Spotlight back on Hoon
Lord Hutton’s judicial inquiry will hear Thursday from Geoff Hoon’s special adviser at the Ministry of Defence.
Richard Taylor will be asked to explain who in the department gave the go-ahead for the “outing” of Iraq weapons expert Dr David Kelly to the media.
He will be asked to explain why he de-briefed journalists and named Dr Kelly, a move apparently at odds with the MoD’s press office’s wishes.
Mr Taylor’s testimony into the apparent suicide of the Iraqi weapons expert is likely to re-ignite the debate on the future of Defence Secretary.
Dr Kelly apparently committed suicide after he was exposed as the “source” of a BBC report which claimed Downing Street willingly doctored the dossier to bolster the case for war against Iraq.
His death came days after a humiliating grilling before a Commons select committee.
Mr Taylor will have to answer to Lord Hutton on why the defence secretary disregarded the advice of the department’s permanent secretary and allowed Dr Kelly’s name to go public.
Mr Hoon during his testimony admitted ignorance that his special adviser had revealed Dr Kelly’s identity to journalists.
Yesterday, Lord Hutton’s inquiry heard evidence from an unnamed Ministry of Defence official – known as Mr A – who claimed the weapons expert made 14 recommendations on one of the last drafts of the September intelligence dossier.
The member of the MoD’s Counter Proliferation Arms Control Department told the inquiry he had met Dr Kelly to carry out a “page by page fact-checking exercise” of a draft of the dossier on September 19 – five days before its publication.
Mr A, speaking via videolink, said Dr Kelly offered up to 14 changes, while he had made four.
Dr Kelly’s changes were technical in detail on so-called “growth media” used to grow biological agents, He also questioned the intelligence report’s emphasis on foot-and-mouth vaccines, the storage of biological weapons and the claim that an industrial plant used to manufacture phosgene had been rebuilt.
Mr A said of the draft: “There were errors of detail and there were errors of emphasis in my view.” He added that he had discussed with Dr Kelly not having more involvement in preparing the document, saying: “We felt that the UK Government was missing a trick by not including us in the loop.”
Panorama journalist Tom Mangold, neighbour Leigh Potter, and colleague Olivia Bosch will also speak before Hutton on Thursday.
At his monthly press conference today Tony Blair is likely to face questions on the ramifications of the inquiry on his leadership and Westminster politics as a whole.
