Probe into Iraq expert's death puts focus on Blair ( 2003-08-11 09:23) (Agencies)
British Prime Minister Tony Blair will be on holiday on Monday when an
inquiry begins into an arms expert's suspected suicide that puts his leadership
over Iraq under scrutiny and could affect his re-election chances.
A temporary name plate stands in floral
tributes on the grave of weapons expert David Kelly in the graveyard of
St. Mary's Church in Longworth, Oxfordshire, August 10, 2003. An inquiry
into the circumstances of Kelly's death, to be led by senior British judge
Lord Hutton, will start in London on Monday. Kelly, whose body was found
on July 18, committed suicide after being exposed as the source of claims
that the government exaggerated the case for waging war on Iraq.
[Reuters]
A senior British judge, Lord Hutton, is investigating the death of David
Kelly, found with a wrist slit last month after being sucked into a public row
between the government and the BBC on whether Blair exaggerated the case for war
against Iraq.
Kelly, a former UN weapons inspector who worked for the Defense Ministry, was
identified as the source of a BBC report that the government "sexed up" an
intelligence dossier which said Saddam Hussein posed a major threat with weapons
of mass destruction.
Blair, on holiday with his family at a British pop star's villa in Barbados,
is among government ministers and officials who have been summoned to appear
before Hutton's inquiry, which is likely to last for months.
The government's handling of the affair before and after Kelly's death has
triggered a sharp drop in public support for Blair, who first came to power in
1997 and won a second general election in 2001.
A YouGov survey published by the Mail on Sunday newspaper showed 41 percent
of Britons blamed the government for Kelly's death and 68 percent believed the
government was dishonest.
Opposition politicians say the findings of the inquiry could become a key
factor for Blair and his Labour Party in the next general election, due by
mid-2006.
The Kelly affair has kept attention on the failure by Blair and President
Bush so far to produce any evidence of the weapons of mass destruction that they
gave as their main reason for going to war to topple Saddam.
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The 59-year-old expert on bio-warfare was found dead just days after he was
called in front of a parliamentary committee investigating whether the threat
posed by Saddam had been exaggerated.
Blair's official spokesman Tom Kelly was forced to apologize unreservedly
last week for comparing David Kelly -- described by his former U.N. chief
Richard Butler as a man "welded to the truth" -- to the fictional fantasist
Walter Mitty.
"The attempt by Tom Kelly to cheapen the record of Dr Kelly off the record,
even before his funeral had taken place, was appalling," Conservative leader
Iain Duncan Smith said at the weekend. "Surely it is Blair who must apologize."
Among Hutton's early witnesses will be BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan, who
reported in May that a pre-war intelligence dossier on Iraq was spiced up at the
last minute after pressure from Blair's officials.
Gilligan filed his report one week after meeting Kelly at a London hotel. His
BBC bosses, who initially said Gilligan's story came from a senior intelligence
source, confirmed last month that Kelly was the source of the report.
Gilligan will be questioned on why Kelly told the committee he did not
recognize his words in the BBC report.
Hutton has said he wants to find out how Kelly's name was made public after
he told his superiors that he had met Gilligan to discuss Iraq.
His first witness will be another former UN weapons inspector, Terence
Taylor, who will be asked to describe Kelly's expertise in chemical and
biological warfare.
