they are stupid or mentally challenged. They have simply not been exposed to the information now available. Many thoughtful, educated people in a variety of fields—physicians, lawyers, computer experts, stock bro- kers, accountants, bankers, merchants, scientists, teachers, etc.—are totally in the dark about a wide variety of issues and the connections between them concerning who truly rules the United States. Primary causes for such ignorance are the lack of time to educate ourselves and our reliance on a corporate-owned mass media which does not present the information in all its broadest implications. As A. J. Liebling once said, freedom of the press is for those who own the presses ... or the radio and TV stations. So how does one know what is true and what is not? What is impor- tant and what is trivial? Who is really in charge? Are there ongoing conspiracies that affect us all? Are there plots that can be traced back through mankind's history? What are they and what is their purpose? This book deals with these questions. But before there can be answers, the issue of conspiracy must be addressed. A QUESTION OF CONSPIRACY The concept of conspiracy has long been anathema to most Americans, who have been conditioned by the mass media to believe that conspira- cies against the public only exist in banana republics or communist This simplistic view, encouraged by a media devoted to maintaining a squeaky-clean image of the status quo, fails to take into account human history or the subtleties of the word conspiracy. The word is derived from the Latin conspirare, literally meaning to breathe together, to act or think in harmony. In modern tunes, conspiracy has taken on a sinister connotation. Most dictionaries now offer two def- initions of the word: 1. To plan together secretly, especially to commit an illegal or evil act, or 2. To plan or plot secretly. One definition is vile, the other less so. Secrecy is the connecting tissue found throughout man's past. There are secrets between individuals and groups as well as secrets to be kept by both church and government authorities. There are political secrets, even secrets of finance and commerce. Obviously, a conspiracy among coworkers to buy the boss a present is not the same level of conspiracy as bank robbers scheming their next job. Likewise, the small merchant who keeps his business plan secret from his competitors is not participating in a conspiracy equal to cor- porate leaders plotting to fix prices. The key to an evil conspiracy is the intent of the secrecy. While some secrets may be benign—why spoil the surprise birthday parry by telling?—other secrets, such as suppressing cures for cancer or AIDS or fomenting war, would be considered despicable by people of con- science. Those secrets that cost or ruin lives, that prevent people from liv- ing together in harmony, and are used for control or undue profit are unacceptable to most people. Therefore, whoever conspires to keep such secrets must be carefully scrutinized by everyone concerned with individ- ual freedom. Columnist Stewart Alsop once wrote, knowledge is power, and power is the most valuable commodity in government, So whoever knows the secrets controls the knowledge and therefore holds power. Many people today feel that a mere handful of persons and organizations control much of the global knowledge. This knowledge is jealously guarded by secrecy. It turns the old adage "What you don't know can't hurt you" right on its head. What you don't know can hurt you! The issue of conspiracy also lies at the heart of how one views his- tory. Here there are only two views: accidental or conspiratorial. The former view is that history is simply a series of accidents, or acts of God, which world leaders are powerless to alter or prevent. One adherent of mis view was President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser; Zbig- niew Brzezinski. Brzezinski, today a member of the executive committee of the secretive Trilateral Commission, said in 1981, "History is much more the product of chaos than, of conspiracy.