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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (429585)	7/19/2003 1:56:37 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 769670

<font color=green>Speaking of messes, the one on the other side of the Atlantic seems to be worsening.........<font color=black> ******************************************************* Campbell's drive became obsessive as bitter row put reputations at risk Fear of personal and political backlash kept hunt for source alive Ewen MacAskill and David Leigh Saturday July 19, 2003 The Guardian One of Alastair Campbell's colleagues yesterday described the Iraq war row over the last seven weeks as being like "a dark novel". One of the most striking themes in a story that has been bitter, farcical and now tragic is Mr Campbell's obsessiveness. The government's director of communications has been relentless in trying to quash a claim by the BBC reporter, Andrew Gilligan, that he had "sexed up" the government dossier on Iraq last September that led to war. Whenever the row appeared to be quietening down, Mr Campbell went out of his way to start it again. David Kelly, the Ministry of Defence scientist who apparently leaked crucial information to Gilligan, and whose body was found yesterday, was a victim of this feud. Dr Kelly, as a United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq in the 1990s, was well aware of the harshness of world politics, with its violence and lies. But that was not enough to prepare him when he found himself as the alleged source at the centre of a British political row. He was squeezed between Mr Campbell, intent on disproving what he claimed was a lie, a BBC reporter that insisted he had not flammed up a story and MPs on the Commons foreign affairs committee enjoying rare media attention and stung by criticism of being lightweight. Mr Campbell often adopts an air of disdain with the media, saying that so much rubbish is written and broadcast about the government that he no longer cares. But he cared when Gilligan reported on the BBC Today programme on May 29 that the government had exaggerated in its September dossier the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. A week later, in the Mail on Sunday, Gilligan explicitly blamed Mr Campbell. Was Mr Campbell's subsequent and prolonged campaign against Gilligan because he was angry that his own reputation was being undermined or because he was worried about the repercussions for Tony Blair's government? "A bit of both," said his colleague yesterday. Mr Campbell's partner, Fiona Millar, who is planning to leave the government in September, wants him to quit at the same time. He does not want to leave with a charge hanging over him that he sent British soldiers to their deaths by inflating claims about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction in order to win over a British public sceptical about the justification for war. The initial government objective was simply to deny the Gilligan story in order to prevent it gaining credibility. But, having issued its denials, the government has kept on going for week after week, trying to undermine Gilligan. Downing Street officials who brief lobby journalists were deployed, as were three cabinet ministers - Jack Straw, John Reid and Geoff Hoon - and junior ministers, such as Ben Bradshaw. Mr Campbell, in contrast with an avowed desire two years ago to remain in the background, even made a now infamous appearance on Channel 4 News. Sexier The row began when Gilligan, on the Today programme, said he had spoken to a "British official who was involved in the preparation of the dossier" and that the dossier had been tame until a week before publication when Downing Street decided to make it "sexier", including a claim that the weapons of mass destruction could be used within 45 minutes. Despite Dr Kelly's efforts to deny that he was the main source, and despite the stance of the backbenchers on the Commons foreign affairs committee who decided to agree with him, there is now considerable evidence that Dr Kelly was in fact the source. · Gilligan disclosed in a Mail on Sunday article that he had met the source in a central London hotel. Dr Kelly admitted he met Gilligan on March 22 in the Charing Cross hotel. · Dr Kelly is a perfect match for the description Gilligan gave of his source in his original broadcast. · Dr Kelly, a microbiologist, is also a perfect match for the source in a TV broadcast four days later by Newsnight science correspondent Susan Watts. This broadcast on June 2 points directly to Dr Kelly as its source, and whatever the arguments as to whether Gilligan himself journalistically embellished relatively guarded remarks by Dr Kelly, no one has disputed the precision of Watts' reporting. The process of undermining Dr Kelly's anonymity began with Gilligan himself. He wrote a well-paid article in the Mail on Sunday talking about a hotel meeting and adding the detail which was absent from his broadcast. The BBC's series of hints about Watts' Newsnight report left Dr Kelly increasingly exposed. Dr Kelly then showed signs of loss of nerve and provided a letter to the MoD, admitting he had had what he described as an "interaction" with Gilligan. The five days in which the MoD helped Dr Kelly to - in their words - "consider his options" will no doubt be the subject of the judicial inquiry. In an example of how the government kept fuelling the story, the foreign affairs committee report on the war on Monday, July 7 could have provided a pause in the row. Feverish But the MoD on July 8 said an official had come forward, admitting that he had met Gilligan and might have been his source. On the Wednesday, the mood among journalists was feverish as they hunted for the name of the official. A number of journalists will be able to testify that MoD officials then effectively outed Dr Kelly. The MoD described him as a former Unscom official [a weapons inspector], and gave enough clues to ensure that journalists who were good at detective work would narrow down the search. The MoD said that if the journalists could come up with a name, it would confirm it. It did not take long. His name appeared in print the previous Thursday and he was called to give evidence to both the foreign affairs committee and a private session of the intelligence committee. Gilligan was recalled to face the foreign affairs committee on Thursday for a further grilling about his source in private. Dr Kelly left his house at 3pm, just as the committee was calling Mr Gilligan in. His death may be the final admission that he very much feared exposure: that he was the source.