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MI6: accountable or secret?

01 July 1992

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The government has announced that MI6, the secret service (the UK equivalent of the CIA), is to be put on the same legal basis as MI5. In May, John Major became the first Prime Minister to admit that MI6 actually existed (it was founded in 1911), and acknowledged that it is currently headed by Sir Colin McColl.

This new "openness" however does not mean that past secrets and operations are about to be revealed. A letter from the MI6 welfare officer to former staff says that this development in no way changes the practice whereby existing or former agents say nothing at all about MI6's organisation and do not disclose names of former colleagues. "The avowal of the Service", the letter says, does not mean that we can reveal anything about our previous association with the Service to outsiders . The letters were numbered and labelled "Accountable letters".

Guardian, 27.5.92.

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