Kelly report sides with government against BBC
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, Jan 28, IRNA -- Lord Hutton Wednesday presented a damning report against the behavior of the BBC at the expense of clearing the government any wrong-doings in the circumstances that led to the death of former Iraq arms inspector David Kelly last July. The BBC was accused of having a `defective` editorial system that allowed its journalist Andrew Gilligan to broadcast `unfounded` allegations against the government`s `integrity` when he claimed it exaggerated Saddam Hussein`s arms threat to justify the Iraq war. Lord Hutton said that the BBC governor also `failed` by not investigating complaints made by Prime Minister Tony Blair`s office about the suggestion that the government knew that the claim Iraq could use weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes was wrong. The management of Britain`s state-funded broadcasters should ensure that a system is in place to consider the wording of a report which might impune the integrity of others, and whether it is right to broadcast it, he recommended. Hutton was presenting a summary of his 328-page report in which he concluded that `no one was at fault` for not contemplating that Kelly would commit suicide, regardless of the pressure he was put under. He said he was `satisfied` that Kelly, who worked as a Defense Ministry advisor, committed suicide by slashing his wrist and that there was no evidence of a struggle or involvement by a third party. The body of the former arms inspector was found near his Oxfordshire home, west of London, after he had been exposed as the likely source of Gilligan`s report made last May that led to an unprecedented dispute between the government and the BBC. The former senior law lord concluded that there was `no duplicitous strategy` by the prime minister or others to leak Kelly`s name to the press. He said that he was also satisfied that there was no deliberate plan or strategy to name the arms inspector by the question and answer procedure adopted by the Defense Ministry, agreeing with the government`s argue that his identity `was bound to come out`. The issuing of the original statement by the Defense Ministry stating that a civil servant had come forward to admit he had met Gilligan was not part `dishonorable, underhand or duplicitous strategy` in its argument with the BBC, the inquiry head said. He also sided with the arguments put forward by Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon and other officials that they were increasingly concerned that the government would be accused of a `cover-up` if it did not issue a statement, saying a civil servant had come forward. Hutton implicitly suggested that Kelly was responsible for his own death, saying that he `must have come to realize the gravity of the situation` for which he was partly responsible by having an `unauthorized` meeting with Gilligan. The former senior Law Lord ruled out that his inquiry could conclude on questions relating to the wider controversy surrounding the use of the government`s arms dossier on Saddam Hussein`s threat to justify the Iraq war, saying it did not fall within his remit. The reliability of intelligence in the dossier relating to the claim that Saddam could use weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes also did not fall within the terms of reference of his inquiry, he said. In response to the report, Kelly`s relatives urged the government to take action to ensure the ordeal of the arms inspector is never repeated. "No other person should have to suffer the pressure he experienced," family`s solicitor, Peter Jacobsen, said. More forthright, journalists attending Hutton`s statement suggested that his report was a `whitewash` and could not have been more in favor of the government. HC/AH/210 End
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