Two months that will settle Blair's fate

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http://politics.guardian.co.uk/kelly/story/0,13747,1015808,00.html

The David Kelly inquiry that begins tomorrow has to unravel opposing claims by Whitehall and BBC

Gaby Hinsliff, chief political correspondent
Sunday August 10, 2003
The Observer

Shortly after David Kelly's death, his old friend and colleague Terence Taylor said that what he had really admired about the weapons inspector's service in Iraq was his 'patient and persistent questioning that wrongfooted the other side'.

It is an oddly apt description of the task now facing Lord Hutton, the judge who will spend the next two months attempting to unravel the web of claim and counter-claim - as poisonous in its way as anything Kelly dealt with in the desert - surrounding the scientist's last weeks. At 10.30am tomorrow, in a rather featureless modern annexe to the Royal Courts of Justice, he will call his first witness. Tony Blair's survival will depend on what is said, amid tight security and international media scrutiny, over the next two months in Court 73.

Every word will be relayed instantly from the stenographers to screens on the desks in front of both judge and barristers. At the stroke of a key, they can highlight a crucial word - such as Campbell or Gilligan - and the computer will store all evidential references to it, helping counsel to keep track of the twists and turns of this Whitehall tragedy.

Cameras are banned, but seats are reserved for four court artists to sketch the witnesses: there are places set aside, too, for Kelly's widow and her family, as well as those members of the public who make it through the metal detectors. Court 74 next door will cater for the overspill, with a TV relaying proceedings live.

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[sasquatch]

1. I think he was murdered

knew too much so the BCF or one of Blair's goons had him killed.