52 7/7 inquests - no jury, no justice - Lady Justice Hallett

[GodSaveTheTeam]

One prominent feature has been prevolent in all the recent media coverage of the inquest so far and the bbc example in the link above is no different.

That is, heavy on emotion. They like to remind us first and foremost of the loss of life with sentences like "52 innocent people died" and "many people lost loved ones" and "the grief stricken families" etc.

It becomes so obvious when you see it and I'm sure it is done to turn people off and over to something more light hearted on another channel like the ubiquitous cac-factor or something even more appalling.

The family members and survivors of 7/7 have been largely ignored on all counts just like 9/11. I'm sure it's just a coincidence.

Right Moronovitch?

[fish5133]

I thought the eulogies from relatives of the dead was a bit OTT at an inquest I generally thought it was stage managed just to raise emotions against those horrible "terrorists"

[nrmis]

http://77inquests.blogspot.com/2010/10/curious-case-of-jag-that-parked -in.html

I hope everyone is watching this.
It has to be said, they are doing a sterling job of picking this facade apart.

[TonyGosling]

Lots and lots going on here. Nick Kollerstrom (astro3), who wrote Terror On The Tube and Kevin Boyle (kbo234) both of whom have been banned from this forum.
Kevin for his anti Jewish comments and
Nick for publicly disabusing a member of the London group ... and for being a Nazi apologist.

http://kevboyle.blogspot.com/
http://www.terroronthetube.co.uk/

Some excellent research - pity about the bigotry.
IMO no sensible Muslims will have anything to do with these people.

[Prole]

"Some excellent research" yes Gosling but whose research? Certainly not their own (as you well know):

http://77inquests.blogspot.com/

Strange. then again probably not, how you didn't include a link to J7, who aren't nazi-apologists or anti-jewish bigots.

[TonyGosling]

Thanks for reminding us of that excellent link Prole.
http://77inquests.blogspot.com/
Contributed, as ever, with your characteristic grace.

Talk on the BBC Radio 4 6pm News tonight that because of the potential review of Security Services (SS) at this 'inquest', sensitive SS evidence might be kept from press and public and the inquest turned into a secret 'public enquiry'.

Coroner at 7/7 inquests rejects MI5 request for secret hearings
Lady Justice Hallett refuses to exclude family members, but says evidence can be edited to remove confidential information
Esther Addley guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 3 November 2010
The coroner at the inquests into the 52 people killed on 7 July 2005 has rejected attempts by MI5 to exclude bereaved family members from hearings in which she will consider sensitive intelligence material.
Lady Justice Hallett today ruled that she does not have the power to consider in closed hearings secret intelligence documents which lawyers for the security services had argued would damage national security if made public.
She said the evidence could be edited to remove names of sources and other confidential information.....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov/03/77-inquest-coroner-secrecy-re quest

[Prole]

[nrmis]

It was actually given its own thread here last week...
http://www.911forum.org.uk/board/viewtopic.php?t=19869

ok, 102 views and no comments. But please keep up the brilliant work.

[Micpsi]

[Muncher]

[Muncher]

[Mark Gobell]

At the Inquests into the July 7 atrocity, Hugo Keith QC, counsel to the inquests, gave us the rather symbolic timings for the "3 underground events" of 7th July 2005, allegedly recorded by the telephone power supply computerised event logs.

According to Mr Keith, the 3 events on the underground system all occurred within 52 seconds, starting at Aldgate at 11 minutes to 9 precisely.

[TonyGosling]

Thanks Mark, Train times again demanding ever further questions than they answer. On the money as usual.

7/7 inquest: government loses appeal over secret hearings
High court rejects Theresa May's argument that evidence about MI5's tracking of bombers could not be heard in open session
Alexandra Topping - guardian.co.uk, Monday 22 November 2010
The home secretary, Theresa May, has lost her legal attempt to force the coroner for the 7 July inquests to hold some sessions in secret.
Lady Justice Hallett, who is presiding over the inquests into the 2005 terrorist attacks, had earlier rejected the argument of lawyers for MI5 that she had powers to exclude the bereaved families so that secret evidence could be heard.
In what is being hailed as a "milestone for open justice", Lord Justice Maurice Kay and Lord Justice Stanley Burnton today rejected May's appeal against Hallett's ruling at a brief high court hearing in London. They will give their full reasons at a later date................
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov/22/7-july-inquest-secret-hearing s

and from a while ago
Guardian trotting out official Mossad line here and censoring testimony that doesn't fit with the Mossad line.
Wouldn't it be dreadful to 'feed the conspiracy theories' and 'upset the survivors and families of victims'
How sick!
7/7 inquests: We know who did it and why. But this is more than just catharsis
After two weeks of questions, evidence and testimony, what will linger most are the individual stories
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/oct/27/7-7-july-inquest-survivors-lo ndon

[TonyGosling]

These arrogant & crooked bl**dy cops will be bang to rights one day you mark my words... this DC was obviously told he was an 'untouchable' and would be protected.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov/22/counter-terrorism-police-frau d-london-bombing

Counter-terrorism officer jailed for 7/7 property scam

Daren Pooley made £93,000 by overcharging for police apartment rentals during 7 July bombing investigation
guardian.co.uk, Monday 22 November 2010 14.40 GMT

A counter-terrorism officer has been jailed for defrauding the Metropolitan police out of thousands of pounds [actually you shuld say nearly one hundred thousand pounds] in a property scam during the 7 July bombings investigation.

Detective constable Daren Pooley, 41, took the opportunity to make a "quick profit" out of his employers while on a long-term deployment to Leeds following the terrorist attacks on London in 2005.

His wife Nicola, 38, who was also found guilty of conspiracy to defraud following a three-week trial last month, was sentenced to 36 weeks' imprisonment suspended for 18 months.

The conspiracy involved overcharging the Met for apartment rentals during their stay – to an eventual total of £93,000, although the actual loss to the force would have been lower, due to costs such as utility bills, the court heard.
"You were very deeply involved in this conspiracy."

"You have never admitted your part in the offence. You have shown no remorse." [no sense of public duty whatever then]

"He will never again be able to get back to that career in the police force. He's back at square one." [don't you believe it he will be snapped up again as soon as he is released]

"The evidence against you at your trial was so strong, so focused and so telling that you simply had no answer to it and you chose not to give evidence," he said. [because his Mafia mates instructed him not to say a word - la muerte]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov/22/counter-terrorism-police-frau d-london-bombing

[Prole]

[TonyGosling]

7/7 victim's families told to sign gagging orders
Now this takes the biscuit.
I'm 'reliably informed' that families of victims are being told to sign gagging orders if they want to hear the 'secret' evidence.
MI5 have been forced to reveal their evidence of how they bungled the pre 7/7 surveillance & this is the result.
Victim's families can't take notes, can't reveal anything of what they see to anyone whatever on pain of a long jail sentence.
Justice???

This is all further evidence of appalling mistreatment of victims and confirms our concerns that this is not an inquest but a cover up.

[TonyGosling]

New info...

Two senior Fort Halstead people were called to the 7/7 victims' inquest. They were in the first instance Dr Kim Simpson of the Fort's forensic lab, veteran of Afghanistan, IRA terror attacks, Lockerbie and the Madrid training bombings.
In the context of 7/7 she said that she was dealing with explosive materials she had never previously encountered in her laboratories.
Her colleague Dr Clifford Todd also of the forensic explosives lab at Fort Halstead averred that the combination of materials supposedly used to cause the explosions were so unusual they were unique in the UK's historical experience of terrorism and for that matter, worldwide.
Their heavily guarded reservations expressed at the inquest were almost entirely ignored by the MSM.

What is extremely interesting about the 7/7 inquest is that expert opinions and evidence that went against the government case went unheeded by Lady Juistice Hallett the presiding coroner. It was the same with the 21/7 business and the infamous follow-on Crevace trial.

This is why there has never been an inquest on the Luton Four and in real terms, why there never can be.

The only place were this is recorded as far as I can see is in Richard Cottrell's Gladio book

http://www.bcfmradio.com/wp-content/Podcasts/20130405140001.mp3
http://www.bcfmradio.com/wp-content/Podcasts/20130412170001.mp3
http://www.bcfmradio.com/wp-content/Podcasts/20130412180001.mp3

[TonyGosling]

7/7: The Coroner's Nonquest
http://www.officialconfusion.com/77/inquests/coroner_nonquest.html

On the 7th July 2005 a series of explosions took place on the London transport system.

Days after the attacks an official story emerged that centred the blame on four men: Mohammed Sidique Khan, Shezhad Tanweer, Jermaine Lindsay and Hasib Hussain.

Seven years on and the evidence put forward by officialdom still does not stand up to scrutiny and despite repeated calls from survivors and family members of the deceased, a public inquiry has yet to be authorised.

In October 2010 a Coroner's Inquest into the attacks commenced.

From the outset the Coroner's Inquest was destined to fail one of its primary duties, namely establishing cause of death. It was confirmed that no internal analysis was ever made of any of the bodies recovered, and therefore no exact judgement could be made as to how these people died.

No explanation was given as to why internal post mortems were not carried out, and to the shock of many of the survivors and bereaved families this issue was kept firmly outside of the scope of the inquest.

The day before the attacks a company called De Boer received a contract from London Resilience finalising what was known as the Mass Fatality Plan. On the 7th July this plan was pushed into action and a mortuary was quickly set-up in the grounds of the Honourable Artillery Company near Moorgate station.

It is fair to assume that the implementation of the mass fatality plan was the reason behind the lack of full post mortems; as the plan was devised primarily for natural disasters or other circumstances where body counts were in the hundreds and resources would be stretched.

The questions of who decided to enact this plan and why no full post mortems were ever authorised were not answered by the inquest.

-------

Although the identification of the deceased was also a subject heavily redacted and considered outside of scope by the Coroner's Inquest, some interesting information did emerge.

It was revealed that a piece of spine was found by police forensics and that apparently the bone was used to identify Tanweer as being at the scene of the blast close to Aldgate station. Police purportedly already had Tanweer's DNA on record from a previous arrest in 2004.

A part of Khan's body was reportedly recovered from underneath the carriage close to Edgware Road station. DNA identification was apparently made through samples provided by his parents although no evidence was provided to confirm this was the case.

For reasons not made clear a trained psychiatrist, Morgan Castillo, was selected for the task of declaring life extinct on the bodies found at the blast sites. From his count at the blast sites near to Aldgate and Edgware Road it appears that Khan and Tanweer's bodies were not present.

It was suggested then that the bodies of Khan and Tanweer were largely disintegrated and that only fragments were to be found. However the inquest also announced that the two men's bodies were later reconstructed.

The inquest did not make clear how their body parts both disappeared and reappeared, and of course no proper post mortem was ever carried out.

Although other bodies were found largely intact, the majority of the family members of the deceased had to wait an inordinate amount of time to receive official confirmation of the death of their loved ones. With some waiting for almost 2 weeks.

However, full DNA identification of Khan and Tanweer apparently occurred within just 5 days of the attacks.

-------

Another intriguing facet revealed at the inquest focused on the estimated positions of the people within the tube carriages at the time of the explosions.

Khan was estimated to have been several metres from where the explosion took place and if true then this would contradict the notion that he manually detonated a bomb that had no timing device. His proposed position also casts doubt on the story that his body was largely disintegrated due to the blast; as people estimated to have been even closer to the explosion survived intact.

Lindsay's body was reportedly found an inexplicable distance from the explosion centre of the tube blast that occurred near to Russell Square station, and no explanation was given as to how this could have occurred. No life extinct verdict was pronounced.

Hussain's torso was reportedly found in the entrance to the BMA building, however no life extinct record confirmed this either.

Even though it is claimed that the men detonated bombs that blew them to pieces, their identifying documents, however, survived intact close by to their supposed body parts.

Representatives at the inquest put forward the rather ridiculous concept that the men must have shielded their documents using "something like a plastic bag." The inquest did not come to any firm conclusions as to why the four men had apparently spread identifying documents all over the crime scenes. Nor was there any attempt made to clarify how these pieces of identification were seized upon so quickly.

-------

Forensic details regarding the explosive devices were revealed during the Coroner's Inquest.

Kim Simpson, a forensic scientist employed at the DSTL operated Forensic Explosives Laboratory at Sevenoaks, suggested that the explosives were, "most probably a novel mixture comprising concentrated hydrogen peroxide together with additional compounds, which may have included a piperine-containing ingredient."

Curiously she also remarked that "the main explosive charge consisted of a novel, improvised material previously unseen by this laboratory."

Clifford Todd, another apparent forensic expert from the military laboratory at Sevenoaks, told the inquest about the discovery of a white powder identified as HMTD, which was assumed to have been used as a detonator . Todd remarked that it was, "a very sensitive high explosive."

Todd went on to suggest that the men would have needed some form of guidance to make the explosives as the ratios and concentration levels would have been difficult to attain through trial and error given how volatile the substances are. It was then noted by Todd that, "the hydrogen peroxide mixed with a fuel such as pepper were entirely unique within the UK for sure and, and far as I know, worldwide as well."

A suggestion that Khan had received a phone call with explosive instructions was made, but this was not verified.

The vagueness continued, and given that TATP had been stated as the primary explosive during testimony at the Menezes trial it was indeed peculiar that during the Coroner's inquest TATP was not confirmed as being found.

The official reports released to the public in 2006 stated that the explosives were most likely organic peroxide based devices. However, years later at the Coroner's Inquest, it is reported that forensic tests on the aftermath of the blast sites had tested negative for any traces of peroxide/pepper based devices.

The vague consensus at the inquest was that the blasts had been so severe that all traces of the explosive ingredients were destroyed.

And thus it was insinuated; but never fully clarified, that the explosive type reportedly found at 18 Alexandra Grove, surmised as "a home-made mixture of pepper and hydrogen peroxide", was the explosive type used in the bombings.

It was reported to the inquest that some traces of HMTD had been found at the blast sites, however it was deemed that these traces were from clothes and identification documents and not from the bombs.
The assertion of HMTD being used as a detonator was never made with any certainty.

Assumptions rather than firm conclusions were all that could be made at the inquest, and the ever-persisting uncertainty surrounding the type of explosive device and detonation method is certainly a failure of modern forensic science, if nothing else.

It was not made clear at the inquest why the DSTL were the only scientists to report on the forensic analysis of the explosives.

-------

Colonel Peter Mahoney from the British army was drafted in to the inquest to give evidence about the explosions. An expert in the effect of explosive devices, he had created what was referred to as a blast lung model of the explosions.

In Mahoney's opinion the heat signature left by the blasts was consistent with that of damage typically caused by a high explosive. However as Mahoney pointed out, Todd had not provided him with the "exact thermal and chemical output of the devices" and so coupled with no data from internal post mortems he admitted his model based on TNT explosives could only provide limited probabilities.

The kind of injuries and witness accounts have always appeared to be more consistent with military type explosives, and some of Colonel Mahoney's insights do add credence to the opinions put forward by experts in the days after the attacks, before the peroxide mythology had taken root.

Reports of the upward direction of the blasts which ejected people out of their seats; and created several holes in the carriages with the metal being pushed upwards, have been construed by some as indications that bombs may have been underneath the carriages. The inquest did not explore why the directive force of the blast appeared to come from underneath the carriages.

-------

In terms of linking the apparent bombers to the explosive devices found at 18 Alexandra Grove, it was reported at the inquest that the DNA of Hussain was recovered on a tub containing the as yet to be clarified yet apparently explosive substance. No other DNA was recovered on any of the other apparently explosive substance containers. However DNA and fingerprints of all four men were found on several other seemingly innocuous items that were reportedly connected to bomb making.

The Nissan car apparently used to drive 3 of the alleged bombers from Leeds to Luton on the morning of the 7th had been found laden with explosive devices. Once again no forensic clarification was made as to the type of explosives found.

The DNA of Khan was reportedly found on several items contained in the Nissan car. Pens, water bottles and energy bars were among the items, but no DNA of any of the accused was reported as found on any of the explosive devices found in the car.

However HMTD was apparently found on items in the Nissan and Fiat cars purportedly used by the alleged bombers.

-------

In the city famous for having more cctv cameras than any other; many were shocked to learn during the Coroner's Inquest; how apparent technical malfunctions resulted in almost no footage of the four men on the London transport system on the morning of the 7th July 2005.

It was revealed that all but one of the cameras in Kings Cross station were malfunctioning between the critical time of 0830 and 0850.

What was then concluded at the inquest, in direct contradiction to many previous official statements, was that no cctv footage exists of any of the four men boarding the tubes, and indeed no footage exists of them en route through the London underground to the respective platforms either.

Due to the confusion created by the media broadcasting undated cctv footage of the men on the underground which reportedly comes from the 28th June 2005, the average Briton is still under the illusion that cctv evidence placing the men at the crime scenes has been released, but no such evidence has ever been released and it appears that no such evidence ever existed in the first place.

The prominent survivor Rachel North, reported in 2008 that during a meeting with the then Home Secretary John Reid, a Counter Terrorism official stated that cameras had been recording inside the tube carriages. The Coroner's Inquest did not establish whether there had indeed been cameras operating inside the tubes that morning.

As was established shortly after the attacks - the multiple cameras inside the Number 30 bus were not in operation that day, and therefore there is no footage of Hasib Hussain inside the bombed bus. Yet representatives at the inquest further compounded the mystery by pronouncing that no cctv footage exists of Hussain boarding the ill-fated bus that morning either.

The footage released into the public domain of Hussain wondering around outside Kings Cross station shows him going into McDonalds, however it was revealed during the Coroner's Inquest that a manager of the restaurant is recorded as turning off the internal cctv system prior to Hussain entering the building. No investigation of why this occurred was discussed at the inquest, and it was not made clear why no recording exists of Hussain boarding the number 30 bus as the official story assumes he did.

Was it really just a coincidental glitch that caused all of the cctv cameras at the crime scenes to malfunction for the exact time the men would have been filmed by them?

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The four men should have stood out from the commuter crowd; wearing casual clothes and having large rucksacks, however barely any of the survivors or commuters have recalled seeing the men.

In fact a number of survivors reported that they do not recall the accused being present at all where the official story states that they were.

At the Coroner's Inquest, despite Danny Biddle's testimony, no certainty of the accused men being on the tubes or the bus could be established through eye witness corroboration.

-------

One aspect that was examined in more depth during the Coroner's Inquest was the role of Mohammed Junaid Babar.

It transpired that Babar was the much touted detainee that had apparently identified Khan from surveillance imagery presented to him after the 7th July bombings. Curiously, but given the track record of the FBI not surprising, it has emerged that Babar had worked as an FBI informant. And although he apparently played a key role in a terrorist network he is now free and is living under the witness protection program.

A key component of the official story is that Khan and Tanweer were radicalised and trained in terrorism in Pakistan. However Babar is the only named person who has claimed to be a witness to this. Further reports of terrorist training have not been substantiated.

The once alleged mastermind of 7/7, Haroon Aswat did not feature at the inquest, and from what is known he is now languishing in one of Britain's notorious psychiatric prisons; awaiting extradition to the US along with Hamza and Babar Ahmed. Aswat's role in the attacks was assessed in the 2009 ISC report and it was not denied that he had contact with the alleged bombers, however there was no further information provided at the Coroner's Inquest.

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Towards the end of the inquest representatives from the Security Service, the Metropolitan and West Yorkshire Police force were lightly questioned about issues surrounding the preventability of the attacks. Again the scope of the inquest was limited in such a way that evidence remained heavily redacted and many avenues of inquest were simply not approached.

Through questions about Operation Honeysuckle and Operation Warlock further information emerged of Khan being recorded by undercover surveillance operations whilst in the company of suspected terrorists.

The second Intelligence and Security Committee report released in 2009 listed numerous occurrences of Khan and Tanweer being on the periphery of terrorist suspects considered to be of the highest priority by MI5. The repeated excuse provided in the report suggests that MI5 failed to identify Khan and Tanweer because they were not considered to be high priority.

However it is rather inconceivable that men who had apparently been discussing terrorist bombings in the company of MI5 category 'essential' terror suspects, would not have at least been identified. It became even clearer then from this report, why some intelligence analysts, such as Charles Shoebridge, have suggested that Khan, and possibly Tanweer as well, were working as informants. Either way, the Coroner's Inquest did not probe why their identities were consistently held off from investigation in the years prior to the July 7th bombings.

It is important to note that due to the still classified contact between Khan and Tanweer; and MI5, the possibility that the so called martyrdom videos were made as part of an informant operation cannot be ruled out. No official verdict on the videos has ever been made available, and this is yet another line of inquiry that requires closer inspection.

In the past, individuals have been entrapped and set-up as patsies to take the blame for more insidious operatives who were being protected by the security apparatus. Operation Gladio is perhaps the most well documented example of this tactic, but I suspect that this kind of context was not common knowledge to those investigating the 7/7 bombings.

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Over the years of incremental releases of information from officialdom, it has become abundantly clear that MI5 deliberately lied and misled the government and the public with regard to prior knowledge of the accused men.

This fact alone should have warranted a full scale independent public inquiry. However, MI5's power has grown considerably since the bombings and their disdainful attitude towards the Coroner's Inquest was a testament to a force that considers itself to be unaccountable.

Indeed no one has yet to be held to account in anyway, and a wealth of information regarding police and security service contact with the accused men remains classified. A number of the survivors and bereaved families want this information released and are pushing for a public inquiry.

The level of inaccuracies, inconsistencies, omissions and uncertainties documented in the official reports and at the Coroner's Inquest are also reasons in themselves to warrant a public inquiry.

The discrepancies surrounding the identification of the men; the still as yet to be understood explosives; the inconclusive forensic and DNA evidence; the non-existence of cctv evidence and the many witnesses who do not corroborate the official story are just some of the strands of inquiry that need to be addressed.

Adrian Connock

[TonyGosling]

7/7 inquest: We still have no real answers, say the victims' relatives
Coroner critical of MI5, but clears them of blame as families of 7/7 bombing victims call for overhaul of security services

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/may/06/7-july-inquest-verdict-no-r eal-answers

Esther Addley and Richard Norton-Taylor Friday 6 May 2011
Families of the victims of the 7 July attacks have called on the government to overhaul Britain's security services after the inquest coroner yesterday described their handling of a critical piece of intelligence as "dreadful" and suggested another failure could have had "dire consequences".

Returning verdicts of unlawful killing on each of the 52 victims of the attacks, Lady Justice Hallett also expressed concerns about MI5's recordkeeping and about "confusion" in its system of assessing targets at the time of the attacks.

But, crucially, she exonerated the domestic intelligence service of any blame in failing to prevent the 2005 bombings, stressing that the evidence she had heard over 75 days at the high court in London "does not justify the conclusion that any failings on the part of any organisation or individual caused or contributed to any of the deaths".

The coroner also found that the emergency services' response to the bombings, which has been heavily criticised for being too slow at several of the sites, had not contributed to any of the deaths. "I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that each of [the victims] would have died whenever the emergency services reached them," she said.

She saw no grounds for any future public inquiry, she indicated. "I am not aware of our having left any reasonable stone unturned," she said. "One would hope, therefore, that these proceedings will be an end to the investigation of what happened on 7/7."

Speaking after the verdicts, however, Graham Foulkes, whose son David was killed in the Edgware Road bombing, said the inquest "causes a lot more questions to be asked than it answers". "It really must compel [the Home Secretary] Theresa May to review the whole operation of the security services in the UK, not just MI5."

He called for an independent inquiry into the killings, with a broader remit than the tightly constrained inquest.

At an emotional press conference after the verdicts were returned, Ros Morley, widow of Edgware Road victim Colin Morley, called for an apology from MI5, saying: "In any other organisation, if huge mistakes were made and lives were lost, people feel there's a duty to look into that, to have a degree of humility, which I feel has been lost."

June Taylor, the mother of Carrie Taylor, who died at Aldgate, was overcome by emotion and collapsed at the press conference after declaring that the family "still have no positive answers".

But other family members said they felt the conclusion of the inquest, which opened in October, should represent the end of the investigation into the events of 7 July, when four suicide bombers detonated devices on the London transport network.

Grahame Russell, whose son Philip died in the bus bombing at Tavistock Square, said: "There are still issues. The problem I have is that if I continue to hold concerns about issues, then my life would become very bitter." The coroner's recommendations "can help people in the future, one would hope," he said. "But they help me not at all. They do not bring my son back."

The coroner made nine recommendations which she believed could help prevent future deaths, encompassing improvements in training and communication for paramedics and other emergency responders, and a suggestion that Transport for London look at putting first aid equipment on underground trains. Two of the recommendations related directly to the security services.

Hallett said MI5 must review its procedures on showing photographs to informants after poorly edited images of two of the bombers — "they were dreadful" — were shown by intelligence officers to a key Islamist informant in US custody.

"Given the confusion that reigned within the Security Service about these photographs," she added, "it was not clear to me what records were kept of the procedure."

Similarly, she was troubled, she said, that the MI5 spokesman Witness G gave evidence that it was not normal practice to revisit photographs when new sources became available. So poor were the records from the time of the investigation, she said, "Witness G himself had to visit retired desk officers at their homes to discover as best he could what they had done, and why."

She instructed the MI5 director general Sir Jonathan Evans to investigate the service's documentary procedures, "given the possibly dire consequences of a flawed decision which cannot be properly supervised".

The coroner also expressed concern about MI5's failure to investigate the 7 July ringleader Mohammad Sidique Khan in detail after undercover teams observed him repeatedly meeting the fertiliser bomb plot mastermind Omar Khyam more than a year before the atrocities.

"I am concerned about the fact that the Security Service's other commitments prevented a more intense investigation of a possible terrorist, who made long and suspicious journeys to meet known terrorists at a time when they were obviously planning an attack."

The coroner also identified weaknesses involving the Intelligence and Security Committee of MPs and peers, which was shown to have been misled, albeit "inadvertently", by MI5.

She repeatedly emphasised there was no evidence that the attacks could have been prevented. Even the badly cropped photo, in the end, had "played no causative part in the failure to identify Khan or [Shehzad] Tanweer".

In a statement, the home secretary, Theresa May, said the inquest process had been "vitally important" and said she would "carefully consider" its recommendations.

"I am pleased that the coroner has made clear there is simply no evidence that the Security Service knew of, and therefore failed to prevent, the bombings on 7/7." The government and security services were "always looking to learn lessons", she said. "This includes learning from the 7 July attacks and from other incidents, and there have been a considerable number of improvements put in place since 2005."

Her Labour opposite number, Yvette Cooper, said the ongoing terrorist threat that Britain faced "makes the lessons from the past even more important".