David Kelly
Biological weapons expert with a reputation for thoroughness
Nigel Fountain and Sarah A Smith
Saturday July 19, 2003
The Guardian
Before this year's Iraq war, the microbiologist David Kelly, who has died aged 59, would recall that, with Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the pattern of his life for the ensuing decade had been set. Ironically, his spectacularly professional work in Iraq in the 1990s, was to suck him towards a media and political quagmire.
Kelly was the Ministry of Defence's chief scientific officer and senior adviser to the proliferation and arms control secretariat, and to the Foreign Office's non-proliferation department. The senior adviser on biological weapons to the UN biological weapons inspections teams (Unscom) from 1994 to 1999, he was also, in the opinion of his peers, pre-eminent in his field, not only in this country, but in the world.
After the eviction of the Iraqis from Kuwait in 1991, the UN invited Kelly to join Unscom to force Saddam into compliance with the peace agreements. Kelly made 36 visits to Iraq, and, from New York, continued his work into the late 1990s. What made him the obvious candidate for such work was his earlier, and continuing, experience in Russia. In autumn 1989, he had been called in to assist MI6 in debriefing Vladimir Pasechnik, a leading Soviet biochemist and defector.
Eighteen months later, armed with Pasechnik's evidence of a gross violation of the 1972 biological weapons convention, Kelly co-led the US/British delegation to inspect suspect Russian sites. His sympathetic manner was an asset: at Vektor laboratories in Novosibirsk, Siberia, a researcher mentioned that the lab was studying the smallpox virus - in contravention of WHO regulations and the biological weapons convention. This was a major discovery, which revealed the seriousness of the Soviet undertaking. Later, he was an observer on the reciprocal trip the Russians made to the US. More.....
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/kelly/story/0,13747,1003096,00.htmlTHE STRANGE "SUICIDE" OF DAVID KELLY:
Questions for the coroner's inquest
by Renan Talieva
With the release of his report last month, Lord Brian Hutton pronounced the death of scientist David Kelly a suicide. But the evidence given at the inquiry does not substantiate the finding. It is not yet known exactly how he died.
Members of the medical community and the general public are beginning to express growing skepticism about the stated cause of death. In response to their concerns, Oxfordshire coroner Nicholas Gardiner will hold a hearing in March to determine if 'exceptional reasons' compel him to reopen the original inquest. <1>
There is more than adequate cause to question the current interpretation of the scientist's demise, as set forth by the Hutton report (HR) and the public record of the Hutton inquiry (HI). The official version can be summarized as follows.
Between 3.00 and 3.20 pm on 17 July 2003, Dr Kelly left his Oxfordshire residence after telling his wife he was going for his regular walk. At about 9.20 am on 18 July, his body was found by volunteer searchers in a wooded area on Harrowdown Hill. On the body was a mobile telephone, glasses, key fob, and three 10-tablet blister packs of coproxamol with 1 tablet remaining. Near the body was a Barbour cap, wristwatch, Sandvig knife, and half-litre bottle of water. More.....
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