UK and US intelligence are examining ways of talking to al-Qaeda, with a view to an eventual peace settlement, the former head of MI5 has said.But Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller, who ran the security service until 2007, said negotiations were a way off.She was speaking in London on Thursday, as she delivered the first of her BBC Reith lectures on the theme of "Securing Freedom".
She also branded the 9/11 attacks "a crime, not an act of war".The former head of MI5 said that military and security responses to terrorism can only go so far.She added that, eventually, "you have to reach a political settlement" with terror groups.
Baroness Manningham-Buller ran the security service for five years and presided over a massive expansion in it.She said she had always found the phrase "war on terror"' to be unhelpful and that the Iraq invasion had been a distraction in the West's pursuit of al-Qaeda.
As she delivered the first of her three BBC Reith lectures, Baroness Manningham-Buller said the Iraq invasion had provided an arena for jihad and had motivated some Britons to embark on terrorism.
Eliza Manningham-Buller's Reith Lectures begin on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday 6 September 2011 at 09:00 BST.They are repeated from Saturday 10 September at 22:15 BST. You can also listen via the BBC iPlayer or download the programme podcast.
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