Portrait of the Week – 16 August 2003

Lord Hutton began his inquiry into the events leading to the death of Dr David Kelly, the expert on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Mr Andrew Gilligan, who had used Dr Kelly as his source for a report on the BBC about the ‘sexing up’ of the government’s September dossier on Iraq, made available notes made after meeting him; part said, ‘most people in intel werent happy with it because it didn’t reflect the considere view they were putting forward Campbell real info but unr. incl against ur wishes’. Miss Susan Watts, the science editor of BBC’s Newsnight, said her shorthand notes of Dr Kelly’s remarks about the claim that weapons could be deployed in 45 minutes read: ‘a mistake to put in, Alastair Campbell seeing something in there, single source, but not corroborated, sounded good’. She said Dr Kelly ‘thought very definitely that there were weapons programmes’. The inquiry had heard that part of Dr Kelly’s job was ‘to provide informed contributions to international institutions, the media and the press’, but a Ministry of Defence personnel director said he had ‘gone outside the scope of his discretion’ when talking to Mr Gilligan.