17 September 1999 17 September 1999
Johnston,
Bruce. "Britain 'Did Not Tell Italy about Spies.'" Electronic
Telegraph, 17 Sep. 1999. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk]
According to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on 16 September 1999, "the Italian government had first learnt on Tuesday [14 September 1999] that journalists, diplomats, scientists, politicians and high-ranking ministerial employees had spied for the KGB in Italy." The paper said that the Italian government had not been informed of the revelations contained in the KGB files supplied by Vasili Mitrokhin "prior to journalistic revelations of the book by Christopher Andrew."
Reuters. "Britain's BBC Claims New Spy Expose." 17 Sep.
1999.
The BBC said on 17 September that "it had uncovered evidence that a British university economics lecturer spied for ... East Germany's Stasi secret police. In its nightly news bulletin, the BBC said the lecturer had spied for the East Germans for 12 years from 1977 and that ... MI5 had known the male teacher's identity since 1994.... [T]he BBC -- due to screen its expose 'A School for Spies' [on 19 September 1999] -- said the lecturer ... had admitted his codename was 'Armin.'"
18 September 1999 BBC. "Fearsome Stasi Held Nation in Its Grip." 18 Sep. 1999.
[http://news1.thls.bbc. co.uk]
"The Stasi earned a frightening reputation for thoroughness as East Germany's secret police. At its height it employed 85,000 full-time officers, had records on five million East German citizens - one third of the entire population - and had several hundred thousand informers.... One of the abiding images of German reunification is Germans ransacking the Stasi buildings in a bid to remove all traces of the hated secret police's records. However many files were left intact and allegedly among them, were those on Hull University lecturer, Dr Robin Pearson."
Cornwell,
Susan. "UK Pressed for Answers as Third Spy Accused." Reuters,
18 Sep. 1999.
"Britain's opposition demanded an explanation from the government on [18 September 1999] after the third Briton [Robin Pearson, a lecturer at Hull University] in a week was unmasked as a spy for the old Soviet bloc.... [A] Home Office spokeswoman said [Home Secretary Jack] Straw did not plan a statement. She said Straw had first learned of the Pearson case last weekend."
Elgood,
Giles. "More Spies Accused in Growing UK Cold War Scandal." Reuters,
18 Sep. 1999.
In addition to the BBC's accusation that Hull University lecturer Robin Pearson spied for the East German Stasi from 1977, "[t]wo more academics -- Vic Allen, a retired sociology professor, and Gwyneth Edwards, a former German studies lecturer -- were named by three British Sunday newspapers" as having spied for the Stasi.
Lusher,
Adam, Matt Born, Sebastien Berger, and Paul Stokes. "Hull Lecturer
is Unmasked as Stasi Agent." Electronic Telegraph, 18 Sep. 1999.
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk]
According to the BBC, Hull University senior lecturer Robin Pearson was "recruited [by the Stasi] while studying for a year at Karl Marx University in Leipzig ... [and] began supplying information on his fellow students and looking for clues about their politics" after he returned to Edinburgh.
"The BBC said that MI5 had known about his role as a Stasi agent for the past five years but had done nothing. However, it produced no evidence that he had committed any offence under the Official Secrets Act and Dr Pearson appeared to have been only a very low-level agent."
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