Hoon denies leaking Dr Kelly to the press
The Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon has denied that his Ministry gave Dr Kelly’s name to the press in his evidence to the Hutton inquiry into the death of weapons expert.
Previous evidence to the inquiry has shown that Mr Hoon overruled MoD Permanent Secretary Sir Kevin Tebbitt’s advice that the weapons expert should not go before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.
It was two days after his appearance before the committee that Dr Kelly was found dead in woodland near his Oxfordshire home – apparently having committed suicide. However, Mr Hoon defended that decision.
The Defence Secretary suggested that he backed the decision that Dr Kelly should give evidence to avoid a media frenzy, claiming that the media and MPs would have pressed for his evidence.
Mr Hoon has admitted that he took the news that Dr Kelly had come forward as the possible source of BBC Radio Four defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan’s claim that the September 2002 dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction had been “sexed up” as an “opportunity” to crack down on leaks within the Department.
“The Ministry of Defence… has had something of a reputation for unauthorised briefing and leaking to journalists and it did appear this was an opportunity to demonstrate that unauthorised contact with journalists would be looked at seriously”, Mr Hoon told the Inquiry.
However, he continued to deny that he had authorised the release of Dr Kelly’s name to the press – the contention that looks like it may cost the Defence Secretary his job.
And Mr Hoon also expressed his concern prior to Dr Kelly giving evidence, that the situation would be a pressure on the scientists. He argued that he had asked the committee to focus only on the 45 minute claim from the news story so DR Kelly would not undergo a ‘long, open-ended appearance’.
Mr Hoon argued that he was not sure that Dr Kelly was the sole source of Mr Gilligan’s story, declaring, “It was extremely important – in fairness to Dr Kelly – not to expose him as the single source without being sure that that was true. And I was not sure it was true”.
The Defence Secretary has also insisted that no intelligence officials expressed any dissatisfaction with the dossier before its release.
Mr Hoon has furthermore taken the opportunity to go on the offensive against the BBC, accusing Mr Gilligan and Today of failing to give the MoD notice of the story it ran in May.
He condemned the presentation of the story, declaring, “it was impossible for the public or parliament to evaluate the standing, knowledge, experience and background of Mr Gilligan’s anonymous source”.
“I believe very strongly that notice was not given and it was one aspect of my concern about the way in which this material had been published by Mr Gilligan and the Today programme that no proper opportunity was given to the Ministry of Defence to respond”, Mr Hoon stated.
This claim contradicts Mr Gilligan’s insistence that the MoD was informed that Today would run with the story.
Mr Hoon has also denied any role in the drafting of the September dossier.
“I saw two drafts of the dossier in the week beginning September 16 2002. It was a relatively late stage in the process of the drafting and I did not offer any comments or suggest any changes to it”, he told the inquiry.
Liberal Democrat Shadow Foreign Secretary and Deputy Leader, Menzies Campbell has taken the evidence as an opportunity to attack the Government. He asked: ‘Will no-one take overall responsibility for the outing of Dr Kelly?’
