Operation Billiards - Mitrokhin or Oshchenko ?

Bernie Reeves - of Metro Magazine & Raleigh Spy Conference - to track down American KGB agent

2009-12-07T16:23:00.000-08:00

Bernie Reeves is a man determined to get to the bottom of things, and he is now on the track of an American KGB agent, who was recruited in London in 1978 by the KGB officer Viktor Oshchenko. This is an episode that was cut out of Christopher Andrew's recent "official" history of MI5, for the obvious reasons that this was an intelligence failure.

Bernie Reeves - the man behind Metro Magazine and the Raleigh Spy Conference

I am certain that Bernie Reeves will discover the truth, and reveal the details of who this KGB agent was at the next Raleigh Spy conference in March 2010.

Raleigh Spy Conference website

This is a copy of my recent correspondence with Bernie Reeves:

From: Mike Smith
Sent: Monday, November 09, 2009 4:14 AM
To: Bernie Reeves
Subject: An important public question for Christopher Andrew

Dear Bernie,

I have just noticed that Professor Christopher Andrew will be your guest at a Raleigh event on the 14th November, when he will be promoting his new book “Defend the Realm”. John Symonds would like to ask if you would consider putting a question to Professor Andrew on his behalf.

In the original Mitrokhin Archive publication there were five full pages devoted to John Symonds’s story (pages 559-563 inclusive), which were designed to create a media frenzy. However, in this latest book all reference to John Symonds has completely disappeared, despite large chunks of the new book being almost identical to what is in the Mitrokhin Archive.

John has his own theories about why his story has been “disappeared”: either MI5 are avoiding embarrassment, or Andrew fears a further libel case against him leading to yet another public apology (see attached). John suggests that this question is sprung to surprise Andrew (for public effect).

If you can help John get to the bottom of the reason for the deletion, then he will be prepared to offer himself for cross-examination by your audience at the next Raleigh Spy Conference if you so desire.

Kind regards,
Mike Smith

On Mon, Nov 9, 2009 at 12:44 PM, Bernie Reeves wrote:

I will certainly look into the matter…I heard from Symonds after he was included in the keynote address by Nigel West.

Best
Bernie Reeves
Editor & Publisher
Raleigh Metro Magazine
Founder: Raleigh Spy Conference

From: Mike Smith
To: Bernie Reeves
Date: Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 6:43 PM
Subject: The mission to Portugal and the secret American recruited to the KGB

Dear Bernie,

I didn't hear any more regarding the question about John Symonds. I guess there was a good reason why Professor Andrew left John out of the History of MI5, despite Nigel West's claim that he was the "World's Greatest Spy"?

With your interest in intelligence matters through the Raleigh Spy Conference, I wondered whether you would be as puzzled as I am about an unidentified US citizen recruited by the KGB in London in 1978, who was being groomed to spy against the USA. For some reason, which I cannot understand, this American is not referred to at all in Professor Andrew's book, and I know about him only because he was a witness at my trial in 1993.

I wrote to Gary Powers Jnr and he published a piece I wrote about this American, who was referred to as "Mr E" at my trial. You can read it here at page 16 of the November 2006 issue of Cold War Times.

I have passed the American and British Secret Service documents (made available to my Defence lawyers) to Cryptome for publication here.

I would have thought that it is quite rare for a US citizen to be recruited by the KGB in London, but it seems nobody now wants to talk about it, or to refer to it in the MI5 history - for the obvious reason that MI5 failed to observe what was going on under their noses. However, this mysterious "Mr E" also raises an important point about how evidence is fabricated at an espionage trial, because he was called as a witness to prove that the KGB (especially KGB officer Viktor Oshchenko) had recruited people in London, and that he had been sent on a mission to Lisbon to deliver a letter to another KGB officer.

In 1977 I had been on a perfectly innocent holiday to France, Spain and Portugal with a friend of mine - we drove around in my car and stayed in camp sites and cheap hotels. Purely because I had kept a tourist map from Oporto, which had been marked with bus stops and a restaurant by a camp-site attendant, I was accused during my trial of being sent to Oporto on a similar KGB mission as "Mr E" had participated in. This was not only a completely fabricated story but had no connection to the evidence presented. In fact a Portuguese journalist, Frederico Duarte Carvalho, has taken an interest in my case and published details about the story in the magazine he works for.

The original article in Portuguese.

An English language version of the article.

All the main evidence at my trial is available in the External Links on my Wikipedia page.

This is where I want you to see how devious are the people who support Professor Andrew. This is what actually happened:

(1) As I said above, it was claimed at my trial in 1993 that I had been sent on a KGB mission to Oporto in 1977

(2) In 1995 the Security Commission published a report on my case (Cm2930). There was no reference in the report about me visiting Portugal, or being sent there by the KGB.

(3) In 1999 Christopher Andrew published the Mitrokhin Archive, and in the book it was claimed that I had been sent to Lisbon on a KGB mission in 1979. You will note that this is now a completely different place and time from the evidence used to convict me at my trial in 1993. I have published the pages about my case from Andrew's book on my blog.

(4) In 2009, in Christopher Andrew's latest book, he has now removed all reference to Portugal, no doubt because I have exposed that matter as false evidence. That Portuguese "evidence" was vital to the Prosecution to secure my conviction, but now it seems that the Oporto episode, like "Mr E", has been edited out of the "official" history of MI5. I have published the pages relating to me from Andrew's latest book here.

Whether you choose to believe my version of events or Andrew's, you must admit there is something very odd and unethical going on here. Perhaps the "Mr E" case would make a suitable topic for your next Raleigh Spy Conference?

Regards,
Mike Smith

From: Bernie Reeves
To: Mike Smith
Date: Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 4:03 PM
Subject: RE: The mission to Portugal and the secret American recruited to the KGB

I am behind the curve on this…Let me catch up.

Bernie Reeves
Editor & Publisher
Raleigh Metro Magazine
Founder: Raleigh Spy Conference

I am sure that Bernie Reeves is the right man for this task, and that the truth will be revealed in his Metro magazine.

Professor Christopher Andrew - a Parkinson's mover & shaker

2009-12-07T15:17:00.001-08:00

Professor Christopher Andrew has just appeared on ITV in a programme about Inside MI5: The Real Spooks. I couldn't help noticing the way that Christopher Andrew was shaking ... or trembling.

Was it fear that he knew he was lying about what he had read in MI5 files? Was he scared that his research and book The Defence of the Realm was a pack of lies? Or is his brain finally falling apart as a result of Parkinson's disease? What a bullshitter and official supporter Christopher Andrew is for the likes of MI5 and MI6. Andrew is nothing more than a paid liar - a prostitute - a compiler of compendiums for the powers that rule us from above.

How much money have the British Public paid to produce a programme designed to deceive like this one?

Professor Christopher Andrew with another arsehole parrot amongst parrots

Gary McKinnon hacked into US Defense computers and may spend the rest of his life in jail

2009-11-26T14:06:00.000-08:00

Gary McKinnon may spend the rest of his life in prison because Home Secretary Alan Johnson has decided that it will not breach his human rights to send him to the USA to face trial. This is yet another example of how the British Government will acquiesce with the demands made on it by the US Government. How can this out-of-proportion response, to such a minor case, be dealt with by such powerful and damaging methods to the life of a man who poses no threat to the USA?

Gary McKinnon the man accused of damaging Department of Defense computers

This is a shameful case, and Britain's Home Office should feel ashamed, as they must feel embarrassed over the ongoing Iraq Inquiry - currently revealing how the British Government are more prepared to commit war crimes in the service of the USA than they are to protect their own citizens. Life has a funny way of showing us how we made mistakes in the past, and Tony Blair should be worried about those lies he told to Parliament before the Iraq War started.

Laura Smith campaigns to save York Road Market, Southend-on-Sea

2009-10-16T15:30:00.000-07:00

York Road Market is threatened with closure, and journalist Laura Smith (who works on the local Echo newspaper) is campaigning to save the market for the local people.

York Road Market Southend-on-Sea

References to this campaign are being reported in many places, for example here, there, and everywhere.

You can contact Laura Smith at the Echo telephone number 0844 477 4547, Fax 0844 477 4563, or e-mail laura.smith@nqe.com.

John Robles has given details about the market's closure on his website here.

Also check out the Echo website for the latest news about the campaign to stop the closure of the market ... www.echo-news.co.uk

The Southend Radio station is also giving news about the market's closure.

Christopher Andrew & Vasili: The Mitrokhin Archive

2009-10-12T07:11:00.000-07:00

Christopher Andrew

The Mitrokhin Archive

Pages 550-553
The most important British S&T agent recruited during the decade after operation FOOT was, almost certainly, Michael John Smith (codenamed BORG), a Communist electronics engineer.(35) The secretary of the Surrey Communist Party in the early 1970s, Richard Geldart, recalls Smith as an ‘out-and-out Tankie’ - a hardline supporter of the crushing of the Prague Spring by Soviet tanks: ‘Not to put too fine a point on it, he was the total nerd. There was socializing going on, but he was not part of it.’(36) A Line X officer at the London residency, Viktor Alekseyevich Oshchenko (codenamed OZERO V), made initial contact with Smith in a pub near Smith’s flat at Kingston upon Thames after a trade union meeting held in May 1975 before the referendum on British membership of the EEC. On instructions from Oshchenko, Smith left the Communist Party, ceased trade union activity, became a regular reader of the Daily Telegraph, joined a local tennis club and - as his operational file quaintly puts it – ‘endeavoured to display his loyalty to the authorities’.

In July 1976, helped by bureaucratic confusion in MI5, caused by the remarkable coincidence that the Surrey Communist Party contained another Michael John Smith, he gained a job as a test engineer in the quality assurance department of Thorn-EMI Defence Electronics at Feltham, Middlesex. Within a year he was working on the top secret project XN-715, developing and testing radar fuses for Britain’s freefall nuclear bomb.(37) The KGB passed the documents on project XN-7I5 provided by Smith to N. V. Serebrov and other nuclear weapons specialists at a secret Soviet military research institute codenamed Enterprise G-4598, who succeeded in building a replica of the British radar fuse. Smith’s intelligence, however, seemed too good to be true. Serebrov and his colleagues were puzzled as to how Smith had been able to obtain the radio frequency on which the detonator was to operate. This information, they believed, was so sensitive that it should not have appeared even in the top secret documents on the design and operation of the detonator to which Smith had access. Armed with a knowledge of the radio frequency, Soviet forces would be able to create radio interference which could prevent the detonator from operating. One possibility which occurred to the specialists was that the frequency supplied by Smith might be merely a test frequency which would not be used in actual military operations. But they remained suspicious of the extent of the detailed highly classified information which Smith had been able to supply.(38)

The Centre also seems to have been suspicious of the ease and speed with which a well-known pro-Soviet Communist had been able to gain access to one of Britain’s most highly classified nuclear secrets so soon after going through the motions of leaving the Party and switching from the Morning Star to the Daily Telegraph. Its suspicions that Smith’s intelligence on the radar fuse might have been a sophisticated deception seem to have strengthened when he told his controller in 1978 that he had lost his security clearance and, for the time being, could no longer provide classified information. (Though Smith did not realize it at the time, MI5 had discovered its earlier error and secretly informed Thorn-EMI of Smith’s Communist past.) (39)

To try to resolve its doubts the Centre devised a series of tests to check Smith’s reliability. The first test, which Smith seems to have passed, was to remove two packets of secret material from a dead letter-box in Spain. The second, more elaborate check on Smith, personally approved by Andropov and termed in KGB jargon ‘a psycho-physiological test using a non-contact polygraph’, was conducted in Vienna in August 1979 by Boris Konstantinovich Stalnov and two OT (operational-technical support) officers. Stalnov began with a brief prepared speech, duly entered in Smith's file:

I am personally satisfied with the way things are going and with our mutual relations and I am therefore extremely glad to congratulate you. From today you are a full member of our organization. This means that the organization will take care of you. Believe me, you will have gained friends who are ready to come to your help in any circumstances. Your participation and help to the organization will be duly recognized. The organization is based on two principles: voluntary participation and sincerity.

The first means that, having joined the organization of your own free will, you may leave it at any time if you think it necessary, without any [adverse] consequences for yourself, provided you give prior notice.

As for the second principle, sincerity, you must inform us of all details which directly or indirectly affect the interests of our organization. This is understandable as the security of both sides depends on it. Joining the organization is also in a certain sense a formal act. In connection with this I am required to put a number of questions to you. I regard this as a pure formality. You should do the same.

It will simplify the task and save time if you simply answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

Smith was then asked over 120 questions and his replies secretly recorded. Subsequent analysis of the recording and Smith’s response to each question persuaded the Centre - doubtless to its immense relief -that he was not, as it had thought possible, engaged in a grand deception orchestrated by British intelligence. Though Smith had been led to suppose that the ‘psycho-physiological test’ was a routine formality, it had never been used before by the KGB outside the Soviet Union. The Centre was so pleased with its success that it decided to use the same method to check other agents. It none the less decided to give Smith a third (and apparently final) test of his ‘sincerity’ by instructing him to remove a container holding two rolls of film from a DLB in the Paris suburbs and to deliver it to a KGB officer in Lisbon.(40) The KGB would doubtless have been able to detect any attempt by Smith or another intelligence agency to open the container.

From 1979 onwards Smith was paid a 3oo-pound monthly retainer by the KGB. His file also records additional payments for documents supplied by him of 1,600 pounds, 750 pounds, 400 pounds and 2,000 pounds. Though Mitrokhin’s notes do not record the dates of these payments, they probably relate chiefly to Smith’s two years in Thorn-EMI Defence Electronics.(41) The excitement of working for the KGB, copying highly classified documents, emptying DLBs and going to secret assignations with his case officers in foreign capitals seems to have rescued Smith from his earlier existence as a ‘total nerd’. A hint of the exotic began to enliven a previously drab lifestyle. In 1979 he got married, took up flamenco dancing, began experimenting with Spanish and Mexican cuisine, and gave dinner parties at which guests were served his home-made wine.(42)

Smith was so taken with his life as a secret agent that he made strenuous efforts to recover the security clearance he had lost in 1978, even drafting a personal appeal two years later to Margaret Thatcher to intercede on his behalf. ‘There is a cloud over me which I cannot dispel,’ he complained to the Prime Minister. ‘I have been wrongly suspected and have lost my position most unjustly.’ Though Smith seems never to have posted his letter to Mrs Thatcher, in June 1980 he succeeded in putting his case to an MI5 officer. Smith began by denying that he had ever been a Communist, was confronted with evidence that he had, then apologized for lying and said he had joined the Party only to find a girlfriend.(43) Amazingly, Smith’s campaign to recover his security clearance survived even this setback. More amazingly still, a few years later it succeeded.(44)

The Mitrokhin Archive page 550

The Mitrokhin Archive page 551

The Mitrokhin Archive page 552

The Mitrokhin Archive page 553

Page 567-568
The greatest known success of KGB operations in Britain during the Gorbachev era was the reactivation of Michael Smith, probably the most important British Line X agent since the retirement of Norwood. When Mitrokhin last saw Smith’s file in 1984, he had been trying for six years without success to recover the security clearance which had made him such a valuable agent in the Thorn-EMI Weapons Division in 1976-8. By now, the Centre was close to writing him off. The last contact with Smith noted on his file was in March 1983. In 1984 it was decided to put him ‘on ice’ for the next three years.(111) In December 1985, however, Smith was taken on as a quality assurance engineer by the GEC Hirst Research Centre at Wembley, in north-west London, where seven months later he was given limited security clearance for defence contracts on a need-to-know basis.(112)

In 1990 Line X at the London residency renewed contact with Smith, arranging meetings either in the graveyard of the church of St Mary at Harrow on the Hill or in the nearby Roxeth recreation park at South Harrow. Security procedures were devised at each site to warn Smith if it was under surveillance. At St Mary’s church he was told to look for a white chalk line on the vicarage wall near a fire hydrant. If the line was uncrossed, it was safe for him to enter the graveyard. He was also told to look at the church noticeboard. A small green dot, usually on a drawing pin, indicated that the meeting with his case officer was still on; a red dot was a warning to leave immediately. Though Smith had originally been an ideological agent, his motives had become increasingly mercenary. At meetings between 1990 and 1992 he was given a total of over 20,000 pounds for material from GEC defence projects, some of which he spent on an expensive flamenco guitar, a musical keyboard and computer equipment. Smith became increasingly confident and careless. When he was arrested in August I992, the police found documents on the Rapier ground-to-air missile system and Surface Acoustic Wave military radar technology in a Sainsbury’s carrier bag in the boot of his Datsun.(113)

The Mitrokhin Archive page 567

The Mitrokhin Archive page 568

Page 725
The reactivation in the early 1990s of the leading British Line X agent Michael Smith was one sign among many of the continued priority given to S&T collection in the Yeltsin era.(49)

The Mitrokhin Archive page 725

Page 868
35. vol. 7, ch. 14, item 12.
36. John Steele, ‘25 Years for the Spy Who Stayed in the Cold’, Daily Telegraph (18 November 1993).
37. Report of the Security Commission (Cmnd 2930) (July 1995), chs. 2-4.
38. vol. 7, ch. 14, item 12.
39. On the information about Smith passed by Ml5 to EMI in 1978, see ‘Phone Call that Trapped a Spy’, Independent (19 November 1993).
40. vol. 7, ch. 14, item 12.
41. The Security Commission later concluded that Smith had held on to some of the classified documents he had obtained at Thorn-EMI and given them to the KGB some time after he lost his security access in 1978. One or more of the payments recorded in his file may thus refer to a period after his loss of access. Since Mitrokhin’s notes end in 1984, the details of KGB payments to Smith cannot refer to his later years as a Soviet agent.
42. ‘“Boring” Idealist Who Spied for Russia Gets 25 Years’, The Times (19 November 1993).
43. Report of the Security Commission (Cmnd 2930) (July 1995), pp. 8-9. ‘Dear Maggie, Please Let Me Spy for the KGB!’, Daily Mirror (21 September 1993). Laurence Donegan and Richard Norton-Taylor, ‘Spy Who Slipped Through the Net’, Guardian (19 November 1993).
44. See below, p. 568.

The Mitrokhin Archive page 868

Page 871
111. vol. 7, ch. 14, item 12.
112. Report of the Security Commission (Cmnd 2930) (July 1995), p. 10.
113. Report of the Security Commission (Cmnd 2930) (July 1995), pp. 13-14, 32-3. ‘Phone Call Hoax that Trapped a Spy’, Independent (19 November 1993); ‘Vital Clues to a Traitor’, Daily Mail (19 November 1993).

The Mitrokhin Archive page 871

Christopher Andrew and MI5 - The Defence of The Realm

2009-10-11T18:31:00.000-07:00

The Defence of The Realm by Christopher Andrew is subtitled 'The Authorized History of MI5'. I want to be critical of this book and Christopher Andrew for the errors and disinformation he has set out in its pages about me. A key point of the analysis is the comparison of the information within this latest book with Christopher Andrew's earlier book The Mitrokhin Archive.

I nicknamed Professor Christopher Andrew The Cambridge Parrot because of his habit of mouthing the words given to him by his masters in MI5 and MI6. Unfortunately, once a parrot learns to speak, it has the annoying habit of using the same phrases over and over again. This is the case here, because in Christopher Andrew's new book he has repeated most of what he was taught to say about me in the Mitrokhin Archive. However, the interesting thing are the differences, because this reveals far more about what was in the minds of Andrew's MI5 masters than they probably realised.

The Defence of the Realm

Page 583-586
The intelligence from KGB files provided by Vasili Mitrokhin in 1992 suggests that there were fewer new British Line X recruits during the 1970s than in the decade before Operation FOOT. The most important new recruit was, almost certainly, Michael John Smith (codenamed BORG), a Communist electronics engineer. The secretary of the Surrey Communist Party in the early 1970s, Richard Geldart, later described Smith as an ‘out-and-out Tankie’ - a hardline supporter of the crushing of the Prague Spring by Soviet tanks in 1968: ‘Not to put too fine a point on it, he was the total nerd. There was socialising going on, but he was not part of it.’(97) A Line X officer at the London residency, Viktor Alekseyevich Oshchenko, made initial contact with Smith in a pub near Smith’s flat at Kingston-on-Thames in May 1975. On instructions from Oshchenko, Smith left the Communist Party, ceased trade union activity, became a regular reader of the Daily Telegraph, joined a local tennis club and - as his KGB file quaintly puts it – ‘endeavoured to display his loyalty to the authorities’.(98)

Michael John Smith first came to the attention of the Security Service in November 1971 at the age of twenty-three, when surveillance of the CPGB revealed a membership application from a ‘Michael Smith’ in Birmingham. Both the Service and the local police, however, failed to identify him. In January 1973 the Service received a report that an engineer called Michael John Smith with an address in Chessington had attended a district congress of the CPGB in Surrey. Because the surname was so common and the address was different, no connection was made with the Birmingham Smith. By a remarkable coincidence, the Surrey Communist Party contained another Michael John Smith and the 1973 report, like some subsequent reports, was wrongly placed on his file. In July 1976 the Michael John Smith recruited by Oshchenko began work as a test engineer in the Quality Assurance department of EMI Defence Electronics, a job which required a normal vetting (NV) security clearance giving him access to material classified up to secret. Since C Branch, because of the filing error, had no knowledge of Smith’s Communist background, he was given the clearance. In the spring of 1977 the Service’s earlier filing error was corrected when it was discovered that the Smith working for EMI had been active in the Surrey District Communist Party from 1973 to 1976. The C2 adviser to EMI, a List X firm (that is, working on classified government contracts), did not, however, raise the case with them until February 1978 - a delay understandably criticized in a later Security Commission report. After a series of discussions between the Service, EMI and MoD, Smith’s security clearance was revoked and he was moved to unclassified work.(99)

One reason for C2’s lack of urgency was almost certainly, as a later Director K acknowledged, ‘the perception in K Branch that by the 1970s the KGB did not recruit members of the CPGB as agents ... I remember absorbing it myself in my early years in the Branch.’(100) Earlier in the Cold War, following well-publicized cases on both sides of the Atlantic in which Communists had either conducted or assisted Soviet espionage, the Centre had become much more wary about recruiting Party members. Lyalin had reported to the Security Service after his defection: ‘The KGB are not supposed to cultivate or recruit known Communists. If after recruiting an agent they discovered that he was a Communist, they would try to modify his behaviour as far as the outside world was concerned and renounce his Communist views.’(101) But though Directorate K did not realize it for over a decade, Lyalin had been far too categorical. As in the case of Smith, the Centre was quite capable of making exceptions.(102)

For a year before Smith lost his security clearance in 1978, he had been working on the top-secret Project XN-7I5, developing and testing radar fuses for Britain’s free-fall nuclear bomb.(103) The KGB passed the documents on Project XN-7I5 provided by Smith to N. V. Serebrov and other nuclear weapons specialists at a secret Soviet military research institute codenamed Enterprise G-4598, who succeeded in building a replica of the British radar fuse. Smith’s intelligence, however, seemed too good to be true. Serebrov and his colleagues were puzzled as to how Smith had been able to obtain the radio frequency on which the detonator was to operate. This information, they believed, was so sensitive that it should not have appeared even in the top-secret documents on the design and operation of the detonator to which Smith had access. Armed with a knowledge of the radio frequency, Soviet forces would be able to create radio interference which would prevent the detonator from operating. The Centre, like the Soviet nuclear weapons specialists, also seems to have been suspicious of the ease and speed with which an engineer with a previous reputation as a staunchly pro-Soviet Communist had been able to gain access to one of Britain’s most highly classified nuclear secrets so soon after going through the motions of leaving the Party and switching from the Morning Star to the Daily Telegraph. Its suspicions that Smith’s intelligence on the radar fuse might have been a sophisticated deception seem to have strengthened when he told his controller in 1978 that he had lost his security clearance and, for the time being, could no longer provide classified information.(104)

To try to resolve its doubts the Centre devised a series of tests to check Smith’s reliability. The most detailed, personally approved by the KGB Chairman, Yuri Andropov, and termed in KGB jargon ‘a psycho-physiological test using a non-contact polygraph’, was conducted by KGB officers in Vienna in August 1979. Smith was asked more than 120 questions (all ‘yes’ or ‘no’) and his replies secretly recorded. Subsequent analysis of the recording reassured the Centre that he was not, as it had thought possible, engaged in a grand deception orchestrated by British intelligence. Though Smith had been led to suppose that the ‘psycho-physiological test’ was a routine formality, it had never before been used by the KGB outside the Soviet Union. The Centre was so pleased with its success that it decided to use the same method to check some other agents.(105) The excitement of working for the KGB seems to have appealed to Smith. A hint of the exotic began to enliven a hitherto drab lifestyle. In 1979 he got married, took up flamenco dancing, began cooking Spanish and Mexican cuisine, and gave dinner parties at which he served his own home-made wine.(106) Smith also began a campaign to recover his security clearance at EMI, even drafting a personal appeal to Mrs Thatcher, to whom he complained, ‘There is a cloud over me which I cannot dispel.’ He had made little progress in dispelling the cloud by the time he was made redundant in 1985. No doubt because of his lack of access to classified material, the KGB had broken contact with him at least a year previously, though it was later to recontact him.(107) In November 1993 Smith was sentenced to twenty-five years’ imprisonment (reduced to twenty on appeal) for collecting and communicating material in the period 1990-92 while working for GEC ‘for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state’.(108)

Despite Line X success in running Michael John Smith and ACE, Operation FOOT had turned the United Kingdom into a hard target for Soviet intelligence. It remained so for the rest of the Cold War. Material smuggled out of KGB archives by Vasili Mitrokhin later revealed that, because of the difficult operating conditions in London, at least six (probably more) British Line X agents either met their case officers outside the UK or were controlled by residencies elsewhere in Europe.(109) Operating conditions were also made more difficult by the C Branch advisers to List X firms. The uncharacteristic error made in the Michael Smith case was an exception which proved the rule - evidence of how important protective security was as a defence against Soviet S&T operations.

The Defence of the Realm page 583

The Defence of the Realm page 584

The Defence of the Realm page 585

The Defence of the Realm page 586

Page 730
During the 1980s Line X (scientific and technological intelligence) in the KGB London residency had greater success than Line PR.(126) The last major success of the residency in the Thatcher era, in the autumn of 1990, was to resume running the electronics engineer Michael John Smith, who had so far escaped detection by the Security Service.(127)

The Defence of the Realm page 730

Page 732
There were of course some able KGB officers who succeeded in slipping through the net. Possibly the ablest was Viktor Oshchenko of Line X, who was responsible for the recruitment of Michael John Smith, probably the most important espionage case in Britain still unresolved at the end of the Cold War.(137)

The Defence of the Realm page 732

Page 957
97 John Steele, ‘25 years for the Spy Who Stayed in the Cold’, Daily Telegraph, 18 November 1993.
98 Andrew and Mitrokhin, Mitrokhin Archive, p. 550.
99 Report of the Security Commission (Cm 2930), July 1995.
100 Security Service Archives.
101 Security Service Archives.
102 Director K wrote in 1994: ‘The message from the defector reports - particularly in the mid 1980s - is consistent: exceptions could be made, there was no ban on former members etc.’ Security Service Archives.
103 Report of the Security Commission (Cm 2930), July 1995, chs 2-4.
104 Andrew and Mitrokhin, Mitrokhin Archive, pp. 550-51.
105 Ibid., pp. 551-2.
106 ‘ “Boring” idealist who spied for Russia gets 25 years’, The Times, 19 Nov. 1993.
107 Report of the Security Commission, July 1995 (Cm 2930). Andrew and Mitrokhin, Mitrokhin Archive, pp. 552-3.
108 Though Smith was tried only on charges relating to his espionage between 1990 and 1992, the Security Commission concluded that ‘the most serious of Smith’s known espionage activities occurred whilst he was working for EMI.’ Report of the Security Commission, July 1995 (Cm 2930).

The Defence of the Realm page 957

Page 975
127 See above, pp. 583-5.
137 See above, pp. 583-5.

The Defence of the Realm page 975

Thurrock Youth Theatre - review of "East Lynne"

2009-09-12T19:29:00.000-07:00

Thurrock Youth Theatre's production of "East Lynne" was well-received by the audience in December 1966. Although this was a Victorian melodrama, it was presented in such a way to play to the attitudes of the 1960s.

Thurrock Youth Theatre - review of "East Lynne"

Thurrock Youth Theatre - East Lynne - Margaret Morgan

2009-09-12T15:48:00.000-07:00

Thurrock Youth Theatre presented a version of the old Victorian melodrama "East Lynne" in 1966, in which I played the part of Archibald Carlyle. It was one of those plays that involve a lot of over-acting, but it was a lively production and very well-received by the audience.

Margaret Morgan was also in the play. Margaret was one of those perfect women who we only meet once in a lifetime - I wish I had had the courage to invite her out on a date.

Thurrock Youth Theatre - East Lynne page 1

Thurrock Youth Theatre - East Lynne page 2

Thurrock Youth Theatre - East Lynne page 3

Thurrock Youth Theatre - East Lynne page 4

Thurrock Youth Theatre - Mechant of Venice - Sonja Shaw

2009-09-12T15:34:00.000-07:00

Thurrock Youth Theatre did a production of Merchant of Venice early in 1966, in which I played the part of Salarino. This was a very good production in my view, and very dramatic.

I was particularly taken by the folk-singing of Sonja Shaw, and she was later portrayed on the front cover of the BMG magazine. Where are you now Sonja, you were such a lovely person ... ?

Thurrock Youth Theatre - Merchant of Venice page 1

Thurrock Youth Theatre - Merchant of Venice page 2

Thurrock Youth Theatre - Merchant of Venice page 3

Thurrock Youth Theatre - Merchant of Venice page 4

A Midsummer Night's Dream - Ockendon Courts school play

2009-09-12T14:14:00.000-07:00

In November 1965 I took part in one of the famous Ockendon Courts school plays. They were produced by our History teacher, Peter Green, who was very keen on drama and who was a main figure in the local acting community within the Thurrock area. Apart from the Ockendon Courts school plays, Peter Green was also a key person organising the Thurrock Youth Theatre and the Courts Players.

Below is a programme of the play I was in while at Ockendon Courts school:

A Midsummer Night's Dream programme page 1

A Midsummer Night's Dream programme page 2

A Midsummer Night's Dream programme page 3

A Midsummer Night's Dream programme page 4

School Report from Ockendon Courts County Secondary School

2009-09-12T13:22:00.000-07:00

Who cannot have waited with fear or anticipation at the reading of their school report? My school reports were usually good, but not perfect.

Cover of Ockendon Courts County Secondary school report

I expect that there are many other people out there who also have one of these reports. Treasure it for the experiences that it represents.

Ockendon Courts County Secondary School

2009-09-12T13:00:00.000-07:00

Ockendon Courts County Secondary School was where I completed my secondary school education between 1960 to 1967. It was a quite remarkable school in many ways, which was in part due to the vision of the headmaster Mr W. S. Larwood, and other members of staff such as Mr Reuben (Ben) Cohen and Mr Peter Green.

Where would we be without schools such as Ockendon Courts? This was one of the great places on earth, and it is now gone. Long live Ockendon Courts!!!

John Kelsey-Fry QC polygraph lie detector test

2009-09-01T05:08:00.000-07:00

John Kelsey-Fry QC should be asked to undergo a polygraph lie detector test to ascertain his role in the evidence at my trial, particularly regarding the witnesses Oleg Gordievsky, Dame Stella Rimington and Professor Meirion Francis Lewis.

Clearly Kelsey-Fry played at least some part in the preparation of these parts of the prosecution case, and he was also responsible I understand for much of the communication of information between the Prosecution and Defence teams - it was the withholding of the Prosecution case and evidence regarding the ALARM missile that was so damaging to the Defence at trial.

The underhanded Prosecution tactics - nothing but a bare-faced "ambush" - were designed to undermine the way in which the Defence had prepared their case. Not only had the ALARM missile never been previously mentioned in the Prosecution case, until Professor Meirion Lewis appeared in the witness box, but the Prosecution had up till that point not made any serious allegations about the relevant exhibit: a 10-year old obsolete and low-level 9-page document.

3 Raymond Buildings & Sir John Nutting QC

2009-08-28T14:41:00.000-07:00

I am suspicious that 3 Raymond Buildings is being used by MI5, the Security Service, to handle their cases under the Official Secrets Act. Sir John Nutting QC is certainly a senior member of 3 Raymond Buildings, and he boasts about having won my case on behalf of MI5, despite the fact that it was necessary to use the false testimony of Professor Meirion Francis Lewis to do so.

I was told that 3 Raymond Buildings has for a long time been the chambers used for MI5 prosecutions, and I would be grateful for any comments that can be added to this story.

John Kelsey-Fry QC & Gary Summers

2009-08-27T15:11:00.000-07:00

Before and during my Official Secrets Act trial John Kelsey-Fry QC was the Prosecution go-between with the Defence team, talking with my barrister Gary Summers about what was happening in the case. Obviously, one important matter that was not discussed was that the Prosecution were planning an ambush on the Defence over the so-called "evidence" about the ALARM missile.

The evidence of Professor Meirion Francis Lewis was clearly known to the Prosecution prior to my trial in September of 1993, because they had some well rehearsed questions about what would be presented to the jury.

John Kelsey-Fry must have known that this evidence was about to be presented in court - so why did he not tell his Defence counter-part that this evidence about ALARM was likely to be coming up in court? Surely this looks like John Kelsey-Fry is part of some bigger plan to damage the defence case by underhanded methods? This just goes to demonstrate that the legal profession is full of characters like John Kelsey-Fry, who are only too willing to act unethically in order to win a case.

Sir John Nutting QC expert evidence needs polygraph lie detector

2009-08-27T14:38:00.000-07:00

Sir John Nutting QC will be asked to undergo a polygraph lie detector test to confirm whether he was involved in conspiring with Professor Meirion Francis Lewis to present false evidence at my trial in 1993 regarding the ALARM missile.

It will obvious to any technically minded person that there was something fundamentally wrong with the testimony given by Professor Meirion Francis Lewis at my trial, when he unexpectedly gave evidence that a 10-year old low-level document had been used on ALARM missiles deployed during the Gulf War of 1991.

The facts behind this issue will be available on this blog in the very near future.

JAR2 Interview with Michael John Smith

2009-08-23T07:06:00.000-07:00

John Robles asked me if I would do an interview with him to make available on his website JAR2. This is the first audio interview I have ever done with anybody and so this is pretty much an exclusive.

Go and listen to the interview and make comments or ask questions about was discussed.

John Alexander Symonds - The Romeo Spy website

2009-08-20T18:48:00.000-07:00

After many years, John Alexander Symonds has decided to present the truth about what happened in his life, and particularly the method by which he was convicted based on the evidence of a criminal and dubious tape recorded conversations. Read all about it on the new website of the "Romeo Spy".

Sir John Nutting QC & John Kelsey Fry QC

2009-08-20T15:21:00.000-07:00

Sir John Nutting QC still brags about the way he achieved my conviction based on lies and legal tricks. See his discredited admission here about the Michael Smith case.

John Kelsey Fry QC is also boasting about his involvement in my case here. Why is he proud to have been connected with a case that shows he was guilty of the manipulation of evidence, that included the culpability of Dame Stella Rimington, Oleg Gordievsky, and Professor Meirion Francis Lewis in framing me?

Why can British lawyers get away with legal fraud? How is it that they are not behind bars for telling lies in court?

E-mail:
from: Mike Smith
to: Sir John Nutting QC , Mr John Kelsey-Fry QC
cc Sir Derek Spencer QC , "DUDDRIDGE MP, James" , “Colin Nicholls QC”
date: Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 12:24 AM
subject: Thank you for using false evidence at my trial

To: Sir John Nutting QC & John Kelsey Fry QC

It is fortunate for me that you continue to boast about the role that you played in presenting false evidence at my trial:

UK Legal Forum post

I shall now feel quite justified in making you one of the main targets in my campaign to expose the lies that were presented at my trial under your prosecution case. You know what you did, and you do not need me to tell you what a despicable distortion you presented as "evidence" in order to convince a jury that your arguments were valid.

We shall see who was right in the final countdown.

Please reply to this email, because if you do not I shall simply name you and shame you as the liars and cheats I believe you to be.

Yours sincerely,
Michael John Smith

Who is Yura Solagub?

2009-08-12T14:54:00.001-07:00

Yura Solagub is a Ukrainian born national who lived in the USA for a few years. He spent several years living in the US before showing up out of nowhere in Malahovka (Russia) where he arranged a fictitious marriage and obtained Russian citizenship within a few weeks of his arrival.

Solagub began to work for the local Lubertsy Mafia, headed by a retired Police General, and he has been engaged in a slander campaign against one of the employees of a company he took over - after the said employee sued him for 600,000 Roubles.

Stay away from this guy, because he is a con-man, and watch out for him if you go to Moscow to learn Russian, or you could lose your money.

Is this guy employed by the CIA?

Yura Solagub - Mafia con-man?

Sir Anthony Blunt was not a traitor or spy

2009-07-07T02:16:00.000-07:00

I remember when Sir Anthony Blunt was exposed as the fourth member of the Cambridge Spy Ring in 1979. It was a major story at the time, and continues to influence our thinking about what really happened in the Cold War environment that followed the end of World War 2.

Now Giovanni di Stefano has stirred up controversy by publishing a story about Sir Anthony Blunt on his website. Below is the text from the story:

It is said that ANTHONY BLUNT was a spy on behalf of the then USSR (Russia) and that in 1964 he openly admitted his guilt but was allowed to maintain his contacts and work for the Royal Family and his rooms at Cambridge University. In fact it was said that he was the ‘fifth member’ of the so called ‘group of five’ that haunted Cambridge University for the past 80 years as traitors.

What is certain about BLUNT was that he was the son of a priest and was born in Bournemouth. I knew Tony Blunt. It is said he died the 26th March 1983 now that would have been a Saturday. He actually died on the 23rd March but the news was not announced until the Sunday. Why was that? Because ANTHONY BLUNT was no traitor but was a loyal servant to the Royal Family and Britain and it was he that was responsible for the identification of Burgess and Maclean and his so called ‘recruitment’ as a spy for the USSR was solely as a means of identifying the real traitors.

Now why is it that he must be remembered as a traitor? Let us just apply some logic. The story goes that BLUNT confessed in 1964 yet he is allowed to remain in his job working next to the Royal Family, remain at Cambridge University whereas the ‘others’ were either prosecuted or sought sanctuary in Russia?

BLUNT was no traitor and those that counted knew of this including HM The Queen and HRH Prince Philip and of late HRH Prince Charles.

Why his death was announced 4 days after his true death? The autopsy carried out showed that he died a ‘natural’ death although what can be normal in dying still baffles me. His death certificate shows heart failure. But why announce his death four days late? 1983 was a year of turmoil and Mrs. Thatcher was the Prime Minister. The so called ‘communist rebels’ led by Scargill were playing havoc with the country. Anthony Blunt knew that he was ill and his death, the death of a so called traitor, a red, a communist who were the then enemy of the government was a good distraction. BLUNT knew that his death as a so called traitor would continue to help the cause and it did.

But ANTHONY BLUNT was never a traitor and many a true ‘spy’ was identified and subsequently arrested/exchanged/killed as a result of his information.

I had the honour of meeting Antony Blunt at Trinity College. I knew the true situation. Blunt continued to work with the Royal Family and openly identified to most as the so called ‘Russian spy’ but HM The Queen and HRH Prince Philip knew otherwise. Yes, there was a so called debriefing on the 23rd April 1964 but the contents were fabricated. Blunt continued to enjoy the trust of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR but he NEVER gave a single secret. Instead he was invaluable to the British Security Service in identifying Russian spies.

That he was a homosexual and lived in his apartment at the Courtauld Institute with the Scots-born former Irish Guards bandsman John Gaskin, is true. But being a homosexual is one matter a spy another.

Blunt wrote two versions of his life but of which only one may be published soon. The true story will not be published until 100 years after his death in 2083 and it will name many names, many spies that were allowed to continue to ply their trade but who were identified thanks to Anthony Blunt.

Why is it necessary for me to reveal this now 25 years after his death? Why does the Royal Family not simply say so? I understand that it was Blunt’s own wishes that his duty to the Royal Family and to England was to remain his private matter and that for the good of the country and the security of his companion it was best that way. Well, John Gaskin was about to reveal the true situation when mysteriously he ‘died’ in 1987 at a train crossing! Was it an accident or was he pushed? He was indeed murdered because Gaskin was only a bit player and expendable in this high profile game.

25 years is enough for my purposes and the true status and loyalties of Anthony Blunt can now harm no one. There is no real cold war and everyone knows each other’s secrets.

ANTHONY BLUNT was never a traitor and loyal to the cause. I know he wanted it the way it was orchestrated but he would not have approved of his companion’s murder in Scotland.

It is for these reasons and many more that it is necessary for the TRUTH now to be told. The FSB knew ironically only in 1987 when Gaskin was murdered and that was the year that many things changed in the world of espionage and many came out of hiding:- some still remain today.

It appears that Sir Anthony Blunt's memoirs will soon be published after being stored at the british Library for the past 25 years following his death in 1983.

JAR2 publishes sensitive documents about Iraq

2009-06-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

Some important new documents have been published on John Robles website JAR2, which demonstrate what has happened in Iraq. They are evidence of the lies told by the US government and the torture used to interrogate Iraqis arrested as a result of the War.

US soldiers use rape as an advanced interrogation technique

2009-06-03T16:31:00.000-07:00

The Russian website JAR2 has published some exclusive photographs of US soldiers raping a defenceless Iraqi woman. The worst aspect of this is that the authorities have denied that this rape even took place - The Pentagon, and President Obama are denying this sort of thing ever happened.

This is a most disgusting event, and the sort of thing that brings shame to the way that soldiers can behave in a war situation. It has been claimed that many other women have been raped in this way, and that boys have also been raped. I understand that a Freedom of Information request has been set in motion to flush out the details of what happened here. Let us hope that this will be resolved quickly and charges brought against the soldiers involved.

We have heard recently about the human rights of soldiers during times of war, but the people who most need the protection of the law are the innocent civilian population, as for example the woman in these photographs.

Life if getting worse in Russia today

2009-05-28T16:21:00.000-07:00

I am publishing some articles from John Robles website. John is currently suffering badly from the system that operates in today's Russia. It seems that the country is being controlled by criminal gangs, and just carrying on a normal life there has become almost impossible.

I am an EFL teacher in Russia. For over ten years I worked 75-80 hours a week with no benefits, sick days, overtime pay or anything else other than my hourly wage. In September they started cutting my salary and then, claiming there is a financial crisis they stopped paying me altogether. After demanding my pay that had been being held back for months, I was let go. I took them to court. Now my life is being threatened (again).

05-27-2009 Slander. It is the tactic of the guilty and the weak and the only way they know to destroy the message is to kill the and destroy the messenger. Slander and there is nothing that I can do about it because there is nobody who cares. I am talking about Center Razvita Lichnosti. They followed me for about 14 kilometres last week and it ended in a high speed chase, but what are they saying? That big bad old me chased them, that they were afraid I was going to come to their house, that there was only one road out of Malahovka and they just happened to be going the same way. It was all a coincidence and they were afraid of me? That's why they wanted to meet me alone in a park late at night. That is why they send me death threats and tell me they are going to kill me if I make a false move. They want me to drop my case against them because they are afraid they will lose. So they try to pay everyone they can and try to scare me to death.

05-26-2009 I was awoken this morning by some man demanding I open my door again. He left before I had a chance to call the police. During the day some of my students came to visit and when I got home Yura and his goons were just leaving the parking area in front of my building. As you know I was locked out of my workplace of 13 years on March 9th after demanding my back wages, which at that point amounted to close to $000. This is without punitive damages, I also sued them for the materials they took when they forced me out of my class, the total I am seeking without pain and suffering is more than $000. It sounds like a lot but when you consider that I was working over 70 hours a week without a break for years upon threat of losing my job and I was never paid health benefits or paid vacations it is actually not very much. These animals took advantage of the fact that I had kids and my status to exploit me. I am not alone this is very common in Russia so please support me in my fight if you can. They have been actively trying to intimidate and frighten me into giving up my suit but I will not. I have been threatened with death, with physical harm, called a monkey and a black ass, I have had people trying to break into my flat, and people watching my house, and all this because I demanded my wages for which I had a signed contract for. Once again the company is Center Razvita Lichnosti, in Malahovka Russia. The people involved are Anna and Ludmilla Kuranova, some General, and their goons, the most active of which is some Ukrainian named Yura Sologub, who is nothing but a little racist hood, who is lazy as hell but likes to make easy money whether by stealing it, like my pay, or by killing for it, according to his own jokes, but who probably has a gun with a bullet with my name on it. I am tired of the round the clock harassment. Really tired of it.

MAY BE "the" True STORY (A glimpse into the dirty side of Russian society, yes, there are bad people here too, and it is these few who give all Russians a bad name)

….the only language they understand is the language of force and the only argument that important for them is their own benefit and safety….

One of my students told me that, and it made me think, for in those few words this person summed up the whole situation in a neat and tidy nutshell.

As I read it, it seemed perfect but lacking in its entirety, this idea, for what it lacks is what they hide from, what they fear, and what they fear is what I have. What they fear the most is the truth and the light. It is the same for them as it is for anyone who is hiding from the truth, which leaves me in a bit of a quandary. How am I, humble little writer, to fight these people, remain alive, and win my little battle? How can I present the truth without hurting the innocent or damaging myself? I thought long and hard and the answer was quite simple actually, I can not win, no that is not possible, but by writing the truth I can irritate them in the worst way.

They live in a million dollar home, actually it cost around four million, these blood sucking jackals do, for what else can you call those who prey on the weak and less fortunate to enrich themselves? The sit around at night eyeing each other slyly, arrogantly and coldly and recount their own self-righteous exploits, sitting amongst their opulent surrounding and stroking ill gotten trophies of all sorts with cold lecherous hands, telling each other how wonderful and clever they were in lying or stealing or getting something for nothing.

Or perhaps they recount with glee how they ran over an old lady while they were driving 200 on the side-streets and just paid off the cops who just looked the other way or blamed the next poor bloke who just happened to be the next to come along.

Perhaps the story of the day is how they had to fire one of the Tadjik workers who was living in their unfinished un-heated out-building and had lost his feet to frostbite. Poor bastard couldn’t walk anymore, who needs him, plenty more where he came from.

Or perhaps they have a good laugh about the poor workers who were huddled, 12 to a room in the basement of their newest building, and suffocated to death when a fire started and they could not get out because they had been locked in for the night. What a mess, and oh the bribes we had to pay!

Maybe the funny story of the day is about the tax official who they tried to bribe and then killed when it proved he or she was too honest to bribe. Yes, for that would be one worth retelling hundreds of times, to pump up the bravado and show everyone just how cool they really were. For that is what it is all about to them, who is cool, who is cooler, and who is the coolest. No morality. Neither conscience, nor intelligence really required. Education for them, who needs it? They can buy whatever diploma they want. They can enter any University they want and just cruise through. It doesn’t matter what they do in name or what qualification they have for their professions are the same, blood sucking leaches. Vampires, sharks, top-feeders, whatever you want to call them. I have no idea what they are calling themselves these days. What is cool, let them add that themselves.

Perhaps the story of the day, for what would another boring cold and dismal day be like without some story of the destruction of some poor defenseless person, is about the $40 million that they had transferred out of the country using their latest little scheme to launder the money and how damn clever it is and how much they have saved in escaping taxes.

Maybe the story is about how they got their greedy little fingers into the local pension fund, or the children’s home funds, and bought themselves the latest Brabus Mercedes and told the poor starving old people and children, “Sorry, no bread today, there is an economic crisis. Didn’t you know?”

Maybe the story is about all of the stolen painting adorning the walls of their mansion.

“Why waste a good painting at a museum where the stupid lesser people go and even pay their hard earned money to see what I have in my dining room,” They might declare, “the idiots! They do not understand art.”

“ What is the name of that painting? Don’t remember. Damn. Not important really. It’s 14th century of course.”

Then of course there is the food, oh god, the caviar is so expensive this year. And the Hennesy I had to actually pay for it. And oh dear the salmon is not quite right, and oh throw another kilogram of meat to the dog. “

Oh, dear the dog, yes that also cost a million dollars, it has papers, had it imported.” “Had to bribe customs to the tune of $5,000.00 to get it into the country, all it does is bark all day.” “Tore the throat of some little kid open the other day, poor kid died I think.” “They wanted me to put the dog down, I said no way!” “That dog is private property. My property, had to pay the cops to say the kid asked for it.”

Maybe the story of the day is how the poor idiots in the company all think that they are going to get a bonus but they are only fooling themselves. Soon as Christmas comes around we’ll just fire half of them. Economic crisis, don’t you know?

Maybe the funny story of the day is how we raised the rents on our flats, after our good friends raised the value of the flats by %1000. Crisis, didn’t you hear? Can’t afford the rent? Go live in the station. That is not my sob story. Piss off poor people.

Maybe the dinnertime gossip is about the poor kid who died of cancer, he was such an idiot anyway, his teachers used to call him stupid and he would actually answer, what a laugh.

Or the kid who got hit by a train and was crippled for life, who cares? Have some more Champagne, oh it’s too wet, give it to the Churkis.

Maybe the story is about how some father killed his own son and keeps his daughter in a little tiny closet in the attic so she doesn’t grow. Oh, the father didn’t kill his son? Too late, we like that version. Daughter isn’t bound and chained? Oh, never mind the facts, we can say what we want.

Or the story is by the doctor who complains about the hospital not being able to afford medication and having to choose who dies, it is just so anti-Hippocratic oath, yeah the Doctor says, “My new Lexus does 260, used the funds from the hospital, economic crisis. Didn’t you hear?”

Maybe once again we need to decide where to go on holiday, damn again! Just got back.

“Oh me, oh my, Australia? Been there. India? No.”

“Damn you need English everywhere you go.”

“Yeah, bummer.”

“I got a diploma as a translator but I can’t speak English, actually daddy bought it”

“Hey that reminds me what happened to that teacher, that American, who worked in your school for something like thirteen years?”

“We made him a fuckin refugee cause he wouldn’t shut his damn mouth. Had some damn web site. Then we stopped paying him but the idiot didn’t just disappear like they usually do. He was getting on our nerves. Always writing things, talking politics. He actually had a picture of our president on the wall of his class.”

“Who? Medvedev?”

“Yeah, Medvedev the idiot.”

“So what happened to the teacher? I need to brush up on my speaking, I hate it when the waiters don’t understand me.”

“I can’t remember, he tried to take us to court and we black-listed him. He couldn’t get a job and kept trying to get us to give him his pay. I can't remember if we killed him or if he killed himself.”

“Didn’t he have kids or something?”

“Yeah, we had to kill them too.”

“You know what? Shut up and pass me that shish-ka-bob.”

“ I heard you bought the latest Infinity model. How is it?”

“The wife says we need something bigger. For the damn kids. I use it to pick up girls, and screw them on the way home.”

Maybe the story is about the alcoholics who we burned alive in their flat because they were too noisy and my tenants did not want to pay the rent anymore.

Or the new notebook that we had to cut some guys hand off to get.

Maybe the story is about the stupid teachers at the school who are always complaining they don’t have enough books. Damn books. The director has a new Jeep. There is a crisis you know.

Did you hear the one about the old lady crossing the road, some truck ran her over. The driver stopped, put a thousand bucks in her pocket and went home, apparently the cops sent him a thank you note.

Ha Ha…Pass the water pipe.

Maybe the story is about how we sold our worthless plot of land for $400,000.00 and had nowhere to launder the money so we opened a school and some courses, etc..

Maybe the story is about how we got around the latest regulation, or how much the latest bribe runs, or who is the coolest football team.

Maybe the story is about how they housekeeper made off with some jewelry after not being paid for a year and we had her killed.

Maybe the story is about the Jewish school and how it was burnt to the ground. Or the house that was burnt to the ground with the little old lady inside to make way for our parking lot, damn bitch wouldn’t just leave.

Maybe the story is about the guns in the basement and how long we have to keep them there until we can use them again.

Maybe the story is about the poor kid and his lesbian mother and who is the man in that family.

Maybe the story is about how to sell off Grandfather’s land.

“But he isn’t dead yet!”

“He is now”

Maybe the story is about how to get people to do more for us while we do less and pay less, economic crisis you know?

Maybe the story is about exploitation of workers, avoidance of taxes, intimidation, death threats, and lying to judges?

Maybe the story is concerning following people around and trying to get them to meet you alone in a dark park at night so you can "talk"?

Maybe it's about trying to entrap someone by using someone you think a person believes is their friend?

Maybe it's about harassment and phone calls and messages and threats around the clock? Yura Sologub?

Maybe it's about your little conspiracy to protect all of your stolen goods, fake companies, bribed officials and your entire house of cards?

Maybe the story is about how you managed to smuggle all that money out of the country by using little old ladies?

How about that bookkeeper? She sure can cook the books! She knows all the laws and how to break them. We bring in half a million with English, and six hundred thousand with all the other stuff and we pay taxes on nothing! Man have we got a great bookkeeper! She knows she could go to prison but she won't talk will she? Hell no. If she does we'll kill her like we do with anyone.

What about the summer camp and all the money we collected from MID for their children! That was great! We even stole money from the cops, and they were happy to give it to us for taking care of all of their fat stupid children. Isn't that what you all said? That the cops are stupid and you all are so clever and have so many cops in your pockets?

What did you say? The cops all work for you? Don't count on it. There are honest cops and you'll have to see it for yourself.

Maybe the story is about…….. YOU ?????

To be continued...

Download the book Open Secret by Stella Rimington

2009-04-18T11:28:00.000-07:00

I have been sent a couple of links where Stella Rimington's autobiography "Open Secret" can be downloaded. If you have not read it it is worth reading to see just what she has got up to in her life.

Go here for an English language version or here if you prefer it in Russian.