New MI5 chief's double-agent past

By Michael Evans, Defense Editor
BBC NEWS, April 2002

Words and phrases

to confirm – подтвердить

a double–agent operation – операция с двойным агентом

a former senior officer – бывший старший офицер

to defect – перебежать

leads – «наводка», указание

possible threats – возможные угрозы

spymasters – руководители разведки (враждебной)

maiden name – добрачная («девичья») фамилия

deputy director general – заместитель генерального директора

to succeed – стать преемником

to retire – выйти в отставку

the middle-ranking officer – офицер среднего уровня

the only man I dealt with – единственный, с кем я контактировал

a Chinook helicopter – вертолет марки «Чинук»

special branch – особый отдел

to be recruited – быт завербованным

signing every warrant – подпись каждого ордера

telephone intercepts – прослушивание телефонных разговоров

THE woman who was yesterday confirmed as the next Director-General of MI5 played a leading role in Britain’s most important double-agent operation, it can be disclosed today.

Eliza Manningham-Buller, 53, was one of five people in MI5 who knew that Oleg Gordievsky, the former senior KGB officer who worked for MI6 and defected to Britain in 1985, was a double agent while working as a spy at the Russian Embassy in London.

The responsibilities of Miss Manningham-Buller and the MI5 unit included checking on all the leads provided by Mr Gordievsky about Russian espionage in Britain and protecting him from possible threats to his life from his Russian spymasters in Moscow. Mr Gordievsky said: “I remember Eliza as a brilliant counter-espionage officer. She was bright, sharp and full of colour.”

Miss Manningham-Buller, who uses her maiden name although she is married, is currently Deputy Director-General of MI5. She takes over on October 8, succeeding Sir Stephen Lander, who is retiring after six years. Her appointment was exclusively predicted in The Times last month.

The Gordievsky assignment was so secret that apart from Miss Manningham-Buller’s four colleagues, no one else in MI5 knew about it. One of those in the same counter-espionage branch as her was Michael Bettaney, the middle-ranking MI5 officer who tried to sell secrets to the KGB in London and was sentenced at the Old Bailey in 1984 to 23 years in prison. He was released in 1998.

“He knew nothing about me, otherwise he could have warned the Russians,” Mr Gordievsky said. As it was, it was Mr Gordievsky who warned his British controllers about Bettaney.

Mr Gordievsky said: “Two of the MI5 officers I dealt with apparently sat in the same room as Bettaney. Eliza and the others were amazing. The only man I dealt with at MI5 at the time was John Deverell, deputy head of the service (who was killed in 1994 in the Chinook helicopter crash on the Mull of Kintyre when 25 senior RUC Special Branch officers and MI5 officers died).”

Mr Gordievsky was Britain’s most successful and important spy in the KGB. He was recruited by MI6 in Denmark in the 1970s and was posted by Moscow to London in 1982.

As the current Deputy Director-General, appointed in July 1997, Miss Manningham-Buller is in charge of all MI5 operations and is responsible for signing every warrant for telephone intercepts before approval by the Home Secretary.

She flew to Washington the day after September 11, as part of a British intelligence delegation to offer help to the CIA and FBI in their hunt for the al-Qaeda terrorists.

Her new appointment was decided by David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, and agreed by Tony Blair. She is only the second woman to head MI5 since it was founded in 1909. The first was Dame St ella Rimington, Sir Stephen Lander’s predecessor.

Miss Manningham-Buller, daughter of the late Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller, a Tory MP and Cabinet Minister who became the 1st Viscount Dilhorne when he was appointed Lord Chancellor in the Government of Harold Macmillan, joined MI5 in 1974, after three years as a teacher. She was educated at Northampton High School and Benenden before reading English at Oxford.

Her main work in MI5 has been on counter-terrorism. She led the section which helped to investigate the Lockerbie bomb in 1988 and was later posted to Washington as a senior MI5 liaison officer. Her official curriculum vitae lists her interests as reading, music, crosswords and history. She has no children of her own but her husband has children from a previous marriage.

Задания к тексту

1. Проработайте лексику, данную перед текстом. Прочитайте текст, не пользуясь «Англо-русским словарем».

2. Найдите, где в тексте говорится о том,

- что Олег Гордиевский был старшим офицером разведки;

- что мисс Мэннингем-Буллер лично отвечала за проверку «наводок» от Гордиевского;

- что Элайза является, по мнению Гордиевского, блестящим офицером и остроумным человеком;

- какое учебное заведение она закончила, и кем работала до разведки;

- где рассказывается о семейном положении Элайзы, и что именно;

- где и когда потерпел катастрофу военный вертолет с высокопоставленными сотрудниками британской разведки.

- Сосчитайте, какой срок прошел между «провалом» Беттэни и катастрофой вертолета.

3. Переведите на русский язык некоторые, по-вашему, интересные тезисы в разных частях текста. Попросите одногрупника найти их в тексте по-английски.

4. Выпишите необходимый набор лексики для кратчайшего тезисного изложения текста.

UNIT 2

Тематика: охрана окружающей среды

Текст: Киты возвращаются в океан

<TBODY>July 30, 2002

<NYT_HEADLINE type=" " version="1.0">Rescuers Lead 46 Beached Whales Back to Deeper Waters

</NYT_HEADLINE><NYT_BYLINE type=" " version="1.0">By KATHERINE ZEZIMA

Words and Phrases

to maroon – высадиться на необитаемый остров

beach – побережье; высадиться на побережье (=to strand)

rescuer – спасатель

pod – небольшая группа, стая

Cape Cod Stranding Network – береговая служба округа Кейп Коуд

to drape - заворачивать

sheet – простыня, полотно

sunburn – солнечный ожог

to be euthanized – подвергнуться эвтаназии (усыплению)

to crush - сокрушить

to be buoyant – быть на плаву

huge success – огромный успех

“the bucket brigade” – «ведерная бригада»

susceptible to sunburn – восприимчивы к ожогу

tide – прилив

dorsal fin – спинной плавник

to whistle – свистеть

to make clicking noise – издавать щелкающие звуки

effort to communicate – попытка общаться

to strand – выбрасываться на берег

phenomenon – явление

ever-shifting coastline - постоянно меняющаяся береговая линия

sense of navigation – чувство ориентации

sandbar – песчаная коса

cage - клетка

boundary - граница

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">

ВOSTON, July 29 — More than 50 pilot whales marooned themselves on a beach on Cape Cod Bay today, but most of them were returned to deeper waters after an intense eight-hour effort by rescuers.

Thousands of people watched as 100 rescuers tended to the pod of 55 whales, who were discovered around 6 a.m. on Chapin Beach in Dennis, said Katie Touhey of the Cape Cod Stranding Network.

The rescuers poured buckets of water on the whales, which are, on average, 15 feet long and weigh 3 tons, and draped them with wet white sheets to ward off sunburn. Nine whales died.

One was found dead and another had to be euthanized after going into shock. The other seven died from either sun exposure, shock, or their own body weight, which crushes vital organs when the animals are not buoyant. The others were returned to the bay around 2 p.m.

"This is a huge success story, to put 46 whales back in the ocean," said Christopher Bailey, the public affairs coordinator for the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

The "bucket brigade" of volunteers was crucial, because the whales, who had beached themselves in a large cluster, were completely exposed during low tide, said Ms. Touhey, whose organization tends to beached sea animals. With temperatures rising into the 90's under a strong sun, the whales became susceptible to sunburn, she said.

As the tide came in, trained volunteers tied sheets and blankets underneath the whales and towed them out to sea, while others positioned themselves near the animals' dorsal fins and pushed.

Ms. Touhey said rescuers started with the whales closest to the water, and "peeled them off like an onion," holding them in packs of 5 to 10 and releasing them simultaneously. Volunteers splashed on the water and formed a human chain so the whales would not return to shore.

The whales were whistling and making clicking noises once they were swimming in the water, which Ms. Touhey said showed an effort to communicate. All the whales have been tagged, she said, and the beach, as well as factors like tides, will be monitored closely to make sure the whales do not try to swim ashore again.

Officials do not know why the whales stranded themselves. The phenomenon is common among whales and dolphins on Cape Cod, said Scott Landry of the Center for Coastal Studies.

Mass strandings are especially common among pilot whales, also known as blackfish, which are highly sociable and travel in packs, Mr. Landry said. Scientists theorize that the animals may lose their sense of navigation while feeding or follow a sick animal that has gone astray.

Mr. Landry said the ever-shifting coastline of Cape Cod presented problems. Erosion causes sandbars and parts of coastline to wash away, leading whales to a beach that was once deep water.

"A good metaphor is a wild bird being put in a cage," Mr. Landry said. "All of a sudden they have to deal with boundaries that they've never dealt with before."

In July 2000, 10 pilot whales beached on the Nantucket sand and died. In December 1986, more than 60 of the animals stranded themselves along the Cape Cod coastline.

Задания к тексту

1. Проработайте лексику, данную перед текстом. Прочитайте текст, не пользуясь «Англо-русским словарем».

2. Найдите, где в тексте говорится о том, что

- спасатели боролись за спасение китов в течение восьми часов;

- зачем понадобились спасателям ведра;

- что собственный вес китов стал причиной гибели нескольких животных;

- что вызывало ожоги китов;

- описывается, как люди вытягивали китов в море;

- люди становились цепью в воде, чтобы животные в шоковом состоянии не вернулись на мелководье;

- отношение спасенных животных к людям;

- о причинах выбрасывания китов на берег;

- об изменчивости песчаных побережий.