Tragic turn in Iraq arms row as Kelly found dead
Dr David Kelly was the suspected mole behind a BBC report that Downing Street communications director Alastair Campbell “sexed up” a dossier setting out the case for war.
The ex-weapons inspector was publicly grilled by MPs probing the claims on Tuesday after being named as the possible source by Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon.
Dr Kelly, 59, left his Oxfordshire home for a walk on Thursday afternoon but never returned. A judicial inquiry into the death was announced after a body matching his description was found in woodland five miles away yesterday morning.
His wife Janice told a friend he was “very, very stressed and unhappy about what had happened and this was really not the kind of world he wanted to live in”.
His close friend Tom Mangold last night cast fresh doubt about the accusations made by BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan.
Mr Mangold said the scientist had come to believe he was the source but had not mentioned a key claim used in the report.
“I guess he couldn’t cope with the firestorm that developed after he gave what he regarded as a routine briefing to Gilligan,” he said.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair was told of the grim development on a flight between Washington and Tokyo on his latest diplomatic trip.
Dr Kelly’s death raises fresh questions about Mr Campbell’s future at Number 10 and Mr Hoon also faces questions about how the Ministry of Defence named one of its own officials as a possible mole.
Mr Gilligan accused Mr Campbell of inserting a claim that Saddam Hussein could deploy weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes into the Iraq dossier, published last September.
It was included against the wishes of intelligence officers and the British Government probably knew it was untrue, he claimed. That was rejected by the ministers and secret service chiefs, who said it was passed by the Joint Intelligence Committee.
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