BRITAIN: Britain's defence secretary rejected advice that he shield Iraq weapons expert Dr David Kelly from hostile public questioning just days before he committed suicide, an inquiry into his death revealed yesterday.
The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Mr Blair , also became personally involved in discussions about how to deal with the scientist, as suspicion grew that Dr Kelly was the source of a BBC report accusing Mr Blair of exaggerating Iraq's weapons threat.
The revelations will pile more pressure on the government and Defence Secretary Mr Geoff Hoon in particular. He has yet to answer tough questions over how the quiet scientist was thrust into the public glare.
A memorandum put before the inquiry showed the Ministry of Defence's top civil servant recommended that Mr Hoon "resist" a request from parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee for Dr Kelly to appear.
He said Dr Kelly was "not used to being thrown into the public eye" and was not on trial.
Mr Hoon's office said "presentationally" it would be difficult to shield Dr Kelly. "The Defence Secretary has therefore concluded . . . we should agree to the committee's request," it said.
Dr Kelly, looking deeply uncomfortable in the public spotlight, appeared before the committee on July 15th. "He was clearly very nervous about that," Mr Patrick Lamb, a government colleague of Dr Kelly told the inquiry.
Two days later Dr Kelly slashed his wrist in a quiet woodland site near his home.
Mr Blair and Mr Hoon will both testify to the inquiry.
Their denial of BBC claims that Mr Blair's media chief Mr Alastair Campbell "sexed up" a pre- war dossier on Iraq's weapons led to Dr Kelly being thrust into the limelight.
Dr Kelly, a former UN weapons inspector, said he did not recognise himself as being the main source of the BBC report. But after his suicide, the public broadcaster confirmed he was indeed the source.
The inquiry yesterday revealed growing pressure on the Dr Kelly as he was questioned hard by his supervisors.
Before testifying in public, the mild-mannered scientist told his superiors he had spoken to BBC correspondent Andrew Gilligan. He was questioned twice in four days by senior officials.
Others demanded an even more serious interrogation.
It was at that point that Mr Blair got involved.
A letter shown to the inquiry, from one senior official to another, "recorded the Prime Minister's view that before we decided on what next steps should be taken, it would be sensible to try and go into a bit more detail into the differences between what Dr Kelly said and what Mr Gilligan had claimed".
Mr Blair's top aides, including Mr Campbell, were also warned by an undisclosed source that Dr Kelly could rubbish a key assertion the government had made about Iraq's weapons capability.
Mr Blair had pointed to two mobile laboratories found in Iraq as possible evidence of biological weapons programmes. Dr Kelly had seen those labs while in Iraq in June.
"He was of the view that these were not biological weapons facilities," his boss, Mr Bryan Wells, told the inquiry.