Lady Eliza Manningham-Buller, the former head of MI5, Britain’s intelligence agency, recently urged government officials to begin a dialogue with terrorists, even elements of al Qaeda; “Dialogue, even with terrorists, is necessary,” she said; “Talking doesn’t mean approval”, she continued; “It’s a way of exploring peaceful options, what compromises, if any, can be reached”; as an example she pointed to the fact that British governments had dialogues with the Provisional Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland