Word: blunts
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Even the Soviets provided some support. Shortly after National Security Adviser Brzezinski called in Soviet Ambassador Anatoli Dobrynin for coffee, sandwiches and some blunt words, the Soviet radio station that titles itself the National Voice of Iran broadcast a plea that the hostages be freed as a humanitarian move...
That someone from the '30s was Anthony Blunt, 72, the Queen's former art curator and an unmasked Soviet spy, who had emerged from hiding to tell his side of a story that has blossomed into Britain's most dramatic spy scandal in years. Escorted by his lawyer, Blunt appeared at the offices of the London Times for a press conference with four carefully selected journalists that was filmed in part by the BBC and ITV. Offered a fortifying Scotch and a sumptuous lunch (smoked trout, veal, cheese, fruit salad and wine) by the Times, Blunt candidly...
...Blunt insisted that he had stopped spying for the Soviets in 1945, shortly before he was named surveyor of the King's pictures. Six years later, however, he got in touch with a Soviet contact "on behalf of Burgess, a few days before his friend and Donald Maclean escaped to Moscow, just as British agents were closing in on them. But the man who actually tipped them off, Blunt insisted, was the so-called third man in the spy network, H.A.R. ("Kim") Philby. At week's end, Blunt confirmed that, at a later date, he had also contacted...
...Blunt had confessed his role in the spy ring to British counterintelligence agents in 1964; he clearly believed that the immunity from prosecution that he was given at the time in exchange for his further cooperation expiated his guilt. "I feel that I have acted according to my conscience," he said imperturbably. The most he would admit was that "my original action in the 1930s was totally wrong...
...Blunt's self-serving recollections raised numerous questions: How was it possible this confessed spy had been allowed to remain as a trusted adviser to the Queen, even though his expertise was in artistic rather than political matters? Did Her Majesty know of his espionage activities and, if not, why not? Sir Alec Douglas-Home, now Lord Home, who had been Tory Prime Minister when Blunt confessed, allowed that he had not been informed or even consulted when the security service decided to grant Blunt immunity from prosecution. His Attorney General had approved the deal and informed the Home...