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Security & intelligence: new material

01 December 1992

The case for dismantling the secret state Tony Benn. New Left Review no 190 1991 127-130. Review article of "Smear" by Robin Ramsay and Stephen Dorrill.

Access to information allegedly held by the security services

Human Rights Law Journal Vol 12 nos 6-7 pp282-284. Summarises the decision of the European Court to uphold a complaint against the Netherlands government.

The role of the Yugoslav Intelligence and Security Community

Marko Milivojevic in Yugoslavia in Transition: choices and constraints: essays in honour of Fred Singleton edited by John B Allcock John J Horton & Marko Milivojevic. Berg 1992.

Death in the Highlands Amanda Mitchison. Independent magazine

28.3.92 pp24-29. Looks at the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Willie McRae a radical Glasgow lawyer, in 1985. McRae was found slumped in his car with a bullet through his head. The authorities decided it was suicide and the Lord Advocate of Scotland decided that there should not be a Fatal Accident Inquiry (the Scottish equivalent to a coroner's inquest). The article concludes that if the official view is to be believed McRae in a fit of despair was driving too fast and came off the road. He then "dematerialised his two briefcases" (which were later returned by the police) and then "unconscious and brain-dead threw his revolver away into the night". In the background of the case is the Special Branch interest in his political activities and similarities to the 1984 murder of Hilda Murrell who like McRae opposed the development of nuclear power.