OTHER SIDE OF STALKER

As the principal liaison contact with United Kingdom law enforcement for the last 3 1/2 years, I must take issue with Kevin Gallagher’s review of “The Stalker Affair” (Book Review, May 22) and Jack Miles’ Endpapers, “John Stalker and the Return of the Irish Question” (Book Review, May 29). Both seemed to convey an acceptance of John Stalker’s assertions as fact and gave the impression that he was the victim of mass conspiracy involving his former associates to stymie his investigation of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

British policing has a well-deserved reputation for excellence and integrity and from my experience here, it would be inconceivable for such events to have taken place. Stalker’s own problems were the result of concerns over his alleged friendship with an individual currently awaiting trial on a major fraud charge and not the result of “coordinated Masonic influences in the RUC, Orange Order and the Greater Manchester Police.” He was, as you pointed out, not charged with any wrongdoing, but it would be naive of him to think that such allegations could be ignored or resolved in any other manner.

I am not familiar with the details of Stalker’s inquiry in Northern Ireland, but I do know what a difficult and dangerous task the RUC has in policing a community where extremists on both sides resort to the most inhuman acts of terrorism, with the RUC as their prime target. We often forget that PIRA (Provisional IRA) and INLA (Irish National Liberation Army) and their Protestant counterparts are among the world’s most sophisticated and vicious terrorists. PIRA, with their Marxist philosophy, have as their stated aim the establishment of a single socialist state in Ireland. Combating the threat posed by these groups has taken a tremendous toll on the RUC.

Since I arrived in London in early February, 1985, terrorists have murdered 53 police officers in Northern Ireland. The RUC has slain two individuals, one during a purely criminal incident and the other died when he was struck with a baton during a riot. Hardly the action of “a Central American assassination squad.” “The Stalker Affair” appeared to me to be a self-serving collection of opinion disguised as facts.

DARRELL W. MILLS

LEGAL ATTACHE

U.S. EMBASSY

LONDON, ENGLAND