Narrator: And almost from its inception, there are conspiracy theories about the Freemasons hidden agenda.

Pipes: They were seen as subversive by the autocratic kings who ruled at that time who fostered theories about how subversive and evil these lodges were where in fact they were nothing of the sort.

Narrator: Freemasons arrive in America as early as the 1730s and very quickly they establish a membership role of prestigious colonists.

Icke: Of the 56 signatures of the American Declaration of Independence, 50 were known Freemasons, only one was known not to be! George Washington’s first inauguration in 1789 was a Freemasonic ritual- look at the pictures.

Narrator: At the same time that American Freemasons are supposedly using their secret knowledge to create a new country, a Freemason in Bavaria by the name of Adam Weishopt forms a secret society known as The Order of the Illuminati.

Pipes: The Illuminati were a small group that attempted to apply the ideals of The Enlightenment; they tried to create a just society in a corrupt world and they wanted to do this all in a private way.

Narrator: Within a few short years the Illuminati rose to over 2000 members from throughout Europe. The organization claims to be a forum for free thinkers to discuss political change, but to the rulers of Europe it is a subversive secret society and the Illuminati is suppressed just 8 years after its inception in 1784.

Pipes: The Illuminati were simply closed down by the ruler in Austria and that was that- they went out of business, but not in the imagination of people who fear it.

Icke: The Illuminati were not just involved, they were the driving force behind the creation of what we now call the United States.

Narrator: Icke and others point to the fact that the Illuminati symbol, the pyramid with an all-seeing raised capstone, is also a symbol of American governance.

Icke: The reverse of the Great Seal of the United States had this Illuminati symbol on it, and one of the great front men for the Illuminati in the 20th century, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, put it on the dollar bill- the same symbol. And if you look at the words above and below, it actually says, “Welcoming the arrival of the new secular order”. The New World Order. And “The New World Order” is one of the code names for this Illuminati agenda.

Narrator: Even the most endearing of all American icons is believed by many to be a symbol of the Illuminati conspiracy.

Icke: The most obvious symbol of the Illuminati through history has been the torch, or the lighted torch-, or the flame. The illuminated ones, The Illuminati. Now, the most famous lighted torch in the world is The Statue of Liberty, right, in New York Harbor. Now, of course, because of the propaganda, Americans see that as a symbol of they’re in the Land of the Free. That Statue of Liberty was given to Americans by French Freemasons from Paris and in this topsy-turvy world, that is not saying in New York harbor, “Look, this is the Land of the Free.” What that’s saying is “We’re running the show, we’re telling you, you can’t see it, can you?”

Pipes: I think it’s all nonsense. It’s nonsense that’s repeated and acquires a certain reality because it’s repeated decade after decade by so many people but it doesn’t make it more true.

Narrator: The official Freemason history claims no connection to the Illuminati nor any other type of secret inner circle by any other name. In fact, some state that the Freemasons are not a secret society but an open society with secrets.