THE HANDSTAND

AUGUST 2003

..Dr.DAVID KELLY,
SOME QUERIES
STOP PRESS : DETAILS OF INTEREST IN INVESTIGATION,end of this page.

It is very difficult to resist the temptation to read this case as an Agatha Christie v. John Le Carre volume on British Governmant Crime.

From the start it should be made clear that the discovery of the electro-cardiogram plaques in place on David Kelly's torso indicate an ongoing monitoring programme that would in medical fact, if followed by his doctor, ensure that a complete diary would be held for a while that would include the events, conversations and people that created for the patient an arrousal of the disparate rhythms of the hearts muscles. It has been written in the media that Janice Kelly has a diary that she intends giving to the MoD (Ministry of Defence). Let us hope that she retained a copy. *see stop press below

Another consideration is the description of David Kelly as an internationally recognised investigator and arms inspector in Iraq. He was apparently infinitely detailed and aggressive in his interrogations. Suddenly in June a method of procedure of which he had hitherto been master had reversed and one can see in the photograph most widely printed in the media that he felt himself a victim of an extraordinary procedure,... that he was now a victim of aggressive interrogation.. Being a scientist, and of a leading peer group of our times as an investigator into biological and toxic chemichals, he had always been ready to converse on the subject of his studies for journalists, most of them, perhaps, employed by scientific journals. He failed to loose that free habit it seems, when his new employer, the MoD, subscribed to a secret limitation on such discussions. On May 7th this year he discussed on the phone, with Susan Watts of the BBC, the dossier that Tony Blair had used to persuade a remnant of the British public - notably all those whose jobs would be affected by either disagreement or abatement of war, such as politicians and arms dealers - as she enquired into the text base of the main phrase, repeated three times in that dossier, (that knowledgeable minds anywhere and everywhere could not get their heads round,) i.e. that it would take Hussein only 45 minutes, from a moment of decision, to launch an attack on Western Civilisation with biochemical or nuclear weapons. Just over two weeks later another BBC journalist,Andrew Gilligan,, had an interview with David Kelly on the same subject, possibly to substantiate a belief that this "45 minute" phrase was only a spin-government's appraisal of the facts that the inspection team had clearly not dismissed, the case that weapons of mass destruction (WMD) might yet be found.It is the repetition of this phrase so many times that aroused suspicion - that it might be a coloquialism easily adopted as imminent threat by a nervous public - a "spin" propaganda by government officials.

Another curiosity of this case is the place and timing of the suicide. When Dr.Kelly left home for one of his familiar walks in the countryside in the afternoon on Thursday that week, had he been expected to then visit a pub, as he often did, subsequently - for it was only at 11.45 that police were called in to search for the missing man? Dr. Kelly, when he died, did not die in a hidden spot - he had climbed an open field up from the pathway below, where on the brow of the field, alredy cut and dry from haymaking or grain cull, his corpse was found. When his widow was allowed to identify him, a curious word that.."allowed", was it in the morgue or on the spot where he was found? And why did the wristwatch have blood on it although it had been removed? He used glasse , it seems at all times, what was his sight ability when they were removed and where were they in relation to the body...?

Another matter I find extraordinary, especially as there was only one burst of surprise in the media, and that is that the investigation by Lord Hutton is to be taken without the oath. This fact ofcourse became obviously beneficial to some, other than the Government. This is why: if Tony Blair had advocated the oath no further media enquiry or statement or debate could have been undertaken from that moment on, until the investigation began. Without it Tony could allow his puppet masters Mandelson and Cambell and other members of Cabinet, Government and civil service make any level of accusation of the BBC, or dispense any information of their choice. There is a wellknown psychological rule of thumb that is familiar to all the upper echelons of institutions - allow complaint full flood from the tap, turn it on full! as then the complaint will flush out all the emotions of the public that can then-on only be arroused with difficulty. One beneficiary: Tony Blair. And others? Well ofcourse for during the full spate of public horror and outrage the newspapers could write what they liked and benefit from larger than usual sales. Newspaper sales have been decreasing everywhere so this was a welcome deal.

Another absolutely reprehensible step by Lord Hutton, a judge chosen by Tony Blair and whose report is to be edited by Tony Blair, is that he is calling a "representative" of the Bahi'a Faith, a Sufi type religion from Iraq (i.e based on principles of behaviour and love similar to Buddhism is perhaps a better description) to the interrogation at the outset of the 2-part method he is adopting. To call on, and interrogate,this religious dimension as a feature of the hoped for revelation of the truth is utterly out of order. If he had been a Catholic would his priest have been called to deliver up the secrets of Confession?

Now that a Mr.Tom Kelly of the Civil Service is taking stick for a disgraceful and reprehensible phrase, an insufferable insult to the memory of a fine and honourable man, , victim perhaps of the power fantasies of government ; will Tony Blair be able to rescue Geoff Hoon from dismissal?Mr. Tom Kelly is from Ireland, where Lord Hutton also worked as a judge.

A most fascinating addition has come into this with regard to programme editing of documents on the net: "many programmes store this information as metadata in the file."..."Usuall this log is hidden, but it is not hard to write a utility to retrieve it. When the government published the second dossier on Iraq's security and intelligence in February as a Word document on the Downing St website, one curious reader looked at all the revision log. He retrieved the names of a Foreign Office official, a Downing St official and two people in the primeminister's press office, along with anonymous users at the Communications Information Centre, where the dossier was drafted (and where the material from an old PhD thesis was incorporated." Mary Branscombe, Guardian 7thAugust 2003

J.Braddell©, Editor
(1)(Guardian)At the start of yesterday's hearing Lord Hutton revealed why four electrocardiogram pads were found on Dr. Kelly. Ambulance paramedics had placed them there who had tried to resuscitate Dr. Kelly.
(2)(Guardian pg.5)Martin Howard,Dept.Chief of Intelligence at the Government Ministry of Defense said intelligence about Iraq being able to use Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) within 45 minutes was received on Aug30th 2002, and probably did not appear in the various drafts of the dossier until Sept15th, 2002.He confirmed the information came from a single source. an Iraqi military officer who was "reliable"..(why was source not named? jb.ed.).....
(3)(Guardian pg.5)Terence Taylor close friend and former colleague now working in the USA as Executive Director of the Defense and Security Think Tank at the International Institute of Strategic Studies said they had not discussed the Iraq dossier row in detail during the phone call from America(four days before Dr,Kelly's death)Mr.Taylor was speaking by satellite link from Australia, where he is at present (one wonders why?jb.ed). Mr. Taylor had planned to visit Dr. Kelly, from the USA,on July 19th, the day his body was found.
THURSDAY 14th August
On the 3rd August in the Sunday Independent in a reference to Dr. David Kelly's death there is the following paragraph:Academics and scientists closely involved in helping draft new, tougher international treaties on chemical and biological weapons, said their senior defense and intelligence contacts now refuse to share information on arms control issues - because Dr. Kelly's death has sent shock waves throughout Whitehall. There is a further reference to the above mentioned Terence Taylor who "worked closely" with Dr. Kelly and ends: Dr. Malcolm Dando, who runs a global programme at Bradford University to draft a new bio-warfare treaty, said this could directly undermine attempts to formulate abiological and toxic weapons treaty in 2006."My fear is that it is going to be much more difficult to have the kind of transparency we need," he said.
Terence Taylor had visited Dr. Kelly four weeks before his death and was due to visit him on the day Kelly's body was found.. Also, prior to May 30th when Susan Watts taped a telephone conversation , Dr. Kelly had just returned from America, so we can assume Terence Taylor is very important in the overall picture. The following from Rense.com gives some indication of Dr. Kelly's interests in USA :

Dr. David Kelly - the biological warfare weapons specialist at the heart of the continuing political crisis for the British government - had links to three other top microbiologists whose deaths have left unanswered questions.

The 59-year-old British scientist was involved with ultra secret work at Israel's Institute for Biological Research. Israeli sources claim Kelly met institute scientists several times in London in the past two years.

Israel has not signed the Biological Weapons and Toxins Convention, an international treaty ratified by more than 140 countries. It forbids the development, possession and use of offensive biological and chemical weapons.

The CIA, FBI and MI5 are now examining Kelly's connections. Their findings could form part of the British government's inquiry into the background of Kelly's death, which opened last week.

The intelligence investigation is believed to have originated in Washington, where it emerged that Kelly had contacts with two companies in the U.S. bio-defense industry.

One of the men he was in touch with was a former Russian defector, Kamovtjan Alibekov. When he arrived in America, he changed his name to Ken Alibek. He is now president of Hadron Advanced Biosystems - a company specializing in medicines against biological terrorist attacks. Kelly was himself considering resigning from his senior post at the Ministry of Defense to work in America. Before his death, he had been discreetly headhunted by two companies. One was Hadron Advanced Biosystems, which has close ties to the Pentagon.

Hadron describes itself as "a company specializing in the development of technical solutions for the U.S. intelligence community." Hadron also has links to William Patrick, who has five classified patents on the process of developing weaponized anthrax. He is a biowarfare consultant to both the Pentagon and the CIA.

The other company is Regma Biotechnologies - one that Kelly helped its founder, Vladimir Pasechnik, to set up in Britain, arranging for it to have a laboratory at Porton Down, the country's chem-bio warfare defense establishment.

Regma currently has a contract with the U.S. Navy for "the diagnostic and therapeutic treatment of anthrax."

Kelly had told family friends he wanted to go to America so that he could obtain the specialized treatment his wife, Janice, requires. "He also felt that working in the U.S. private sector would relieve him of the intense pressures which came with his government work," said a colleague in the Ministry of Defense.

The two American scientists he had worked with were Benito Que, 52, and Don Wiley, 57. Both microbiologists had been engaged in DNA sequencing that could provide "a genetic marker based on genetic profiling." The research could play an important role in developing weaponized pathogens to hit selected groups of humans - identifying them by race. Two years ago, both men were found dead, in circumstances never fully explained.

This article sets the tone ofcourse for the seriousness of the present investigation and presents the paradox of the type of investigation being held ; an ad hoc enquiry which falls outside the scope of the 1921 Tribunals of Enquiry (Evidence) Act. Enquiries held under that act gives the chairman the rights to compel witnesses to attend and to hand over relevant documents. The fact that the enquiry witnesses are not subject to oath is another factor ensuring that public suspicions will keep the "lies" that have been or may be told by Tony Blair and his Govt. officials, or anyone else, in mind....
Irrespective of the warfare between the Government and the BBC and particularly the discension re. Andrew Gilligan's war reports which riled the Govt., the public should find the dates and rational for the Government's final issue of the dossier of great interest. The first print of the dossier on Sept. 5th was altered by its final publication on the 24th Sept.. by notable changes in language and evaluation. There was an additional claim inserted that Saddam Hussein was then planning to attack Shia Muslims in Iraq with banned weapons. In reference to known plans of military defense for Iraq it was maintained by the original document that Saddam indeed "specifically envisages" the use of banned weapons - this wording was changed to "Iraq has continued to produce chemical and biological agents" - such proof had not then, nor has it since, been found by the weapons inspectors, among whom was Dr. Kelly. A declaration of protection of sources in the first document was altered to declare that information had been given by Iraqi defectors. And most important of all, in the first text there had been no mention of the eye-catching ability of "attack with in 45 minutes", which for good measure was placed three times within the final text.
Evaluating Susan Watts evidence and the taped telephone conversation with Dr. Kelly one can discern in her statements the competitive struggle and indifference to the loyalty needed by an institution like the BBC, renowned for its independence and for sometime under duress in that respect because of Govt. appointments. Ms Watts does not seem to feel concern that it was the actual data of the dossiers that is under enquiry and of prime importance as the colossal error of this war unreeled and Dr. Kelly's knowledge and conferred information that could have prevented the Blair Government from endorsing it. She accused the BBC of "misguided and false" attempts to use her evidence to corroborate the information of Andrew Gilligan; professional jealousy is certainly not welcome when the subject of this war is considered in its entire on-going tragedy. Her complaints are solely in reference to her abstention from accusing the Govt. of these major changes,"did I miss a trick?" as she says on the tape ; or, in the heel of the hunt, revealing her sources that a man's death determines. She draws upon herself a independence that can be labelled as self-preservation for her future, that may be, ofcourse, under different editors for whom a secret truth must never be revealed to the public !

The inquiry website is www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk