Video excerpt from CBS 60 Minutes show

Skull and Bones is an elite secret society at Yale University that includes some of the most powerful men of the 20th century including George W Bush and John Kerry. (Photo: 60 Minutes/CBS)

Skull and Bone may be in the process of taking control of India. India has its own skull and bone – the Nehru/Gandhi family and the elite controlling the country.

As opposite as George Bush and John Kerry may seem to be, they do share a common secret - one they've shared for decades, and one they will not share with the electorate. 

The secret: details of their membership in Skull and Bones, the elite Yale University society whose members include some of the most powerful men of the 20th century.

Bonesmen, as they're called, are forbidden to reveal what goes on in their inner sanctum, the windowless building on the Yale campus that is called the Tomb.

Over the years, Bones has included presidents, cabinet officers, spies, Supreme Court justices, captains of industry, and often their sons and lately their daughters, a social and political network like no other.

Skull and Bones, with all its ritual and macabre relics, was founded in 1832 as a new world version of secret student societies that were common in Germany at the time. Since then, it has chosen or "tapped" only 15 senior students a year who become patriarchs when they graduate -- lifetime members of the ultimate old boys' club. 

“Skull and Bones is so tiny. That's what makes this staggering,” says Robbins. “There are only 15 people a year, which means there are about 800 living members at any one time.” 

But a lot of Bonesmen have gone on to positions of great power, which Robbins says is the main purpose of this secret society: to get as many members as possible into positions of power. 

“They do have many individuals in influential positions,” says Robbins. “And that's why this is something that we need to know about.” 

President Bush has tapped five fellow Bonesmen to join his administration. Most recently, he selected William Donaldson, Skull and Bones 1953, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Like the President, he's taken the Bones oath of silence.

Dr. James W. Wardner in his book Unholy Alliance sums up the Order of Skull and Bones’ areas of influence as follows :

1. The Order founded the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
2. The Order promoted the Bolshevik Revolution.
3. The Order has influenced the seminaries.
4. The Order has control of education.
5. The Order has links to the Federal Council of Churches.
6. The Order has as its member - George Bush.
7. The Order has control of the CIA.
8. The Order began and controls the in Peace Research Institute.
9. The Order founded the Institute for Policy Studies
10. The Order controls both the” conservative” Republican elements and the “liberal” Democratic elements.
11. The Order has control of Masonry.
12. The Order finances Communism.
13. The Order financed Hitler.
14. The Order with its European counterparts control international banking.