Kelly made 14 changes to draft dossier
A mysterious witness known only as Mr A described today the level of David Kelly’s involvement in preparing the Iraq dossier for publication.
The unnamed member of Britain's Ministry of Defence’s Counter Proliferation Arms Control Department, whose identity was kept hidden from the courtroom, said the weapons scientist made more than a dozen recommendations on one of the last drafts of the document.
Television screens, which would normally have broadcast the witness’s image, instead featured a British MoD motif, preventing Mr A’s face from being shown.
The official told the Hutton Inquiry into Dr Kelly’s apparent suicide that a small group of MoD personnel had met Dr Kelly in the Old War Office to carry out a “page by page fact-checking exercise” of the latest draft of the dossier on September 19 – just five days before it was published.
Mr A, who spoke via videolink from which he could see the inquiry room and who was the first unnamed witness to give evidence, said Dr Kelly offered up to 14 changes, while he had suggested four.
He described Dr Kelly’s changes as technical details about “growth media” used to grow biological agents, about foot-and-mouth vaccines, the storage of biological weapons and the claim that a plant used to manufacture phosgene had been rebuilt.
Mr A also spoke critically of the draft dossier he saw at the meeting saying: “There were errors of detail and there were errors of emphasis in my view.”
He added that he had discussed with Dr Kelly not having more involvement in preparing the document, saying: “We felt that the UK government was missing a trick by not including us in the loop.”
Whitehall sources were previously reported as describing Dr Kelly as a mid-ranking “technician” or a “middle-ranking official”.
Giving evidence to the inquiry yesterday, suicide expert Prof Keith Hawton said the “middle ranking” reference was “very upsetting” for the weapons expert.
Mr A, who met Dr Kelly though work in 1992 and grew to know him very well, described a change in his friend as the dossier row escalated.
He said the weapons expert “seemed his normal self, chatty, friendly, gregarious” as they trained at RAF Uxbridge and RAF Honington on July 7 in preparation for travelling to Iraq.
But three days later, after Dr Kelly had been called away from the bases to attend another interview relating to his revelation he had spoken to BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan, he appeared “distracted“.
During the visit to Mr A’s home near Swindon just a week before his death, Dr Kelly unusually did want to talk about work.
“He seemed to want nothing more than to have a cup of coffee and to walk through the garden talking about the garden“, Mr A said. “I would characterise his behaviour as being somewhat distracted.”
He said it seemed “slightly odd” that Dr Kelly had been so keen to visit him in person in order to deliver some anti-malarial medication in preparation for the Iraq trip.
Mr A told the inquiry that he had “mentioned briefly” to Dr Kelly that whoever the Iraq mole at the centre of the dossier storm was, he “probably had some explaining to do”, but never for a moment thought it would be Dr Kelly.
The reason for that is that he believed Dr Kelly had been authorised to give briefings to the media by both the British Foreign Office and Britain's MoD for a number of years.
“I believed that his authorisation covered all his media contacts.”
Mr A said Dr Kelly had spoken to him about his approaching retirement, adding: “David had been in great demand throughout the winter and spring by various people and had done a lot of work and a lot of travelling and I don’t think that he had the support that he thought was necessary.”
Mr A then told of a poignant meeting held in Baghdad eight days after Dr Kelly’s death in which 30 of his colleagues met up “to remember the man and his achievements”.
“We felt his loss was actually a sore loss for the Iraq Survey Group and we miss his expertise and his friendship greatly.”
