THREAD
17 years ago this week the Welsh scientist, weapons inspector and MoD employee, Dr David Kelly, was found dead. It was following interviews he had given to two BBC journalists that blew apart Tony Blair's false claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. 1/15

One journalist that Kelly spoke to, Andrew Gilligan used the interview as the basis to say that Prime Minister Tony Blair had deliberately misled Parliament with the claim that Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes, meaning Britain had to invade. 2/15

In his Radio 4 report, Gilligan said the document making the claim had been ‘sexed up’ by the government, and that a "senior official in charge of compiling the dossier [Kelly]" had told him the 45 minute claim had been cynically inserted even though it was probably false. 3/15

Days later, writing in the Mail on Sunday, Gilligan said that his source- still unnamed - had specifically named Director of communications Alastair Campbell as the man who had inserted the claim, which was central to Blair’s case for war. 4/15

Campbell himself was furious, writing in his diary: “The biggest thing needed was the source out", in order to "fuck Gilligan". The Labour government went after Gilligan and the BBC, and tried to hunt down the source. 5/15

Kelly’s employer, the MOD, asked the source to come forward, promising anonymity. Kelly obliged, believing there to be more than one source. His widow later said that her husband felt "betrayed" by the MoD, after his name got out following the meeting with his bosses. 6/15

Gilligan also revealed Kelly’s name – after initially refusing – to a select committee of MPs. The pressure on David Kelly was immense.7/15

He had been named in the media, and was forced to explain himself - first in public, before the televised Foreign Affairs Committee at Westminster, and then in secret, before the Intelligence and Security Committee. A week later, on 17th July 2003, he was found dead. 8/15

He'd walked from his Oxfordshire home and the next morning his body was discovered, slumped in a wood. He'd spent the morning of July 16th responding to messages of support. One email, to Judith Miller of the New York Times, referred to "many dark actors, playing games". 9/15

The truth about how Dr David Kelly died will possibly never come to light. The Hutton inquiry ruled it was suicide, but family members and even doctors contest this.
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Dr Stephen Frost, part of a group of medics challenging the verdict, said: "We have lots of evidence … No coroner in the land would reach a verdict of suicide as Lord Hutton did."
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Immediately following the public inquiry - which dammed the BBC more than the government – the broadcaster’s chairman and director general resigned, as did Andrew Gilligan. Alastair Campbell resigned mid-inquiry. The BBC became more fearful of the government as a result.
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One thing that we can say with certainty is that David Kelly was right – Blair did lie in order to invade Iraq. Kelly died after telling the truth. He was an incredibly brave and courageous person, and without him, the case against war would have been weaker.
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His actions can be seen in a wider context of an anti war movement which had mobilised up to 2million people in 2003 and which commanded the support of even greater numbers of people in society at large.
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Seeing such a huge movement may well have given Kelly more confidence to come forward. Perhaps we should have a statue of him somewhere instead of Colonialists?
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