In an audio piece, Strange Quarks Episode 6: David Aaronovitch, Martin Robbins of the Guardian and David Aaronovitch throw cold water on all sorts of conspiracy theories, including the possibility that the death of David Kelly could be anything other than suicide.
For some reasons terms such as smugness, arrogance and pseudo-science popped into my mind while I was listening.
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A better link to this piffle (move to 30.30) is
ReplyDeletehttp://pulse-project.org/node/273
I can't get yours to work on my computer, Andrew.
If I might paraphrase Aaro, more likely things tend to occur - like a brown bird in your garden is more likely to be a sparrow than a Dartford Warbler. Therefore Dartford Warblers don't exist(?).
Aaronovitch made more sense as a student when he was answering any question on Univerity Challenge with the names of Lenin, Trotsky,Ho-Chi-Minh etc etc.
Just a note or two for Aaro -everything was odd in what we know about the death of Dr Kelly and its investigation.
Was David Kelly an expert on Chemical. Weapons too ? I thought his speciality was biological. Brian Jones and Julian Perry Robinson are Chemical weapons experts. Interestingly, "According to Professor Julian Perry Robinson, Britain's most senior and respected expert on chemical weapons and a friend and colleague of Dr Kelly, these
experiences hardened him. It seems unlikely that a man with his background would have been driven to suicide by one or two bumptious members of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, unpleasant though he clearly found his public grilling by the MPs. (incidentally,then, Perry-Jones of Sussex University is another voice against suicide!)
Aaro says Lord Hutton and Mrs Kelly must be discredited for an alternative narrative to suicide. Er,why not?? Well,that would be just starters for a cover-up. In on plot? Well, if a cover-up is a plot I guess so. Aaro uses to support his case the well-trodden fact that Dr Kelly's mother committed suicide. Dr Kelly's father had left his first wife and started another family. Perhaps that might have driven her to suicide. Would that make Dr Kelly suicidal after nearly 40 years of a distinguished career?
When I listen to Aaro describing Rowena Thursby ,someone with no axe to grind and who has written forensically and intelligently on the known facts of the Kelly case,as conspiratorially minded,it just reinforced my view that Aaro is blind uncritical tool of the estabishmennothing really,just his own narrow minded opinions.t line. It is all nonsense,backed up by,well,nothing very much apart from his narrow minded opinions.
Felix,
ReplyDeleteIf we take Aaronovitch's position that suicide is more common than murder therefore David Kelly's death is suicide, it is seen to be the nonsense that it is.
The need is to look at the evidence which is what, so far as I can tell, Aaronovitch refuses to do. With good reason, of course, since the evidence casts major doubts on his smug assumption of suicide.
The cheap remark about Rowena was to be expected. It's Aaronovitch's way of avoiding looking at the evidence.
Felix,
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesing quote from Julian Perry Robinson.
For reference, the original is here: Death of a decent man. The article is dated 20th July 2003.
In passing, I find it interesting that no UK-based media picked up the article just mentioned.
ReplyDeleteJust on Aaro's sloppy use of the term Chemical and Biological Weapons Expert
ReplyDeleteI see from the Iraq Inquiry Digest list of suggested witnesses to Chilcot that Rod Godfrey's speciality (Mr A) is given as Chemical and Hamish Killip's as Biological. I would put David Kelly as a former microbiologist and virologist in the latter camp.
Not locking up papers for 70 years and having Coroners' Inquests also tend to be more common than their opposing events....
All say after Aaaro
"If nothing (WMDs) is eventually found, I - as a supporter of the war - will never believe another thing that I am told by our government, or that of the US ever again. And, more to the point, neither will anyone else. Those weapons had better be there somewhere."