The RIP Famous Person Thread

[Mr Lick]

Jock Kane

Jock Kane was a whistleblower who battled to bring sex scandals and security breaches at GCHQ to light





Jock Kane, who has died aged 92, was a wartime RAF special operations radio operator, then worked for the government signal intelligence centre GCHQ, where, after three decades’ service, he became a whistleblower in a scandal that was alleged to have involved sex and security breaches.


Kane was prevented from publishing two books alleging laxness and corruption at GCHQ. Special Branch officers seized the manuscript of his memoir GCHQ: The Negative Asset in March 1984, and an injunction was issued three years later to stop his second, The Hidden Depths of Treachery.


But he was never prosecuted, and the outcome of a secret trial of two journalists, and the chance discovery of a KGB spy whom GCHQ had for years unknowingly harboured in its midst, gave the ring of truth to his assertions.


Kane wrote the books out of frustration after waging a long campaign to end what he said were fraudulent activities widespread in GCHQ, which he claimed could expose staff to blackmail by hostile agencies. In particular, he detailed laxness at GCHQ’s Little Sai Wan establishment, Hong Kong, where he had worked until 1976. His complaints, first aired in 1973, centred on lost secret documents and a lack of supervision of Chinese cleaners who, he said, were passing on material that had been collected from waste paper baskets.


His concerns became public knowledge after the defence at the 1978 “ABC” trial at the Old Bailey used, in court, information received from Kane. The judge, Mr Justice Mars-Jones, said he considered the charges of revealing government secrets “oppressive”, and the journalists Crispin Aubrey and Duncan Campbell received conditional discharges.




Little Sai Wan as an RAF base. It was transferred to GCHQ in 1964

As a result, television investigators and other journalists fastened on Kane’s allegations and carried inquiries further. A Granada Television World in Action documentary claimed to have discovered a brothel, disguised as a massage service, in a hotel where GCHQ reserved 30 rooms for the use of visiting staff, and which corruptly won its business from the organisation.

Two years later it emerged that, while Kane had been taking his allegations about GCHQ up the chain of command and to MPs and ministers, the man who would be regarded as the KGB’s most important British agent of the 1970s, Geoffrey Prime, had been giving away secrets for more than a decade while employed at the eavesdropping service’s Cheltenham’s headquarters. Prime resigned from GCHQ in 1977, and his spying was revealed only in 1982 after he was arrested in connection with sexual offences against young girls. For the sexual offences Prime was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment; for betraying secrets he received 35 years. He was released from prison in 2009.

John Kane was born at Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, on April 7 1921 and was left an only child when his mother died in childbirth when he was two. His father brought him up with the help of aunts and other relations, and he was educated at St Patrick’s High School, Coatbridge. On joining the RAF in 1939 he trained as a radio operator at Blackpool, and later flew on sorties from Cornwall over the Atlantic with the task of calibrating radar signals.

He served in North Africa and Italy, and in 1944 was sent into occupied Yugoslavia and then into heavy fighting in Greece. At Athens airport the situation appeared so desperate that he was given provisional orders to destroy his radio and encryption equipment. Help arrived just in time and the equipment survived.

While in Greece he met his future wife, Alexandra, a member of the Greek resistance who had spent a year in prison from 1941 for helping to evacuate British and Australian soldiers stranded there after the Nazi invasion . The couple exchanged letters, and married in London in 1949.

Kane was recruited by GCHQ on leaving the RAF at the end of the war, and was posted to Hawklaw near Cupar in Fife. He later served in Istanbul, Aden, Singapore, Hong Kong and Belfast.

His marriage to Alexandra, with whom he had two sons, was dissolved, and she died in 1999. With his second wife, Cynthia, whom he married in 1983, he moved to Barton on Sea, Hampshire, where he worked as a milkman and school bus driver. She survives him with the sons of his first marriage.

Jock Kane, born April 7 1921, died September 27 2013

[Cujo]

On joining the RAF in 1939 he trained as a radio operator at Blackpool, and later flew on sorties from Cornwall over the Atlantic with the task of calibrating radar signals.

He served in North Africa and Italy, and in 1944 was sent into occupied Yugoslavia and then into heavy fighting in Greece. At Athens airport the situation appeared so desperate that he was given provisional orders to destroy his radio and encryption equipment. Help arrived just in time and the equipment survived.

Kane was recruited by GCHQ on leaving the RAF at the end of the war, and was posted to Hawklaw near Cupar in Fife. He later served in Istanbul, Aden, Singapore, Hong Kong and Belfast.

And then there's Smeg.

[Mr Lick]

where he worked as a milkman and school bus driver

Just two of GCHQ's clever undercover operations

[Mr Lick]

Massive blow to the universe


Doner kebab 'inventor' Kadir Nurman dies in Berlin




Meat carved from a skewer had long been a popular choice in Turkey - Kadir Nurman's innovation was to serve it in a flat bread


The Turkish immigrant credited with inventing the doner kebab has died in Berlin aged 80.

Kadir Nurman set up a stall in West Berlin in 1972, selling grilled meat and salad inside a flat bread.

He had noticed the fast pace of city life and thought busy Berliners might like a meal they could carry with them.

While there are other possible "doner inventors," Mr Nurman's contribution was recognised by the Association of Turkish Doner Manufacturers in 2011.

The combination of juicy meat, sliced from a rotating skewer, with all the trimmings and optional chilli sauce, has since become a firm fast-food favourite in Germany, and elsewhere.



A doner kebab with all the trimmings

According to the Berlin-based Association of Turkish Doner Manufacturers in Europe, there are now 16,000 doner outlets in Germany.

More than 1,000 exist in Berlin to tempt peckish late-night revellers on the capital's streets.

German companies producing the meat and the machinery for grilling supply 80% of the EU market, the BBC's Steve Evans reports from Berlin.

Mr Nurman, who emigrated to Germany in 1960, did not patent his invention, and thus did not particularly profit from the doner's subsequent success.

But in a 2011 interview with the Frankfurter Rundschau, he expressed little bitterness.

He was happy that so many Turkish people were able to make a living from doners, he said, and that millions of people ate them

[peterpan]

I do love a Doner, in Melbourne had one every 2nd day, a few years ago when I was in the UK the thought crossed my mind early on morning, so Off, I went, intend on nice juicy Doner.
The instant I bit into it I realized a Doner in the UK is not the same as one in OZ, they make them from recycled tyres there!

[FloridaBorn]

Marcia Wallace a pretty funny character actor I remember from the Newhart show in my youth was also a voice of the Simpsons..



Marcia Wallace, Star of 'The Simpsons' and 'Bob Newhart Show,' Dies at 70

Marcia Wallace, an Emmy-winning character actress on two of TV's most enduring shows, has died. She was 70.
Wallace passed away Friday in Los Angeles. Her cause of death was not immediately announced, but Cathryn Michon, who co-wrote and directed Wallace's final movie, "Muffin Top," gave this statement to Deadline: "She passed at 9 p.m. last night due to complications from breast cancer of which she was a long and proud survivor and advocate for women and healing. Ironically it was during breast cancer awareness month during which she was always a funny ray of hope for so many. I’m devastated."

Marcia Wallace, Star of 'The Simpsons' and 'Bob Newhart Show,' Dies at 70 | Yahoo TV - Yahoo TV

[harrybarracuda]

I do love a Doner, in Melbourne had one every 2nd day, a few years ago when I was in the UK the thought crossed my mind early on morning, so Off, I went, intend on nice juicy Doner.
The instant I bit into it I realized a Doner in the UK is not the same as one in OZ, they make them from recycled tyres there!

We had a bit of a scandal when a group of neighbours complained about the flies and smells emanating from the back of a kebab shop. When they investigated, they found the remnants of dozens of stray cats...

[daveboy]

Influential American rock musician Lou Reed has died aged 71, reports say - Americas - World - The Independent

[blue]

Rock legend Lou Reed dead at 71: Music fans in mourning after The Velvet Underground founder and American icon passes away | Mail Online

Lou Reed, the singer and guitarist of 1960s rock band The Velvet Underground, has died.
He was 71.

Reed was known for his distinctive deadpan voice and deeply personal and explicit lyrics.

In a career that spanned more than five decades, Reed was a rock 'n' roll frontman, a glam rock god and an avante garde musician who defied categorization.

Should have joined the 27 club ...

The Walk On The Wild Side has fantastic bass line - written by Herby Flowers , who also wrote the Clive Dunn 'Classic' - Grandad ,
Not many people know that .
Shame the walk song was spoilt by being about faggots .

[blue]

you sneaky %%%% Dave I thought I'd finally finally got my first RIP....

[Neo]

A sad day indeed..

[November Rain]

A sad day

Very.

[patsycat]

Now that one has brought a tear to my eye.

RIP Lou Reed.

[Boon Mee]

One of the best... Lou Reed was very good

[peterpan]

Me as well patsy, listened to "wild side" and shed a tear for a great man.

[misskit]

Get out the black armbands. What a sad day.

[taxexile]

Reed was known for his distinctive deadpan voice and deeply personal and explicit lyrics.

he was a miserable bastard, an overrated lightweight compared to bowie and cale. but rip anyway.

[Latindancer]

Yes. JJ Cale....now THAT hurt ! His music was full of playful romantic positivity. Real soul.

[The Muffinman]

Reed was known for his distinctive deadpan voice and deeply personal and explicit lyrics.

he was a miserable bastard, an overrated lightweight compared to bowie and cale. but rip anyway.

Agreed, he was a right miserable prick.
I once worked as a stage hand at a festival (Livid Brisbane 2000).
Everyone working that night were instructed not to look at him as he walked from the backstage area to the stage as it might upset him.
Wrote some great tunes though!
Anyway...another of the great ones gone, Rest in Peace Lou, and thanks for Berlin...a great album.

[Rupert Wanger]

i met him backstage in Manchester at G-Mex...........nice guy

[harrybarracuda]

Brig. Gen. Robinson Risner, one of the nation’s most decorated pilots in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, who spent seven and a half years in the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” prison after being shot down, died on Tuesday at his home in Bridgewater, Va. He was 88.



Lt. Col. Robinson Risner was captured in 1965 by the North Vietnamese.
He died after a series of strokes, the Air Force said.

General Risner, who was promoted to the rank of brigadier general at his retirement in 1976, was shot down in September 1965 during a mission to destroy a missile site. Then a lieutenant colonel, he turned out to be the highest-ranking officer at Hoa Lo Prison, which American prisoners of war called the Hanoi Hilton. For the first five years — after which higher-ranking officers came to the prison — he helped organize inmates to make complaints about the conditions and to boost morale.

One of his major acts of defiance was helping to organize a church service in 1971, even though he knew he would be punished. As guards led him away to yet another spell in solitary confinement, more than 40 P.O.W.’s sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” to show support. He was later asked how he felt at that moment.

“I felt like I was nine feet tall and could go bear hunting with a switch,” he said. In 2001, a nine-foot-tall statue of General Risner was installed at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs to commemorate that declaration.

Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who also was held at the Hanoi Hilton after his own fighter-bomber was shot down, said in a statement that General Risner was “an inveterate communicator, an inspiration to the men he commanded and a genuine American hero.”

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, also a Vietnam veteran, praised General Risner’s “constant resistance” to “relentless torture.”

Before his incarceration, General Risner had established himself as one of America’s top pilots. In Korea, he shot down eight MIG-15 fighters. In 1957, when he was a major, he was chosen to fly an F-100F Super Sabre jet named the Spirit of St. Louis II to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Charles A. Lindbergh’s trans-Atlantic flight on the same route. He did it in 6 hours and 37 minutes, a fifth of Lindbergh’s time, setting a new trans-Atlantic record.

In Vietnam, General Risner was awarded the Air Force Cross for bravery. He was hit by enemy fire on four out of five consecutive missions. Time magazine put a portrait of him on the cover of its April 23, 1965, issue as an exemplar of the modern American warrior. In the article, he called himself “the luckiest man in the world.”

Then he wasn’t so lucky.

He was shot down, for the second time in Vietnam. It turned out that his North Vietnamese captors had read the Time article; they waved the magazine under his nose. An interrogator claimed that the only three people they would rather have captured were President Lyndon B. Johnson, Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara and Secretary of State Dean Rusk.

“They thought I was much more important than I ever was,” General Risner told Air Force magazine.

General Risner spent more than three years in solitary confinement, in total darkness. He once experienced an anxiety attack, but knew he would be beaten if he screamed. He stuffed a blanket in his mouth.

His advice to the men he commanded combined the heroic and the practical. “Resist until you are tortured,” he said, “but do not take torture to the point where you lose the permanent use of your limbs.”

When he was released in 1973, General Risner received another Air Force Cross for his gallantry as a P.O.W. His many other medals include the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star and the Distinguished Flying Cross.

His memoir of his time as a prisoner, “The Passing of the Night: My Seven Years as a Prisoner of the North Vietnamese,” was published in 1974.

James Robinson Risner was born on Jan. 16, 1925, in Mammoth Spring, Ark., where his father was a sharecropper. He did odd jobs in his youth, competed in rodeos and graduated from high school. He enlisted in the Army Air Forces as an aviation cadet in 1943 and flew fighters in Panama, but did not see combat. After the war, he joined the Oklahoma Air National Guard and learned to fly the F-51 Mustang.

He was recalled to fly in Korea, but had a broken wrist from falling off a horse. He convinced a flight surgeon that it was healed, but he was able to fly his first mission only after removing a cast. Until the Vietnam War, he was assigned to various bomber and fighter groups in the United States and Europe.

General Risner’s first marriage ended in divorce. He is survived by his wife, Dorothy; his sons Timothy, Daniel and David; his daughters Dana Duyka, Deborah Darrell and DeAnna Parker; 14 grandchildren; and his sister, Peggy Goldstein.

In later years, General Risner participated in reunions of airmen. At a gathering in the 1990s, he met a Russian MIG-15 ace who had been in Korea at the same time. The other pilot wondered if they had ever faced each other in combat.

“No way,” General Risner replied. “You wouldn’t be here.”

[billy the kid]

was in sweden in late 1968 with my stunning new lady and got invited to a friend's birthday bash,, sucked on a couple o fat ones and the someone played 'white light' with a lil too much volumn and it blew me away.
listened to it 30 yrs. later and thought 'jees switch it off'.
always enjoyed Lou Reed in 70's and 80's
RIP.

[xanax]

wasn't Lou Reed a degenerate unpleasant drug user who wrote miserable songs? can't see what all the sentiment is about, no great loss to the world.

[Mid]

vale Lou .

[pompeysbroke]

His music will be around forever..one of the greats, RIP LOU REED