Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Kelly`s Baha`i mentor `denies being US spy`

IRNA

London, Sept 10, IRNA -- An American woman, serving in the US Air 
Force, is expected to make a statement Thursday about her relationship
with David Kelly in which she is likely about whether she had her own 
theory about the former Iraq arms inspector`s death. 
According to the Times newspaper Wednesday, Mai Pederson, who is 
said to have introduced Kelly to Baha`ism has hired a leading lawyer, 
Mark Zaid, following reports that she may be called to give evidence 
to the inquiry into his alleged suicide on July 18. 
British press reports have suggested that the 43-year-old 
Pederson, who met the former arms inspector during two UN missions to 
Iraq five years ago, is a spy for the US air force. 
But the Times said that Zaid denied claims she was a spy and said 
he would be issuing a statement on Thursday in which she was likely to
talk about reports whether she had a theory about Kelly`s death. 
Pederson, a multi-linguist Arab-American, was reported to have 
suggested that foul play may have been involved when she told a friend
not to believe what was written in the newspapers. 
The death of Kelly, which is being investigated following claims 
that he was the source of a BBC report accusing the UK government of 
exaggerating Iraq`s arms threat, has sparked the imagination of 
conspiracy theorists around the world. 
Hundreds of thousands of websites have been dedicated to 
discussing the circumstances surrounding the demise of former weapons 
expert, who worked as an adviser to the British Defense Ministry. 
According to research carried out by the Guardian newspaper, 
Google internet search engine returned 235,000 results for a search 
on "who killed David Kelly?", 103,000 for "David Kelly conspiracy" 
and 39,200 for links relating to whether Kelly was murdered. 
Some of the theories on website networks stretching from the UK 
and the US across Europe to Australia have included writers expressing
concern about the reported suspicious circumstances on the deaths of 
other microbiologists. 
In one of the latest, editor of Jane`s Nuclear, Biological and 
Chemical Defense Weekly, John Eldridge, reportedly told a national 
newspaper that there was a link between Kelly`s death and that senior 
researcher Ian Langford, who was found dead at his home last year. 
The walls of Langford`s living room in Norwich, eastern England, 
were covered in blood when his body was found in February 2002, but 
tests concluded he died from natural causes and an inquest never took 
place. 
HC/216 
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