Kelly ‘named Campbell to two journalists’

A SECOND BBC journalist disclosed she was told by David Kelly that Alastair Campbell had been responsible for inserting the controversial ‘45 minute claim’ into the British government’s Iraq weapons dossier.

Susan Watts, science editor of BBC2's Newsnight, told the inquiry into Dr Kelly's death that he had made the claim about the Downing Street communications chief two weeks before he spoke to the Today programme journalist Andrew Gilligan who broke the original story.

Ms Watts said that she had initially treated his remark as a "gossipy aside" but later realised that it was an indication of Dr Kelly's "extraordinary access" to the official information behind the dossier.

Her comments came at the end of the second day of evidence to the inquiry, headed by Lord Hutton, into how Dr Kelly apparently came to take his own life after being named as the source for the original BBC story claiming the Government "sexed up" dossier to strengthen the case for war.

Earlier, the inquiry heard that senior BBC managers had had serious misgivings about Mr Gilligan's original reporting of the story saying it had been "marred" by "loose use of language and lack of judgment".

Mr Gilligan, who also gave evidence yesterday, conceded "with hindsight" that some of his reporting was "not perfect" but said that Dr Kelly had agreed the quotes that he used in his Today programme report.

Ms Watts told the inquiry she had telephoned Dr Kelly who she had spoken to in the past on scientific matters on May 7 for background information about a report she was preparing on the continuing hunt for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

During the conversation she had asked him about the dossier and the claim that some Iraqi weapons could be deployed within 45 minutes.

According to her shorthand note, he replied: "It was a mistake to put in. Alastair Campbell seeing something in there. Single source, not corroborated. Sounded good."

She said that she had only realised how good his information was when Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram confirmed that the intelligence had come from a single source following the Today report on May 29.

During his evidence Mr Gilligan reaffirmed his claim that Dr Kelly had said Mr Campbell had been responsible for the "transformation" of the dossier in the week before its publication last September.

Mr Gilligan said Dr Kelly had not told him the 45 minute claim was made up by the Government, but that it had been considered "unreliable" by intelligence agencies and included against their wishes.

He said he had made notes of what was said and Dr Kelly had agreed the quotes that could be used in his radio report without saying who they came from. However, the inquiry was told that Dr Kelly disputed Mr Gilligan's account of the meeting during evidence to two Parliamentary inquiries.

The inquiry also heard that the editor of the Today programme, Kevin Marsh, had expressed concerns about Mr Gilligan's reporting in an e-mail to the head of BBC Radio News, Stephen Mitchell.

"I hope my worst fears based on what I heard from the spooks this afternoon are not realised.

"This story was a good piece of investigative journalism marred by flawed reporting. The biggest millstone has been the loose use of language.

The inquiry was adjourned until today.