[agricola]

Government downplays new Dr Kelly controversy

The Government has denied trying to undermine the credibility of weapons expert David Kelly by labelling him a Walter Mitty-style fantasist.

Downing Street is distancing itself from press allegations that a Whitehall source said he had delusions about his own importance.

No such comment would be approved by Prime Minister Tony Blair or anyone within Downing Street, a spokesman insisted.

But Independent deputy political editor Paul Waugh stood by his story, which he said had come from "a senior person within Downing Street" and appeared to be part of a deliberate attempt to smear the scientist.

The alleged comment was denounced by Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell as "the most tasteless intervention that can be imagined".

Dr Kelly died on July 17 in an apparent suicide, shortly after being named as the source for a BBC report alleging that the Government had "sexed up" its dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction in order to make the case for war more compelling.

A "senior Whitehall source" was quoted in the Independent as suggesting that he exaggerated how much he knew about the document when briefing BBC correspondent Andrew Gilligan, and then failed to reveal the extent of his contacts with journalists to his employers in the Ministry of Defence.

"This guy was a Walter Mitty," the source was quoted as saying.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_806105.html

at a guess senior Whitehall source means A.Campbell or P.Mandleson (ret)

[Waitone]

agricola,

Is this story getting any play over there. One outlet over here so far.


http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/8/3/173308.shtml


Dead U.K. Expert: Saddam Built a Dirty Bomb

Phil Brennan, NewsMax.com

Monday, Aug. 4, 2003

New evidence of Saddam Hussein’s possession of weapons of mass destruction was provided last June by a top weapons expert, now dead, and it could have an enormous impact on the 2004 presidential election.
The stunning revelation by the British scientist, who committed suicide last month over the issue of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction could have anti-war Democrats running for cover.

According to Britain's Sunday Times, Dr. David Kelly had amassed convincing evidence that Saddam Hussein had built and tested a dirty nuclear bomb as long ago as 1987, and was perfectly capable of building the deadly weapons right up to the final months of his regime. Moreover the radiological weapons could have been used by terrorists to create panic and widespread contamination in a crowded city.

Dr. Kelly presented evidence of the bomb to the British government back in 1995 and recommended to Foreign Office officials that it be highlighted in the government's intelligence dossier on Iraq, which spelled out the reasons justifying an attack on Saddam's regime. However, the Times reports, despite secret Iraqi documents being produced to prove its existence, for unexplained reasons it was not included.

In a June interview with the newspaper, Kelly revealed that Saddam originally built the dread weapon capable of causing cancer and birth defects for use against Iranian troops during the Iran-Iraq war as a tactical weapon and an instrument of terror.

Moreover Kelly insisted that said Iraq still "possessed the know-how and the materials to build a radiological weapon, "adding that the threat posed by such weapons was potentially more serious than some other weapons of mass destruction because Iraq still retained the main ingredients to build dirty bombs such as nuclear material and high explosives.

When the Times asked why this shocking information was not featured in the British government's case for going to war against Iraq, Kelly said he did not know, but added that there were people in government who were skeptical about the potency of such a weapon.

In Private

In private, Kelly is said to have believed the evidence should have been included in the dossier because of the possibility that Iraq could reactivate the program even after it had been stripped of other non-conventional weapons.

Later, in July, during his testimony to a Parliamentary foreign affairs select committee in remarks which the Times says have been largely overlooked, Kelly told John Maples, a former Conservative spokesman on defense and foreign affairs:


"On one inspection that I led...the acknowledgment was made by General Fahi Shaheen, together with Brigadier Hassan (two senior Iraqi weapons specialists), that they had undertaken experiments with radiological weapons in 1987."

And the Times added that when Maples asked: "Do you think that is true?" Kelly replied: "Undoubtedly it is true." Maples pressed Kelly for details as to why the matter of the dirty bombs had not been included in the government's dossier, saying, "A dirty nuclear bomb, I would have thought, was pretty significant." Kelly explained only, "You cannot include everything."

Maples told the Times this weekend that he remained puzzled and uneasy over why the government had excluded evidence of the dirty bomb from its dossier: "It is a mystery why this issue (of the dirty bomb) was not picked up by the government and why Kelly gave me the answer he did - that there was lots of other stuff that had to be included."

"They (the government) were obviously looking for ways of making the dossier as attractive as they could, and as threatening as they could, and you would have thought Iraq's ability to let off a dirty nuclear weapon was pretty serious." The Times said that Iraq's dirty bomb was made from a material called radioactive zirconium which was packed into a bomb casing with high explosives. Iraq had access to zirconium stored at its Al-Tarmiya reactor site - under United Nations safeguards - ostensibly for use in its peaceful nuclear power program.

The revelation that Saddam had the capability of building dirty bombs and had once done so and tested the lethal weapons that could have been supplied to terrorists groups could provide convincing proof that Iraq did indeed have weapons of mass destruction - a fact being discounted by Democrat presidential candidates and many in their party.

As the Times noted, one of the main reasons for invading Iraq cited by both the British and American governments was the danger that Saddam could pass weapons of mass destruction to al-Qaida terrorists. Kelly's revelations bolster that claim.

[agricola]

waitone,

not really, largely because that Newsmax article has only some resemblance to the truth. Here is the section from the Parliamentary questioning:

Q79 Mr Maples: ---- you had nothing more to do with it. I just wanted to ask you a couple more questions since you are here. When you were a weapons inspector with UNSCOM in Iraq - I only got this from newspaper reports and you can tell me if it is not true - you were shown by an Iraqi general or minister a site in evidence that Iraq had tested a radiological weapon, or sought to test a radiological weapon, a dirty bomb I suppose in the jargon.

Dr Kelly: On one inspection that I led the Iraqi authorities asked that there should be a special briefing to the team and at that mission, which was an interview mission, the acknowledgement was made by General Fahi Shaheen, together with Brigadier Haifa, that they had undertaken experiments with radiological weapons in 1987. I have been to the site since but not to investigate the radiation.

Q80 Mr Maples: You did not go to the site at the time?

Dr Kelly: Not at the time. I have been there since to investigate other claims.


Q81 Mr Maples: Not in 1995 when you were there with UNSCOM?

Dr Kelly: The site I actually went to in September 1995, but not to investigate that aspect.


Q82 Mr Maples: Is your only evidence for this what General Shaheen told you? Did you check that out through documents or whatever?

Dr Kelly: Subsequently documents were found and there is a document that has been provided to the United Nations, a document which has been leaked by the Wisconsin Institute and which, unfortunately, is now available on the Internet.


Q83 Mr Maples: Do you think that is true?

Dr Kelly: Undoubtedly it is true.


Q84 Mr Maples: I do not think it is given much, if any, prominence in the dossier, either in the history or in current threats, and yet if Iraq had the technology and ability to detonate a dirty nuclear bomb I would have thought that was pretty significant. I hesitate to say that there is no mention of it in here because I may have missed it, but I do not think there is.

Dr Kelly: I am not sure it is for me to discuss the dossier.


Q85 Mr Maples: This is your subject.

Dr Kelly: We are talking about an historical aspect of some 15 years ago. Iraq claimed, and I think we believed them, that that project was terminated in 1988.

Q86 Mr Maples: When you were writing the historical bit of this in May and June, did that feature in what you wrote?

Dr Kelly: No.

Q87 Mr Maples: Is there some reason why it was left out?

Dr Kelly: Essentially it had to be a concise account and you cannot include everything.

Mr Maples: A dirty nuclear bomb I would have thought was pretty significant myself.

Chairman: We are concentrating on Gilligan.

Mr Maples: I know, but this is the dossier and Dr Kelly had a part in it.

[agricola]

just been on BBC Radio:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3122779.stm

[Keith]

It's odd that the BBC report doesn't mention the fact that Kelly denied making many of the statements attributed to him by the BBC...

Keith

[agricola]

keith,

thats mentioned elsewhere:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3116759.stm