FAMOUS SPIES

MATA HARI

One of the most famous spies was Mata Hari. She was born in The Netherlands in 1876 and her real name was Gertrud Zelle. She decided to become an exotic dancer and change her name to Mata Hari.  It is Javanese name and means child of the dawn.

When she first appeared in 1905 where men like ambassadors, politicians and police chiefs fought for her attention. There is evidence of her spying activities and nothing is known for certain. However, it was said that she kept asking for military secrets and she passed it on to the Germans.  This allegation came from the French authorities when they arrested her in January 1917.

Mata Hari denied it and insisted that she was spying for France. The court did not accept it and contempt her to death by firing squad.

Gary Powers US pilot was shot down over Soviet Union’s territory in 1960. It was at the height of the cold war and the whole world held its breath. He stood trial in Russian court for spying. Of course the details will never be revealed but President John F Kennedy got him freed by denying it and stating Gary Powers lost course and straight into Soviet territory. After a lot of diplomatic rope pulling they got him free by exchanging him with a Russian spy. Afterwards the USA admitted that Gary Powers was spying with his U-2 spy plane. Today air crafts and satellites are used to gather information about weapons and troop movements.

Usually the spies do not disguise themselves. They assume different identities or live a normal live but under cover. In the 18^th century one spy made an exception. His name, believe it or not, was Charles Genevieve Louis Auguste Andre Timothee d’Eton de Beaumont. He was known as Chevalier d’Eton and was born in Paris 1728. He was one of the finest swordsmen in France. His other talent was a great female impersonator. These two abilities made King Louis XV decide to send him to the court of the Russian Empress Elizabeth as a spy.  Elizabeth was delighted with ‘Lia de Beaumont’ and made her a maid-in-waiting.  D’Eton gain great confidence in the Empress Elizabeth. Even when he decided to drop his disguise Elizabeth enjoyed the deception and made him an officer in the Imperial Russian Army.

He later fled to London and lived in exile till he died in 1810 at the age of 82.

Kim Philby work for the MI6 and was thought to be the head in the near future. When he was tipped off in 1963 he fled to Moscow. He was a undercover agent and worked for the KGB for 25 years

AUTHOR OF 
'SPYCATCHER' --
 PETER WRIGHT

An ex-officer for the MI5, Peter Wright, wrote a book ‘Spycatcher’ in which he alleged that the one-time head of the service, Sir Roger Hollis, had been a Soviet Agent. The government tried to stop the book being printed and distributed but they failed.

SPY'S SECRET WORLD

KIM PHILBY 
DEFECTED TO RUSSIA 

The nowadays highly developed espionage and the secrecy of its world started as early as 2000 BC.

A written clay tablet was discovered from a soldier called Bannum. He was commanding the desert patrol in Mesopotamia (Nowadays Iraq). It contained information of activities by a village which loyalty was in doubt and the tablet was sent to his lord.

Every great ruler such as Hannibal, Mithridates, Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar had their spies. It is known that Hannibal, before crossing the Alps in 218 BC, had informants. They provided him with details of terrain, climate and fertility of the country. It included information of the strength of the tribes and their attitude towards Rome. The Carthaganians won four major victories against the Roman legions because of all these information.

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At first, every ruler had its own intelligence service but as it become more sophisticate and intricate they hired a professional called 'Spymaster'. Elizabeth I's Secretary of State, Sir Francis Walsingham (1530-90) was one of the greatest. Philip II of Spain complained that all his secret plans for conquering England were known before he told his own ministers.

Oliver Cromwell has even a better spymaster than Walsingham. The Secretary of State and Head of Intelligence, John Thurloe, was appointed in 1652. Thurloe run an espionage service covering England and Europe. The Venetian Ambassador wrote that there is no government on earth which is more punctually informed of those of others.

Only in fiction spies disguise themselves. In real life they rarely do. They only assume false identities or live under cover for many years.

One remarkable spy was sent to the court of the Russian Empress Elisabeth by King Louis XV. He was Charles Genevieve Louis Aguste Andre Timothee d'Eton de Beaumont. He was not only a great swordsman but also a brilliant female impersonator and these two qualities which made King Louis XV decide to send him as spy.

The Empress Elizabeth of Russia was so taken in by 'Lia de Beaumont' that she made her a maid-in-waiting and with that 'she' had great influence over the old lady. After a while Beaumont dropped his disguise. Elizabeth was not outraged the least; she made him an officer in the Imperial Russian Army.

Napoleon stated that one good spy in the right place was worth more the 20,000 men on the battlefield. Napoleon' spy Karl Schulmeister managed to be appointed as Head of the Austrian Military Intelligence. He sent information back to him and that enabled Napoleon to defeat Austria at Ulm and Austerlitz. Schulmeister was described as all brain but no heart.

Later on the journalist and Communist Richard Sorge were posted to Tokyo. In 1936. He made friends in the German Embassy and Japan's government. As a result he was able to send a stream of invaluable information to the Soviet Union. It was said that in 1940 alone he sent 30,000 coded messages.

1941, He gave Stalin the exact dated of the German invasion - 22 June. Stalin ignored it and the Red Army was almost wiped out. After that, Stalin, questioned the Japanese intention. Sorge discovered that they will not move west to attack Russia but south. Stalin sent the two million troops which were standing by in Siberia in case the Japan attacks and sent them against the Germans.

At the same moment Sorge was arrested in an early morning raid and sentenced and hanged. Some spies, to avoid this, turn and work for the country they spied on. This was the case of 30 spies sent in 1940 to Britain by the German Military Intelligence (die Abwehr).

When they were arrested some wouldn't co-operate and were executed. Most of them turned double agents. They transmitted a wealth of invaluable information but they were supplied by the British themselves. In 1944 the Germans were to believe that the landing on D-Day was at Pas-de-Calais which was far to the east of the real landing place in Normandy.

The most guarded building was Bletchley Park about 80km north-west of London. The headquarter known as Station X and it was there that they managed to brake the Enigma code. General Montgomery benefited most from this result. The secret of Bletchley Park was kept till 1977.

After the war Britain discovered that they were the target of a highly successful espionage from Russia. Two spies, Guy Burges and Donald Maclean, fled to Moscow after a warning from a mysterious 'third man'. Eventually it was discovered that it was Harold 'kim' Philby, senior officer in the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). He also defected and a fourth and fifth men were discovered.

Even now the spy is still very much in business. He concentrates on commercial and industrial secrets instead of political and military information. The FBI stated that out of 173 countries 57 running espionage against the USA. The Japanese are on the top list and the South Korea and China to follow.

The 'Spycatcher' ex-MI5 officer Peter Wright wrote a book in 1985. He stated that most of the top people in Britain were involved and that Sir Roger Hollis, who was head of the service, was a Soviet agent. The government tried to ban the book to be printed but failed.

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PUTIN INCREASES HIS ARMS - update 29 Sept. 2014

UPDATE:  29 Sept.2014 - Did Mr Putin have a foresight of the coming crisis at that time?

It is good news for the weapon manufacturing industry but adding more worries to the public outlook. Vladimir Putin decided to modernise Russia’s arms and will spend a £450billion to achieve it.

He is planning to upgrade their weaponry on the scale as Stalin had done it in 1930.  He also adds 400 ballistic missiles, 600 warplanes and a new fleet of submarines.

Putin admitted that he was tired of the remarks coming from Western military experts about his outdated arms displayed in the Red Square every year. He also admitted that he needs advice from foreign experts.  He stated that he must put back the defence industry back on a good footing as it was done in 1930.

This is good news and it will increase economics in many countries but will Russia only put a better show on at the next Red Square parade or is there more to it? Since the world is very wobbly and the economic crises are everywhere will it be only a precaution on the Russian site? There is no doubt that the pressure is building up in the Middle East and the West is itching to move in thinking they can stabilizing the countries but usually end up with a bigger chaos creating more hatred towards the West.

This new news needs some looking at it and thinking more about it. Russia and China are backing Iran. Iran is determined to attack and destroy Israel. Israel is determined to be the first one to attack which is to many minds suicide because Iran is so militarised and has two major powers behind it. Furthermore, Mr Putin confirmed again that he will not stop supporting Syria. All we can do sit tight, wait and time will tell. There is now other choice. The leader will not listen to the public who definitely do not want another war. They will not sit down and sort out the problems in a non-military way.

Regarding the good news for the increase of orders for the manufacturing industries it is hoped that David Cameron does his utmost, for once, and secured some contracts for Britain. It would be the boost this country needs and it could be the answer to unemployment. So far he gave three major contracts to other countries which added more unemployment to the country. This was another pledge broken. Well hopefully he charters a private jet as he had done going to the Commonwealth summit and is over there in no time. It was a waste of taxpayers’ money for the Commonwealth summit but it is necessary for going to Moscow and not waits until everybody secured their numbers of contracts.

TWO VERY SPECIAL WOMEN SHAPED UK FUTURE KING

The future king was shaped by two very special women in his life.  First there was his mother Princess Diana, who came from a broken home. 

Her parents were divorced and her mother lost the custody of her children. Diana was only six yeas old and consequently believed her mother didn’t want her.

That planted the seed, to bring her sons up as ‘normal’ as possible and give them all the love, kisses and cuddles she never got. She ignored the royal handbook how to raise children. Surprisingly even Prince Charles was all for it because he was brought up by nannies and didn’t see his parents some times for long period when they had to tour the Commonwealth or were on other overseas trips.

Diana made sure her sons did normal things like going to theme parks, cinemas, and McDonalds and all the time telling them “Boys, there is life outside these palace walls.” It has to be mentioned that till such time the Royal family lived an on a pedestal and apart from parade were never seen amongst the crowd. Princess Diana was way ahead of her time and broken it all down. She used her name and position to influence politician, fought for charities and good courses. She handed it down to her sons and they do an enormous good work in her name now.

She also kept a close relationship with the Queen because she strongly believed she would be a better person, then Charles, to prepare Prince William to become King.

In her famous interview with Panorama in 1995 Diana admitted that she took Prince William and Prince Harry to see homelessness projects, also to see dying aids patients although she told them it was cancer. She added further that she took them to all sort of areas where she was sure any one at that age in the family never been before.

She said: “They have the knowledge – they may never use it, but the seed is there, and I hope it will grow because knowledge is power. I want to have them an understanding of people’s emotions, people’s insecurities, people’s distress and people’s hopes and dreams.

“I would like a monarchy that has more contact with its people.”

But in spite of William learning from his mother of her compassion and empathy he also had to experience his mother’s battle with depression and bulimia. He saw the battles and then the bitter divorce. William and Harry also saw their mother bitter tears.

From the age of 13 he started schooling in Eton and endured the rumours of his mother’s affairs with England rugby captain Will Carling and the Panorama interview. On top of that came the traumatic death of his mother in a Paris car crash. Prince William was 15 and Prince Harry 12. Not only had they to cope with such a tremendous loss but in the public eye. One can’t imagine what if cost them to walk behind their mother’s coffin especially at that age.

Prince William in his grief drew on his mother’s legacy of compassion and it must have been a comfort to know how much the public grieved over his mother’s death. Whatever, her problems were she always touched their hearts and millions loved her for that.

Prince William decided that he would one day continue her work and fulfil her legacy to make her proud of him. William started to visit hospitals secretly as his mother done and comfort a sick child. Held hands with pensioners and in his gap year he was cleaning toilets in Chile.

After the entire dramatic scenes William witnessed he later on wondered if he ever will find true love and a family life. He was very cautious and shy. When he met Kate a commoner studying at the same University William took a long time to commit himself. Also, Kate highly intelligent had to think about to marry into the Royal family and take on a very public role.

Kate in many ways is right the opposite from Diana apart for the warmth and compassion. Diana admitted herself that she did not pass one 0 level and called herself as thick as two planks of wood.

Diana hated sport while Kate loves sports and got involved in many sporty activities in her student’s days.  Kate also gets involved with William’s love for the great outdoor. Diana hated the royals’ hunting, shooting and fishing at Balmorals and Sandringham. 

Diana loved acting silly and had a good giggle with the boys. She could laugh hysterically and uncontrollable about something, the boys admitted.

Kate is more an anchor to William which he needed. He also loves Kate’s family life which he missed out on and goes there to spend time with them, washes up or watches TV. He loves the plain and ordinary life like his mother and so does Kate.

Although Prince Williams was born and destined to be King but he is very much down to earth with which he fulfils his mother’s legacy and she must be smiling down on him. She was also smiling down on them when Prince William and Kate got married as she knew Kate is the perfect girl for him. After all and at the end Princess Diana managed to change the Monarchy and will be making them in a more down-to-earth Royal family to reach their people.