Hugh Dougherty, Evening Standard: David Kelly's family
fought to the bitter end to have the Government accept
some blame for his death, it was revealed today...In a
devastating indictment of Mr Campbell's personal
conduct, they urged Lord Hutton to find that the
Government "made a conscious decision to cause Dr
Kelly's identity to be revealed".
Repudite 9/11 Cover-Up and the Iraq War Lies, Show Up
for Democracy in 2004: Defeat Bush (again!)
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/8876006
Kelly family blame Government
By Hugh Dougherty Home Affairs Correspondent, Evening
Standard
29 January 2004
David Kelly's family fought to the bitter end to have
the Government accept some blame for his death, it was
revealed today.
Only weeks before Lord Hutton published his report,
the family sent him a devastating indictment of key
government evidence.
And they urged him to conclude that officials and spin
doctor Alastair Campbell were to blame for their
treatment of the weapons expert.
In a 73-page submission to the judge only published
after his report was made public, the family urged him
to discard evidence that he broke civil service rules
by talking to BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan.
But Lord Hutton relied on the evidence to reach his
key conclusion that the meeting was "unauthorised" and
"in breach of the civil service code of procedure".
The devastating judgment meant that Dr Kelly, in the
judge's view, was effectively the author of his own
downfall.
The family argued that documents which purported to
show that Dr Kelly was not allowed to speak to the
media without authorisation were irrelevant - and many
of them were not even in force.
The lawyers wrote: "The inquiry will note that the MoD
has failed to point to a single, unambiguous, clearly
expressed paragraph in any document that purports to
have regulated Dr Kelly's contact with the media."
In the submission, the family slammed the quality of
MoD personnel director Richard Hatfield's evidence.
Lord Hutton made no such criticism.
The family's submission said: "He has relied on
different documents at different stages of this
inquiry to attempt to justify his suggestion that Dr
Kelly was guilty of (in his words) 'a fundamental
failing'."
The family said that a key part of the MoD evidence -
a document which it claimed proved that Dr Kelly broke
rules not to speak to the media without authorisation
- flew in the face of the fact.
"These conditions were never applied to Dr Kelly's
activities," they said. "Despite what the document
says, no witness has given evidence to the inquiry
that there was any expectation that Dr Kelly would
have to seek consent from his line manager or that
such consent had to be given in writing."
They added: "As to ... the Civil Service Code of
Conduct, there is nothing in that document that gives
any guidance to Dr Kelly in relation to his proper
contact with the media, to whom he should have
reported such contact and from whom he ought to have
received authority."
In a devastating indictment of Mr Campbell's personal
conduct, they urged Lord Hutton to find that the
Government "made a conscious decision to cause Dr
Kelly's identity to be revealed".
"It did so in order to assist it in its battle with
the BBC," the family said.
They urged the judge to pay close attention to a
crucial passage