In a revelation that has renewed calls for an independent inquiry, the head of Britain's domestic spying agency reportedly told top lawmakers that the country faced "no imminent terrorist threat" only a day before the July 7, 2005, attacks in London that killed more than 50 people.

The Guardian reports that, according to a number of the people at a July 6 private meeting of Labor members, MI5 director general Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller gave strong "assurance" Britain was secure.

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The whips are said to have been confident, on leaving the meeting, that they could brief fellow MPs that the security situation was under control, and are said to have been deeply alarmed by the following day's events....

It is now known that [MI5] officers had trailed the [July 7] bombers' leader, Mohammed Siddique Khan, more than a year before the attacks, and had listened as he spoke of his plans for waging jihad. They had also photographed him, yet had not been able to identify him.

CNN reports that David Davis, home affairs spokesman for Britain's opposition Conservative Party, will call for an independent inquiry into the run-up to the attacks.

[Mr. Davis said] "It is absolutely necessary for the continued security of the British public that we know precisely if, when and how security failures occurred and for action to be taken to minimize the risk of it happening again."

The Evening Standard reports that family members of the bombing victims also want to see an independent investigation.

Grahame Russell, whose son Philip, 29, died in the Tavistock Square bus bombing, said: "Unless we have a public inquiry where witnesses can be called and questioned, we will never get the truthful answers about what happened before, during and after 7 July 2005."

Meanwhile the BBC reports that MI5 will launch an e-mail terror alert system. Britons will be able to register on the MI5 website to receive a notifications whenever the threat level changes. Members of the public can also register to be notified of any other information that is posted on the organization's website.

The BBC's security correspondent Gordon Correra explained people were "not actually getting anymore information than they can get at the moment" but "that information is being made more easily available".

"They [MI5] are kind of feeling their way into engaging with the public more and that's partly that what they used to do was so closed and so secret – the world of espionage and spies," he said.

"But in the world of terrorism there is a realisation they need to be more public."

Michael Evans, defense editor of The Times of London writes that the e-mail idea should "not be seen as a gimmick" but in a more positive light as a "move to reassure or inform the public about the terrorist threats facing this country."

I suspect there will be an initial curiosity interest but the main beneficiaries of this new system will be business and industry. MI5 has been urging companies to draw up counter-terrorist security plans to prepare for terrorist attacks, and e-mails will provide another reminder.

In November of 2006, Dame Eliza said the British government was tracking more than 1600 individuals in the country. She also recently warned of more than 30 active terrorist plots in the UK.

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Feedback appreciated. E-mail Tom Regan.