Elizabeth Lydia Manningham-Buller, Baroness Manningham-Buller DCBThe Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the medieval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
(born 14 July 1948) was Director General (DG) of
MI5The Security Service commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of the intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service , Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence Staff...
, the
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
internal national security agency, from October 2002 until her retirement on 20 April 2007, aged 58. It was announced that Dame Eliza would become a crossbench
life peerIn the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the Peerage whose titles may not be inherited. Nowadays life peerages, always of baronial rank, are created under the Life Peerages Act 1958 and entitle the holders to seats in the House of Lords, presuming they meet qualifications such as...
on 18 April 2008. Her title was gazetted as
Baroness Manningham-Buller, of
NorthamptonNorthampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. It is about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, and lies on the River Nene...
in the
County of NorthamptonshireNorthamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census...
on 2 June 2008.
Professional life
Manningham-Buller worked as a teacher for three years at
Queen's Gate SchoolQueen's Gate School is an all girls' independent school in South Kensington, London.The Good Schools Guide described it as a "Charming popular school, with a mixed intake, which does jolly well by its girls."The school is located in Central London...
,
KensingtonKensington is a district of West London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, located west of Charing Cross. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the...
in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, having read English at
Lady Margaret Hall, OxfordLady Margaret Hall is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located at the end of Norham Gardens in north Oxford. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £34m....
from 1971 to 1974, before joining the
Security ServiceThe Security Service commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of the intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service , Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence Staff...
. She was recruited to the Security Service at a drinks party when someone suggested that she see someone at the Ministry of Defence.
Specializing in
counter-terrorismCounter-terrorism is the practices, tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, militaries, police departments and corporations adopt in response to terrorist threats and/or acts, both real and imputed....
rather than MI5's then-classical counter-espionage, she was active at the time of the Lockerbie bombing by Libya in 1988. She worked for K-branch against the IRA. During the early 1980s she was one of only five people who knew that
Oleg GordievskyOleg Antonovich Gordievsky , CMG , was a Colonel of the KGB and KGB Resident-designate and bureau chief in London, who was a secret agent of the British Secret Intelligence Service from 1974 to 1985.-Early career:Oleg Gordievsky attended the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, and on...
, the deputy head of the KGB at the Soviet embassy in London, was actually a
double agentDouble agent is a counterintelligence term for someone who pretends to spy on a target organization on behalf of a controlling organization, but in fact is loyal to the target organization...
.
She was a senior liaison working out of
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
to the US intelligence community over the period of the first
Gulf WarThe Persian Gulf War , known also as the Gulf War, the First Gulf War,or often as the Second Gulf War and by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as The Mother of all Battles, or commonly as Desert Storm, for the military response...
, before leading the newly-created Irish counter-terrorism section from 1992 when MI5 were given the lead responsibility for such work (from the
Metropolitan PoliceMetropolitan police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...
).
Having been promoted to the Management Board of the Security Service the next year, Manningham-Buller became the director in charge of surveillance and technical operations, later becoming director of Irish counter-terrorism.
She was appointed Deputy Director General in 1997, and succeeded Sir
Stephen LanderSir Stephen Lander, KCB is the chair of the United Kingdom's Serious Organised Crime Agency . He served as director-general of the British Security Service from 1996 to 2002....
as Director General in 2002, the second woman to take on the role after Dame
Stella RimingtonDame Stella Rimington, DCB was the Director-General of MI5 from 1992 to 1996. She was the first female DG of MI5, and the first DG whose name was publicised on appointment...
. As Director General, she was paid £150,000 a year. She is credited with making the agency more open: she established a website and recruited agents through newspaper advertisements. Under her direction, terror risk assessments were made public for the first time.
Manningham-Buller was appointed a Dame Commander of the
Order of the BathThe Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the medieval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
(DCB) in 2005. She retired from MI5 on 21 April 2007, and was replaced by her deputy
Jonathan Evans Jonathan Evans is Director General of the MI5, the UK's domestic security and counter-intelligence service. He took over the role on the retirement of his predecessor Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller on 21 April, 2007.- Early life :...
. That month marked the end of her 33rd year in the Security Service.
The Observer has reported that in retirement, unusually for a spy, Lady Manningham-Buller has joined the public speaking circuit.
Personal life
Manningham-Buller was the second daughter in a family of four, of
Viscount DilhorneReginald Edward Manningham-Buller, 1st Viscount Dilhorne PC, QC , known as Sir Reginald Manningham-Butler, Bt, from 1954 to 1962 and as The Lord Dilhorne from 1962 to 1964, was a British lawyer and Conservative politician...
. She was educated at
Northampton High SchoolNorthampton High School is a private selective non-boarding school for girls in Hardingstone, Northampton, England.- Location :The school is about from Northampton town centre along the Newport Pagnell road which separates the school from Wootton.- History :The school was founded in 1878 by a...
and
Benenden SchoolBenenden School is a famous traditional boarding public school in England, which remains exclusively all-girls. It is located in Benenden in the heart of the Kentish countryside, between Cranbrook and Tenterden....
. She was known as Elizabeth, her full first name, at school.
She is married to David, whose surname has never been disclosed publicly; he has five children by his previous marriage, who are Lady Manningham-Buller's stepchildren. "Her husband, David, is the son of a former Lieutenant Colonel and a former lecturer in moral philosophy at St Andrews University. He has recently retrained as a carpenter. An Irish Catholic by birth, he is said to have once held strong left-wing views. Lady Manningham-Buller reported that he knew about her profession before their marriage and when they knew each other well."
Parents
Manningham-Buller's father,
Lord DilhorneReginald Edward Manningham-Buller, 1st Viscount Dilhorne PC, QC , known as Sir Reginald Manningham-Butler, Bt, from 1954 to 1962 and as The Lord Dilhorne from 1962 to 1964, was a British lawyer and Conservative politician...
, (1905-1980) was a Conservative MP from 1943 to 1962. He was Britain's second highest legal officer, the
Solicitor GeneralHer Majesty's Solicitor General for England and Wales, often known as the Solicitor General, is one of the Law Officers of the Crown, and the deputy of the Attorney General, whose duty is to advise the Crown and Cabinet on the law...
, he also later held the office of
Lord ChancellorThe Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State, ranking only after the Lord High Steward. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign...
for two years, thereafter; he was created an hereditary peer with a viscountcy.
Her mother, Mary Manningham-Buller (Viscountess Dilhorne), trained carrier pigeons that were used to fly coded messages in
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The pigeons were dropped in wicker baskets with little parachutes over France and Germany and they were used to fly back to her mother's pigeon loft carrying intelligence. One of the pigeons won the
Dickin MedalThe Dickin Medal was instituted in 1943 by Maria Dickin to honour the work of animals in war. It is a large bronze medallion, bearing the words "For Gallantry" and "We Also Serve" within a laurel wreath, carried on ribbon of striped green, dark brown and pale blue. Traditionally, the medal is...
, and one brought back intelligence of the
V-2 rocketAccording to head of Nazi rocket program Walter Dornberger, the V-2 rocket was the world's first ballistic missile and first human artifact to achieve sub-orbital spaceflight. It was the progenitor of all modern rockets...
project in
PeenemündePeenemünde is a village in the northeast of the German part of Usedom island. It stands near the mouth of the Peene river, on the easternmost part of the German Baltic coast. The area includes the 1992 :commons:Historisch-technisches Informationszentrum Peenemünde, an Anchor Point of the...
, Germany. Viscountess Dilhorne, died in Oxfordshire on 25 March 2004 at the age of 93..
Backing the War on Terror
Eliza Manningham-Buller has made speeches to invited audiences containing members of the press, as well as making court statements. On 17 June 2003, at a conference at the
Royal United Services InstituteThe Royal United Services Institute is a British defence and security think tank...
she gave her complete backing for the War on Terror and said that renegade scientists had given terror groups information needed to create chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) weapons. She also warned that the threat from international terrorism would be "with us for a good long time", which was why
new legislationFrom 2000 to the present, the British Parliament passed a series of Terrorism Acts that were aimed at terrorism in general, rather than specifically focussed on terrorism related to Northern Ireland...
had been introduced.
Speech on the 7 July 2005 London bombings
On 10 September 2005, she spoke to an audience in the
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
about the
7 July 2005 London bombingsThe 7 July 2005 London bombings, also known as 7/7, were a series of coordinated suicide attacks on London's public transport system during the morning rush hour...
and her disappointment that MI5 failed to stop attacks, even when in possession of intelligence, because of bureaucratic inertia. She also added that "[T]he world has changed and there needs to be a debate on whether some erosion of [the]
civil libertiesCivil liberties are rights in Freedom that protect an individual from the government of the nation in which they reside. Civil liberties set limits on government so that its members cannot abuse their power and interfere unduly with the lives of private citizens.Common civil liberties include the...
we all value may be necessary to improve the chances of our citizens not being blown apart as they go about their daily lives."
Stance on gaining intelligence through torture
On 21 October 2005,
BBC NewsBBC News, formerly BBC News and Current Affairs, is the department within the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the corporation's news-gathering and production of news programmes on BBC television, radio and online....
reported Manningham-Buller's leaked court statement to the Law Lords regarding methods for collecting intelligence from overseas. This was part of an investigation by the Law Lords on whether the British Government should have to be made aware whether the intelligence it is using was obtained through torture.
She stated: "Experience proves that detainee reporting can be accurate and may enable lives to be saved". By detainees here she is referring to terrorism suspects detained in prison camps and similar secure locations. Manningham-Buller maintained that obtaining information from foreign intelligence agencies, which initially enters the UK intelligence system via MI6, was vital in fighting terrorism. With regards to the ethics of how and where this intelligence had been gathered she stated that "agencies will not often know the location or details of detention".
Her example to support the need for intelligence gathering from overseas was the case of Mohammed Megeurba, an
AlgerianAlgerian may refer to:* Something of, or related to Algeria* A person or people from Algeria, or of Algerian descent. For information about the Algerian people, see Demographics of Algeria and Culture of Algeria. For specific Algerians, see List of Algerians....
man who was questioned by agencies in his country. Evidence collected by this questioning led to a raid in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
which led to the
Wood Green ricin plotThe Wood Green ricin plot refers to a 2002 bioterrorism alleged plot on the London Underground railway system, in which ricin poison would have been manufactured and used for an attack. It was believed the attack had connections with Al-Qaeda...
being uncovered. Press have speculated that Megeurba was tortured to obtain this information, although Manningham-Buller maintained that neither she nor
MI5The Security Service commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of the intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service , Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence Staff...
were aware of the "precise circumstances that attended their [Algerian agencies'] questioning of Megeurba". She emphasised that, had MI5 requested information regarding how the intelligence had been gathered, its request would have been ignored and the relationship between the UK and Algeria could have been damaged. She concluded by exemplifying the "importance of co-operation between states in countering the threat from international terrorism".
Shami ChakrabartiShami Chakrabarti CBE , has been the director of Liberty, a British pressure group, since September 2003. Chakrabarti is the Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University.-Early life:...
, director of human rights organisation
LibertyLiberty is a pressure group based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934 by Ronald Kidd and Sylvia Crowther-Smith , the group campaigns to protect civil liberties and promote human rights. In some cases Liberty also provides legal representation for people where it considers that rights have been...
, commended Manningham-Buller for being "brutally honest" about the activities of intelligence agencies. However, she criticised that the UK should not "legitimise" torture as a means of intelligence gathering by accepting evidence gained in such a manner as evidence in court. Just because British intelligence agencies did not torture to gain the information does not mean that the UK can turn a blind eye to how the information was obtained.
Manningham-Buller also stated that the British intelligence services do not ask whether intelligence was obtained by torture "because that would make things difficult".
Refusal to appear before the Joint Committee on Human Rights
On 23 January 2006, she refused to appear before the Joint Committee On
Human RightsThe United Kingdom has a long and established tradition of avowed respect for its subjects' human rights. At the same time, the UK, like many nations, has also had a history of both de jure and de facto racial and ethnic-religious discrimination, and, even in recent history, occasional violations...
in Parliament to speak about "the extent to which the Service is, or could take steps to ensure it is, aware that information it receives from foreign agencies may have been obtained by the use of torture", and "any information which the Service may have about extraordinary renditions using UK airports".
Speech on MI5 after the September 11 attacks
On 9 November 2006, Manningham-Buller gave a speech at
Queen Mary, University of LondonQueen Mary, University of London is a constituent college of the University of London...
before an invited audience of academics, students and journalists as a guest of Professor
Peter HennessyPeter John Hennessy is an English historian of government. Since 1992, he has been Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary, University of London.-Early life:...
. In it she warned that her office was tracking 30 terror plots, and 200 groupings or networks, totalling over 1,600 individuals. She also stated that MI5 had expanded by 50% since the September 11 attacks and stood at roughly 2,800 staff. She reiterated her warning that the threat "may—I suggest will—include the use of chemicals, bacteriological agents, radioactive materials and even nuclear technology."
This speech came three days after
Dhiren BarotDhiren Barot is a convicted terrorist from the United Kingdom.-Background:...
was sentenced to 40 years for his part in the
2004 Financial buildings plotThe 2004 financial buildings plot was a plan led by Dhiren Barot to attack a number of targets in the U.S. and the United Kingdom which is believed to have been approved by al-Qaeda....
in which he had a plan to build a radiological
dirty bombThe term dirty bomb refers to a speculative radiological weapon which combines radioactive material with conventional explosives. Though an RDD would be designed to disperse radioactive material over a large area, a bomb that uses conventional explosives would likely have more immediate lethal...
that involved setting fire to 10,000 smoke alarms.
Attack on 42-day terrorism detention
On 8 July 2008, Baroness Manningham-Buller made her maiden speech in the
House of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons , and the Lords...
since her resignation. She told the House that she was against government plans to extend the time period for retaining terrorist suspects in the UK from 28 to 42 days. She told peers that she disagreed on a "practical basis as well as a principled one". She criticised the plans for terrorism detention as being not "in any way workable" and emphasised the need for all political parties to work together in finding a solution for dealing with terrorism. Furthermore, Lady Manningham-Buller maintained that "complete security" could never be achieved in a country and that civil liberties were at risk of being compromised if the plans were passed by the
House of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons , and the Lords...
.
The speech, only 501 words long and lasting only four minutes, attracted praise from other Lords, including Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale, who described it as "outstanding, thoughtful and valuable", but also significant attention in the media, given the Baroness's expertise in counter-terrorism issues. Martin Kettle, writing in
The GuardianThe Guardian is a British daily newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. Founded in 1821, it is unique among major British newspapers in being owned by a foundation .The Guardian Weekly, which circulates worldwide, provides a compact digest of four newspapers...
on 11 July 2008, described it as "devastatingly succinct" and "the fatal shot" which would ensure that the Government's "plans were holed below the water line". James Kirkup of the
Daily Telegraph described it as "a huge blow to Gordon Brown's plans to extend the detention of terrorist suspects to 42 days".
Other peers supported Lady Manningham-Buller's stance against the plans, including former Attorney General
Lord GoldsmithPeter Henry Goldsmith, Baron Goldsmith, PC, QC , is a former Attorney General for England and Wales and Northern Ireland. On 22 June 2007, Goldsmith announced his resignation which took effect on 27 June 2007, the same day that prime minister, Tony Blair, stepped down. Goldsmith was the longest...
, former Lord Chancellor
Lord FalconerCharles Leslie Falconer, Baron Falconer of Thoroton, PC, QC is a British barrister and Labour Party politician. In June 2003 he became the Lord Chancellor and the first Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs...
and former Chairperson of the
Joint Intelligence CommitteeThe Joint Intelligence Committee is a nodal government agency in several countries, responsible for the internal and external security apparatus of the respective nations.* Joint Intelligence Committee * Joint Intelligence Committee...
(JIC), Pauline Neville-Jones, Baroness Neville-JonesBaroness Neville-Jones. Nevertheless,
Lord West of SpitheadAdmiral Alan William John West, Baron West of Spithead, GCB, DSC is a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the British Home Office, with responsibility for Security, a Security Advisor to Prime Minister Gordon Brown....
, who was
First Sea LordThe First Sea Lord is the professional head of the Royal Navy and the whole Naval Service; it was formerly known as First Naval Lord. He also holds the title of Chief of Naval Staff, and is known by the abbreviations 1SL/CNS...
of the
Royal NavyThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
until 2006 and is currently a junior
Home OfficeThe Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security and order. As such it is responsible for the police, United Kingdom Borders Agency and MI5. It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs, counter-terrorism...
minister spoke for the government and implied that more stringent security measures were required to deal with the "unprecedented terrorist threat" to the UK.
Desert Island Discs
Manningham-Buller was a "castaway" on
Desert Island DiscsDesert Island Discs is a long-running BBC Radio 4 programme. It was first broadcast on 29 January 1942 and is said by the Guinness Book of Records to be the longest-running music programme in the history of radio...
broadcast on
BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a domestic UK radio station that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967.-Outline:...
in November 2007 giving her first interview after her retirement. She talked briefly about her personal life and her former professional life, including her reactions to the
7 July 2005 London bombingsThe 7 July 2005 London bombings, also known as 7/7, were a series of coordinated suicide attacks on London's public transport system during the morning rush hour...
and the importance of protecting their agents. She explained that she had decided on her retirement date shortly after she took up the Director General job, choosing to retire with a total of 33 years service in the security services. She chose as her "luxury", the book
The Rattle Bag of poems selected by
Ted HughesEdward James Hughes OM was an English poet and children's writer, known as Ted Hughes. Critics routinely rank him as one of the best poets of his generation. Hughes was British Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death.Hughes was married to the American poet Sylvia Plath, from 1956 through 1962...
and
Seamus HeaneySeamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. He currently lives in Dublin.-Early life:...
.
Styles and honours
- Miss Elizabeth Manningham-Buller (1948–1962)
- The Hon. Eliza Manningham-Buller (1962–2005)
- The Hon. Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller DCB (2005–2008)
- The Rt. Hon. The Baroness Manningham-Buller DCB (2008–)
See also
- List of terrorist incidents in the United Kingdom
- MI6, the United Kingdom's foreign intelligence agency
An intelligence agency is a governmental agency that is devoted to information gathering for purposes of national security and defense. Means of information gathering may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public...
- MI numbers