Le Cercle

Early Cercle members representing the Paneuropa Union, the European Coal and Steel Community, France, Germany and Italy. Andreotti was not a founding member; the others were.

Le Cercle is a foreign policy think-tank specialising in international security. Set up after World War II, the group has members from twenty-five countries and meets at least bi-annually, in Washington, D.C. and maybe other places. The group includes many senior intelligence experts. The group's current chairman is Norman Lamont, former British Chancellor of the Exchequer. Lamont worked at Rothschild's and is a member of the Privy Council. He also is chairman of the Oil Club.

Origins

Le Cercle used be known as the Pinay Circle, or Cercle Pinay by its original French founders. Although the group was named after a French statesman who was prime minister from March to December 1952, the real organizer of this group was a person named Jean Violet, a close associate of Pinay since 1951.

Membership

Full article: Le Cercle membership lists
Le Cercle is a secretive, privately-funded and transnational discussion group which meets regularly. It is attended by a mixture of politicians, ambassadors, bankers, shady businessmen, oil experts, editors, publishers, military officers and intelligence agents, who may or may not have retired from their official functions. The participants come from western or western-oriented countries. Many important members tend to be affiliated with the aristocratic circles in London or obscure elements within the Vatican, and accusations of links to fascism and Synarchism are anything but uncommon in this milieu. The group's current has been recorded as Norman Lamont, former British Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Media Attention

Le Cercle has operated in almost complete anonymity since its creation with only a handful of articles having been written about it. As of this writing, no American sources have been identified. Le Cercle was mentioned in the early 1980s by the German magazine Der Spiegel as a result of the controversy surrounding Franz Josef Strauß, a regular attendant. In the late 1990s, Le Cercle received some attention after a scandal broke out involving Jonathan Aitken, who was then chairman of Le Cercle. Members that were contacted by newspapers refused to answer any questions about the group and sometimes simply put down the phone.

Although Le Cercle has been mentioned (very briefly) a number of times in the British press since 1997, it has mainly been internet researchers who have been responsible for bringing an increased amount of attention to this group. The most comprehensive study known first appeared in 2005 on the internet, published on the ISGP website.

Promotion of European Integration

Le Cercle (like the Bilderberg Group, to which it is often compared) is strongly focused on European integration, going back to the efforts of its early members to bring about a Franco-German rapprochement. The significant presence of Paneuropa-affiliated Opus Dei members and Knights of Malta, together with statements of the Vatican and Otto von Habsburg, clearly indicate there's an agenda in the background to some day bring about a new Holy Roman Empire with its borders stretching from the Atlantic to the Black Sea and from the Baltic Sea to North Africa. Interestingly, the latest generation of British Cercle members, whose predecessors were keen on joining the European Union, now do everything in their power to keep Britain out of the emerging European superstate, having lost faith they can become a significant force within Europe. Their American associates, however, would like for them to continue the effort of breaking into the Franco-German alliance and possibly to establish a new Anglo-German alliance.

It seems like a cold war is raging in Europe. One that doesn't directly involve the Soviets.

Main Articles

• Le Cercle and the Struggle for the European Continent. Subtitled "Private bridge between Vatican-Paneuropean and Anglo-American intelligence" - Joel Van der Reijden - Wikispooks ISGP archive. Probably the most comprehensive study available on Le Cercle]], which fills in many of the blanks surrounding the apparent dual loyalties of the UK viz-a-viz Europe and the US and how they were - and continue to be - addressed and more-or-less successfully resolved. UK readers will find the sections on the involvement of Brian Crozier, Julian Amery, Norman Lamont and Jonathan Aitken particularly illuminating.
• Le Cercle and the Struggle for the Eurasian Continent. A June 2010 update of the above article subtitled: "New information: Notorious CIA ghost owned Atlantic Cercle, Inc. from 1994 to 2002" - Joel Van der Reijden - Wikispooks ISGP archive.

See Also

• Document:Circle of Power - an essay by David Guyatt
• Document:The Pinay Circle - an essay by David Teacher
• ISGP Archive - The WikiSpooks page introduction to the ISGP website archive
• Rogue Agents the Cercle Pinay complex 1951 1991 by David Teacher