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Mr Miliband said the codebreakers should never be forgotten

Men and women who worked in top secret to break Nazi Germany's military codes during WWII have been publicly honoured 60 years on.

Some of the surviving veterans gathered at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, to receive commemorative badges from Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

Mr Miliband said: "The people of Bletchley Park helped win the war... we must never forget."

Many historians agree the codebreakers' efforts shortened the war by two years.

Their success allowed the Allies to know in advance what German forces were planning.

Mr Miliband added: "They made a decisive contribution to the actions we took on the battlefield through the most startling intelligence breakthroughs.

"We must never forget the contribution they made."

Roll of honour

The secret of the cracking of the German enigma code was kept from the public until the 1970s.

About 10,000 people worked on breaking codes during the war. About 1,500 are still alive, 35 of whom were invited to receive their badges in person on Friday.

BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera said the Bletchley Park men and women - who worked in conditions of "utmost secrecy" - had finally been given public recognition.

"After so long in the shadows the contribution of the codebreakers has at last been recognised," he said.

Last week, badges were given out to some former workers during an event at Bletchley Park's modern replacement, GCHQ in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

And in July some veterans were given commemorative badges in a service attended by The Duke of Kent, when the award was first launched.

Veterans who are no longer alive will be commemorated by a Roll of Honour, to be put on display at Bletchley Park.

 

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.

For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."

It makes perfect sense. Read this press release.

Last week, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) announced continued growth for its global corporate GHG emissions registry. CDP has become the defacto global GHG emissions repository, with 66% of the S&P 500 now reporting. Notably, more firms are reporting Scope 3 emissions despite the difficulties and expense in gathering this data. The participation rate will continue to increase as large companies like HP, Bank of America, and, especially, Walmart push their suppliers to report to the CDP. Indeed, a soon-to-be-released research report from Greentech Media forecasts CDP participation rates at large firms will increase from 35% today to 80% in the next 18 months. Firms not reporting to CDP by the end of 2010 will look like laggards.

66% of the US Standard and Poors companies now reporting greenhouse gas emissions via CDP. That's a tipping point for sure.

... Thousands of people worked at Bletchley Park during World War Two to decode messages that the German forces transmitted, most notably by Hitler to the German high command. The cracking of the codes used, the use of the intelligence gained and the subsequent related actions of the Allies is said to have shortened World War Two by two years possibly saving 22 million lives. The critical importance of Bletchley Park in world history cannot be denied.

via savingbletchleypark.org

Bletchley Park is full of secret history.

The place the computer was invented, and really, I'd say the place that the second world war was won. Worth visiting, and worth keeping hold of.