Speaking of secretive societies with dubious house rules, what the heck is up with this? According to Dan Drezner, the Council on Foreign Relations runs under "Chatham House" rules, which forbid discussion or direct attribution of what goes on in meetings outside of those meetings. Information can be relayed, but only after all attribution or context has been stripped from the relation. No wonder these sorts of policy associations develop robust conspiracy mythologies around themselves, if they're going to insist on this sort of opacity, nontransparence, and half-assed secrecy!