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| Birth Name(s) : David Kelly |
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Full David Kelly Biography
David Christopher Kelly CMG (May 17, 1944 – July 17, 2003) was an employee of the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (MoD), an expert in biological warfare and a former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq. Kelly's discussion with Today Programme journalist Andrew Gilligan about the British government's dossier on weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq inadvertently caused a major political scandal. He was found dead days after appearing before the Parliamentary committee charged with investigating the scandal.
Kelly believed it was most likely that Iraq had retained some biological weapons after the end of inspections. After the end of the ground war, he was invited to join the inspection team trying to find any trace of weapons of mass destruction programmes, and was apparently enthusiastic about resuming his work there. He made two attempted trips to Iraq. The first was on 19 May 2003, when he was prevented from entering Iraq from Kuwait because he did not have the proper documentation.
The second trip was from 5 June 2003 - 11 June 2003, when Kelly went to view and photograph the two mobile weapons laboratories as a part of a third inspection team. Kelly was unhappy with the description of the trailers and spoke off the record to The Observer, which, on 15 June 2003, quoted "a British scientist and biological weapons expert, who has examined the trailers in Iraq". The expert said,They are not mobile germ warfare laboratories. You could not use them for making biological weapons. They do not even look like them. They are exactly what the Iraqis said they were - facilities for the production of hydrogen gas to fill balloons.
On May 22, 2003, at the Charing Cross hotel in London, Kelly met with Andrew Gilligan, a BBC journalist who had spent some time writing about the war in Baghdad. Kelly was anxious to learn what had happened in Iraq, while Gilligan, who had discussed a very early draft of the dossier with Kelly, wished to ask him about it in light of the failure to find any weapons of mass destruction. They agreed to talk on an unattributable basis, which allowed the BBC to report what was said, but not to identify the source. Kelly told Gilligan of his concerns over the 45-minute claim and ascribed its inclusion in the dossier to Alastair Campbell, the director of communications for Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Gilligan broadcast his report on May 29, 2003 on the Today programme, in which he said that the 45-minute claim had been placed in the dossier by the government, even though it knew the claim was dubious. In a subsequent article in the Mail on Sunday newspaper, Gilligan directly identified Alastair Campbell as the person responsible. The story caused a political storm, with the government denying any involvement in the intelligence content of the dossier. The government pressed the BBC to reveal the name of the source because it knew that any source who was not a member of the Joint Intelligence Committee would not have known who had a role in the preparation of the dossier.
On the following day, (July 16, 2003), Kelly gave evidence to the Intelligence and Security Committee. He told them that he liaised with Operation Rockingham within the Defence Intelligence Staff.
The Hutton Inquiry reported on January 28, 2004 confirming that Kelly had committed suicide. Lord Hutton wrote:I am satisfied that none of the persons whose decisions and actions I later describe ever contemplated that Kelly might take his own life. I am further satisfied that none of those persons was at fault in not contemplating that Kelly might take his own life. Whatever pressures and strains Kelly was subjected to by the decisions and actions taken in the weeks before his death, I am satisfied that no one realised or should have realised that those pressures and strains might drive him to take his own life or contribute to his decision to do so.
Norman Baker MP for Lewes announced on May 19, 2006 that he had been investigating "unanswered questions" from the official inquiry into Kelly's death. Later he announced that he had uncovered evidence to show that Kelly did not die from natural causes. In July 2006, Baker claimed that his hard drive had been wiped remotely. Baker's book The Strange Death of David Kelly is being serialised in the Daily Mail and is due for publication in November 2007. Family members of David Kelly have expressed their displeasure at forthcoming publication. The husband of Kelly's sister Sarah said "It is just raking over old bones ... I can't speak for the whole family, but I've read it all , every word, and I don't believe it."
On October 15, 2007, it was discovered, through a Freedom of Information request, that the knife that Kelly allegedly committed suicide with had no fingerprints on it.
Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke's 2006 solo album The Eraser includes the track "Harrowdown Hill", named after the place where Kelly's body was found. Lyrics include "Don't ask me, ask the ministry" and "Did I fall or was I pushed? And where's the blood?", among others, clearly referencing the incident. Yorke has been quoted as saying it is the angriest song he has ever written. Radiohead's website also includes a section entitled 'Memory Hole', a possible reference to Kelly's 'deep within the memory hole' quotation. |
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