Blair in Japan asked to Resign: "Blood on his Hands"

Blair, in East Asia, silent on quitting over Iraq expert's death

AFP -Sat, Jul 19, 2003

HAKONE, Japan (AFP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair dramatically refused to say whether he might quit over the death of a former UN arms inspector at the center of allegations that Downing Street misused intelligence and exaggerated the threat of Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

Caught out at the start of an East Asia tour by the worst crisis in his six years in power, a visibly exhausted Blair said nothing when asked, point-blank, at a press conference if he had "blood on his hands" and might resign.

Instead, he stared silently out across the room full of journalists and TV cameras for several tense seconds and then with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi at his side, left the room.

Minutes before, Blair reiterated the stance he took earlier Saturday on the startling death of David Kelly, 59, a Ministry of Defense consultant on biological weapons and former UN arms inspector in Iraq -- that an independent judicial inquiry must be allowed to run its course and find out the truth.

THE FALLOUT: WHO WILL GO?

Mirror UK -Jul 19 2003

Blair, Straw, Campbell, Hoon in the line of fire

TOP Government figures could face the axe in the fallout after the death of Dr David Kelly.

As well as the Prime Minister, others under intense scrutiny are Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw as Dr Kelly worked for both ministries.

Spin chief Alastair Campbell is also under severe pressure.

As the furore mounted, Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said he had not ruled out demanding a recall of Parliament.

He said: "There are very many questions that will need to be asked over the coming days."

Last night, Mr Blair's communications chief ALASTAIR CAMPBELL was said by friends to be "considering his position".

But Mr Campbell, who has been involved in a bitter personal row with the BBC over its claims he "sexed up" a dossier on Iraq's weapons, has decided not to resign immediately.

He flew back to London yesterday after watching Mr Blair address the US Congress in Washington before going on to Tokyo.

As calls were made for Mr Campbell to quit, a friend said: "He doesn't feel he should resign because he believes he has done nothing wrong.

"He realises if he did resign now he would always be thought of as the man who resigned because a man died."

Some Government sources said Mr Campbell had offered to quit but Mr Blair talked him out of it.

A Downing Street source said: "He is very distressed and very sad about what has happened to Dr Kelly.

"But he feels he was right to defend himself but he himself never brought any pressure to bear on Dr Kelly."

Labour MP Llew Smith was highly critical of the pressure Dr Kelly was put under. He said: "It was the Government's spin machine which put this man into the public spotlight.

"If this is proved to be as a result of that spotlight then someone in the Government's spin machine must pay the price. They must resign."

GEOFF HOON denied he was the man who "outed" Dr Kelly as the source for a controversial report by BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan.

He said: "It is not true that Dr Kelly's name was put forward by the Ministry of Defence."

He said Dr Kelly came forward to say that he'd had contact with Mr Gilligan and was concerned in case it was claimed he was the source.

Mr Hoon said: "Dr Kelly was warned that there was a risk his name may be revealed.

"We were then contacted by one newspaper that I know of and asked to confirm Dr Kelly's name.

"In the circumstances, having discussed the situation with Dr Kelly, we confirmed his details."

TONY BLAIR is facing the toughest test of his tenure. If heads start to roll the pressure on him will certainly increase.

His biggest problem will be Alastair Campbell. If he doesn't go, Mr Blair risks having his reputation so weakened that his own party could struggle to continue supporting him.

If Mr Campbell goes, the Prime Minister would be left without his closest aide. He would also risk being damned by his famously close relationship with his chief spin doctor - a situation that could leave him powerless and friendless within Labour.

After Mr Blair announced that there would be a judicial inquiry into Dr Kelly's death, anti-Iraq war Labour MP Peter Kilfoyle said: "We owe it to Parliament and to the people, and not least to the family of Dr Kelly, to get to the bottom of this in a way which is completely untarnished."

His colleague Alice Mahon said: "The whole thing is tragic, it is appalling. There is an ever-more compelling case for a full-scale public inquiry."

Within an hour of Dr Kelly's grilling by the foreign affairs select committee, JACK STRAW received a letter from its chairman, Labour MP Donald Anderson, saying they thought he had been "poorly treated". A copy of the letter was also sent to Mr Hoon, underlining the dismay at the way Dr Kelly had been "thrown up" as a "fall guy".

One minister said: "Everyone feels anger at Alastair Campbell and the spin machine that fuelled this whole row with the BBC, but Geoff Hoon and Jack Straw also have questions to answer."

BBC journalist ANDREW GILLIGAN - the main target of Mr Campbell's anger - was also under pressure to consider his position last night.

Tory Richard Ottaway, one of the select committee that quizzed Dr Kelly, was asked on Radio 4 if he thought the members had been convinced that Dr Kelly was Mr Gilligan's source.

He said: "Some of us were convinced that he definitely was not, others less so, but the balance of opinion was highly unlikely.

"There are games going on here, there are people trying to make points, trying to shut down avenues of inquiry, trying to open up things. But putting up Dr Kelly was just part of the distraction and it's had the most ghastly result and I am deeply critical of those involved."

But Dr Kelly's friend, the television journalist Tom Mangold, said last night that the scientist believed he was the main source behind Mr Gilligan's story.

Mr Mangold told BBC Radio 4's PM programme: "He felt he was Gilligan's major source. As I recall it, Andrew Gilligan said the man he spoke to was an expert on weapons of mass destruction and they met at a London hotel.

"If that's true that sounds to me like Dave Kelly."

Former editor of the BBC's Today programme Rod Liddle said: "These are terrifying developments.

"We want to know what sort of pressure Dr Kelly had been put under by the Government or anybody else.

"Quite clearly there was a concerted effort to root out whoever had the temerity to speak to a journalist, supposedly out of turn."

Mr Liddle, who had left the BBC before Mr Gilligan's May 29 broadcast, praised Mr Gilligan as "an incredibly conscientious and dedicated journalist" and said that neither he nor the BBC should be blamed for Dr Kelly's death.

He said: "I don't see what they could have done that was different.

"Here was a senior member of the security services - whether it was David Kelly or not - who told Andrew Gilligan that the Government had sexed up the dossier on Iraq.

"That was absolutely right to report. You can't argue about that."

Labour MPs on the select committee insisted they had not been heavy-handed with Dr Kelly. Chairman Mr Anderson said: "This is a human tragedy. It is awful but this is not relevant any more to the work of our committee.

"I am sure that any objective person, looking at the transcript or listening to the hearing would see that the tone was not aggressive at all.

"I see no way in which Government ministers can be blamed for this."

Labour MP and committee member Eric Illsley said: "I did not think he was put under that much pressure that it would have unhinged the balance of his mind."

As the Ministry of Defence was preparing to announce details of the judicial inquiry, Mr Duncan Smith said: "I am only sad it takes a tragedy like this to get the Government to accept that.

"We will be concerned to see that this is a wide-ranging inquiry, not something solely on the MoD."

<  Censored US Troops in Iraq: "Our Morale is Nonexistent" | IraqGate- Kelly's last Email: "Many dark Actors playing Games"  >