Quote:Will the Guardian please stop running cosy interviews with former heads of the British security and intelligence services (Stella Rimington, October 18) which are somewhat evasive of the truth? As some actual Guardian-reading serving and ex-service officers know, much of what Stella Rimington said would not stand up to a harsh and probing parliamentary inquiry.

Contrary to what she says, MI5 agents have certainly been killed in the field - especially in Northern Ireland, where they would fill a small graveyard. (Who was ex-British army double agent and counterintelligence chief Stakeknife disposing of?) Sections of MI5 have certainly, in the past, acted like the East German Stasi (the reason why ex-agents such as David Shayler became outraged and walked out).

The security service is now poised - with its new massive database that tracks everyone, everywhere, soon to be introduced by Gordon Brown - to have far more power to abuse with impunity than the old Stasi ever had.

I might also mention embarrassing allegations of MI5 being involved in renditions etc, which bring no honour to this country or the service, and are illegal. Stella has absolutely nothing to say, of course, about such things. Guardian readers expect harsh, critical and sceptical journalistic inquiries into the darker recesses of the security service, not this kind of apologetic interview.

Will you now publish a balancing article, from MI5's victims, such as Colin Wallace (and myself), of whom there are many? Or are some Guardian readers more interviewable than others and their victims invisible?

Graham Ennis
Brighton, East Sussex