Thursday 25 November 2010

The death of David Kelly - Dr. Kelly "quite jovial" at the Foreign Affairs Committee on 15th July 2003

The tiny extracts shown on UK television of David Kelly at the Foreign Affairs Committee on 15th July 2003 portray it, essentially, as unremitting stress.

One of the details I noticed in the video Dr. Kelly's Last Interview was that David Kelly was smiling and/or joking at times, in the extracts shown in that video.

That observation accords with a comment by David Chidgey MP:

Mr Chidgey says he did not get the impression that Dr Kelly was under duress.

"I've looked very carefully of course, as I'm sure everybody involved in this process has, at the way that I spoke with Dr Kelly and I just hope that there was nothing that I said could have triggered any terribly adverse reaction," Mr Chidgey said.

"I certainly didn't get that impression when I recall that at certain stages he was quite jovial."


As far as I can trace not even one UK media outlet identified that aspect of events at the Foreign Affairs Committee on 15th July 2003.

Were facts being ignored by the UK media to fit an already determined narrative?

5 comments:

  1. I read through the transcript of his appearance the next day,16 July, before Michael Mates and Co, flanked by his minders, Bryan Wells (D.Phil Physics, Oxford University) and John Clark (Not Clarke) (Wing Commander RAF).
    I think Dr Kelly performed well here.

    Clark leaves little trace, being an Air Traffic Controller who popped up directing Op. Veritas (UK contribution to the US's Op Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) from Saudi Arabia and then at a desk job in London for the Iraq escapade,before promotion to Group Captain and a return to ATC duties. Biog here
    c.f. This piece in the Guardian calls him a friend. Compare this with Clark's statement to Hutton..
    "Did you have any social contact with Dr Kelly?
    A. None whatsoever"

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  2. Felix,

    I tend not to have a problem with John Clark being called a "friend" and having no social contact with David Kelly.

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  3. Fair enough, Andrew. He did get promoted shortly afterwards.
    Bryan Wells' name may be found today at the bottom of this page of military top brass
    Correct phone and email contact details here

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  4. Donald Anderson,MP, Chairman of the FAC also saw Dr Kelly on top of his game on 15 July (Hutton Inqiry):
    "I hope I am not being influenced now by having seen the video recently, but there were times when Dr Kelly was laughing and certainly he was clearly a man of considerable intellect and he could see which questions were coming.
    LORD HUTTON: Yes.
    A. And, when he did not want to answer directly, he clearly was on top of the subject and did so"

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  5. Felix,

    Thanks.

    That fits with the impression I gained from the transcript from 15th July 2003.

    It seems to me that much of the seeming impression that David Kelly was in trouble comes from the misuse by broadcasters of Andrew MacKinlay's "set up" comment.

    Andrew MacKinlay wasn't angry at David Kelly - he was angry for David Kelly since he saw Kelly as having been set up.

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