From the April 2004 Idaho Observer:

The Order of the Skull and Bones

Bush and Kerry in November. Neither will talk about their secret society membership; both infer greater allegiance to occult brotherhood than Americans

The Order of the Skull and Bones was founded in 1832. Campaign 2004 marks the first time two fellow Bonesman have been pitted against one another for the presidency. If 172 years of occult secret society tradition are any indication, all pretense of these two Bonesmen “competing” for the presidency is merely a show for the voters.

compiled by The Idaho Observer

Both President Bush (1968) and John Kerry (1966) have appeared on national television with political pundit Tim Russert of Meet the Press. Both of them refused to answer any questions about their lifelong membership to the Skull and Bones Fraternity. The hold Skull and Bones has on these and some 800 living Yale graduates who had been selected to be a member of one of the world's most influential secret societies is forever. Both Bush and Kerry hold occultic secrets they cannot reveal to anyone, even their wives or closest non-Bones confidants.

The implication is clear: The two men most likely to be on the ballot for president of the United States next November have more allegiance to each other than their respective political parties; they have more allegiance to their frat buddies and their secret society than they have to the American people whom they intend to lead...somewhere.

One cannot dismiss the conflict to public service this presents. Our form of government is supposed to be open and public. A Bonesman whose highest allegiance to an extremely influential, globally-connected and self-interested secret society cannot possibly serve the best interests of his people and his country at the same time.

New York Observer columnist Ron Rosenbaum nailed the issue of conflicted public service in the highest public office in the land. “I think there is a deep and legitimate distrust in America for power and privilege that are cloaked in secrecy. It's not supposed to be the way we do things. We're supposed to do things out in the open in America....any society or institution that hints there is something hidden is, I think, a legitimate subject for investigation.”

Rosenbaum, a Yale classmate of George W. Bush, has been obsessed with the Skull and Bones for 30 years. Though he has made many ingenious attempts over the years to “get inside,” the best he has been able to do is videotape a nocturnal initiation rite held outside in the courtyard a few years ago. “A woman holds a knife and pretends to slash the throat of another person lying down before them, and there's screaming and yelling at the neophytes,” he explained.

Part of Rosenbaum's fascination with the Bones is the fact that the whole thing is so weird. The building itself is, “...this sepulchral, tomblike, windowless, granite, sandstone bulk that you can't miss. And I lived next to it. I had passed it all the time. And during the initiation rites, you could hear strange cries and whispers coming from the Skull and Bones tomb,” Rosenbaum explained for CBS' Morley Safer.

And it all starts with strange, ritualistic behavior among a select group of college boys, many of whom have grown up to be among the most powerful men of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries (The Idaho Observer, February, March, 2004).

President Bush is a third-generation Bonesman. His grandfather (1917) evaded prosecution in the 40s for his role in financing the Nazi war machine during WWII; his father (1948) has arguably been the “president-behind-the-scenes” from Ronald Reagan to present.

According to a CBS story on Kerry, Bush, Bones and the presidency, “All Bonesmen....are forbidden to reveal what goes on in their inner sanctum, the windowless building on the Yale campus that is called 'The Tomb.'”

CBS went on to explain that Skull and Bones is, “...a social and political network like no other. And they've responded to outsiders with utter silence -- until an enterprising Yale graduate, Alexandra Robbins, managed to penetrate the wall of silence in her book, “Secrets of the Tomb.”

“I spoke with about 100 members of Skull and Bones and they were members who were tired of the secrecy, and that's why they were willing to talk to me, but probably twice that number hung up on me, harassed me, or threatened me,” Robbins said.

Robbins' investigations revealed that the main purpose of the Skull and Bones is to get as many members as possible into strategically placed positions of power. Robbins stated that President Bush has “tapped” five Bonesmen to join his administration. One of them is current Securities and Exchange Commissioner William Donaldson (Class of 1953). Donaldson will answer no questions about the Bones.

The ritualistic behavior among the Bones seems to cement a bond between members that lasts a lifetime. Indeed, not once has there been a revelation that any Bonesman has ever betrayed another.

The CBS story even compared the Skull and Bones to the Mafia. Rosenbaum responded, “I think Skull and Bones has had slightly more success than the Mafia in the sense that the leaders of the five families are all doing 100 years in jail, and the leaders of the Skull and Bones families are doing four and eight years in the White House.”

According to Robbins, the Skull and Bones are now “tapping” women. The development was met with some resistance. “The day before these women were supposed to be initiated, a group of Bonesmen, including William F. Buckley, obtained a court order to block the initiation claiming that letting women into the tomb would lead to date rape. Again more legal wrangling; finally it came down to another vote and women were admitted and initiated.”

The Bones are getting with the times and becoming “multicultural” Robbins said. Blacks and gays are among the new initiates of this secret society.

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“'Everything' we know about secret societies is what they have 'allowed' us to know so they can wriggle through history with their real agenda undetected.”

~Dan Thompson