A British Ministry of Defence adviser on weapons of mass destruction, named by the government as the possible source for a disputed news report on Iraqi arms, has been reported missing by his family, police said on Friday.
David Kelly has acknowledged speaking to a BBC journalist who reported claims that government aides doctored intelligence on Iraqi weapons to strengthen the case for war. The government, which denies the claims, has asked the BBC to say whether Kelly was the unidentified official cited in the story, but the network has refused.
Kelly (59) went missing from his home near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in central England, at around 3pm (1400 GMT) on Thursday after telling his wife he was going for a walk, Thames Valley Police said. The family called police when he failed to return by 11:45pm (2245 GMT) that night.
”We are concerned for Dr. Kelly’s welfare and need to hear from anyone who recalls seeing a man of this description in the area since yesterday afternoon,” said acting superintendent Dave Purnell of Abingdon police. Officers said the disappearance and failure to make contact with anyone was described by his family as ”out of character”.
Initial searches of Kelly’s house and its outbuildings and grounds were completed early on Friday. A police helicopter was deployed as part of the search.
Kelly appeared before a parliamentary committee earlier this week to face questions over the BBC report, which said government aides gave undue prominence, in an intelligence dossier published last September, to a claim that Iraq could launch chemical or biological weapons on 45 minutes’ notice.
Kelly, a former United Nations weapons inspector, told the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee he had spoken to BBC defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan, but didn’t believe he was the source for the reporter’s story. He denied making the claims included in Gilligan’s report.
”The committee felt pretty confident that he [Kelly] was not in fact the source,” the committee’s chair, Labor Party lawmaker Donald Anderson, told BBC television on Friday. Commenting on Kelly’s disappearance, Anderson said: ”I’m obviously shocked and my heart goes out to his family. I hope that he will go back home soon and reassure his family.”
He added that the weapons expert had appeared ”rather relaxed” when he testified to the committee on Tuesday and seemed to be ”on top of things”.
Conservative lawmaker Richard Ottoway, also a committee member, said Kelly had suggested he was under great strain.
”At the meeting last week he did hint at the sort of pressure he was under,” Ottaway said. ”He was asked to provide some evidence and he replied that he would do so but he could not get into his house because of the media pressure.”
The BBC report caused a political storm over the handling of weapons intelligence by Prime Minister Tony Blair’s office, helping prompt two parliamentary probes into the issue. In the midst of the controversy, Kelly approached bosses at the Ministry of Defence to say he had spoken to Gilligan without authorisation. The ministry later named him as a possible source for the report.
The Foreign Affairs Committee has cleared Blair’s communications chief, Alastair Campbell, of allegations he ”sexed up” the September dossier by inserting the 45-minute claim. – Sapa-AP