SOURCES AND METHODS

UK pledges inquiry over weapons row official (James Blitz and Matthew Jones, July 18 2003, Financial Times)

Britain will hold an independent judicial inquiry if Dr David Kelly, the official named as the suspected source of allegations that
Downing Street "sexed up" intelligence on Iraq, is confirmed dead, a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Friday.

Police searching for Dr Kelly have found a body matching his description.

An official from Thames Valley police, which is conducting the investigation into Dr Kelly's disappearance, said the body had not been formally identified but it was found just a few miles from his home.

Earlier this week MPs on the foreign affairs committee accused ministers of "poorly treating" Dr Kelly, a Ministry of Defence expert on chemical and biological weapons, after he said he was not the main source of a hotly disputed BBC report.

Dr Kelly had come under intense pressure after admitting that he had met BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan several times, including in a London hotel on the same day as Mr Gilligan says he interviewed the main source for the report.

Thames Valley police said Dr Kelly had gone missing from his home near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, on Thursday afternoon after telling his wife he was going for a walk at 3.00pm. The body of a man had been found face down on Harrowdown Hill, five miles from Dr Kelly's home at 9.20am on Friday. There was no note left either near the body or at Dr Kelly's home.

So the case against the case for the war was built on the testimony of someone who was mentally unstable? What did the BBC know and when did they know it? Posted by Orrin Judd at July 18, 2003 12:04 PM