BRITAIN: Top British arms expert Dr David Kelly believed Iraq posed only a minimal military threat and accused the government of overplaying the risk to justify war, a BBC reporter yesterday told the inquiry into the circumstances that preceded his death.
Dr Kelly slashed his wrist last month after being named as the source for a BBC reporter that a British government dossier on Iraq's weapons was "sexed up" at the behest of Mr Tony Blair's communications chief, Mr Alastair Campbell.
Andrew Gilligan, the BBC defence correspondent whose May 29th radio report plunged Mr Blair's government into crisis, told the judicial inquiry that Dr Kelly told him most British intelligence experts were unhappy with the weapons dossier.
But he faced tough questions over discrepancies between his account of his interview with Kelly and the scientist's own recollection. The inquiry also heard that an internal BBC memo spoke of Mr Gilligan's "flawed reporting".
A second BBC journalist giving evidence to the inquiry disclosed that she was told by Dr Kelly that Mr Campbell had been responsible for inserting the controversial "45 minute claim" into the dossier. Susan Watts, science editor of BBC2 TV's Newsnight programme, told the inquiry that Dr Kelly had made the claim two weeks before he spoke to Mr Gilligan.
Ms Watts said that she had initially treated his remark as a "gossipy aside" but later realised that it was an indication of Dr Kelly's "extraordinary access" to the official information behind the dossier.
Her comments came at the end of the second day of evidence to the inquiry, headed by Lord Hutton. Giving evidence, Mr Gilligan read from notes he tapped into a portable computer as he and Dr Kelly chatted in a London hotel.
"[Saddam Hussein's weapons] programme was small. He couldn't have killed very many people even if everything had gone right for him," said Mr Gilligan, reading the notes.
Another section of Mr Gilligan's notes had Dr Kelly referring to "no usable weapons" in Iraq.
Mr Gilligan said Dr Kelly pointed a finger at Mr Campbell for changing the pre-war intelligence dossier, highlighting a claim that Iraq could deploy chemical or biological arms at 45 minutes notice.
"Most people in intelligence were unhappy with it because it didn't reflect the considered view they were putting forward," Mr Gilligan said.
That claim was bolstered on Monday when Martin Howard, deputy chief of intelligence at the Ministry of Defence, told the inquiry two defence officials were unhappy with language used in the government dossier, published in September 2002.
The dossier was "transformed a week before publication to make it sexier. A classic was the 45 minutes", Mr Gilligan said.
When asked how the transformation happened, Mr Gilligan answered: "Kelly said 'Campbell'."
But several government officials on Monday denied Mr Campbell had pushed for the inclusion of the 45-minute allegation. Mr Gilligan's version of his conversation with Dr Kelly was also at odds with a memo sent by the scientist to his bosses.
"Our discussion was not about the dossier," Dr Kelly wrote in the memo, adding that he told Mr Gilligan he believed the dossier "a fair reflection of open source information".