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Published: July 18th 2007
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Day trip to London
Michael Lane Over the last 2 days I have had the privilege to meet and hear speak two great Britons. On monday Sir Richard Dearlove, the previous head of MI6 (called "C"), spoke to us in Cambridge and we were able to ask him questions about his work. He was the head of MI6, the British Secret Intelligence service, for 5 years including during the september 11 attacks after which he flew to the US for consultations, making him the only individual flying at that time (outside of military pilots). He was extremely careful about what he said to us, and those of us who pay attention to world events learned little, if anything, new. The same was not true of meeting Oleg Gordievsky today. First a little background.
Oleg Gordievsky, CMG Mr. Gordievsky was a Colonel of the KGB and the highest ranking defector to the West during the cold war. He played a crucial role in the history of the cold war especially when he informed the west that the USSR believed they were about to be targeted by a Nuclear First Strike and so were seriously considering hitting us before we hit them. This information caused President
Reagan and PM Thatcher to seriously dial back their Cold War rhetoric. This is only one of the many valuable contributions he made. One month ago he was awarded a CMG decoration by HM the Queen (the same award James Bond was fictionally awarded) and after he spoke with us he was surprised by many of his friends (including Sir Richard and other intelligence professionals) who were there to congratulate him on his decoration.
He was introduced as one of the few truly great individuals. I'm inclined to agree. From 1974 to 1985 he passed information from the USSR to USA. He was acting head of the London station of the KGB before he was betrayed by Aldrich Ames, the greatest American traitor ever. He began telling us about the current Russian administration and how Bush was *stupid* to say he had looked into Putin's eyes and see he was a good man. In Mr. Gordievsky's view Putin is fast on the way to recreating a Stalinist state in Russia; there is no freedom of press anymore for example and the Oligarch's are really the ones in power including Putin.
Side note, Oleg is the only person in Europe with
an official death sentence still in force. Russia would still like to see him dead and he claims last October that he was one of four people in the UK whom Putin ordered killed. He extolled the virtues of Litvenenko (the guy poisoned last November), praising him for living 18 days and accusing Putin of his death when Polonium 210 is designed to kill after 8 days. He says those who don't believe the Russian government was behind this or is capable of it are naive and absurdly wrong. He says one of him purposes in speaking to us (mostly Americans) is that he finds it stupid that many in America believe Russia is still on the path to democracy. He says emphatically it is not, rather becoming a repressive regime. Russia under Yeltsin, however, he did have good words for, saying that many great changes were enacted under his administration but rolled back by Putin.
For anyone following the news it is obvious that what these two individuals (especially Gordievsky) have to say about Russo-British relations is extremely relevant. The day Sir Richard spoke to us 4 Russian diplomats were expelled from the UK, the day following meeting Gordievsky
the Russian Tycoon Berezovsky revealed that he had been targeted by a hit-man from the Russian government. This was one of the other 3 individuals Gordievsky had said were targets.
London Went to London again this past saturday which was part of the programme I'm in here. Saw the Imperial War Museum and Othello at The Globe. So far London is probably my favorite city. What sealed the deal was coming across a string quartet playing on a pedestrian street for coins. A skilled string quartet with many appreciative listeners. It was wonderful to go from that and 20 minutes later attend a marvelous showing of one the great tragedies at The Globe. So far the only aspect of the city I do not like is the expense. That is mitigated somewhat by the fact that most all museums and many like cultural places are free.
I have also included a picture or two of a marvelous statue/sculpture which stands outside Southwark Cathedral. I'm not sure what it is called by I liked it so much that I took pictures of it from every angle. It drew me to it, and an affinity for the martial, yet elegant nature came
down upon me like a noble mantle. Truly I felt peaceful just being near it, and it seemed to speak from a heavenly depth into my mind fathomless words. Hmmm, going on a bit. . . but the experience was trans-formative.
Thank you for reading again, I'm going to stop promising what I will include in my next entry but will promise that some time before the end of the summer I'll include more pictures of Cambridge!
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His Dad
non-member comment
Most of the words are spelled wright
Michael, thanks for the updates. You have a fun and informative blog here, I am impressed, and doubt I could do so well. Thanks for making this fun.