IraqGate UK: Dead body matches Iraq Expert

posted by ewing2001 on Friday July 18, @03:34AM

Kelly, was suggested as the possible source for a BBC story
Updates: Kelly worked for Porton Down

BBC -Friday, 18 July, 2003

LONDON - A body found Friday in central England has been tentatively identified as a missing Ministry of Defense adviser suspected as the source of allegations that the government doctored a report about Iraq 's nuclear program.

David Kelly's family reported him missing late Thursday when he didn't return to his home in Southmoor, about 20 miles southwest of Oxford, from an afternoon walk.

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The body, found by police in a wooded area about five miles from Kelly's home, was to be identified Saturday, said Acting Superintendent David Purnell of Thames Valley Police. The cause of death was yet unknown.

"But what I can say is that the description of the man found ... matches the description of Dr. David Kelly," Purnell told reporters.

AP

A body found Friday in central England has been tentatively identified as a missing Ministry of Defense adviser suspected as the source of allegations that the government doctored a report about Iraq 's nuclear program

Kelly worked for Porton Down

As GFP found out last week, Kelly was more than just an "adviser to the Foreign Office". From 1984-1992 he was Head of Microbiology at the Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment, Porton Down. Kelly was also among the hardliners who claimed that Iraq had WMD.
In October 2001, Kelly claimed, that in 1985, Iraq obtained Anthrax through a mail order of Virginia-based American Type Culture Collection.

It was not obvious if Kelly was indeed the BBC Source.

Kelly took also part in all trilateral visits to the former Soviet Union, Russia, the US and the UK. He was Senior Advisor on Biological Weapons to UNSCOM from 1994-­99, and led and participated in many inspections in Iraq from 1991-­98.
From 1984-1992 Kelly was Head of Microbiology at the Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment, Porton Down.

Porton Down, controversial for their Chemical Warfare Experimental Stations from the 20s to the 50s, was also able to obtain the Anthrax Spores, which had been used in the October 2001 attacks.

Porton Down, directly, and the CIA, indirectly, received their samples of the particular anthrax spores used in the attacks from the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infections Diseases at Fort Detrick, about 50 miles north of Washington.

Since the First World War, the Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment at Porton Down carried out experiments on volunteers to understand better the effects of chemical agents that might be used against British troops in warfare and improve protective measures.

In the 90s, Porton Downs cooperation with the British Government became stronger again and ended basically in a merger:
By 1991 the Chemical Defence Establishment of Porton Down became the Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment and was one of the six new Defence Support Agencies. In 1995, the Establishment became part of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA), an executive agency of MOD evolved in 1994 from proposals of the “Front Line First” Defence Cost Studies.

In 2001, DERA split into two organisations: QinetiQ, a private company, and DSTL (Defence Science and Technology Laboratory), which remains an agency of MOD. Porton Down is now known as DSTL, Porton Down.

Today, Dstl delivers defence research, specialist technical services and the ability to track global technological developments.

In July 2002, the Carlyle Group took a 34% stake in QinetiQ.

Original Story at IraqGate UK: Search for Whistleblower of "Dodgy Dossier " continues...

Journalists 'must protect whistleblowers'

BBC

The apparent death of Dr David Kelly has put the spotlight back on the BBC 's refusal to name its source for the story that an Iraqi weapons dossier was "sexed up".

The missing weapons expert had been identified by the government as a contact of journalist Andrew Gilligan and the possible source of his reports - a claim questioned by the BBC and Dr Kelly himself.

The plight of Dr Kelly's family continued as Mr Gilligan made a second appearance before a Commons committee, which said journalists should be forced to name sources if speaking under Parliamentary privilege.

It is a demand likely to alarm many journalists, who are expected to honour a long-standing tradition of protecting those who come forward with information.

No case has provoked more interest than that of 'Deep Throat', who tipped off journalists about the Watergate scandal in 1973 and has never been formally identified.

Mr Gilligan's refusal to name his contact is one of many other examples of journalists standing by their sources - with reporters and their employers often finding themselves the subject of expensive legal actions.

'Golden rule'

Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists, said "whistleblowers" must be protected as they "will not come forward if they think they are going to be grassed up at a later stage".

Timeline: Dr David Kelly
Guardian, UK - 4 hours ago
... Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, writes to BBC chairman Gavyn Davies asking him
to confirm or deny whether Dr David Kelly, a renowned microbiologist and ...
       Body found matches description of British weapons adviser David ...  - Canada.com
       Profile: Dr David Kelly - Guardian
       British scientist David Kelly may be dead - NDTV.com

David Kelly -- scientist in the eye of Iraq storm
MSNBC - 2 hours ago
... description. Within months of the 1991 Gulf War ceasefire, Kelly was
in Iraq, leading a team of biological weapons inspectors. He ...
       Intelligence 'Mole' In Iraq Weapons Row Missing, Presumed Dead - Infoshop News
       Body found in Iraq expert search - BBC Birmingham
       Cops find body in search for weapons advisor - Independent Online
       Ananova - 4ni.co.uk - and more »

Who is David Kelly?
Middle East Online, UK - 2 hours ago
... Before the twists of party politics pushed him reluctantly into the national spotlight,
British weapons expert David Kelly was a respected but avowedly low ...
       of claim Blair aides 'sexed up' dossier - WorldNetDaily
       British Authorities Find Body of Missing Arms Expert - Voice of America
       British Weapons Inspector's Body Found - Baltimore Sun
       Reuters - SpaceDaily - and more »

Blair promises inquiry into Kelly death
Ireland Online, Ireland - 2 hours ago
The British Ministry of Defence is to hold an independent judicial inquiry into
the circumstances leading up to the death of Dr David Kelly, British Prime ...
       British Authorities Find Body Believed to Be That of Missing Arms ...  - Voice of America
       Blair's Office Considers Adviser Inquiry - Kansas City Star
       Police Eye Dead Body as Missing Blair WMD Accuser - NewsMax.com
       News24 - IrishExaminer.com - and more »

UK police find body in hunt for Iraq row official
Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand - 5 minutes ago
The family of David Kelly, a soft-spoken microbiologist at the defence ministry who
had worked for UN inspectors in Iraq reported him missing after he went out ...

Blair Criticized at Home; Government Adviser Feared Dead
Cybercast News Service - 1 hour ago
... A body matching the description of David Kelly was found nearby, but police
said that a formal identification would come on Saturday at the earliest. ...
       AP News in Brief - San Francisco Chronicle

Reaction in quotes
Guardian, UK - 3 hours ago
... It did not seem harrowing to him.". Liberal Democrat leader, Charles Kennedy,
said earlier: "If this is David Kelly, then his death is desperately sad. ...

IDS suggests Blair should return home from China
Conservatives.com, UK - 21 minutes ago
As police confirmed that a body discovered at a beauty spot in Oxfordshire matches
the appearance of the Defence Ministry weapons expert Dr David Kelly, the ...
       PM pressures BBC to name source - Guardian
       Blair to play peacemaker in address to Congress - The Scotsman
       Blair accused by Tories over Iraq - Femail
       Guardian

Body Found in Hunt for UK Expert in Iraqi Arms Row, Sky Says
Bloomberg - 6 hours ago
A police helicopter was dispatched to help search for David Kelly, who was reported
to have failed to return to his home in Southmoor, Oxfordshire, northwest ...

UPI NewsTrack TopNews
Washington Times, DC - 4 hours ago
... Government adviser David Kelly, 59, went missing from his home in Oxfordshire,
Thursday afternoon. He told his wife he was going for a walk. ...

Dead Men Tell No Tales?

Radio Free America/INN Report New York -Friday 18th, 2003

by Sarah Ferguson

A British Ministry of Defense adviser who was at the center of the controversy over whether intelligence was hyped to justify war with Iraq has been found dead outside his home in Oxfordshire, England.

Dr. David Kelly, a microbiologist and former UN weapons inspector who worked for the Ministry of Defense, was found lying face down in the ground in a wooded area about five miles from his home. The cause of death has not yet been confirmed.

Kelly had been at the center of a fierce row between the BBC and the Blair administration over the so-called “dodgy dossier” affair. The discovery of his body--just two days after he was ordered to testify before a Parliamentary committee--is sure to fuel speculation that both the Bush and Blair administrations exaggerated evidence of Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction in order to drum up support for the war.

Last May, the BBC’s Andrew Gilligan reported that a senior intelligence source told him the government had "sexed up" intelligence on Iraq in order to bolster claims made by Prime Minister Tony Blair that Iraq could launch chemical or biological weapons in 45 minutes.

On Tuesday, Kelly admitted, that he had met with Gilligan three times since September. But Kelly denied telling Gilligan that Blair's communications chief, Alastair Campbell, had ordered the intelligence to be hyped. Campbell denies the allegation, and the BBC has refused government requests to reveal the source.

Kelly’s testimony made him the subject of intense media attention. Just prior to his death, members of Parliament had accused the Blair government of making Kelly the “fall guy” in their efforts to deflect the criticism over their bungling of prewar intelligence.

The discovery of his body rocked the Parliament. Sir Richard Ottaway, a Tory member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, told Britain’s Sky News that Kelly’s death “threw into stark relief the actions of the spin doctors within Downing Street and the Labour government.”

"We thought he'd been put up quite deliberately to distract us from the case of the government's case for war,” Ottoway said.

Television journalist Tom Mangold, a close friend of Dr Kelly, said his wife told him that Kelly had been very angry at the way he was grilled by the committee.

"She didn't use the word depressed,” Mangold said, “but she said he was very, very stressed and unhappy about what had happened and this was really not the kind of world he wanted to live in.”

Prior to becoming an advisor to the Ministry of Defense, Kelly was the chief microbiologist at Porton Down, the highly secretive chemical and biological weapons research firm which merged with the MOD in 1991.

INN Report is aired every friday in New York on Cable 34

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