January 22, 2004

Dr Kelly film haunts Beeb

SUICIDE scientist Dr David Kelly last night gave evidence from beyond the grave to support Tony Blair on Iraq.

His testimony, seen for the first time in a Panorama special, will haunt the BBC and destroy the credibility of Today reporter Andrew Gilligan.

The documentary also accused Beeb bosses of “betting the farm” on Gilligan’s flawed evidence.

The Dr Kelly interview, taped in October 2002, showed respected reporter Jane Corbyn asking him if Iraq posed an “immediate threat”.

The former UN weapons inspector replied: “Yes.

“Even if they’re not actually filled and deployed today, the capability exists to get them filled and deployed within a matter of days and weeks.”

Dr Kelly also said Saddam Hussein’s biological weapons programme posed a “real threat” to states in the region.

He added: “We’re talking about Iran and Israel and certainly he can use those weapons against them and you don’t need a vast stockpile to have a tremendous military effect.”

This scuppers claims by critics of the war — and the BBC itself — that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

The video has been given to Lord Hutton, whose report on events leading to Dr Kelly’s death last July comes out on Wednesday.

The MoD scientist, 59, was found with his wrists slashed near his Cotswolds home after giving misleading evidence to MPs.

The video has been given to Lord Hutton, whose report on events leading to Dr Kelly’s death last July comes out on Wednesday.

The MoD scientist, 59, was found with his wrists slashed near his Cotswolds home after giving misleading evidence to MPs.

He left in his wake a bitter wrangle between Downing Street, the MoD and the BBC which exploded last summer.

Weeks earlier in May, Gilligan accused the PM of conspiring with MI6 to distort evidence on WMDs during a live, unscripted radio report.

The journalist, who was said to report in “primary colours”, claimed Mr Blair knew a dossier warning Saddam could deploy missiles in 45 minutes was wrong.

Panorama blamed senior BBC figures for failing to check his facts before tackling No 10.

As the row escalated, Director General Greg Dyke is quoted as saying: “Have we “f***ing got this right?” John Ware, the Beeb veteran behind the special, said: “The original broadcast on Today was wrong.”

He added the decision not to apologise was a “failure that proved costly”.

But a BBC spokesman said: “When the governors met on 6 July, Dr Kelly had not been identified as the source.

“Therefore his interview would not have been identified as being of relevance. The only people who knew who Andrew Gilligan’s source was were Andrew Gilligan and Today editor Richard Sambrook.”

Others likely to face criticism next week are Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon and John Scarlett, chairman of the joint intelligence committee.

But Hutton may also rap the doctor himself for breaking MoD rules, blabbing to Gilligan, lying to his superiors and failing to tell the truth to MPs.

WOW. What a bombshell!
But I think we all knew this was coming.
Let this be a cautionary tale for the American Media and the Democrats: the BBC let its Liberal, anti-war and "get Blair" agenda get in the way of the truth and the facts.
They tried, with the help of Leftist MPs like Claire Short and Robin Cook to bring down Tony Blair's government and to keep Britain from joining our Coalition.
Thank the Lord they failed!
And as President Bush affirmed last night in his SOTU, which Kelly stresses here also, Saddam most definitely did have WMDs and if we can't find them yet in Iraq, it's either because they're still hidden there and we haven't found them, they've been taken apart and/or are they were rolled into Syria.
Tony Blair has refused to back away from this intel also on more than one occasion.
(Poor David Kelly was used and abused by the Beeb and really shouldn't have been giving classified info to reporters and I think that when he realized this, he felt that suicide was his only way out.)
This will rock the BBC to its foundations, as well it should and the Kelly-Gilligan "sexed-up" story affair is far from their only transgression.
Only in the last week, they fired the fine telejournalist Robert Kilroy-Silk for making "anti-Arab" remarks and have hired the head of Al-Jazeera to work for them, thus making their latest nickname "Baghdad Broadcasting System" virtually a reality:

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is engulfed in a new controversy after signing up the editor-in-chief of the Arab television channel Al-Jazeera.

Mr Ibrahim Helal had personally authorised the broadcasting of controversial messages by Al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

We can only hope that the British people decide that their tax dollars don't need to support this kind of megaphone for anti-Western, anti-British, anti-American and anti-Semetic hate and murder speech anymore!