Stella Rimington, Britain's first female MI5 spy chief, dies at 90
Born in London in 1935, Ms. Rimington studied English at Edinburgh University and later worked as an archivist. She was living in India with her diplomat husband in the mid-1960s when she was recruited by MI5, Britain's domestic security service, as a part-time clerk and typist in its New Delhi office.
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She joined the agency full-time after moving back to London in 1969 and rose through the ranks, overcoming rules that kept the most prestigious roles, such as recruiting and running agents, for men only.
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She worked in each of MI5's operational branches — counterespionage, counterterrorism, and counter-subversion — at a time when MI5's work included sniffing out Soviet spies, infiltrating Northern Ireland militant groups, and, controversially, spying on leftists, trade union leaders, and other alleged subversives.
Ms. Rimington acknowledged in 2001 that the organization 'may have been a bit over-enthusiastic' in some of its snooping on domestic targets during the Cold War.
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Ms. Rimington was appointed MI5 director-general in 1992, the first head of the organization to be named in public, and her tenure saw the secretive organization become slightly more open.
Dench's first appearance as M, a role formerly played by men, was in 'GoldenEye' in 1995. The film's producers said the casting was inspired by Ms. Rimington's appointment.
After stepping down in 1996, Ms. Rimington was made a dame, the female equivalent of a knight, by Queen Elizabeth II.
Ms. Rimington later published a memoir, 'Open Secret' — to the displeasure of the government — and a series of spy thrillers featuring fictional MI5 officer Liz Carlyle.
'The Devil's Bargain,' published in 2022, introduced a new heroine, CIA officer Manon Tyler.
Other women followed her top intelligence jobs. Eliza Manningham-Buller led MI5 between 2002 and 2007.
Ms. Rimington and her husband, John Rimington, separated in the 1980s, but moved back in together during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.
'It's a good recipe for marriage, I'd say,' she said. 'Split up, live separately, and return to it later.'
She is survived by her husband, two daughters, and five grandchildren.
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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Stella Rimington, first woman to lead UK's MI5 dies at 90
Stella Rimington, the first woman to head the UK's domestic secret service MI5, has died at the age of 90, the spy agency announced on Monday. Rimington, who led MI5 from 1992 to 1996, was widely believed to be the inspiration behind the female role of M in the James Bond movies, played by UK star Judi Dench. She was the first director general of the intelligence service who was publicly named, as before Rimington's appointment in 1992, MI5 chiefs were never officially identified or photographed. Publication of her identity caused a press frenzy. "As the first avowed female head of any intelligence agency in the world, Dame Stella broke through long-standing barriers and was a visible example of the importance of diversity in leadership," the current MI5 director general Ken McCallum said in a statement. "Her leadership ushered in a new era of openness and transparency about the work MI5 does to keep this country safe, a legacy that continues to this day." MCallum presented his condolences to Rimington's husband, two daughters, and her whole family after her death on Sunday. In a statement, her family said: "She died surrounded by her beloved family and dogs and determinedly held on to the life she loved until her last breath." Born on May 13, 1935, in the southern London district of South Norwood, Rimington was first employed as a part-time typist at the British embassy in Delhi, having accompanied her diplomat husband to India. She then joined MI5 in a full-time post in 1969. Dubbed the "housewife superspy", the agency said Rimington had held various roles including in counter-subversion, counter-espionage and counter-terrorism. During her time as director general, the agency "underwent far-reaching transformation", the statement said. It also moved its headquarters and "instituted a policy of greater public openness to demystify the work of MI5, including beginning a programme of releasing MI5 files to The National Archives". But Rimington triggered controversy when she published her memoirs "Open Secret" in 2001 after her retirement, with some accusing her of treason and MI5 of trying to block the publication. "It was quite upsetting because suddenly you go from being an insider to being an outsider and that's quite a shock," she told The Guardian daily newspaper at the time. But she added: "I've never been one to retreat at the first whiff of gunshot." Another woman, Eliza Manningham-Butler, took up the helm of MI5 between 2002-2007. And Blaise Metreweli was named in June as the first female head of the UK's overseas spy service MI6. alm-jkb/bc
Fox News
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WILLIAM SHIPLEY: What the Durham Annex tells us about the Russiagate hoax
On July 31 and Aug. 1, The New York Times ran two stories pouring cold water on the release of the previously classified "Annex" to the Report of Special Counsel John Durham dated May 23, 2023. But the authors – Charlie Savage and Adam Goldman – misdirected their readers' attention from the start to a non-issue, with the help of a literally false headline claiming Durham found certain documents in the Annex to have been "faked" by Russian intelligence. That's the basis upon which the Times, Washington Post, Politico, network news, and other legacy media have myopically focused their reporting on the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation of President Trump – which we know was "faked" by the FBI, CIA, and Obama White House. Part of Durham's investigation looked into why the FBI did NOTHING – literally – after first receiving the Russian intelligence information in late July 2016, as contrasted with how the FBI reacted to information nearly 60 days old received from an Australian diplomat about a meeting in a London bar. The Annex includes previously classified information on the receipt of "Special Intelligence" throughout the first part of 2016 from a friendly foreign government, showing Russia's seemingly real-time knowledge of the inner machinations of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. The Annex is a document authored by Durham's team. Since the source documents upon which the Russian memos were based were not provided – or at least not made public – the accuracy of Russian memos' paraphrasing/referencing to the source documents is unknown. All those qualifiers go to the work of "analysis" – what is this document, where does it originate, what does it say, what does it rely upon, can it be corroborated separately, what is our level of confidence in accepting the contents as accurate at face value, etc.? Two items that have attracted the most attention, and which the Times' stories focus on, are "emails" purportedly written by Leonard Bernardo, dated July 25 and July 27, 2016. Bernardo worked for a George Soros-related entity. His emails were hacked, and he had communications with senior Clinton campaign officials. The Annex does not have actual "emails" as you might find them on Bernardo's computer or a recipient's computer – they have none of the typical email formatting. What they appear to be are "retyped" versions of the text in the body of emails into a Russian language memo, the Russian memo was translated into English, with Durham "cutting & pasting" the English translation into his report. The July 25 "email" includes the allegation that Hillary Clinton approved a plan conceived by a "foreign policy adviser" to "vilify" then-candidate Donald Trump by falsely linking him to Russia Pres. Putin. As for the Russian language memo – we don't know the date -- Durham provides an English translation that includes the following: "According to data from the election campaign headquarters of Hillary Clinton, obtained via the U.S. Soros Foundation, on July 26, 2016, Clinton approved a plan by her policy advisor Juliana Smith … to smear Donald Trump by magnifying the scandal tied to the intrusion Russian special services in the pre-election process to benefit the Republican candidate." The Russian memo says next "As envisioned by Smith…." This suggests that maybe among the documents supporting the memo is a description of Smith's plan either by Smith herself or someone else familiar enough with the details to describe it. "As envisioned by Smith, raising the theme of 'Putin's support for Trump' to the level of the Olympic scandal would divert constituents' attention from the investigation of Clinton's compromised electronic correspondence." The Russian memo, which had to have been written after July 27 since it had contents from a July 27 email in it, describes precisely what followed over the next 100 days leading up to the election – establishing "Putin's support for Trump" was the goal of the supposed "plan." The Russian memo goes on: "…by subsequently steering public opinion towards the notion that it [the public] needs to equate 'Putin's efforts' to influence political processes in the United States via cyberspace to acts against critically important infrastructure (resembling a national power supply network) would force the White House [read "OBAMA"] to use more confrontational scenarios vis-à-vis Moscow…." 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But he found other emails – either emails or attachments to emails sent by people other than Bernardo – with language identical to Bernardo. Specifically, a passage in the July 25 email was taken directly from an email written by Tim Mauer, who worked for the Carnegie Endowment as a cyber expert. Mauer had never seen the Bernardo emails but agreed that one passage was taken from an email he had sent to colleagues at Carnegie – also hacked by the Russians. Durham also interviewed Julianne Smith, who was a Clinton campaign foreign policy advisor, and who did involve herself in efforts to amplify the threat of the Putin-Trump relationship to U.S. national security. It is noteworthy that Durham begins this portion as follows: "Smith stated she did not specifically remember proposing a plan to Clinton or other Campaign leadership to try to tie Trump to Putin and Russia." That phrasing is never accidental – "did not specifically remember" leaves much room to extricate oneself if a document emerges later that says what it is you claim to not remember. Agents are trained to note such phrases exactly as stated by the person being interviewed. Smith did say "it was possible" she had proposed ideas to campaign leadership "who may have approved those ideas." Again – Durham is showing her emails about a "Clinton Plan" she supposedly hatched, and she cannot be confident what other documents he might have that he isn't showing her. While she didn't remember much of anything about anything, the one thing she was certain of is that she would never have made a proposal that had as part of its execution the involvement of the FBI in furtherance of the effort. Prior to Durham, the FBI did none of this – and has never offered an explanation for why. THAT was the point made by Durham's Annex.
UPI
2 hours ago
- UPI
Stella Rimington, first female chief of Britain's MI5, dies at 90
A file photograph shows Dame Stella Rimington, the first female director of the British Security Service, commonly known as MI5 (Military Intelligence, Section 5), during the presentation of her novel 'The invisible' in Madrid in January 2009. Rimington died Sunday night at the age of 90. File Photo by Angel Diaz/EPA Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Stella Rimington, the first female chief of the British Security Service MI5 and the first woman to "head any intelligence agency in the world," has died at the age of 90. Rimington, who joined MI5 as a typist in the mid-1960s in India and was the inspiration behind Judi Dench's M in the James Bond series, died Sunday night. She was "surrounded by her beloved family and dogs and determinedly held on to the life she loved until her last breath," her family said in a statement. Rimington joined MI5 full-time in 1969 and was promoted to director general in 1992. Born in 1935 in south London, Rimington's career with MI5 was dominated by the Cold War and threats from the Soviet Union. Not only was she the first female chief, she was also the first director general to be publicly identified when appointed. Her roles with the agency included "counter-subversion, counter-espionage and counter-terrorism," MI5 said Monday in a statement on its website. "She oversaw MI5 taking lead responsibility for countering Irish republican terrorism in Great Britain, the move of MI5's headquarters to Thames House and instituted a policy of greater public openness to demystify the work of MI5, including beginning a program of releasing MI5 files to The National Archives." Rimington retired from MI5 in 1996 and was made Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath that same year. "I'm proud that I was the first woman DG and that, during the time I was there, MI5 changed from being an old-fashioned closet organization," Rimington told the Guardian in 2011. "I still thought the essence of the Cold War and spies and stuff was fun. You know, going around listening to people's telephones and opening their mail and stuff," she said in a separate interview after leaving the agency in 2001. Rimington wrote her autobiography, "Open Secret," that same year, followed by a series of eight novels with a fictitious MI5 officer, named Liz Carlyle. She also wrote two more novels with the character Manon Tyler as a CIA agent. Current MI5 director general Ken McCallum paid tribute to Rimington on Monday, calling her "the first publicly avowed Director General of MI5" and the "first avowed female head of any intelligence agency in the world." "Her leadership ushered in a new era of openness and transparency about the work MI5 does to keep this country safe," he said, "a legacy that continues to this day." Notable deaths of 2025 Loni Anderson Actress Loni Anderson arrives on the orange carpet for the Race to Erase MS Gala in Beverly Hills, Calif., on May 10, 2019. Anderson, best known for her Actress Loni Anderson arrives on the orange carpet for the Race to Erase MS Gala in Beverly Hills, Calif., on May 10, 2019. Anderson, best known for her scene-stealing role as receptionist Jennifer in the sitcom "WKRP in Cincinnati" and for her real-life marriage to late actor Burt Reynolds, died at the age of 79 on August 3. Photo by Chris Chew/UPI | License Photo
