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Final words of Dr Kelly the murdered weapons expert
#Just three hours before Dr David Kelly died he sent an email to warn a friend about "dark actors" connected with his betrayal of the government.
Dr Kelly was found dead eight days after being named as the insider who informed journalists that the government deceived the public about weapons of mass destruction to justify the war on Iraq. Shortly before he died, he wrote about the problems that supposedly drove him to kill himself, dismissing them as something that would "all blow over by early next week."
When the security services assassinate somebody, they need the circumstantial evidence supporting the official explanation stand up in court. David's suicide is supported not only by one piece of evidence found at the scene of crime, as you might expect in a normal suicide, but by two separate items. According to the official evidence, David bled to death having cut himself with a distinctive knife known to belong to him, but at the same time he also died from an overdose of tablets from a bottle that his wife kept in the medicine cabinet at home.
The newspaper editors all seem to have made up their mind already that Dr Kelly took his own life, and moreover they seem determined to convince everybody else too. In Britain the newspaper headlines almost every day refer to the unbearable "pressure" that Dr Kelly must have been under, and we are told over and again stressing how "belittled" he must have felt. But it must take a lot to pressurise a veteran weapons inspector who has dealt with officials in the world's most dangerous rogue states, especially with so many years experience of dealing with journalists. And it cannot be easy to belittle such a highly respected man, a man at the top of his career, a scientist recognised throughout the world as a leading expert in his field.
The last person to speak to David was Ruth Absalom, a neighbour who described him as his "normal self" when he chatted to her after they met as he walked toward the scene of his death. Ruth asked how he was, and he answered "not bad." In his last few words, which he spoke to Ruth as she departed to walk back home, David said "see you soon."
The last emails sent by Dr Kelly before he went out for a walk on his usual route included a note to a friend documenting the fact that he was looking forward to his next visit to Iraq the following week.
SOURCES:
BBC News, "Kelly's final e-mails revealed", 3 September 2003.
[ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3076634.stm ]
The Hutton inquiry has heard about a series of e-mails sent by Dr David Kelly shortly before his death - including one warning of "dark actors playing games".
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A number of e-mails, written off-line, were all sent together at 1118 BST on 17 July, just over three hours before Dr Kelly set off for his final walk.
Among them was one to Gaeta Kingdom at Oxford University saying: "Many thanks for your thoughts and prayers. It has been a remarkably tough time. Should all blow over by early next week, then I will travel to Baghdad a week Friday. I have had to keep a low profile which meant leaving home for a week. Back now. With best wishes and thanks for your support. David"
The inquiry was shown further e-mails including one to Judith Millers saying: "Judy I will wait until the end of the week before judging - many dark actors playing games.
The Guardian (UK), "Kelly 'considered for a knighthood'", 1 September 2003.
[ http://media.guardian.co.uk/huttoninquiry/story/0,13812,1033419,00.html ]
David Kelly, the weapons expert who took his own life in the wake of revelations about his role in briefing journalists about the Iraq dossier, was being considered for a knighthood, his widow revealed today.
Janice Kelly revealed a scrap of paper found in a drawer in her husband's filing cabinet indicated the scientist was being lined up to receive an honour in the new year's honours list in 2004
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BBC News, "Kelly 'seemed normal self' on last walk", 2 September 2003.
[ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3199539.stm ]
The last person known to have seen Dr David Kelly alive has told the Hutton inquiry that the government scientist seemed his normal self on his way to his apparent suicide.
Neighbour Ruth Absalom met and briefly chatted to Dr Kelly at the top of Harris' Lane in Longworth, about a mile from her home, as she walked her dog at about 1500 BST on 17 July.
Dr Kelly was found dead just over a week after being named as the suspected source for the BBC report suggesting the government exaggerated the intelligence case against Iraq in last September's dossier.
Describing the meeting, Ms Absalom said: "He said 'Hello Ruth' and I said 'Oh hello David how are things?' He said 'Not too bad.'
"He stood there for a few minutes then Buster my dog was pulling on the lead, he wanted to get going. I said 'I will have to go David', he said 'See you again then Ruth'. And that was it, we parted."
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FURTHER READING
Daily Telegraph, "Downing St 'over-egged' weapons intelligence, scientist tells Hutton", front-page, 4 September 2003.
[ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/09/04/nkell04.xml ]
Downing Street faced explosive allegations yesterday that it interfered with the use of intelligence in its September dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction when senior intelligence analysts described to the Hutton Inquiry how their objections had been ignored.
Brian Jones, a senior scientist in the MoD's Defence Intelligence Staff, said his analysts had gained the impression of "outside influence".
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He also cast doubt on statements by Tony Blair that the dossier had been "signed off" before publication by the Joint Intelligence Committee, the supreme intelligence body. He said he knew of no meeting of the JIC between the final draft of the dossier being drawn up and its publication on Sept 24 last year.
Another analyst described how government "spin merchants" had taken control of the dossier. He was so embarrassed by inaccuracies that he hoped it would quickly become "tomorrow's chip wrapper".
The disclosures drew an immediate call from the Tories for a full judicial inquiry on the decision to go to war against Iraq.
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"It was an impression that our reservations about the dossier were not being reflected in the final version." Mr Jones was so concerned that he took the unusual step of writing formally to the director of the DIS.
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At the same time his leading expert on chemical weapons was expressing doubts about Iraq's capacity to produce chemical weapons. Mr Jones went on: "They were really about the tendency in certain areas to - shall we say - over-egg certain assessments, particularly in relation to the production of chemical weapons."
A second weapons analyst, "Mr A", attached to the MoD and Foreign Office, gave evidence via an audio link to preserve his anonymity. He said he had been particularly angered by the inclusion in the published dossier of a passage on an Iraqi chemical plant at Al Qa'Qa. He, like United Nations inspectors, did not believe it was a threat.
Mr A made his feeling clear to Dr Kelly in an email on Sept 25, the day after the publication of the dossier. Referring to a newspaper report on Al Qa'Qa that rubbished the dossier claim, Mr A wrote: "You will recall [blank] admitting they were grasping at straws.
"Another example supporting our view that you and I should have been more involved in this than the spin merchants of this administration. Let's hope it [the dossier] turns into tomorrow's chip wrappers."
Commenting on Mr A's remarks, Mr Jones said: "There was an impression, right or wrong, that there was an influence from outside the intelligence community."
Daily Telegraph, "Yes, Minister, the Civil Service knows who's really in charge", 4 September 2003.
[ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2003/09/04/do0404.xml ]
I first heard the news that Alastair Campbell was leaving No 10 while waiting for a plane at John F Kennedy airport in New York. "Blair deputy resigns" the headline on CNN announced.
John Prescott would never merit such high-profile coverage in the United States, of course, so I knew that the Prime Minister's communications director must have finally decided to go.
Among the many ambiguities so far unresolved by the Hutton Inquiry, one thing has stood out with startling clarity. Tony Blair's "kitchen Cabinet", the small group of trusted, and mainly unelected advisers around the Prime Minister, had become more powerful than ever before.
Mr Campbell, along with Jonathan Powell, Peter Mandelson, Lord Falconer, and a handful of trusted civil servants at No 10 - rather than the Government machine, or the Cabinet - have been calling the shots.
One witness after another has described decisions being made at informal, unminuted meetings, held mainly in Mr Blair's private office, known as "the den". At times these were "rolling" meetings, with senior advisers dropping in and out whenever they had a moment to spare.
Emails have replaced conventional memos because they are more immediate and more private. Cabinet ministers are irrelevant. Geoff Hoon seemed almost offended at the idea that he, the Defence Secretary, should be involved in decisions relating to an official in his department.
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Sir Andrew Turnbull, the Cabinet Secretary and head of the Civil Service, has been nowhere near the scene of the crime. Meanwhile, members of the Blairite praetorian guard - Anji Hunter, Alan Milburn, Stephen Byers and now Mr Campbell - have abandoned their posts. The balance of power has shifted from kitchen Cabinet to Whitehall.
No 10's announcement yesterday that a permanent secretary is to be put in charge of Government communications is part of a wider trend. Far from signalling the death of spin - the plan had been leaked to selected newspapers - it is the only way Labour can think of showing that it wants to play by the rules.
The political bandwagon is no longer trusted by the electorate, so the Civil Service "Rolls-Royce" - the default mechanism for Governments in trouble - must be wheeled out of the garage instead.
Ministers detect a change in their officials. "The civil servants know they're back in power," said one. "They're sniggering at us behind their hands. Governments come and go but the Civil Service goes on for ever. They have started to think our days are numbered."
For Mr Blair, the change is dangerous because it is a sign of how weak he has become. When Labour first came to power, officials leapt up excitedly to hear his orders, and those who failed to do so were sent to the Whitehall equivalent of Siberia. Now, even Whitehall judges that his time could be up.
Ambitious officials, who are thinking of life after Blair, seek promotion to the Treasury rather than to No 10. ...
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The Debate - "Motives for War on Iraq"
[ http://www.thedebate.org ]
"The Insider" mailing list article, 03 September 2003.
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