Twenty Two Years And Counting.
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Dr. David Kelly
Ahead of the film on Channel 4 next week, who was David Kelly and what was he supposed to have done?
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David Kelly was a weapons scientist and consultant to the Ministry of Defence, who told Andrew Gilligan, a reporter, that following studies in Iraq before the start of the war, he was sure that there were no mass destruction weapons to be found. He said that in his opinion the government was trying to gain parliamentary support for the then imminent war by ignoring his advice and insisting that Saddam had nasty weapons and was about to use them if good old Uncle Sam didn't wade in and flatten the place.
An Intelligence report prepared for the government said that Saddam might have possible weapons maybe ready for use within 45 minutes. Ministers used this to push parliament (and the nation they hoped) into supporting a case for war. This was the famous "dossier" and Gilligan said that it had been "sexed up", meaning it was altered to become appealing, by removing the "possibly" and "maybe" words.
Gilligan reported this on BBC radio, a bit like revealing the Emperor's new clothes. The government became incadescant, so diverting attention from the issues. The reporter lost his job, the BBC boss had to resign, and there was a Parliamentary enquiry as to the so far hidden source for the reporter's words.
David Kelly was interviewed publicly by this enquiry and saw how he was to be implicated in the affair and possibly used as a scapegoat by the government. Two days later he walked into the woods and committed suicide. Watch the film for more and I am sure, conspiratorial angles on the story.
"The government did sex up the dossier, transforming possibilities and probabilities into certainties, removing vital caveats; the 45-minute claim was the 'classic example' of this; and many in the intelligence services, including the leading expert in WMD, were unhappy about it." Andrew Gilligham.
At the same time as Kelly was supposedly telling Gilligan that the Government had "sexed-up" the dossier on Iraqi WMD, he was also interviewed by the Newsnight reporter, Susan Watts. He told her: "You have to remember I'm not part of the intelligence community." She asked him about Iraq's WMD and Kelly replied: "My own perception is, yes, they have weapons." Watts asked: "Are they a clear and immediate threat?" Kelly replied: "Yes." So, there is no doubt but that the weapons inspector believed in the present threat from Iraq's WMD.
The difference between the Gilligan information and the Watts information is that the Watts material was taped. That is, it is there clearly to be heard...unlike Gilligan's scribbled notes about "sexing up"...which seem mysteriously to have disappeared! Very handy!
The reason Kelly committed suicide was almost certainly because he realised that the false information he felt he had given to the Government committee would be exposed by Watts's tape. It had nothing whatever to do with his being made a government scapegoat.
The background was that for President Bush to establish worldwide influence ensuring a second term he needed military payback for 9-11. He made Iraq his target and tried to get others to agree. The United Nations tried to clip his warmongering wings, but Bush ignored the UN.
Whether willing conspirator or true believer, Blair joined. He needed legal reasons, so showed Iraq as a real and present danger to world stability. The idea of Weapons of Mass Destruction was born.
With a hierarchy from Ministers downwards wanting reasons for war, Dr. Kelly was under pressure. He used no weasel words of politico doubletalk when telling Susan Watts of BBC's Newsnight the government line was false. Newsnight had the Prime Minister saying, "Iraq has chemical and biological weapons, Saddam has continued to produce them, he has existing and active military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons which could be activated within 45 minutes including against his own Shia population." Watts said, "We've spoken to a senior official involved with the dossier. We cannot name this person because their livelihood depends on anonymity. (He) made it clear that ... the government was obsessed with finding ... immediate Iraqi threats and the government's insistence of an imminent threat was a Downing Street interpretation." Blair said of this issue, "But it is wrong frankly for people to make allegations on the basis of so called anonymous sources when the facts are precisely the facts that we stated."
Kelly was revealed as the source and Watts' notes were at the Hutton Inquiry into Kelly's death. Hutton not only said Watts faithfully reported Kelly, but also disproved the accusation that Andrew Gilligan had tampered with computer notes after his Kelly interview. Hutton said Kelly took his own life unaided probably because he was disgraced by being named as the whistleblower. No employer would ever trust him.
"The idea of weapons of mass destruction was born"...indeed it was, but long before Blair made any case about them. Iraq had been subject to UN Security Council resolutions for years insisting that they cease production of these. (For heaven's sake, the UN's belief in their existence was the only reason the weapons inspectors such as Kelly were even in Iraq!)
Indeed, UNSC Resolution 1441 - which was promulgated months after the supposedly sexed-up/45-minute dossier - claimed quite specifically that Iraq was proliferating these and developing their means of delivery. In other words, if Bush and Blair lied about them, then so did Chirac, Putin, the Chinese President and the leaders of the ten temporary members of the Council. Why? Because all 15 members of that Council signed-up-to that resolution.
If, in effect, the "whole world" still believed in the existence of WMD after the dossier, how could the dossier have been an exaggeration? Gilligan's report about 'sexing-up' was a nonsense from start to finish. Sadly, its effect on Dr Kelly was disastrous in the end.
No, Andy. The British Government published a dossier on Iraq's WMD in September 2002, claiming that Saddam was capable of using these within 45 minutes and that they were a threat to world peace. As I outlined above, the United Nations Security Council wholeheartedly agreed that this threat existed.
Andrew Gilligan was a reporter for the Today programme on Radio 4 and he caused to have broadcast a report claiming that the Government had - in effect - lied. (This is why Alastair Campbell and the Prime Minister shouted 'Foul!' I'd have done the same thing. Wouldn't you?) He based this idea on what he claimed Dr Kelly had told him, saying that his source was an Intelligence Officer who said the information was "sexed-up". As I also pointed out earlier, Kelly was not an Intelligence Officer at all, but it lent a false credence to Gilligan's report. Of course, as a Government employee, Kelly had no right to be telling Gilligan anything at all.
Later, when the Government committee was questioning Kelly, Gilligan sent e-mails to members of the committee who, he thought, would be happy to take an anti-Government line. These e-mails were intended to expose Kelly as Watts' information source - despite sitting on his journalistic high horse and saying he could never reveal such things. Kelly was, therefore, put on the spot. It was then because of the stress this put him under that he killed himself.
Obviously, I've no idea what slant the Channel 4 programme will put on these matters, but that's how I saw things as they developed. (And there I shall end my contributions to this thread.)
Who can be sure what drove Dr. Kelly to commit suicide? In general people do not take their lives for altruistic reasons, but rather because a pressing, unavoidable, and very personally affecting force drives them to total despair. Others do not see the awesome inevitability of the destructive force that temporarily grips the suicidal person.
The Hutton Inquiry concluded that Kelly probably killed himself because of extreme loss of self-esteem and saw himself as publicly disgraced. He had devoted his life's work to his science, and had been honest when saying that he thought the government were exaggerating the threat from Iraq.
He was protected by anonymity. Part of Kelly's job was to brief journalists anonymously on defence issues. He also had contact with MI6 director Sir Richard Dearlove and others within the Secret Intelligence Service.
When the storm blew up the hunt was on to find the anonymous source, and whilst the journalists remained tight lipped, even under incredible pressure, it was the MoD who admitted it without first telling Dr. Kelly, and directed that he appear before the Parliamentary Inquiry set up to find the identity of the "anonymous source". Dr. Kelly did so and his answers showed that he did not subscribe to the government line, and when pressed said that he did not think he was the principle source.
Dr. Kelly was now alone, hounded out of his home by packs of newspaper people camped outside, and in hiding at a friend's house. He had, he concluded, been betrayed by the very Civil Service that he had served for so long. His life's work was in tatters, and he had done nothing wrong. He had performed his job with quiet competence and integrity. No-one in the Civil Service would talk to him, he was cast adrift. With this on his mind he quietly left the house with some pills and a knife and entered the nearby woods and killed himself, making sure of no mistakes. Efficient and effective to the end.
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