Coverup of Blair role in naming Kelly

The Guardian Sunday August 24, 2003
Revealed: Blair role in naming Kelly
Kamal Ahmed, political editor
The Observer

Tony Blair gave the go-ahead to the strategy that led to Dr David Kelly being named, believing it was 'inevitable' that the weapons expert would eventually be unmasked.

A confidential Cabinet Office note of a series of meetings held in Number 10 reveals that the Prime Minister supported 'making public that a source had come forward', but left the specifics of the two-stage 'naming strategy' to the Ministry of Defence.

Further evidence released last night also revealed that John Scarlett, chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, said that there was 'general agreement' within Number 10 that Kelly's name would be revealed.

'Agreement that the issue would inevitably become public,' he wrote in memo following a key meeting in Downing Street with the Prime Minister two days before Kelly was finally named.

'We are already open to criticism for not coming clean about the existence of a possible source.'

The disclosures, which come four days before the Prime Minister's appearance before the Hutton inquiry, is contained in a minute passed to the law lord's team last week and extended this weekend. They put Blair at the heart of the decision-making process that led to Kelly being subjected to a public grilling by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

The government scientist apparently committed suicide last month a week after he was named. Hutton has made clear that a key part of his inquiry into the circumstances of Kelly's death will focus on why there was so much pressure within the Government to reveal him.

Number 10 has constantly tried to distance itself from the decision to name Kelly, saying it was put in the hands of Geoff Hoon, the Secretary of State for Defence, and MoD officials. But far from leaving the issue to the MoD, a series of telephone calls between Hoon, Jonathan Powell, the Number 10 chief of staff, and Alastair Campbell, Blair's director of communications, over the weekend before Kelly was named, reveal Downing Street's intense interest in the issue.

The MoD press statement, which gave clues to journalists attempting to uncover the source, was also originally drafted in Number 10, by the permanent secretary to the MoD, Sir Kevin Tebbit. Campbell and Powell both annotated the document in detail before it was agreed.

As Blair spent the weekend at Chequers being briefed by lawyers and Downing Street officials ahead of his appearance before Hutton, it was becoming clear that his role in the naming of Kelly will be a key part of the judge's questioning.

Hutton will also ask the Prime Minister about attempts to strengthen the September dossier by Campbell, who sent 15 amendments to intelligence chiefs writing the document.

One of the amendments asked for the language surrounding the claim that Iraq could deploy chemical and biological weapons within 45 minutes of an order to do so to be strengthened.

The Observer can also reveal that Scarlett, who demanded 'ownership' of the September dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, asked the Prime Minister to change his foreword to the dossier.

The foreword, originally drafted by Campbell, was passed to Scarlett for clearance. He asked the Prime Minister to make at least two changes which were accepted by Number 10.

It is as yet unclear what the amendments were and Scarlett, who is also giving evidence to Hutton this week, will be questioned about it.

Blair will strongly deny that Number 10 tried to 'mould' the intelligence it was receiving to make a stronger case for war against Iraq.

The Prime Minister will also argue that he saw the allegations by BBC correspondent Andrew Gilligan that Downing Street had deliberately 'sexed up' intelligence as an attack on his integrity.

Scarlett is expected to make the same point. He will also say that he agreed the final form of the dossier and did not allow any erroneous intelligence to be inserted.

Gilligan claimed that Campbell deliberately inserted the 45-minute claim even though Number 10 knew it was 'probably wrong'. Campbell denies the claim and the inquiry has heard no evidence that it is true.

The Cabinet Office memo reveals that on Tuesday, 8 July, two days before Kelly was named by the press, Blair chaired a meeting in Number 10 attended by Campbell, Powell, Scarlett, Sir David Manning, the Prime Minister's foreign affairs adviser, and Sir David Omand, the chief intelligence co-ordinator based in the Cabinet Office.

A minute of that meeting drawn up for Hutton says: 'Meeting to discuss actions in the light of the re-interview [referring to Kelly's second interview with MoD officials to gain more information about whether he was the source].

'Acceptance that in the light of the second interview no option but to make public the fact that someone had come forward who might be the source. Discussion of redrafting press notice.'

The minute does not note any objection by the Prime Minister to this approach, but those at the meeting agreed that the MoD should take the lead in the announcement.

It was also revealed that Hoon was so keen to get Kelly's name in the public domain he suggested that the ISC should interview him in an unprecedented public session.

In a draft letter to Ann Taylor, the chairwoman of the ISC also released last night, Hoon said: 'Given the public interest in this case I wonder whether you would consider taking evidence from Dr Kelly in public session. I would not object.'