New York Times: ' it casts a shadow across the country' .... ' the hand that quietly - oh, so quietly - guides the nation's foreign policy.'

The New York Times reports:

In a sylvan pocket tucked off High Street, masked by blank slits in an ancient stone building called the Tomb, barred from the world by a padlocked iron door, Skull and Bones keeps its secrets closely. But it casts a shadow across the country.

Through generations, the most influential of senior societies at Yale College has been seen by outsiders as the hand that quietly - oh, so quietly - guides the nation's foreign policy, intelligence apparatus and premier banking houses, with a formidable presence at the bar and on the bench as well.

No word yet on this story from Dana Milbank, Austan Goolsbee, or John Kerry.