BBC in crisis as Blair mood swings
By Philip Webster and Raymond Snoddy
Corporation faces calls for resignations
Kelly's evidence was inaccurate, says Gilligan
Sunday evening: Leaving for Beijing
THE BBC was fighting to save its credibility last night after finally disclosing that David Kelly, the weapons expert who committed suicide last week, was the main source of its claims that Downing Street had “sexed up” its dossier on Iraqi weapons.
The corporation was plunged into the biggest crisis in its postwar history as it faced angry charges that it had caused the death of Dr Kelly through not admitting earlier what informed opinion in Westminster and Whitehall had long suspected.
There were calls from MPs for “heads to roll” at the BBC although ministers observed Tony Blair’s appeal for restraint in the aftermath of Dr Kelly’s death. The BBC delivered its bombshell yesterday morning knowing that it could no longer sit on the knowledge — confided to corporation chiefs by Andrew Gilligan, its defence correspondent, at least three weeks ago — that Dr Kelly was the source of his report on the weapons dossier.
It would inevitably have been revealed in the inquiry into the circumstances of the scientist’s death to be conducted by Lord Hutton, whose terms will be announced today and will include the BBC’s role in the affair.
The admission casts further doubt on the report that sparked the battle with Downing Street because Dr Kelly told a Commons committee last week that he could not see how he could have been Mr Gilligan’s source on the basis of their conversations because it ascribed views that he had not expressed. “I believe I am not the main source,” he said.
And it left a big question mark over the head of Richard Sambrook, BBC director of news, and Greg Dyke, the Director-General. Mr Sambrook said on June 26 that the story was based on “one senior and credible source in the intelligence services”.
Mr Dyke is understood to have persuaded the BBC Board of Governors to back the story on July 6 when they issued a statement that journalists could use single sources if the information came from “senior intelligence”.
Dr Kelly, a weapons expert, was not a member of any intelligence agency and could not, according to the Ministry of Defence, accurately be called an intelligence source.
The BBC continued to maintain that it “accurately interpreted and reported” the factual information that it obtained during interviews with Dr Kelly. Mr Gilligan last night issued a statement saying: “I did not misquote or misrepresent Dr David Kelly.”
For Mr Blair and his communications director Alastair Campbell, the BBC admission brought some relief. MPs said that it justified Downing Street’s high-octane attempt to obtain an apology for claims that Mr Campbell had inserted information about Iraq’s capacity to deploy weapons in 45 minutes against the wishes of the intelligence services, who believed it to be unreliable.
Mr Blair, Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, and the Government, however, face a critical few weeks, as the inquiry examines the circumstances in which Dr Kelly came forward as the source, and how his name was made public. In his last interview the scientist, found dead in a field with a slashed wrist on Friday, spoke of “many dark actors playing games” and of his shock at being identified.
Dr Kelly’s constituency MP, the Conservative Robert Jackson, said that Gavyn Davies, the BBC Chairman, should go, and that Mr Dyke should consider his position.
But Mr Davies was planning a robust defence of his executives and journalists, believing that he had not been misled by them.
BBC sources said he had no intention of resigning or seeking the resignation of anyone else at the corporation.
It was only on Friday that Mr Davies first learnt that Dr Kelly, the Ministry of Defence scientist, was definitely the principal source for the report by Mr Gilligan on the Today programme on Radio 4.
Although Dr Kelly was not an intelligence officer, the BBC believes that the scientist was a world-class expert on chemical and biological warfare and that he was a highly credible source who contributed to the dossier.
MPs on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee branded Mr Gilligan an “unsatisfactory witness” who had changed his story when he appeared before them for a second time last week.
The journalist Tom Mangold, a close friend of Dr Kelly, challenged the BBC to say whether it believed that the original claims were true. He said that he thought that Dr Kelly had provided 60 per cent of the information in Mr Gilligan’s report but the BBC must substantiate the rest of it.
“Does the BBC believe these allegations to be true? Does the BBC still believe these allegations were true?” he said. “Where is the supporting evidence? It did not come from Kelly. Where did it come from?” As he left Korea for China yesterday, Mr Blair welcomed the BBC disclosure and said: “Whatever the differences, no one wanted this tragedy to happen. I know that everyone, including the BBC, have been shocked by it. The independent Hutton Inquiry has been set up, it will establish the facts.
“In the meantime our attitude should be one of respect and restraint, no recrimination, with the Kelly family uppermost in our minds at this time.”
But Gerald Kaufman, a senior Labour MP, said that the news called into question the BBC’s future as a public sector broadcaster.
Mr Kaufman, chairman of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, said that the BBC behaved in a manner which a tabloid newspaper might “wonder about”.
“None of this would have happened if it had not been for the BBC story,” he said.
The BBC first planned to admit that Dr Kelly had been its primary source on Saturday, but Dr Kelly’s family asked that an announcement be delayed until yesterday. The BBC has been in touch with the Kelly family several times over the weekend. In its formal statement yesterday the BBC said that it continued to believe that it was right at the time to place Dr Kelly’s views in the public domain.
“However, the BBC is profoundly sorry that his involvement as our source has ended so tragically,” the corporation said yesterday.
On May 29 on the Today programme Mr Gilligan said that he had been told that “the Government knew the claim was questionable before the war, even before it wrote it in its dossier”.
At the time the BBC reporter said that he had spoken to “a British official who was involved in the preparation of the dossier”.
The official had added, according to Mr Gilligan, that the dossier had been transformed at the behest of Downing Street — an allegation that has been strenuously denied from the outset.
Mr Jackson said that he believed that the BBC’s conduct was appalling. He said: “If they (the BBC) had made this statement while Dr Kelly was alive, I believe he would still be alive and I think the Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors should resign over this matter.
“I believe Gavyn Davies knew Dr Kelly’s name and he clearly misled his Governors in telling them that this was a senior intelligence source. I believe the Chairman of the BBC Governors as a matter of public accountability should resign from his office forthwith.”
Mr Jackson was also critical of Mr Gilligan and called for the journalist to resign. He said: “It seems quite clear that Mr Andrew Gilligan systematically invented a substantial part of his very damaging story.”
Gordon Brown and John Prescott threw their full weight behind Mr Blair yesterday after a handful of Labour MPs called on him to resign over Iraq and the Kelly affair. The Chancellor’s intervention was significant because some of his supporters, including Clare Short, have demanded that Mr Blair should go. On Thursday he was the subject of a sustained attack in the New Statesman magazine, which is owned by Geoffrey Robinson, a friend of Mr Brown.
URL:http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-752183,00.html |
