Bilderbergers celebrate half a century of intrigue, secrecy.(Insider Report)

The Bilderberg Group, one of the most secretive clubs of global movers and shakers, held its 2004 meeting June 3-6 in Stresa, Italy, near Milan. The four-day event at the secluded, palatial Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees marked the 50th anniversary of the high-powered group, an ultra-exclusive assembly of European royalty, central bankers, corporate titans and media representatives, as well as past and present government leaders.

The group takes its name from the historic Hotel de Bilderberg near Oosterbeek, Holland. There Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (Royal Dutch Shell oil wealth) convened the group's first meeting in 1954. This year, as at its annual meetings of the past, the Bilderbergers met behind a wall of mystery, shielded by police and private security.

The list of the hundred or so invitees to Bilderberg meetings is usually a closely guarded secret, but identities of some usually slip out. David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger are regulars from America. Attendees from the U.S. this year reportedly included: Senators Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) and John Edwards (D-N.C.); Melinda Gates, wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates; Donald Graham, chairman and CEO of the Washington Post Company; Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations; Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve ...