US 'Concealed' Torture: Former MI5 Chief

Eliza Manningham-Buller - the former head of the secret intelligence service MI5 - has revealed she only became aware of US torture practices after leaving the organisation in 2007.

The cross bench peer said American intelligence operatives had been "very keen" to conceal their treatment of terror suspects.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - one of the main 9/11 co-conspirators - was allegedly waterboarded by CIA officers.

Baroness Mannigham-Buller told a House of Lord lecture: "The Americans were very keen that people like us did not discover what they were doing."

She led MI5 between 2002 and 2007.

Her comments came just weeks after it was revealed Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed was subjected to "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment at the hands of American agents.

UK security bodies have distanced themselves from the incidents, insisting British intelligence officers were not complicit in Mr Mohamed's abuse.

US security authorities changed their tactics in dealing with terror suspects in the wake of 9/11.

It is still unclear when MI5 HQ Thames House and Foreign and Home Office ministers in Whitehall became aware of this.

Baroness Manningham-Buller said she had wondered what made Khalid Sheikh Mohammed comply with American agents, who were able to supply information to MI5.

"It wasn't actually until after I retired that I read that, in fact, he had been waterboarded 160 times," she said.

The peer said British ministers had lodged "protests" with the US authorities over the treatment of detainees, but this had gone no further.

The Foreign Office today refused to comment on Baroness Manningham-Buller's statement.

A spokeswomen was unable to confirm whether "protests" had been sent from any Foreign Secretary to the US Government.

(PR/BMcC)