Campbell wanted to out Kelly as BBC source

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL wanted to expose Government weapons expert David Kelly as the BBC’s source on the Iraq weapons dossier as he thought it would “f***” reporter Andrew’s Gilligan’s story, the Hutton Inquiry was told yesterday.

Extracts from the outgoing No 10 communication’s chief’s secret diary, released to the inquiry, show he believed that making the scientist’s name public was “the biggest thing”. In a further extract, he said he had been assured by the Ministry of Defence that Dr Kelly had been “well-schooled” before he gave evidence to the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mr Campbell, in his second appearance before the inquiry, said he had been “very, very angry and frustrated” about Mr Gilligan’s report which claimed he had “sexed up” the Iraq dossier to strengthen the case for war.

However he said his idea of leaking Dr Kelly’s details to a newspaper had been firmly quashed by the Prime Minister Tony Blair and he had not gone through with it. Earlier, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said he had personally approved the plan for the MoD press office to confirm Dr Kelly’s identity to any journalist who came up with the right name.

The inquiry also heard Mr Campbell had failed to tell MPs on the FAC he had suggested altering the wording on the controversial claim in the dossier that some Iraqi chemical and biological weapons could be deployed in 45 minutes. The inquiry was set up to investigate how Dr Kelly apparently came to take his own life after being publicly identified as the source for Mr Gilligan’s story.

In his diary, Mr Campbell recorded how Mr Hoon informed him on July 4 that an official had come forward to say he had had an unauthorised meeting with Mr Gilligan but had denied making the claims in his report.

“Says that he’d come forward and he was saying yes to speak to AG, yes he said intel went in late, but he never said the other stuff. It was double-edged but GH and I agreed it would f*** Gilligan if that was his source,” he wrote.

The diary contains repeated references to the fact both he and Mr Hoon had been pressing for Dr Kelly’s details to be made public.

However, he said the Prime Minister had been “nervous” and had “backed off” after consulting the Cabinet Office intelligence and security co-ordinator Sir David Omand.