dr david kelly

David Kelly was more than a scientist. Brilliant though he was - at the very top of his profession as a biological warfare specialist - he was also a tough operator within a ruthless world. He had to be. To inspect weapons caches in the former Soviet Union and Iraq, one needed to deal with people who often did not want inspectors there and would take steps to hamper the work.

Moreover, Kelly had to move within the clandestine world of the military-intelligence apparatus in the United Kingdom - not exactly a walk in the park either. Yet, for two decades between gaining employment at the Porton Down biological and chemical weapons base, one of Britain’s most secretive facilities, and his death in 2003, Kelly had thrived.

That year he found himself in the midst of a new sort of conflict - not the usual type of struggle he often faced behind closed doors, but a media frenzy in which he was the focus. For Kelly had spoken to a BBC journalist, expressing some concern about an aspect of the UK government’s case to justify the Iraq War, launched earlier in 2003. Kelly believed that a key claim made by Prime Minister Tony Blair had been added to an intelligence dossier “for impact” rather than being based in fact.

This posed a very serious question: had the British government lied to justify an illegal war?

Dr Kelly was widely regarded as having acquitted himself admirably before the House of Commons Committee on Intelligence and Security on July 16th, during which he reiterated his concern about the wisdom of the now infamous “45-minute” claim in the intelligence dossier. The next day, he went missing. The day following, his body was found in the countryside not far from his home.

An inquiry found that he had committed suicide. Many people over the years have disagreed, believing there was a conspiracy to end his life.

dr david kelly

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