The BBC journalist who reported that Britain exaggerated the case for war in Iraq was set to testify on Tuesday before a judicial inquiry into the apparent suicide of the government scientist allegedly behind the claims.
With Prime Minister Tony Blair’s reputation on the line, the inquiry into the death of government scientist David Kelly began hearing evidence on Monday.
BBC radio reporter Andrew Gilligan, who alleged in a programme in May that the government deliberately ”sexed-up” a dossier last September on Iraq’s weapons, was due to testify before senior judge Brian Hutton, who is leading the inquiry.
Kelly was found with a slit wrist near his home in Oxfordshire, southern England, on July 18.
His death came after he was identified by the government as the likely source for the BBC report, and hostile questioning at a parliamentary hearing where he denied being the source of the story.
After shielding him, BBC bosses later said that Kelly was the main source for Gilligan’s contentious report.
The judicial inquiry into Kelly’s apparent suicide opened on August 1 but began hearing testimonies only on Monday.
One of the first witnesses to testify was a former colleague of Kelly, who told the probe that the government weapons expert was an internationally respected figure whose work helped uncover Saddam Hussein’s germ warfare programme.
Terence Taylor, giving evidence to the London probe by video link from Australia, said that while working as a United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq in the 1990s his ex-colleague Kelly had played a key role in tracking down Saddam’s biological weapons programme at a time when Iraq denied its existence.
Meanwhile, the British ministry of defence’s director of personnel Richard Hatfield told the inquiry on Monday that Kelly had breached his duty of confidence owed to his employer, the government, in his briefings to journalists.
Rules for officials stipulated they should not discuss politically controversial issues, while Kelly had ”strayed beyond providing technical information” and thus ”gone outside the scope of his discretion”, Hatfield said.
The findings of the inquiry, ordered by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, could cause serious damage to Blair’s already dented popularity. Blair, currently on holiday in Barbados, is due to be summoned to give evidence at some stage before the inquiry closes in a few months time.
Gilligan alleged that the government’s 50-page dossier notably included a claim that Iraq could deploy chemical or biological weapons in as little as 45 minutes.
According to the BBC radio report, that assertion was inserted despite reservations among intelligence chiefs. – Sapa-AFP