Weapons expert grilled second time after Blair intervention

BRITISH Government weapons expert David Kelly was made to undergo a second grilling by Ministry of Defence managers over his contacts with a BBC journalist after the intervention of Prime Minister Tony Blair, the inquiry into his death heard yesterday.

The inquiry, headed by Lord Hutton, heard that following Mr Blair’s intervention, Dr Kelly was summoned back to London from a training day for a trip he was preparing to make to Iraq to join the hunt for Saddam Hussein’s banned weapons.

But even the second examination (after civil servants had assumed the matter was closed) did not go far enough for chairman of Joint Intelligence Committee John Scarlett who recommended Dr Kelly should face a “security style” interview.

The inquiry also heard how Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon overrode the advice of his most senior MoD official to order Dr Kelly to give evidence in public to the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.

A MoD note shortly before his televised appearance in front of the committee noted that Dr Kelly was “apparently feeling the pressure and not handling it well”.

The inquiry was set up to investigate how Dr Kelly apparently came to take his own life after being named as the source of a BBC report claiming the Government had “sexed up” its dossier on Iraqi weapons to strengthen the case for war. It heard how Dr Kelly was summoned to an interview with MoD director of personnel Richard Hatfield on Friday, July 4, after writing to his line manager admitting he had had an unauthorised meeting with Andrew Gilligan, the BBC journalist who broke the story.

At that interview Mr Hatfield accepted Dr Kelly had not told Mr Gilligan that Downing Street communications chief Alastair Campbell had been responsible for transforming the dossier by inserting the so-called “45 minute” claim. He did, however, warn Dr Kelly about his future conduct and ensuring that his contacts with journalists were properly cleared.

However, the Deputy Chief of Defence Intelligence Martin Howard told the inquiry that high level discussions continued within Government, amid suspicions that Dr Kelly was Mr Gilligan’s source. The contacts involved MoD permanent secretary Sir Kevin Tebbit and the Cabinet Office intelligence and security co-ordinator Sir David Omand and reached right to the top at Downing Street.