Friday 20 May 2011

The Death of David Kelly - "David Kelly, NuTory Boy, Norman Baker and me"

The title of this post references a recent blog post by Robert Henderson stimulated by Sir Peter Tapsell's question at PMQs on Wednesday about the "suicide or murder" of David Kelly.

Mr. Henderson's blog post is here: David Kelly, NuTory Boy, Norman Baker and me.

The post is long and includes the text of interactions between Mr. Henderson and Norman Baker in 2006.

Some of the issues he raises are still in need of an answer.

12 comments:

  1. It seems that Mr. Henderson is no friend of Tony Blair's.

    Apparently, When Tony and Cherie Blair tried to have me jailed, Tony Blair tried to have him arrested and, subsequently, Special Branch and MI5 became involved.

    The link to an Early Day Motion in that post is out of date. See Early Day Motion 1008 to confirm the accuracy of the text in Mr. Henderson's post.

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  2. Interesting letter to Mr Baker from Robert Henderson, especially regarding Mangold.
    He also quotes Gilligan in 2006:
    "Such were my thoughts on that morning of 18 July 2003, thoughts that made me, at first, question whether David did actually kill himself…”

    Er, the body of an unidentified man had been found , that was all, until around 2pm, 18th July,by which time it was only believed to be Dr Kelly.

    Henderson also made me think how bizarre it was for Mangold to ring Mrs Kelly spontaneously before any police statement,some time after 9am on the 18th when he only met her husband about twice a year to discuss biological warfare by Mangold's own admission.

    Incidentally, who had told Mangold around 9am on the 18th?

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  3. Good question, Felix.

    But the Don't Tell Don't Ask Inquiry(sm) lived up to its name!

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  4. Does anyone know the time of the first media report that Dr Kelly had gone missing?

    Fortean Times chatter starts at 10.17

    http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10161

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  5. According to Norman Baker's book the disappearance of Kelly briefly appeared on Ceefax shortly after midnight, then was removed.

    That is possible ... if one assumes that the "local search" by neighbours etc took place in the evening of 17th July 2003 and someone had tipped the media off.

    Mangold told Hutton that someone phoned him at around 09.00 about the disappearance.

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  6. Sky has a missing report at 10.54am

    http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-Archive/Article/20080641097383

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  7. Sarah Pape's evidence is to the effect that Janice Kelly phoned a little before 10 to tell her that there was to be a "press release".

    At a guess that might have taken place at 10 or 10:30.

    So the Sky report at 10.54 would have been one of the earliest appearances of the story in the media, I think.

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  8. Is the 10.00 Pape phone call ref press release of Dr Kelly missing or a body has been found?

    Webb says he returned to the Kelly home on hearing a body had been found to break the news to the Kelly family. I guess that before 10.00 Mrs Kelly had heard a body had been found.

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  9. LL,

    It was that David Kelly was missing.

    My guess is that shortly after Janice Kelly had called the Papes about the upcoming "press release", DS Webb came bringing news that a body had been found.

    Isn't it interesting that Hutton doesn't ask about this? At least Janice Kelly isn't asked.

    One reason for that omission, of course, is to cover up the conversation with Mangold which mentioned the "safe house" and the "this is really not the kind of world I want to live in" comments.

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  10. LL - the missing news was on the Sky News website some time before 10.34 BST according to the DAVID KELLY GOES AWOL thread at the US website Free Republic, which ties in with the Fortean Times report. It was on the Guardian website by 11.30.

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  11. All good stories need a good press machine. The police spokeswoman who seemed to be providing much of the early information before Superintendent Dave Purnell sprung into action was Kate Smith. Her role in 2003 was Communications Manager for Thames Valley Police.
    She is the one describing the body as "face down" initially.
    Paul Anthem was at that time Senior Press Officer for TVP. His name occurs on an email in the Hutton Inquiry evidence.
    One imagines these people would have been very busy from 18 July 2003 onwards.

    If Sky News was among the earliest reporters of Dr Kelly going missing, they surely must have had some inside information to have cameras at the exit of the ambulance from Harrowdown Hill.
    Purnell is "speaking to reporters" at Wantage. The question is how they - the reporters - got there,when Dr Kelly could have been anywhere in the UK. Which reporters? And yet SkyTV have a camera on site not much later than when the body was "discovered". Amazing.

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