The Hindu : Hutton inquiry report on January 28

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 19, 2004

International

International

Hutton inquiry report on January 28

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, JAN. 18. The much-awaited Hutton inquiry report into the death of the British weapons expert, David Kelly, and allegations of abuse of intelligence by the Government in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq will be published on January 28 in what is being billed as the "make-or-break'' development for the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair. Political circles and the media are rife with speculation over what the report might say about Mr. Blair's own role in the Kelly affair, particularly in the decision to publicly identify Kelly as the source of the BBC's damaging report in May last year claiming that the Government had "sexed-up'' its dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in order to justify an invasion.

Kelly's family has said that it was the humiliation of being exposed as the BBC `mole' that led him to take his own life.

Mr. Blair has pointedly denied that he authorised the naming of Kelly but a top defence ministry official told the Hutton inquiry that the decision on the "naming strategy'' was taken at a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister.

In the past week, Mr. Blair has been under pressure to explain the apparent discrepancy after the Tory leader, Michael Howard, remarked in the Commons that either the Prime Minister or the official was not telling the truth.

"The Prime Minister will face the greatest peril if Lord Hutton concludes that he was directly responsible for Kelly's name becoming public in a way that led to his death, or that he lied in insisting that he did not authorise the leaking of his name,'' The Times noted today.

The Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, has also drawn flak for his Ministry's handling of the Kelly affair but he has maintained that all decisions were taken in consultation with Downing Street. There are suggestions that since his Ministry was directly involved in dealing with Kelly as he worked for the Defence Ministry, Mr. Hoon might end up as the "fall guy'' if the report is critical of the Government. There are also signs of nervousness at the BBC whose controversial report accusing the Government of exaggerating intelligence touched off a chain of events leading to Kelly's suicide. The inquiry was completed last October after taking evidence from some of the country's most prominent figures, including Mr. Blair and senior intelligence officials.

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