It’s top secret, but MI5 should beware the dame on a camel
SHE MAY guard her privacy almost as assiduously as she guards us all, but People hears rumours of the existence of an intriguing video of Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, the secretive head of MI5. In a desert. On a camel.
According to our man in the beige overcoat, Manningham-Buller was coaxed into the saddle by Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. A fluent Arabic speaker, Sir Sherard informed his hosts, in Arabic, that the spymaster had a desperate urge both to ride a rare white camel and drink its milk. Although she actually had no desire to do either, diplomatic necessity prevailed.
At Jack Straw’s joint press conference with Prince Saud in London on Monday, Dame Eliza reluctantly confirmed that the tape, somewhere, exists. “If you think I’m going to let you see a video of a middle-aged lady on a camel,” she added, “you are very much mistaken.”
If anybody else has a copy, we’ll be on the usual bench at the usual time.