for the Annual Enigma Reunion
celebrating the 70th anniversary of the arrival of Alan Turing & Gordon Welchman.
My day began listening to Professor Nick Gesslar's talk on Cuban Numbers Station: The Little Spy Engine . Fascinating story revealed of Ana Belen Montes,
US Defence Intelligence Agency's primary intelligence analyst responsible for Cuba and Latin America, arrested days after the 9/11 attacks for espionage: "She had nothing to do with the terrorist strikes, but her arrest had everything to do with protecting the country at a time when national security was of paramount importance." ( from FBI's Case of the Cuban Spy).
Professor Gesslar discussed Scott Carmichael, Defense Intelligence Agency's senior counter-intelligence investigator covering 2000 intelligence agents including Montes. In his book True Believer, Montes is revealed as a rewarded agent who detested the manner in which the US treated its neighbour, Cuba. She considered US's actions cruel, unjust and overly aggressive. Apparently she has these words on a piece of paper pinned to a wall in her prison cell:
The king hath note of all that they intend by interceptions which they dream not of
Lancaster bomber flypasts, and a 1940s fashion show, were other notable parts of an eventful day, as were the company and reminiscence of Julia and Anna, two wonderful ladies I met at Bletchley's excellent 70th anniversary Annual Enigma Reunion.
9.9.09 postscript:
Bletchley Park features in BBC1's The Week We Went to War.
1 comment:
Thanks for these photos. Where was that white exhibition structure located, exactly? Presumably on the lawn near the mansion?
It was 1995 or 1996 that I visited Bletchley Park with a few computer science colleagues. Even though the park was closed, they still let us in and gave us a tour of the Colossus rebuild project.
I will attempt to write a few paragraphs recalling my visit there and what I saw and whom I spoke with, and post it on my (rather fallow, these days!) engineering blog. ;-)
Thanks for all the interesting postings! ~John
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