7/7 ringleader ‘was watched since 2003′

The Observer | Jan 14, 2007

The 7 July bombers who killed 52 people in terrorist attacks in London in 2005 were once described by Britain’s security service as ‘clean skins’.

The vivid phrase implied that a gang of homegrown terrorists had come from nowhere, without an intelligence trail. But Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, the director-general of MI5, is bracing herself for embarrassing revelations on the full extent of what the British intelligence community knew about the bombers, and in particular the ringleader of the attacks, Mohammad Sidique Khan. The disclosures will add to pressure for a full public inquiry.

Manningham-Buller is retiring in April and some Whitehall sources have suggested this is a pre-emptive move by MI5 to avoid embarrassment over revelations about intelligence failings. Senior security officials insist it was always known Manningham-Buller would leave her post in April.

MI5 now admit that far from being a ‘clean skin’, Khan had been on their radar screen since 2003. And The Observer can now reveal that more than a year before he detonated his Tube bomb, Khan had been listed as a ‘desirable suspect’ by MI5, along with fellow bomber Shehzad Tanweer.