2+2=4.
The Age/Agence France Press: A British coroner is
prepared to open a new inquest into the death of David
Kelly, the weapons expert at the centre of claims the
Blair Government "sexed up" intelligence on Iraq. A
judicial inquiry, headed by senior judge Lord Hutton,
is set to report potentially explosive findings on Dr
Kelly's death next Wednesday but Nicholas Gardiner,
the Oxfordshire Coroner, believes the inquiry was
unable to examine all the evidence, The Times reported
yesterday.
Repudiate the 9/11 Coverup and the Iraq War Lies, Show
Up for Democracy in 2004: Defeat Bush (again!)
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/01/22/1074732537993.html
Coroner suggests new Kelly probe
By Peter Fray
Europe Correspondent
London
January 23, 2004
A British coroner is prepared to open a new inquest
into the death of David Kelly, the weapons expert at
the centre of claims the Blair Government "sexed up"
intelligence on Iraq. A judicial inquiry, headed by
senior judge Lord Hutton, is set to report potentially
explosive findings on Dr Kelly's death next Wednesday
but Nicholas Gardiner, the Oxfordshire Coroner,
believes the inquiry was unable to examine all the
evidence, The Times reported yesterday.
At least five witnesses refused to release their
statements to the Hutton inquiry and police handed
Lord Hutton only 70 of the 300 witness statements they
took during their inquiries, the newspaper said.
"What their motives might be for not handing over
their statements I have no idea but I think I ought to
see them," Mr Gardiner told The Times.
Mr Gardiner - whose inquest into Dr Kelly's death in
July last year was adjourned under a law that allows a
public inquiry conducted by a judge to fulfil the
function of an inquest - intends to meet senior police
officers this week to demand access to documents
unseen by Lord Hutton, The Times said.
Dr Kelly's body was found near his Oxfordshire home
days after he was exposed as the source of a BBC
report alleging Britain had "sexed up" intelligence on
Iraq and its reported weapons of mass destruction. The
Hutton inquiry into his death is expected to severely
criticise the BBC and the British Government, which
claimed in its September 2002 dossier that Iraq's
weapons of mass destruction could be ready to use
within 45 minutes.
According to the BBC's Panorama program shown on
Wednesday night in Britain, Dr Kelly believed Saddam
Hussein's arsenal posed an immediate threat to Western
interests but could not have been deployed within
minutes, as the British Government claimed.
In an interview with the BBC nine months before he
died, Dr Kelly said that Saddam's chemical weapons
could be "filled and deployed within a matter of days
and weeks".
The Hutton inquiry into Dr Kelly's death is expected
to severely criticise the BBC and the British
Government.
Dr Kelly's previously unseen interview was made in the
month after the controversial dossier's publication.
Its broadcast by the BBC, a week before the Hutton
report, raised questions about why it had not been
shown before to defuse the increasingly heated
stand-off last year between No. 10 Downing Street and
the BBC over Iraq's weapons.
In the interview, Dr Kelly was asked if Saddam's
weapons posed an immediate threat. He replied: "Yes
they are. Even if they're not actually filled and
deployed today, the capability exists to have them
deployed within a matter of days and weeks."
The program also strongly criticised BBC bosses for
"betting the farm" on the "shaky" story by BBC radio
reporter Andrew Gilligan, which was later found to be
flawed.
Mr Gilligan's story cited claims by an unnamed senior
intelligence source, later identified as Dr Kelly,
that No.10 had "sexed up" the Iraq dossier.
- US Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Pat
Roberts said there was some concern that Iraqi weapons
of mass destruction had gone to Syria and vowed the US
would continue searching for such arms in Iraq.
"I think that there is some concern that shipments of
WMD went to Syria," Senator Roberts, a leading member
of President George Bush's Republican Party, said on
Wednesday. He did not elaborate.
- with AFP
Posted by richard at January 23, 2004 08:51 AM