Does anyone remember this story? At the time it came out I was living in Vancouver - the only conservative in the whole city - and had no one to talk to about such news items. this woman reminded me so much of Maddie Albright.
****Britain's MI5 chief ordered to explain why great-granny spy not prosecuted****
Mrs. Norwood, a former secretary at British Non-Ferrous Metal Research Association which helped develop the atomic bomb, began spying in 1937 and continued until her retirement in 1972
London - The Associated Press
A Cabinet minister on Monday met the head of Britain's MI5 intelligence agency to determine why a great-grandmother who gave Britain's atomic secrets to the Soviet Union was never prosecuted.
Home Secretary Jack Straw met Stephen Lander as the government came under increasing pressure to prosecute 87-year-old Melita Norwood.
Straw made no immediate comment after the meeting. Aides said a statement would be issued later on Monday.
Even Mrs. Norwood's daughter, expressing astonishment at the 40-year spying career of her mother, a former secretary, said she should be questioned - but not prosecuted.
"She has very clear views on issues. I am surprised she took it this far but I understand why she did it," Anita Ferguson, 56, said in a British Broadcasting Corp. television interview. "... I do believe she should be investigated. She should be questioned by police."
In her modest house in Bexley Heath, a suburban sprawl southwest of London, Mrs. Norwood, totally unrepentant, laughed at all the fuss, The Times of London reported.
"Oh dear, this is all so different from my quiet little life," The Times, which had two reporters spend on Sunday with her, quoted her as saying. "I thought I'd got away with it."
Mrs. Norwood and another British spy, a corrupt former London policeman, John Symonds, 64, were unmasked in a new book based on KGB archives smuggled out of the Soviet Union by Vasili Mitrokhin.
An archivist for the Soviet intelligence service, Mitrokhin defected to the West in 1992.
The Times of London began serializing the book, "The Mitrokhin Archive," by Cambridge academic Christopher Andrew on Saturday, thus introducing Mrs. Norwood and much other information on Soviet espionage activities to the world.
For example, The Times reported on Monday, the books reveals that caches of booby-trapped weapons hidden by Soviet agents for possible sabotage attacks, are hidden all over north America, Europe, Israel and Japan, and are now unstable.
A key question is how long MI5 knew about the new spies - more are expected to be identified - after Mitrokhin defected, whether MI5 concealed the information from government ministers, and who decided not to prosecute.
Straw, a member of Prime Minister Tony Blair's 2 1/2-year-old Labor Party government says he knew nothing about Mrs. Norwood. His predecessor also denies knowledge.
"Many spies have been jailed for up to 40 years," said opposition Conservative Party spokeswoman Ann Widdecombe, leading calls for prosecution.
Mrs. Norwood, a former secretary at British Non-Ferrous Metal Research Association which helped develop the atomic bomb, began spying in 1937 and continued until her retirement in 1972, the book said.
In a statement she read out at the weekend, the frail, lifelong member of Britain's tiny Communist Party said she would do it all again.
Mitrokhin, 77, is living in Britain under a false name with round-the-clock protection, The Times said on Monday.
Ex-policeman Symonds says in a BBC documentary to be broadcast Sept. 19 - excerpts were screened on Sunday - that the Soviets trained him as a "Romeo agent," who seduced women working at Western embassies into revealing secret information.
"It was very pleasant, I was taught by ... two extremely beautiful girls," he added.
Symonds fled Britain in the 1970s, and was recruited by the KGB in Morocco, returned home in 1980, was jailed for two years for corruption, then sold his story about spying to London's Daily Express in 1985. Officials apparently dismissed it.
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/archives.php?id=14096
I didn't remember that story at all, maica. Bump for later read tomorrow morning.