www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0312/10/acd.00.html
COOPER: Well, tonight we continue our series on secret societies. With a look at Yale University's Skull and Bones. Its members are some of the most influential people in America and are sworn to secrecy.
Here's CNN's Adaora Udoji.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The home of Skull and Bones coined the tomb looks like a windowless fortress.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are people who think they run the world and it's just a giant conspiracy.
UDOJI: Consider the members, three American presidents, including George W. Bush and his father, senators and titans of every industry. Not one has spoken publicly since its founding in 1832. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it's secret and it's elite, it can't be good.
UDOJI: Rumors are fueled by movies like the "Skull" and stories the tomb contains daggers, coffins and the skull of Apache chief Geronimo. There are 15 juniors on this campus who come next April will be chosen or tapped as they say to join. And In what's been described as a bizarre ritual, they'll become members for life.
GRAHAM BUETTCHER, SECRET SOCIETY EXPERT: People talk about how there is this sort of ritual rebirth where you are plunged naked into water and -- by some accounts mud and then you are kind of born again into the -- into the society. You emerge from the water a bonesman.
UDOJI: Alexandra Robbins who interviewed more than 100 members writes many believe Skull and Bones has been running the United States for years. Retires Yale professor Gaddis Smith rejects conspiracy theories.
PROF. GADDIS SMITH, RETIRED YALE HISTORY DEPT.: I think that's largely coincidence. Although it's probably not much different from Yale graduates in general who were high achievers.
UDOJI: Only those knighted as it said, know for sure and they are not saying.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think anyone is home.
UDOJI: Adaora Udoji.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Adaora didn't have the access number to the tomb.
Well, journalist Alexandra Robbins who was just mentioned wrote the book, "Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power." She joins us from Washington with more on the secret society at Yale.
Alexandra, thanks for being with us tonight.
What goes on inside that crypt?
ALEXANDRA ROBBINS, AUTHOR, "SECRETS OF THE TOMB": Well, let's talk about the most prevalent of rumors, which is that members must lie naked in a coffin and masturbate while recounting their entire sexual histories. I'm going to say straight out, that's not true. But it does illustrate something that I found surprising, which is that a lot of the conspiracy theories we hear, even the more outrageous ones, are based on nuggets of truth. In April...
COOPER: Basically people talk about -- there's a lot of just talking about their sexual history.
ROBBINS: Yes. In April, members are initiated. In May they are whisked away to Skull and Bones private island, which is Deer Island about 350 miles from where you are in New York City. And about as soon as they come back, in September, for their regular Thursday and Sunday night meetings, they launch right into the activity called sexual history. And during the sexual history, each member must during an entire evening devoted to him or her, stand in an intimate dimly lit room in front of a painting of a woman and must recount their entire sexual history. And that's an activity supposed to take between 1 to 3 hours. Don't mean to offend you because I know you're a Yale man, but I went to Yale and I don't think Yalies have that much material.
COOPER: I want to put on the screen what our current President George W. Bush who is probably now the most famous member of Skull and Bones had to say about it. He talked to "Time" Magazine. "Time" asked him, did you have any qualms say about joining an elite secret club like Bones?
Bush, "No qualms at all. I was honored. I fairly nonchalant. I didn't view it as a great heritage thing. I didn't take it all that seriously."
I guess he didn't take it to much seriously while he was at Yale. I guess he didn't do very well. You know, the conspiracy theorists say that this organization runs the world. That seems ridiculous. It seems like a glorified frat.
ROBBINS: Oh, Skull and Bones is much more than a glorified frat. I guess you can take George W. Bush as an example. I don't think he took it as nonchalantly as he said. I mean, this is a guy who reportedly spent a weekend during his Skull and Bones year trying to get a tattoo of a skull and cross bones. George W. Bush has duly followed Skull and Bones agenda which is to get members into positions of power and then for those members to hire other members. And since he became president, he's appointed several members of his administration from Skull and Bones. Also, unlike fraternities, Skull and Bones, he has this weird preoccupation with death. They worship a goddess. They condone the stealing of valuable item it seems. It's more than a fraternity.
COOPER: But one of the people he appointed was the Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago. I mean, if they're trying to get Skull and Bones people to rule the world, I'm not sure Trinidad and Tobago is the place to start.
ROBBINS: Well, one of his top choices for secretary of defense was reportedly Fred Smith, the CEO of FedEx. He's a bonesman. He had to withdraw for health reasons. But most recently, Bill Donaldson, head of the SEC, he's is a bonesman. The assistant attorney general of the largest litigation component in the Justice Department is a bonesman. The list goes on and on. I find it hard to believe it's a coincidence.
COOPER: All right, Alexandra Robbins, it's a fascinating book "Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, The Ivy League, And the Hidden Paths of Power."
You probably talked to more bonesman than anybody else. We appreciate you talking to us tonight thanks.
ROBBINS: More than I wanted to. Thank you very much.
COOPER: Our look at "Secret Societies" continues tomorrow when we'll examine what's considered the largest secret society on earth, the Free Masons. Find out what they are doing to survive in the 21st century. Then Friday a Secret Society of a different sort. We'll look at what is perhaps the country's most despised group, the Ku Klux Klan.
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