On 17th July 2003 David Kelly was still doing all the normal things. Such as making diary entries for what he was going to be doing the next week.
The title of the email was:
David Kelly- New evidence of him on 17th July 2003 planning a future
The text of the email was:
Mr McGinty,
This email is intended for the attention of the Attorney General in connection with a possible application to the High Court that an inquest be held into the death of Dr. David Kelly.
In this email I draw the Attorney General's attention to new evidence of actions by David Kelly on 17th July 2003 that demonstrate he was planning for a future He took these actions no earlier than late morning 17th July 2003.
In addition, I consider that there has been insufficiency of inquiry, as explained later in this document.
Following the Intelligence and Security Meeting on 16th July 2003, David Kelly was out of the woods with respect to the investigation by Parliamentary Committees.
On 15th July 2003 Donald Anderson, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, had written to Jack Straw to convey to him that the Foreign Affairs Committee had concluded that David Kelly was not what I term "The Real Source" for Andrew Gilligan.
Accordingly, on the morning of 17th July 2003 David Kelly and John Clark at the Ministry of Defence held telephone discussions to decide when David Kelly would travel to Iraq (his original travel date of 11th July having been postponed because of the Gilligan source furore).
The discussion between David Kelly and John Clark (page 139 at http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/transcripts/hearing-trans21.htm ) is reproduced here with particularly relevant parts in bold:
14 On the 17th, when I asked him how he was going, he
15 basically said he was holding up all right but it had
16 all come to a head and his wife had taken it really very
17 badly. Whether that was in association with the
18 additional pressure of having to get back the day before
19 under her own steam, I do not know, but he did say that
20 his wife had been very upset on the morning of the 17th.
21 Q. Did you discuss going back to Iraq at all?
22 A. Yes, it was something we discussed regularly because
23 Dr Kelly was very keen to get back to Iraq to support
24 the ISG and on that morning, because we thought that
25 really we were clearing the workload associated with PQs
139
1 and with the Select Committees, we looked at
2 a reasonable date for him going back. Having discussed
3 it with Dr Wells, we came up with the date of the 25th
4 which basically gave him just slightly over a week to
5 get his personal effects sorted out and then he would
6 fly out. So that -- I spoke to him on the Thursday and
7 it was going to be a week the following Friday that he
8 would fly out.
9 Q. Did you book a flight for him?
10 A. Yes, I did. Having agreed that then he was booked on
11 a flight.
12 LORD HUTTON: So that was a definite plan, Wing Commander,
13 was it, that he would go out on the 25th?
14 A. It was my Lord.
15 LORD HUTTON: He knew that?
16 A. Provided basically we would seek authority from the
17 Deputy Chief of Defence Intelligence that he was happy
18 we had received it, it was a definite plan. He had
19 agreed that Dr Kelly himself could easily make that
20 date.
The information quoted is also at paragraph 121 of the Hutton Report, see http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/report/chapter04.htm .
Notice that this discussion between David Kelly and John Clark took place on 17th July 2003.
Notice too that John Clark says that Janice Kelly had been very upset on the 17th.
Janice Kelly indicated in her evidence that it was from around 12.30 that she began to feel ill, which I take to refer to the same time as her being "upset" in John Clark's terms. See page 46 on http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/transcripts/hearing-trans24.htm for Janice Kelly's evidence.
Therefore it seems likely that the conversation between John Clark and David Kelly may have taken place after 12.30 on 17th July 2003.
One cannot exclude the possibility that the telephone call took place significantly later on 17th July.
If David Kelly was, as John Clark stated, looking forward to going to Iraq then he would enter the information about the flight to Iraq on 25th July 2003.
And this is what he did!
David Kelly's manuscript diary is here on the Hutton web site:
http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/tvp/tvp_3_0131to0142.pdf
The diary page for July 2003 is page 8 of 12.
Notice that for Friday 25th July 2003 David Kelly has entered an entry as a result of his conversation with John Clark no earlier than late morning on 17th July 2003. Notice, too, that he adds a question mark. That, in my interpretation, reflects the need for approval by the Deputy Chief of Defence Intelligence discussed between them as stated in John Clark's evidence.
Not only does David Kelly enter the date of his outward flight to Iraq but he also adds a return date of 10th August 2003 (See page 9 of 12 of the same document).
Dr. Kelly is behaving as a professional who hopes to travel to Iraq of the following week, expecting to return on 10th August 2003.
He is not behaving with the disregard of a future which would be characteristic of someone intending to commit suicide.
These diary entries made later morning or around lunchtime on 17th July 2003 are wholly inconsistent in my view with the notion put forward by Professor Hawton that David Kelly had formed an intention in his mind to commit suicide.
The timing further renders non-credible suggestions in the press and elsewhere that some aspect of dealing with the new Parliamentary Questions was more than Dr. Kelly could cope with. The new PQs were sent to him at 09.28. Yet a couple of hours or so later on 17th July 2003 David Kelly continues diarising future commitments in the expected way.
I would, in passing, point out that Lord Hutton had access to all this evidence but as a result of insufficiency of inquiry failed to notice David Kelly's actions around lunchtime on 17th July 2003 in diarising these future commitments and consequently failed correctly to conclude that David Kelly had no intention to end his life. David Kelly was looking forward to returning to Iraq on 25th July 2003.
I conclude that this new evidence is a powerful additional piece of evidence showing that David Kelly had no intention on 17th July 2003 to commit suicide.
I would be grateful if you would confirm receipt of this email and that the information contained in it will be drawn to the attention of the Attorney General.
Thank you.
(Dr) Andrew Watt
No comments:
Post a Comment