Death deals devastating blow to Iraq arms hunt

[Nambe]

Guardian Newspapers Limited

David Kelly was about to lead the British hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and had contacted former UN inspectors as recently as two weeks ago to sound them out about a new mission.

He was acting as the senior British scientific adviser to the Iraq Survey Group, the body set up by the US Government at the end of May to replace the United Nations weapons inspection regime. ---

Former inspectors said the death of the British Government's most senior chemical and biological weapons scientist would be a devastating blow to the survey group.

'Everybody very much deferred to him. Other experts turned to him, he was a leader and people always listened when he spoke,' one former inspector who had worked with Kelly said.

The news that Kelly was to play a central role in the coalition's search for WMD will provoke further questions about the Ministry of Defence's decision to identify him and place him at the centre of a row between Downing Street and the BBC.

His prominence also contradicts briefings from the MoD that the man they believed to be the source of BBC reports that the Government had 'sexed up' its claims about Saddam Hussein's arsenal was a junior figure. ---

[Pale Blue Dot]

1. OK, pure tinfoil hat speculation, but...

What if he was threatening to expose that he had been asked to plant evidence of WMDs? :tinfoilhat:

[opihimoimoi]

2. Staging suicides is not uncommon in our human history

:sad:

[9215]

10. Or, maybe he would be able to tell the difference between

planted WMD's and the real tamale. :tinfoilhat:

Some of his statements about the "dark forces" and not wanting to be a part of what was going on sounds like somebody who was being pressured.

[TheBigGuy]

3. this is really getting to be an odd story.

"Former inspectors said the death of the British Government's most senior chemical and biological weapons scientist would be a devastating blow to the survey group.
'Everybody very much deferred to him. Other experts turned to him, he was a leader and people always listened when he spoke,' one former inspector who had worked with Kelly said. "

Sounds like a real hit in our attempt to find WMDS.

[Rose Siding]

6. Now we may never find them

But just because Kelly's dead, of course. :eyes:

Maybe a test balloon to see if anyone will buy it?

[Frances]

4. It's interesting

how many people who were Bush's enemies are now no longer with us.

[grasswire]

7. look up the Bush Body Count web site

you're in for a real surprise.

[leesa]

5. Interesting, is this being spun into an opposition attack?

They don't want weapons found therefore they killed him? Or will this just be their excuse for not finding them.

[bemildred]

8. I was wondering if HE set it up as a parting shot?

There is no revenge like revenge.

[ILeft]

9. Listen to Rush Limbaugh next week and you'll know the answer

I think you might hear both of your scenarios.

[Occulus]

12. I think

this one really is as simple as it appears to be: he knew something that he shouldn't have known, he was the definitive authority, and when he talked, people listened. In other words, he was a perfectly logical target. Get rid of him, and you can start manipulating the information, because the single most credible examiner is gone.

Expect a WMD find very shortly. Now there's one less credible witness to dissent.

[bemildred]

15. That might work.

But is he really that irreplaceable?
I guess if they do all of a sudden come up with some WMD
that will be a giveaway. Maybe they will botch it like
they do everything else.

[starroute]

11. It's very tinfoil of me, but I've been wondering . . .

. . . whether someone had a prior reason for wanting him dead and cooked up this whole business of hauling him in to testify as a way of setting up for the murder.

If they did, it would be excellent misdirection, because even the people who don't buy the suicide story are likely to be looking for an explanation in terms of what he might have revealed about those government dossiers.

But what if the real reason for his death has nothing to do with the dossiers, but is connected instead with all those other dead microbiologists and with whatever secret weapons he may have worked on at Porton Down?

There's just something about the entire story that doesn't add up.

[Occulus]

13. Wow.

I didn't even consider that one, but it's kinda obvious... guy like that must have enemies of one kind or another....

[Guaranteed]

14. I think it's the dead body ;)

Definitely something fishy.

[Rex]

16. Yep, sounds like a man that was about to kill himself.

Sorry, this one just doesn't pass the smell test.

[jmatthan]

17. My comment posted on BBC "Have Your Say"

"The comments and concern on Dr. Kelly's death seem to be completely out of balance to those on the 10000 innocent civilians and soldiers killed by the British and US forces in Iraq, the use of WMD / cluster bombs (by the British) which will maim and kill many more in the future and the use of depleted uranium (by the US forces).

Dr. Kelly is just one more innocent human being killed by these political / corporate oil grabbers who have based their whole invasion on a tissue of lies and more lies in defiance to the will of the people of this world.

Let us forget Dr. Kelly just as we forget those innocent victims!!

Or should we?"

Jacob Matthan
Oulu, Finland