On the previous day, a recalled House of Commons had heard Tony Blair announce the UK Government's dossier on the supposed threat that Iraq posed.
On 25th September 2002, David Kelly's only contribution to the evidence to the FAC was to agree absolutely with a mundane statement by Jack Straw. The following extract is from Jack Straw's answer to question 19:
Your other point, Sir John, was about the way in which the inspectors were messed around in the 1990s. What I think is interesting about the way the environment and the inspectors work, and if I am wrong, I invite Dr Kelly to correct me because he was there and I was not, but what I am told by other people who were inspectors at the time was that when the international community were clear and resolute, the environment for the inspectors was a very different one from the moment it became fairly obvious that it was possible for Saddam to play one member of the international community off against another.
(Dr Kelly) You are absolutely right in that analysis.
Why was David Kelly there?
Why did Jack Straw call on him to say anything? There was no need for him to do so.
If Jack Straw was given advance notice of question 19, was this primarily a charade, a stage-managed interaction, to amplify the supposed need for military intervention in Iraq?
"The 45-minute claim so bugged me that I made a mental note to ask David Kelly about it on his next visit to New York...."Tell me David, why did you write that Iraq could use its biological weapons within forty-five minutes?
ReplyDeleteI assumed of course that he would not have written such a non-sensical statement. He looked emabarrassed and,trying to distance himself from the statement,replied "Well I made my contribution on The Dossier and others made theirs".
Rod Barton The Weapons Detective. 2006.