Ex MI5 chief: 'Don't demonise Muslim community'

It is a decade since four suicide bombers struck with multiple attacks on London's transport network, killing 52 people and injuring 770.

Baroness Manningham-Buller was director-general of MI5 at the time of the attacks.

She has rarely spoken out about her experiences since retiring from the Security Service in 2007, but has given a detailed interview to our security correspondent Gordon Corera.

"I think we've got to be very careful not to demonise the Muslim community, quote unquote - I'm not sure there is a Muslim community - there are a lot of British Muslims from all sorts of communities.

"From the time I was in the service successes often depended on British Muslims giving us information in confidence - often at risk to their lives - and Muslim members of staff helping us to understand these issues. And therefore I think labelling whole communities is not wise."

Revelations that MI5 had once tracked one of the 7/7 bombers prompted speculation the attacks could have been halted, but Baroness Manningham-Buller said her service was not culpable for failing to prevent them.

"You know of far more people than you can monitor regularly," she said. "And of those more people you know, not all of them by any means will turn to terrorism, so you do the best you can to make those choices."

"Of course any normal person would regret that we didn't manage to prevent them doing what they did," she added.

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