IraqGate: David Kelly- a human tragedy

posted by ewing2001 on Friday July 18, @01:04PM

The accusations, a gladiatorial struggle and how a Whitehall mole-hunt ended in human tragedy

By Andrew Grice, Political Editor -Independent -19 July 2003

After David Kelly wrote to his line manager at the Ministry of Defence to say he had met Andrew Gilligan at a London hotel, a wave of excitement and relief swept through Downing Street and the ranks of ministers.

But while a shocked Westminster digested the ramifications of the human tragedy that unfolded yesterday when Dr Kelly's body was found, some MPs were asking whether the quietly spoken scientist was an innocent victim of a gladiatorial struggle between Alastair Campbell and Andrew Gilligan.

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It was Mr Gilligan, a BBC defence correspondent, who made the highly damaging claim on Radio 4's Today programme on 29 May that Downing Street had "sexed up" a dossier on Iraqi weapons published last September against the wishes of the intelligence services. In a newspaper article, Mr Gilligan went further, naming Mr Campbell, Tony Blair's director of communications and strategy, as the man who inserted the claim that Iraq could deploy chemical and biological weapons within 45 minutes.

A bitter dispute between the Government and the BBC ensued. The war of words became a test case for a Government increasingly angry at what it regarded as the hostile tone of BBC programmes and a BBC determined to show it would not bow to political pressure.

A molehunt was launched inside Whitehall to find Mr Gilligan's source. Ministers insist that this was a routine procedure and that officials such as Dr Kelly were not under pressure to come forward. But Whitehall insiders claim there was a climate of fear. "People were looking over their shoulders," said one source. Some officials refused to speak to outsiders on their office telephones, convinced they were tapped. Journalists' calls to some normally loquacious sources went unanswered.

But the investigation had apparently made little progress when, on 3 July, a troubled Dr Kelly came forward to his line manager. According to the Government, he had been worried by press reports of the saga because he had met Mr Gilligan at the Charing Cross hotel on 22 May, a week before the journalist made his allegation. Although Dr Kelly was convinced he was not the source, he was anxious because some of the points covered in their discussion featured in Mr Gilligan's reports. MoD officials questioned Dr Kelly, in line with the department's normal practice on personnel matters. Downing Street is adamant that it was not involved. "We played it by the book," insisted one Whitehall source.

Dr Kelly and the MoD agreed that a statement would be issued that would not name him but would say that an official had come forward to admit he had held an unauthorised conversation with Mr Gilligan. No 10 was consulted about this move and approved it.

According to Downing Street, Dr Kelly was warned that it was "quite likely" his name would become public because there were relatively few people working in his field. He was offered alternative accommodation by the MoD to help him avoid a media scrum outside his house. He was also told he might be asked to give evidence to the Intelligence and Security Committee, which monitors the security services.

Dr Kelly was told he would not face disciplinary action because he had come forward, although he was given a verbal warning for talking to Mr Gilligan - described as a "mild reprimand" by Whitehall yesterday.

The statement about the unauthorised conversation with Mr Gilligan was not issued until five days after Dr Kelly came forward. Whitehall says the delay was due to the need to assess whether he might be Mr Gilligan's source and to "get it absolutely right". But some MPs smelt a rat when the MoD issued the statement just before 6pm on 8 July, just after the Government had suffered a damaging backbench Labour revolt against its plans to set up foundation hospitals. But the Government was adamant that it was not timed to distract attention from the revolt. On the day of the statement, according to No 10, it was held up to allow Dr Kelly, who was driving on a motorway, to reach a service station so that he could approve the final wording.

However, another version of events emerged yesterday from senior Whitehall sources sympathetic to Dr Kelly. According to them, the scientist was interrogated for four days before the MoD issued its statement. The questioning has been described as "brutal", and during it, the sources say, he was threatened with being charged under the Official Secrets Act. There is no suggestion of any physical abuse. The Government insists Dr Kelly was treated properly and that no threats were made. "We are not talking about lightbulbs in the basement of the Ministry of Defence," one source said.

Why was the statement released? The Government argues that it would have been accused of a cover-up if it had not announced that an official had come forward. However, it was soon clear that the Government intended to use Dr Kelly as a lever to lift the lid on Mr Gilligan's source - even if it were not Dr Kelly himself. The following day, Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, wrote to BBC bosses, supplying Dr Kelly's name "in confidence" and asking them to reveal whether he was behind Mr Gilligan's report.

It was only a matter of time before Dr Kelly's identity was disclosed. Many MPs believe it was leaked by Downing Street. No 10 denies the charge, saying a decision was taken that the MoD would confirm it was Dr Kelly if his name were put to it by a journalist.

Although Dr Kelly was sure he was not Mr Gilligan's main source - as he told the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday - many inside the Government were convinced that he was their man. MoD officials who questioned Dr Kelly found that his account of the conversation "chimed in" with points made by Mr Gilligan in his broadcast.

"We are pretty sure Dr Kelly is the source," one minister said at the time. Another said: "I am 99 per cent certain." Critics of the Government argue that it suited Downing Street to believe that Dr Kelly fitted the bill, since his account of his conversation with Mr Gilligan would discredit the BBC's story and clear Mr Campbell.

The critics also claim that the Government tried to create a situation where it would win either way. If the BBC denied Dr Kelly was the source, then another possible name might be put in the frame. The BBC refused to be drawn into this game of eliminating names, believing it was just a device to get it to disclose its source.

If Dr Kelly thought the committee's verdict that he was "most unlikely" to be the main source would end the matter, he was wrong. The Government would not let it go, saying it would assume Dr Kelly was the source until the BBC said otherwise. Asked whether he still believed Dr Kelly to be the principal source, Ben Bradshaw, the Environment minister, replied: "I do personally because it's perfectly possible for the BBC to confirm that he wasn't. Now Dr Kelly himself has come forward, it wouldn't be revealing him as the source."

The Government's insistence that Dr Kelly was treated properly was thrown into doubt by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee after it questioned him on Tuesday. Donald Anderson, its Labour chairman, told the Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in a letter: "It seems most unlikely that Dr Kelly was Andrew Gilligan's prime source for his allegations about the September dossier on Iraq. Colleagues have also asked me to pass on their view that Dr Kelly has been poorly treated by the Government since he wrote to his line manager admitting that he had met Gilligan."

The Government's assertion that Dr Kelly was happy with his treatment was called into question by his evidence. Questioned by the Tory MP Sir John Stanley, a former armed forces minister, Dr Kelly said he did not know who made the decision that he be made a public figure, adding that the MPs would have to ask the MoD.

Sir John then asked: "So you did not make it yourself?" Dr Kelly replied: "Certainly not." Sir John said: "We have to assume therefore that your ministers then are responsible for treating you uniquely as a civil servant in highly publicising you before going to the Intelligence and Security Committee?" Dr Kelly replied: "That is a conclusion you can draw."

The unmasking of Dr Kelly will now be a crucial issue for the judicial inquiry announced yesterday. Even before it starts, a "blame game" has begun, with Downing Street, Mr Campbell, Mr Hoon, the MoD, the BBC, Mr Gilligan and the Foreign Affairs Committee already coming in for criticism. Some in Westminster blame the crazy world in which they live. "He's a victim of the never-ending battle between the politicians and the media," one minister said. "It should make us all stop and think again about how we do things."

THE MAIN PLAYERS

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL

The Downing Street director of communications and strategy could prove the biggest political victim of the tragedy.

His determination to force the BBC to retract its reporter Andrew Gilligan's claim that he "sexed up" a dossier on Iraqi weapons provoked the most serious row between a government and the BBC. It also triggered the events which forced a reluctant Dr Kelly into the public spotlight.

Mr Campbell showed that determination when he gave an aggressive unscheduled interview to Channel 4. He gave an accomplished performance when he was called to give evidence to the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, which accepted he did not "sex up" the report.

Tony Blair's closest aide was already considering whether to leave his job. His partner, Fiona Millar, who works for Cherie Blair, will leave this autumn and wants him to join her. Critics believe Dr Kelly's death will hasten his exit from Number 10.

But Mr Campbell may be reluctant to leave under a cloud.

ANDREW GILLIGAN

The defence correspondent of BBC Radio 4's Today programme has long been a thorn in the Government's side.

But Andrew Gilligan's claim that Alastair Campbell "sexed up" its dossier on weapons of mass destruction plunged the corporation into a bitter stand-off with Downing Street.

The BBC stood by its reporter as he resolutely refused to disclose the source behind the claim that went to the heart of the Government's integrity.

It emerged later that he had met Dr Kelly at a London hotel. Although the BBC refused to comment directly on the allegation that the scientist was the source, it had earlier insisted that the MoD's description of the official did not "match" Mr Gilligan's source. On Thursday, Mr Gilligan was called back for a second session with the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. After it finished, its members accused him of changing his story. He accused the Labour-dominated committee - two of whose Tory members were missing - of carrying out "a planned ambush by a hanging jury".

GEOFF HOON

The Defence Secretary authorised the brief press release that was carefully timed to feature on the evening news bulletins on 8 July. It disclosed that an unnamed MoD adviser believed he could have been Mr Gilligan's source.

The next day, in an apparent attempt to flush out Mr Gilligan's contact, Mr Hoon wrote to the BBC, giving Dr Kelly's name and asking them to confirm him as the source.

The scientist's identity swiftly emerged; the MoD denied leaking it.

Mr Hoon's aides advised Dr Kelly that he would face intensity so acute that he would have to use a "safe house".

The foreign affairs select committee aim a charge that Dr Kelly was being used as a "fall guy"at the MoD. As its head, Mr Hoon could find himself at the centre of the gathering storm.

DONALD ANDERSON

The former barrister who leads the foreign affairs select committee investigations found himself at the receiving end of some very difficult questions yesterday.

Attention focused on the treatment meted out by his committee to Dr Kelly and the decision to grill him in public. Mr Anderson did not regard the interrogation as "aggressive" or that the witness had been turned into a victim. But he will now find himself at the centre of renewed doubts over the inquisitorial style of select committee hearings. When his committee decided to investigate the sequence of events leading to war in Iraq, it was anticipated that it would be a drama-packed inquiry.

But until yesterday, it seemed that Dr Kelly's appearancehad brought the saga to an end.

BEN BRADSHAW

Mr Bradshaw is the Environment minister responsible for fisheries, but he has played a key role in the row between the BBC and Government over the dossier.

A former correspondent for the BBC, he has paraded through the broadcast studios to demand clarification over Andrew Gilligan's source. He wasted no time in reacting to the release of David Kelly's name into the public domain, seizing on the fact that the scientist worked for the Ministry of Defence - and not the intelligence services. The Times reported that he wrote to Richard Sambrook, the BBC's head of news, to ask if he stood by his claim that Mr Gilligan's source was a member of the intelligence services. His intervention made the clear inference that Dr Kelly was the BBC source.