Gilligan faces Hutton Inquiry
BBC defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan has told the Hutton Inquiry into Dr David Kelly’s death that the Iraq arms expert told him Saddam Hussein’s weapons programme was “small” and “could not have killed very many people”.
Mr Gilligan, who met with Dr Kelly on two occasions, said the Ministry of Defence scientist told him that Tony Blair’s communications chief Alastair Campbell asked for additional information for the Government’s Iraqi weapons dossier.
Dr Kelly apparently committed suicide after he became embroiled in a row between the BBC and the government over Mr Gilligan’s report on their conversations, broadcast on the Today programme.
The reporter alleged that the government had deliberately “sexed up” the September dossier to provide an argument for war on Iraq.
Mr Gilligan showed the inquiry, chaired by senior judge Lord Hutton, notes in abbreviated form that he had stored on a personal organiser, relating to a meeting with Dr Kelly on May 22nd.
The notes reportedly said of the dossier, “Transformed a week before publication to make it sexier, a classic was the 45 minutes, most things in the dossier were double-sourced but that was single-sourced.”
The “45 minutes” refers to a statement in the dossier that Saddam Hussein had the capability to deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes.
Mr Gilligan’s notes also stated, “Campbell, real information but unreliable included against our wishes … he asked if anything else could go in.”
He told the inquiry that his transcript of the meeting quoted Dr Kelly as saying, “His (Saddam Hussein’s) programme was small. He could not have killed very many people even if everything had gone right for him – not mass destruction in the true meaning of the word.”
Mr Gilligan claimed Dr Kelly told him that members of the intelligence community were unhappy about the government’s presentation of intelligence on Iraq’s banned weapons.
Mr Gilligan told the inquiry that he first met Dr Kelly in September 2001, after a colleague at the BBC had recommended the scientist to him as a possible contact.
He explained that he had told the Dr Kelly that the conversations were “off the record”, so his comments would not be attributed to him.
“He was really quite open and helpful. Often with officials they are rather cautious. Dr Kelly struck me really …he wanted to share his knowledge,” Mr Gilligan added.
“In a funny way he was a teacher, almost. He wanted to share his knowledge of the subject.”
Despite calls for a retraction and an apology for the BBC’s story, Mr Gilligan and senior executives have stood by the report.
Mr Gilligan also produced his diary and a transcript of a meeting with Dr Kelly on April 11th 2002 during the evidence session.
Dr Kelly also spoke several times by telephone to Susan Watts, science correspondent for BBC2’s Newsnight.
Ms Watts is believed to have tape recordings of conversations with Dr Kelly and is due to appear before Lord Hutton on Wednesday.
