CHIEF Constable Peter Fahy today defended the counterterrorism operation which has now seen all 12 men arrested released without charge. He said their actions had been right 'given the intelligence'.

He denied reports of a rift with security services and he said the operation was brought forward by only 11 hours, refuting suggestions this was the reason for the failure to bring charges.

He said: "I do not feel embarrassed or humiliated by what we have done because we have carried out our duty to protect the people of Greater Manchester.

"I have to put the safety of the public first. It is incredibly hard. I have to make incredibly difficult decisions.

"The public would want me to be driven by public safety.

 "We treat these matters very, very seriously. We do not carry out this sort of operation on a wing or a prayer or on a whim.

"These issues were considered very carefully by experienced staff and all the agencies, having at the forefront the rights of the individuals, the interests of the local community and, as the number one priority, the safety of the people of Greater Manchester.

"We got to a stage where the safeguards that there are required us to put our findings before the CPS, before a judge, and they decided we had not met that standard.

 "We cannot continue to hold people without having had that evidence and information and a judge and the CPS decided in this situation we had not reached that threshold.

"We will continue to investigate the circumstances, intelligence and information which led us to carry out this operation.

"We can only operate to one standard - that is people are innocent until proven guilty."

He praised the professionalism of his officers. When asked if the arrests had foiled a major terrorist attack, he said: "We do not know that. We cannot say that. That starts to imply guilt against those people involved."