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 A young Imam Homeini  Rachel, a famous Israeli poet
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May 5, 2013 07:35
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  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krystyna_Skarbek Polish WWII heroine and SOE agent Krystyna Skarbek, AKA "Christine Granville". Known as a possible inspiration for the character of Vesper in the James Bond novel Casino Royale. The details of her exploits during the war are incredible. Here is one example: "On 13 August 1944, at Digne, two days before the Allied Operation Dragoon landings in southern France, Cammaerts, Xan Fielding—another SOE agent, who had previously operated in Crete—and a French officer, Christian Sorensen, were arrested at a roadblock by the Gestapo. Skarbek, learning that they were to be executed, managed to meet with Capt. Albert Schenck, an Alsatian who acted as liaison officer between the local French prefecture and the Gestapo. She introduced herself as a niece of British General Bernard Montgomery and threatened Schenck with terrible retribution if harm came to the prisoners. She reinforced the threat with a mercenary appeal—an offer of two million francs for the men's release. Schenck in turn introduced her to a Gestapo officer, a Belgian named Max Waem. For three hours Christine argued and bargained with him and, having turned the full force of her magnetic personality on him... told him that the Allies would be arriving at any moment and that she, a British parachutist, was in constant wireless contact with the British forces. To make her point, she produced some broken... useless W/T crystals.... 'If I were you,' said Christine, 'I should give careful thought to the proposition I have made you. As I told Capitaine Schenck, if anything should happen to my husband [as she falsely described Cammaerts] or to his friends, the reprisals would be swift and terrible, for I don't have to tell you that both you and the Capitaine have an infamous reputation among the locals.' Increasingly alarmed by the thought of what might befall him when the Allies and the Resistance decided to avenge the many murders he had committed, Waem struck the butt end of his revolver on the table and said, 'If I do get them out of prison, what will you do to protect me?'" The agents were released and the event fromed the core of her legend. Sadly she died an untimely and tragic death, murdered by a jilted suitor shortly after the war. With her homeland occupied by the Soviets, it was only fairly she recieved some recognition there.
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May 5, 2013 13:58
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