Tuesday, 26 January 2010

Conspiracists, start your engines!

The lonely death of Dr. David Kelly gets stranger. He was, if you recall, the defence analyst who leaked the story that the government 'sexed-up' the dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, because he felt that we were being rushed into war on a false pretext.

Once unmasked by an astonishingly vengeful government (an anonymous aide let a journalist read out a short list of suspects until the right name was reached), and after an appearance before a House of Commons Select Committee which was sympathetic but clear about his situation ('you've been hung out to dry', a Labour MP told him), Kelly went for a walk in the country and killed himself.

And so there the matter rests - or it did until today, when it turns out that the Hutton Inquiry into the Iraq war secretly sealed Kelly's medical records for 70 years - twice the usual period, and doubly odd given that he never received a proper inquest. Needless to say, those who feel that governments occasionally practice assassination are putting two and two together.

I don't think Kelly was assassinated. Alastair Campbell and friends destroyed his livelihood, credibility and employment - that was enough. That said, I can quite understand why this very strange decision is fuelling the suspicions of the conspiracists.

1 comment:

Ewarwoowar said...

It certainly is a very strange one. I'm not one for conspiracies, and like you I fully agree that Kelly's death came at his own hands.

But like you said, its odd...