The World's Most Dangerous Secret Societies: The Illuminati, Freemasons, Bilderberg Group, Knights Templar, The Jesuits, Skull And Bones And Others

by James Jackson

  Even earlier in 1962, former FBI agent Dan Smoot specifically referred to the Council by the title of his book The Invisible Government, citing that: “The ultimate aim of the CFR is to create a one-world socialist system, and to make the U.S. an official part of it.”

  Dangers of the Council on Foreign Relations

  In keeping with the central focus, both historically and current, of this book, the Council on Foreign Relations represents one thread in a many tangled web of entities that seek the creation of a centralized world economic super-power, ruled neither by the democratic interests of its citizens nor their democratically-elected leaders, but by an international conglomerate of industry moguls, media figureheads, trans-national corporations and elected global political leaders who seek absolute authority and absolute control over the exchange of finance, media and thought. To this end, key Council initiatives, such as the implementation of NAFTA under Council member and then-President Bill Clinton (which benefited only those corporations large enough to buy into intercontinental trade and subjected three separate nations to a totalitarian restriction of economic Social Darwinism in practice) and the European Union (itself a product of Bilderberg architect Jozef Retinger) were established, lulling millions of Americans into a pipe-dream of greater material prosperity and alleged “security” while all the while tightening its grip around their collective throat. The danger of the Council is that so many citizens refuse to acknowledge it as anything more than an established pattern in the American fabric of life.

  Members

  Members of the Council on Foreign Relations have included: Former Director of U.S. Policy Planning Richard Haas; Federal Reserve Bank President Michael Moskow; former U.S. Ambassadors Morris Abramowitz, Walter Roberts and George Kennan; media mogul Oprah Winfrey; National Security Advisor Stewart Baker; 9/11 Commission Chairman Thomas Kean; Senators Sam Nunn, Jay Rockefeller and Joseph Lieberman; Fox Media CEO Rupert Murdoch; Former Vice Presidents Gerald Ford, Dick Cheney and Al Gore; former CIA Directors Allen Dulles and General David Petraeus; media pundit William F. Buckley; former Foreign Affairs Advisor William Bundy; Joint Chief of Staff Chairman Colin Powell; billionaire investor George Soros; Former Secretaries of State Warren Christopher, Madeleine Albright and Condoleeza Rice; ABC Television CEO Thomas Murphy; Television news anchors Tom Brokaw, Bill Moyers and Barbara Walters; Exxon CEO Lee Raymond; Former New Jersey State Governor Christine Todd Whitman; Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent; Boeing CEO Donna Hrinak; educator and literary scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr.; Former U.S. Secretary of Treasury Richard Rubin; United Nations co-founder Alger Hiss; Disney President Michael Ovitz; Former Secretary of Labor George P. Schultz; Former Massachusetts Governor William Weld; and former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.

  Chapter Seven: SKULL & BONES

  The college fraternity. The beloved staple of sophomoric comedic farces for the past fifty years. A collegiate staple, synonymous with good-natured hell-raising, wacky pranks and hi-jinks, hazing rituals and veritable wading pools of cheap beer. Through a fraternity, a student is expected to find brotherhood, camaraderie and forge the establishment of personal and business connections which are bound to serve him throughout his professional life. A trait not at all unlike the purpose of numerous other non-educational fraternities, from the local Rotary Club to the Freemasons; perhaps dating as far back as the establishment of trade guilds in the Middle Ages.

  Yet more recently, the institution of the college fraternity has come under pressure, with examples of alcoholism, physical and verbal abuse, sexual assault and racism cited by detractors seeking to demonize the beloved American figure of the “frat boy” into nothing more than a slovenly, ignorant and perpetually drunken wastrel frittering away his parents funding in an ocean of self-serving crudity, sloth and nightly keg parties.

  If all fraternities bore the stigma of Yale University’s Skull & Bones, perhaps these detractors might find something even more troublesome than the above-mentioned allegations.

  What is it about Skull & Bones that strikes both fear and silence in all but the most casual observer? Is it the death-obsessed emblems surrounding so much of their fantastic lore, including rumors of harboring the mortal remains of some of America’s most beloved heroes? Is it the tight-lipped secrecy that surrounds the group, so much that questioning rumors of affiliation has resulted in more than a handful of job firings? Or is it a historically traceable connection between its members and the upper echelons of international power, a power that has grafted itself by dint of affiliation to key leadership positions in the very same groups we have been covering to date?

  After all, it’s just a harmless college fraternity, isn’t it? All good fun and games, if slightly more morbid than most. Animal House (whose Omega Theta Pi chapter allegedly takes their inspiration from Skull & Bones) in a sombre Halloween drag.

  Read on, and you may find yourself grateful that binge drinking and a sliding GPA might be the biggest worries about your son while he’s away at school.

  Origins of Skull & Bones

  Technically, the Skull & Bones society is not an undergraduate fraternity. Membership is by invitation only, and only extended to 15 inductees a year, and for that solely within their junior year. Furthermore, both current and historical membership rosters are kept completely private. There is no official mission statement for the Skull & Bones society, and the organization refuses to divulge their activities. Nor are their assets managed by Yale University, but by a private trust known as the Russell Trust Association (named after their co-founder and incorporated in 1856.) In fact, for many years both the society as well as Yale University refused to acknowledge the very existence of the group.

  The Skull & Bones society was founded in 1832 as ‘The Order of Skull & Bones’—or ‘Bones’ as it is informally referred to as—by Yale students William Huntington Russell and future U.S. Secretary of War and Freemason Alphonso Taft (father of President William Howard Taft—who, in keeping with family tradition was himself both a Skull & Bones member as well as a Freemason.) It is uncertain the purpose behind the design of the group—allegedly it was after a dispute over that years Phi Beta Kappa awards, although it seems more likely it was established much like how many fraternities are established; as a mutual aid society of undergraduates banding together for fellowship and companionship. Albeit with strict criteria—in 1882, at least four prospective candidates had to be selected from student publications and at least four others had to be selected from captains of Yale’s sporting teams—and a much more ghoulish motif than most.

  Equally enigmatic is their famed emblem; a skull and bones underneath which is emblazoned the mysterious numerical legend 322. One suggestion is that the skull and bones represent the oath of mortality that recruits are sworn to keep silent, while the numbers represent the year and the initial two founders. Other, perhaps far-fetched, theories have included that the skull is an allusion to the famed head of ‘Baphomet’ allegedly idolized by the Knights Templar while the bones represent the shape of the cross upon which Roman emperor Constantine was crucified upon. Others claim the numbers refer to the death of famed Greek orator Demosthenes, to a complex numerical code having magical significance (it is worth noting that the skull and crossbones motif is found in numerous other secret societies from the Knights of Pythias to the “Chamber of Reflection” found in Masonic initiations.)

  The Skull & Bones Hall is referred to as “The Tomb” and bears considerable Egyptian and Greek influence upon its facade. Entrance into the Tomb is strictly forbidden to non-members, although it has been referred to as “something like a German beer hall,” with bizarre passageways, imposing statues of knights in armor and a mysterious chamber replete with candles, coffins, skeletons, a chopping block, bats and a basin containing a red fluid. In this chamber, candidates have been known to be divested of metal jewelry (a trait common to all Masonic initiations) where they are placed into the coffin, ‘chanted’ over, and be ‘reborn’
again into society where they are given a robe embroidered with arcane symbols. A bone with the candidate’s name engraved upon it is then thrown into a heap of other bones, symbolizing his or her (Yale became a co-ed campus in 1969, although the Skull & Bones society refused to accept female members until a lawsuit in 1991) link to the fraternity, which is hauled out at the initiation of each and every meeting. The candidate is then given a secret name, often of mythological, historical or literary import—examples being Hamlet, Thor, Shakespeare, Sancho Panza, Thor, Baal, Magog or the distinctly Masonic Boaz—with which he or she will be known to as other members. They are also expected to complete a detailed, two-night description of his sexual activity and autobiography, fears and motivations at some point in the coming year, lending on the all the more incongruous appearance of an encounter group session to the already bizarre atmosphere.

  Controversy of Skull & Bones

  Critics are quick to point out that the activity of a student-sponsored privately run “society” based on exclusivist principles—which leans heavily towards White Protestant males—on university grounds is at odds with the inclusivist nature of the modern American educational system. This however, is nothing more than a straw man argument for the dangers which burrow beneath this garish and grotesque melange of high privilege and entitlement.

  As early as 1873, allegations were being lodged against the group (who informally call themselves ‘Bonesmen’) that they were made privy to student funds directed to the University for their own usage and that there was a disproportionate tendency for its alumni to be selected for key positions in finance over other Yale graduates. More serious criminal charges have been lodged against the group, alleging that grave-robbing was a regular initiation practice for prospective candidates and that the group currently houses the remains of Apache leader Geronimo (it is widely held that U.S. Senator and known Bonesman Prescott Bush—father and grandfather of future presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush respectively, themselves also known Skull & Bones members—was responsible for the theft), former President Martin van Buren and Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa.

  Still others have lodged the allegations that rape and kidnapping are also commonplace initiatory trials prospective candidates are expected to undertake in order to prove both their worthiness as well as their identifiably “elite” natures as future leaders in the fields of politics and industry by placing themselves outside the confines of the law, silencing their victims with immeasurably deep funds. “Rape is so commonplace on campuses to begin with,” alleges one victim, “that even on Yale you’re going to find it. But with Bonesmen it’s different. They truly think they’re above the law. And with all the money that floats in and out of the Tomb, you start wonder maybe that really is the case.” Or, as one former member put it in a 1977 article, “It’s like trying to look into the Mafia. Remember, they’re a secret society, too.”

  However, allegations and hearsay are one thing. Proven chains—based not on conjecture, but verifiable documentation—reveal a curious web of nepotism and cronyism that unquestionably link Skull & Bones to other groups previously covered in this book, confirming the group’s reputation of manipulation, favoritism and exclusivity.

  One of the co-founders of the Council on Foreign Relations was Secretary of State under Theodore Roosevelt Elihu Root. While serving as a state attorney, Root hired a Bonesman named Henry Stimson to serve on his council. Stimson later went on to serve as Secretary of War under fellow Bonesman William Howard Taft, and eventually Secretary of State under Herbert Hoover—himself a co-founder of the Council on Foreign Relations. Stimson was eventually nominated as Secretary of War a second time, serving under two presidents—Franklin Delano Roosevelt (whose links to the Illuminati were explored in Chapter Three) and Harry S. Truman (a known Freemason)—during America’s entry into World War II, where he was one of the leading advocates not only for war against Germany but also the construction of the atomic bomb.

  Stimson’s point man for the Pentagon for the Manhattan Project (which oversaw the development of the atomic bomb) was a fellow Bonesman named Harvey Hollister Bundy. Bundy’s two sons, William and McGeorge—both also notable members of Skull & Bones—later went on the serve key roles as CIA and foreign affairs advisors to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson during America’s entrance into the Vietnam conflict. Not surprisingly, both also went on to hold key roles in the Council on Foreign Relations (William Bundy was editor of the Council’s publication Foreign Affairs, and was noted for once stating that the “role of government is to stimulate a mass-scale change in attitude.”) It may be no coincidence that McGeorge Bundy was later to serve as President of the Ford Foundation, whose links to the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Illuminati have been ably documented already.

  The Stimson-Bundy family link isn’t the only hereditary link in the Skull & Bones chain to worm its way through the upper levels of political, military and defense intrigue. For that, we need only observe the curious relationship between the Harriman family (of international bankers Brown Brothers and Harriman fame) and the political dynasty of the Bush family. A link, curiously enough that had ties to both the regimes of Nazi Germany and the Communist USSR—both allegedly, “enemies” of American interests.

  Brown Brothers Harriman—currently the oldest and largest private bank in the U.S.—was formed after the merger of two entities, Brown & Brothers and A.W. Harriman & Co. in 1931. The founding partners of this merger included 8 members of Skull & Bones, most notably Prescott Bush (who we have already been introduced to) and future Ambassador to the U.S.S.R, W. Averell Harriman. In 1942, an executive order signed by President Roosevelt seized the property of Prescott Bush, who also served as Director for the Union Banking Company of New York, under charges of ‘trading with the national enemy.’

  The reason for the seizure was that Union Banking was also the asset clearing and holding house for German steel magnate Fritz Thyrssen, which had been funding Hitler since 1924. Inexplicably, Prescott Bush went on to be elected U.S. State Senator, later claiming responsibility for launching Richard Nixon’s into politics (Nixon’s links to David Rockefeller have been amply detailed, to mention nothing of the role Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has played in numerous groups detailed elsewhere in this book) and, coincidentally, serving as the first treasurer on the national campaign for Planned Parenthood in 1947 (whose links to the Van Duyn bloodline of the Illuminati were explored in Chapter Three.) We’ll go over the exploits of Prescott’s Skull & Bones legacy-carriers, George H.W. and George W., shortly but for now, let’s turn our attentions back to one W. Averell Harriman.

  As mentioned earlier, Harriman served as U.S. Ambassador the U.S.S.R under President Truman. Yet prior to this, the company that Harriman formed, Brown Brothers Harriman, also owned the previously mentioned Union Banking. During his tenure as U.S.S.R Ambassador, Harriman was responsible not only for maintaining relatively cordial relations with Stalin, but also shipping entire factories into Russia. Upon his return to the U.S., Harriman began working closely with the Council on Foreign Relations, despite being adamantly referred to as a Soviet spy by former KGB Major-turned-defector Anatoliy Golitsyn. Some research recently uncovered also indicates that Harriman may have had a direct role in the transfer of nuclear plans and U.S. dollar printing plates to Soviet Russia during the Cold War.

  One of Brown Brothers Harriman’s directors was Robert Lovett, himself a Bonesman. Lovett was a chief advisor to Truman regarding the re-organization of American intelligence agencies immediately following World War II. It was at Lovett’s insistence that the CIA was formed in 1947, and the agency was soon populated by such a disproportionate number of Skull & Bones members that Yale Professor of History Gaddis Smith was once prompted to remark, “Yale has influenced the Central Intelligence Agency more than any other university, giving the CIA the atmosphere of a class reunion.”

  One CIA-operated project was the notorious MK
-ULTRA; a covert psychological operations experiment during the 1950s and 1960s, the full extent of which we are still uncovering to this day. The project entailed the use of powerful psychotropic drugs, isolation chambers, brainwashing techniques and other methods of psychological manipulation and control (much of it administered at mental institutions such as Bridgewater State Hospital in Massachusetts), and was financed by and large by the “independent” H. Richardson Foundation; a foundation established by one Eugene Stetson, an Assistant Director under Prescott Bush, and a Skull & Bones alumni himself.

  Other alumni from the Skull & Bones roster filling the ranks of the CIA have included F. Trubee Davison (CIA Personnel Director starting in 1951), William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (CIA agent, 1950-1953), William Francis Buckley (CIA agent 1956-1970, Station Chief in Beirut 1983-1985), Hugh Cunningham (CIA agent 1950-1973), Charles Whitehouse (CIA agent 1947-1956 and U.S. Ambassador to Laos and Thailand in the 1970s; a time that coincidentally saw a substantial rise in heroin trafficking from that region);Dino Pionzio (CIA Station Chief in Santiago Chile 1970-1975; a time that coincidentally saw the overthrow of the Allende regime by a bloody coup d’etat and its replacement by the notoriously bloodthirsty Augusto Pinochet), former U.S. Senator David Boren (CIA Committee member 1985-1999), and, of course, future President George H.W. Bush (CIA Director 1976-1977).