LETTER TO DOMINIC GRIEVE, ATTORNEY GENERAL FROM EXPERT IN PHARMACOLOGY, DR ANDREW WATT, BA, BMedBiol(Pathology), MBChB, MD(Hons), DipPharmMed,FRCP(Ed)

Open Letter to the Attorney General regarding the need for an inquest into the death of Dr David Kelly

Yesterday, I sent by recorded delivery a letter to Dominic Grieve QC, requesting that he apply to the High Court for an order that an inquest be held into the death of Dr David Kelly.

The text of that letter follows below, for reference.

25th October 2010

To:
Dominic Grieve AC
Attorney General

Open Letter
The Death of Dr David Kelly - information indicating that a Coroner-led inquest, taking evidence on oath, is needed.

Dear Attorney General

I write to you to request that you apply to the High Court for an order that a Coroner-led inquest be conducted with respect to the death of Dr David Kelly in 2003, as provided for on the grounds enumerated in Subsection 13(1)(b) of the Coroner's Act 1988.

Of the grounds mentioned in Subsection 13(1)(b) I consider the following grounds potentially to be of relevance in an application to the High Court with respect to the death of Dr David Kelly.

1. Rejection of evidence
2. Irregularity of proceedings
3. Insufficiency of inquiry
4. Discovery of new facts or evidence

As I read Subsection 13(1)(b) any one of these deficiencies is sufficient grounds on which to apply for an order from the High Court. Given persistent public concerns about how Dr Kelly met his death I find it difficult to conceive how the High Court could conclude otherwise than such an inquest in is the interests of justice.

I will list some causes for concern under each of the four headings previously mentioned. In some situations it is not immediately clear whether a particular point of concern should most appropriately be considered under a single heading or multiple headings. To avoid unnecessary repetition I will attempt to list a cause for concern under the single heading that appears to me to be most relevant.

The following lists do not purport to be exhaustive. They simply represent causes for concern that I observed after only a few hours reading the Hutton Inquiry transcripts, the Report and other potentially relvant material, as they refer to matters relating to the cause of death of Dr David Kelly.

Rejection of Evidence

Lord Hutton made it clear in his introductory statement that decisions about who to call to give evidence rested with him. It seems to me that a number of individuals who could potentially have given useful evidence regarding Dr Kelly's death were excluded from giving evidence. I can only assume that Lord Hutton rejected them as witnesses, hence my including them under the "Rejection of Evidence" heading. Lord Hutton's approach to the evidence of these individuals might equally be classified under the "insufficiency of inquiry" heading.

1. A Detective Constable Shields was stated (by DC Graham Coe) to have been present when DC Coe first saw Dr Kelly's body. DC Shields was not asked to give evidence.

2. Dr Eileen Hickey accompanied her colleague, the forensic biologist Dr Roy Green, and spent some 5 hours at the
scene where Dr Kelly's body was found. Dr Hickey was not asked to give evidence, nor so far as I can ascertain was her area(s) of expertise explored by Hutton.

3. Dr Green testified that at least three Scenes of Crimes Officers were present at the scene. None was asked to give
evidence of what they might have found or seen.

Irregularity of Proceedings

1. When evidence was taken from Dr Roy Green, forensic biologist, he stated in his testimony that his tests were ongoing. He was not asked to give further oral evidence and the results of his tests, so far as I am aware, are not known (at least I can find no public record of the results having been made available to the Hutton Inquiry, or alternatively, made publicly available by the Inquiry).

2. Supposedly, Assistant Chief Constable Page was to give evidence at his second appearance before Lord Hutton about the results of Dr Green's tests. He did not do so in any meaningful way and the absence of information about completed tests conducted by Dr Green was ignored by both Assistant Chief Constable Page and by the Hutton Inquiry. In any case, it was in my view highly irregular that someone who is not a technical expert should be asked to give evidence on a technical subject about which he has negligible or no expertise. In addition, the technical detail of Dr Green's tests was not investigated in oral questioning which seems to me to be grossly irregular and insufficient.

Insufficiency of Inquiry

There are numerous individual points where, so it seems to me, Lord Hutton was negligent in terms of conducting a credible and diligent inquiry, equivalent to an inquest.

TO BE CONTINUED....

LETTER REGARDING CO-PROXAMOL

This letter, from a retired anaesthetist - published in the Daily Telegraph on 24th August -speaks of the inconclusive nature of one of the secondary averred causes of Dr Kelly's death: co-proxamol poisoning.


'the fact that the blood level of Dp was so low as to be below that necessary for cardio-respiratory dpression suggests that not many tablets ever arrived in the stomach.'

Sir

If David Kelly (Letters, August 23) did not die from ulnar artery blood loss, then can we be sure that death was even due to cardio-respiratory depression after ingesting co-proxamol?

The drug contains dextropropoxyphene (Dp) and paracetemol. Paracetemol overdose can cause death but only in excess of three days after ingestion. Dp can cause death within one hour but usually within a mean of five hours.

As a retired anaesthetist with training in pharmacology, I noted that the stomach was empty of capsules, which indicates the Dp was totally absorbed. But the fact that the blood level of Dp was so low as to be below that necessary for cardio-respiratory depression suggests that not many tablets ever arrived in the stomach. An empty blister pack is not proof of ingestion.

Wrting as a citizen of this country, I feel that there are enough untidy ends in this sad saga to justify a coroner's inquest in which scene-of-crime officers and specialists in pharmacokinetics, forensic pathology, toxicology and vascular surgery can explain inconsistencies.

Dr David Rutter
Romsey, Hampshire

PISS AND WIND:
DAVID AARONOVITCH ON THE DEATH DAVID KELLY

Tim Wilkinson's lively critique of David Aaronovitch's article in
Saturday's 'Times' (14 August 2010)

'There is no mystery over David Kelly's death' proclaims the headline. Well, in one sense you might say that: no mystery, no esoteric ineffables, no transcendent unknown. Of course that is not the sense in which the headline is supposed to be taken - not officially - but it sounds a lot more plausible that 'no room for doubt', 'no stone left unturned, or 'no unresolved issues'.....

KELLY'S DEATH: INACCURACY IN MEDIA

by Rowena Thursby

According to a recent report in the Independent, a frog-like jump across the lilly pad has transmuted the cause of Dr David Kelly's death from "haemorrhage" (Hutton Inquiry) to "heart attack" (Independent): "Kelly had heart attack, says pathologist" blares the headline.

Dr Jennifer Dyson, a retired pathologist, tells an Independent reporter, "there seem to have been a lot of pills in his stomach". I am not sure she has paid close attention to the forensic reports given to the Hutton Inquiry. Possibly her words reflect a common assumption: that Dr Kelly ingested all 29 of the tablets missing from the three blister packs beside his body - but did he?

Other than the existence of three blister packs with 29 pills missing found at the death scene, there is no real indication that Dr Kelly took all 29 pills, voluntarily or otherwise. There is more evidence that he did not.

• At the Hutton Inquiry, forensic toxicologist Dr Richard Allan, clearly stated that he found only a fifth of one tablet in Dr Kelly's stomach. He did not find the residue of anything approaching 29 pills.


• Dried regurgatative material was found in a line from both corners of Dr Kelly's mouth to his ears - more was distrbuted on the ground beside his body. This suggests that a substantial amount of any drug ingested would have been ejected.


• Although Dr Allan found the amounts of the two components of co-proxamol in Dr Kelly's blood to be possibly consistent with an ingestion of 29 pills, he seemed puzzled that this quantity represented significantly less - more than half - than the amount that would normally cause a fatality.


• Dr Robert Forrest, Home Office forensic toxicologist at the University of Sheffield, points out in a BMJ article that after death, concentrations of a drug increase - sometimes up to tenfold. If that is the case, Dr Kelly may need only have ingested two or three pills for Dr Allan's findings to make sense.


• US army interpreter Mai Pederson, a close friend and colleague of Dr Kelly's towards the end of his life, maintains that he had a medical condition: "unexplained dysphagia" - a condition that makes it very difficult to swallow pills, while food is taken without any problem.
  

The Independent further records Dr Dyson as saying: "my suspicion would be that he had a coronary attack, brought on by the circumstances he found himself in and the stress that that entailed".

So is that to say, Dr Kelly was found dead in the woods, with wounds to his wrist, pill packets and a knife beside him, but that was just coincidental - he died of a heart attack, nothing to do with poisoning or blood loss? Or does Dr Dyson mean the combination of blood loss and poisoning probably caused a heart attack? Only the latter is plausible - but is it so?

In recent days The Times has published a letter (reproduced below) from nine eminent medical specialists - one of them, Sir Barry Jackson, ex-president of the Academy of Forensic Sciences and past surgeon to the queen. They aver that, absent a clotting abnormality, it is 'extremely unlikely' that anyone would bleed to death from a single severed ulnar artery. In recent television interviews two of them have maintained there is a strong consensus on this point across the medical profession.

Venturing opinions, especially medical ones, without reference to the facts of a case seeds false ideas which take root in the public mind. In fairness to Dr Dyson, she did not baldly state, as the headline claims, that Dr Kelly had a heart attack. The reporter turned her opinion into an assertion.

Lord Hutton's conclusions on how Dr Kelly met his death are unsafe. Even the forensic pathologist to the Hutton Inquiry, Dr Nicholas Hunt, told the news-team at Channel 4 News that he would be 'more comfortable' with an inquest.
Today's Daily Mail reports that only one person in five believes Dr Kelly committed suicide. This was no ordinary death - Dr Kelly was at the centre of a political furore which threatened to bring down the British government.

The medical details surrounding Dr Kelly's death and the circumstantial details are complex. The many facets of the case need to be gathered and forensically analysed with care by independent experts in a public forum. Witnesses must be supoenaed, give evidence under oath and be cross-examined. That didn't happen at the Hutton Inquiry; a full inquest is essential.

DR KELLY WAS A BRILLIANT MAN WHO DID HIS BEST FOR HIS COUNTRY. WE OWE IT TO HIM AND TO OURSELVES TO DISCOVER THE TRUE CAUSE OF HIS DEATH.

In this powerfully argued article, doctor and barrister, Dr Michael Powers QC explains why justice demands an inquest is held.

Since his untimely death in July 2003, questions have continued to be raised about the circumstances of Dr David Kelly's death. Many wonder whether he really killed himself and speculate that he was murdered. His sudden death shocked the nation - how could it have happened?

As a specialist practioner in law and medicine, I feel a responsibility to the two professions to air my doubts about a case that bridges both worlds.

Any question of suicide or murder has to follow the determination of the cause of death. To do otherwise risks putting the cart before the horse. It would, for example, be scientifically and logically unsound to assume suicide and then to set about finding evidence to prove it.

Before asking whether the deceased himself or a third party put the bullet in the head, it is necessary to determine first that there was a hole in the head and secondly that the deceased died because of it.

For 1,000 years, coroners have been investigating sudden, violent and unnatural deaths. They have got good at it. Suicide used to be a crime and a finding of self-murder is an unhappy reflection on the victim and his family and friends.

That is why suicide has to be proved to the same high standard as murder. It has to be proved beyond reasonable doubt that the deceased did the act which killed him with that intention in mind.

The normal inquest process in the case of David Kelly was interrupted by the order of the Government. Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor at the time, exercised a rarely-used power to require the Oxfordshire coroner to adjourn his investigation and to give that responsibility to Lord Hutton.

The coroner had the power to compel witnesses to attend and to give evidence on oath. The Government which took our country to war with Iraq chose not to give these considerable powers to Lord Hutton.

Although there were 24 days of evidence taken over two and a half months, the whole of the medical evidence took no more than a half day. The evidence of the pathologist, toxicologist and forensic biologist can be read in 30 minutes. No one could say this was a detailed investigation into the death.

I was trained as a doctor and during my years in medical practice I often had to pass catheters into the radial artery in the wrist. This is where medics usually feel the pulse. It can even be seen pulsating in many people.

Dr Kelly's wrists were not slit. Neither radial artery was cut. This alone is a strange finding in someone who intends suicide by this method.

Deeper in the wrist on the side of the little finger lies the ulnar artery. It is not used for catheterisation because it is too small. Yet Lord Hutton, on the unchallenged evidence of a single pathologist, concluded that Dr Kelly bled to death from the severance of this single small artery in the left hand.

No courtroom drama would be complete without critical witnesses being challenged through the cross-examination process.

Like all barristers, I received a rigorous training in advocacy and, because of its enormous importance, I take time from my practice to train barristers in this art. A skilful cross-examination is often the key to ascertaining the truth.

None of this happened in Lord Hutton's inquiry and witnesses were simply led through prepared evidence. Reading the transcripts, far from providing any sense of satisfaction, leaves me with feelings of frustration. Opportunity after opportunity was lost to pursue answers until every avenue had been thoroughly explored and every "escape route " closed.

At the very end of his evidence, Dr Nichaols Hunt, the pathologist who had conducted the post-mortem, was asked: 'Is there anything else you would like to say concerning the circumstances leading to Dr Kelly's death?'

Such a question gives the witness who is favourably disposed to the questioner an open opportunity to go further than his witness statement. It is NOT a question ever asked in cross-examination as it provides a free pass to an escape route.

Dr Hunt answered: 'Nothing I could say as a pathologist, no'. He is an experienced expert witness. What on earth did that answer mean? He was there to give evidence as a pathologist. He knew that. Everyone knew that. So why did he give that answer? It begged the question whether there was anything else he knew. Was he concerned about any other forensic or factual evidence? These questions were never asked.

Hutton focused on the so-called dodgy dossier and the conflict between the Government and the BBC which, at that time, was more in the public eye. Because it was taken from granted Dr Kelly had killed himself, the medical evidence was insufficiently explored.

In the absence of any bleeding tendency from a clotting deficiency (and there was no evidence of this) fatal haemorrhage from a severed ulnar artery is so improbable that more evidence was essential before such a conclusion could be reached.

If you want to know how much beer has gone from a full pint glass, it is easy. You can either measure how much has been poured out or measure how much remains. To be confident, you would measure both. The same approach should have been adopted in this case.

As it was not, there is no evidence as to whether there was sufficient haemorrhage from the ulnar artery to cause death. The inquiry fell into the trap of the circular argument: Dr Kelly died, therefore he must have lost sufficient blood.

'In my work as a barrister I meet many medics but I have never met a single doctor who has disagreed with the propostion that is is extremely improbable that haemorrhage from a single, severed ulnar artery would ever be a primary cause of death.'

Yet this extreme unlikelihood was never explored with Dr Hunt. Whatever the reason, this was a serious failure of the Hutton Inquiry. It has understandably led to a suspicion of cover-up. This could not have been the cause of death, the argument goes. If it were not the cause, then what did cause his death? Was it something Dr Kelly did to himself, intending to cause his own death, which has not yet been discovered? Was it part of some elaborate plan by others to end his life?

The only way to stop the many theories which abound is for there now to be a thorough and open investigation by way of a fresh inquest. Surely the Government realises that the way to foster conspiracy theories is to be secretive and to resist calls to disclose all the medical evidence.

We should pay tribute to Dr Kelly. He was a brilliant man who did his best in the service of this country. He deserves our gratitude and respect. We owe it to him and ourselves to ensure the true cause of his death is ascertained.

Dr Michael J Powers QC is a barrister specialising in medical causation and a Fellow of the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians to which he is an appointed examiner.

From the "Mail on Sunday", 15 August 2010

13th August 2010

VIDEO:
ITN - EXPERTS DEMAND FULL KELLY INQUEST

13th August 2010

TIME FOR A PROPER INQUEST INTO DR KELLY'S DEATH

Sir
Amid the continuing interest surrounding the death of the government weapons inspector, the late Dr David Kelly, we wish to express our concern about the conclusion as to the cause of death in the light of the information now in the public domain. It is extremely unlikely, from a medical perspective, that the primary cause of death would or could have been haemorrhage from a severed ulnar arter in one wrist without any evidence of a blood clotting deficiency.

This small artery, deeper in the wrist than the larger radial artery used to palpate the pulse, would have retracted on being severed and within a short time blood loss would be expected to have ceased.

Insufficient blood would have been lost to threaten life. Absent a quantitative assessment of the blood lost and of the blood remaining in the great vessels, the conclusion that death occcurred as a consequence of haemorrhage is unsafe.

The inquiry by Lord Hutton was unsatisfactory with regard to the causation of death. A detailed investigation of all the medical circumstatnces is now required and we support the call for a proper inquest into the cause of Dr Kelly's death.

DR MICHAEL J POWERS QC
Barrister, Medical Practioner and Examiner to the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine, Royal College of Physicians

PROFESSOR JULIAN BION
Professor of Intensive Care Medicine, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham

DR MARGARET BLOOM
Barrister, Former General Medical Practioner and Fomer Deputy Coroner

DR NEVILLE DAVIS
Consultant Forensic Physician

DR ELIZABETH DRIVER
Solicitor and Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists

SIR BARRY JACKSON
Past president, British Academy of Forensic Sciences

DR JASON PAYNE-JAMES
Consultant Forensic Physician and Honorary Senior Lecturer, Cameron Forensic Medical Sciences, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry

PROFESSOR JOHN FRANCIS NUNN

DENIS WILKINS
Retired Consultant Vascular Surgeon

LORD HUTTON INSTRUCTS DAVID KELLY'S POST MORTEM TO BE KEPT SECRET FOR 70 YEARS (for full report, click on title)

Not only the post-mortem report - all medical reports.
Access to unpublished evidence, including dozens of witness statements will be denied for 30 years.

• If Dr Kelly took his own life, why would all medical details need to be kept secret?
• Why keep them secret for 70 years?
• On what date did Lord Hutton make this ruling, and how?
• What justification did Lord Hutton use?
• Why was this ruling kept secret?
• Has such a ruling ever been made before in a case of this nature?
• Under what circumstances?
• How might this ruling be overturned?

WATCH TELEVISED DEBATE:

THE STRANGE DEATH OF DR KELLY: WHY DO QUESTIONS STILL REMAIN?

The panel of four:

• Norman Baker MP


• Frances Swaine of Leigh, Day & Co solicitors


• Marc Sigsworth, Producer of the BBC 2 Conspiracy Files programme on Dr Kelly's death


• Nick Pope, MoD

So Saddam Hussein authorises injecting Sarin and mustard gas into perfume bottles, and having them shipped to the West? Given the originator of the claim is from the neocon stable, one has to take the assertions with a pinch of salt. Let's hear more from Dick Spertzel about his sources. -- RT


SUNDAY EXPRESS:

IRAQIS KILLED KELLY TO KEEP GAS ATTACK SECRET
by James Murray

2 August 2009

Sensational evidence suggesting weapons inspector David Kelly was murdered by Iraqis planning to attack Britian is being offered to the Iraq war inquiry.

Retired American microbiologist Richard Spertzel says he is prepared to fly to London to give evidence to diplomat Sir John Chilcot's investigation.

Mr Spertzel, who led the United Nations biological inspection team in Iraq and worked closely with Dr Kelly, says evidence emerged that Saddam Hussein was planning to attack American and European cities with nerve agents contained in over-the-counter perfume bottles.

He says he read witness statements alleging that the deadly agents Sarin and mustard gas were to be used.

In another astonishing twist Mr Spertzel says he was told that he and Dr Kelly were on an Iraqi hit list. "I was number theree and David was number four", he said.

The Swedish executive chairman of the UN inpsection team was warned that he was top of the list and took the threats so seriously that he resigned.

Russian intelligence agencies in Baghdad passed over information about the list but did not disclose how they came across the information, known only among Saddam's inner circle.

When he learned of Dr Kelly's death in July 2003 in woods near his home in Southmoor, Oxfordshire, Mr Spertzel immediately suspected that he had been killed by Iraqi spies.

"It was a very strange death," he said. "We were wary that the Iraqi intelligence services may have been involved. My concern was whether the Iraqis were after David Kelly."

Although an inquiry led by Lord Hutton in 2003-04 decided that 59-year old Dr Kelly took his own life while under pressure over the information he supplied for the "sexed-up" dossier on Iraq, Mr Spertzel keeps an open mind.

"I can't say one way or the other," he said, adding that a murder investigation carried out at the time could have uncovered crucial evidence.

Asked whether he supported calls for an inquest, Mr Sperzel said: "It might be too little, too late. I knew Dr Kelly reasonably well and in my view he was not suicidal."

However, he believes that it would be "very useful" if the Chilcot inquiry looks into the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr Kelly.

"If something turned up that the Iraqi intelligence services was involved in it would eliminate all sorts of arguments," said Mr Spertzel, who gave evidence to a US Senate committee on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capability before the invasion in March 2003.

"There is no quesiton in my mind that we had to go in," he added, "Did they have the capability and an ongoing programme? Yes."

Intelligence services had discovered an agreement between Iraq and Syria dating back to 1994 outlining cooperation on the development of biological and chemical weapons.

Mr Spertzel said he established that there were laboratories in Iraq capable of producing biological weapons. He added: "One was making Sarin and mustard gas to be placed in perfume phials bound for the US and Europe."

"Apparently they were designed to mimic just about any manufacturer. That was pretty serious."

Sarin, which causes victims to die a choking death, has a short-shelf life but mustard gas can be stored for years.

It is thought by many people in the western intelligence community that Iraqi biological eapons were driven into Syria before the invasion so the stockpiles could not be found. Syria has always denied the claims.

NOW LAWYER CALLS FOR NEW DAVID KELLY DEATH PROBE

DAILY MAIL:

POLITICIANS ON ALL SIDES UNITE IN DEMAND FOR DAVID KELLY INQUEST

NEW RT VIDEO:

SUSPICIOUS DEATH OF UK TOP WEAPONS EXPERT

DR DAVID KELLY BACK IN THE NEWS:

• Eleven doctors launch legal campaign to force an inquest
  


• Was Dr Kelly in the process of writing an expose?



• Did MI5 Kill Dr Kelly?
  


• Was Dr Kelly a target of Dick Cheney's "Executive Assassination Ring"?
  


• "Anthrax War" - a new documentary by Bob Coen and Eric Nadler links Dr Kelly with Wouter Basson, former head of South Africa's secret bioweapons programme, and highlights an unfinished book Dr Kelly was writing - a book confiscated by agents of the British state, hours before his body was found.
  


• Mai Pederson, a close confidante of Dr Kelly's, instructs her lawyer to write to Britain's attorney general to press for inquest

In memoriam Dr. David Kelly. RIP

Today is the fifth anniversary of publication of the Hutton Report into the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr. David Kelly, CMG. This was the biggest load of whitewash for government disgrace in a generation. It was a massive cover-up from start to finish. Unfortunately the media seemed not to notice. And they still haven’t noticed.Dr Kelly was the leading weapons inspector in Iraq. He had made numerous inspections, and he knew what weapons capability Saddam Hussein had.

One of the reasons for starting war in Iraq was a sordid little document known as the Iraq Dossier. It was produced for Tony Blair and claimed four times that Saddam had WMD that could be set off within 45 minutes of an order to go. Dr Kelly, and others, didn’t think much of this claim. After the war in Iraq was ‘over,’ commentators were getting more and more surprised that no WMD had ever been found. Dr Kelly talked to the BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan about the infamous 45-minute claim. Gilligan made a broadcast in which he said that the government probably knew the claim was false when they put it in the dossier. So there was a big hoo ha, and everyone was trying to find the source for Gilligan’s story.

There was a lot of speculation about the identity of the bloke who blabbed. In the end Dr Kelly wrote a long letter to his boss.... Eventually he had to appear before a televised House of Commons committee meeting, and he did not look very happy.

Having heard his story the committee decided to agree with Dr Kelly that he was not the source. Two days later, on 17 July at five past three he went for a walk from his house in Oxfordshire, and was never seen again, apart from one chance meeting with a neighbour en route. On 18 July he was found dead in the woods on Harrowdown Hill. Apparently he had killed himself because of the stress he was under. Apparently he cut his wrist with a blunt knife he’d had for 40-odd years, and took some of his wife’s Coproxamol tablets.

As soon as his death was announced, journalists were clamouring to say it was suicide without waiting for any evidence. An inquest should have been held into his death, but surprise surprise, the case was taken away from the Corner. Why? Well, in a Coroner’s court a verdict of suicide has to satisfy the test of beyond all reasonable doubt. The evidence put to Lord Hutton didn’t satisfy any kind of test at all, apart from the gullibilty of credulous fools in the Fourth Estate.

Firstly, there was hardly any blood, and absolutely none on Dr Kelly’s clothes. Oh, yes, there was a stain the size of 50p on his right knee. You’ll never guess how that got there – Dr Kelly got up and knelt in a pool of his own blood – like you do.

Also he had a bottle of water to take his tablets with. It was found on the left of his body, quite a way from his arm. Dr Kelly was right-handed, or so we were told. So how, or why, come to that, does a right-handed man drink from a bottle and then put it down over to his left when he couldn’t lean on his left wrist without causing himself pain? You tell me, because Hutton couldn’t.

Another funny thing is the time of death. Dr Kelly was found at 9.10 on the morning of 18 July. According to the paramedics who examined the body there were no signs of rigor mortis. They also said there wasn’t enough blood for an arterial bleed. So he hadn’t been dead for all that long when he was found.At the time there were several letters in the press from the Kelly Investigation Group – mainly from experienced doctors who said it was damn near impossible to die of blood loss from cutting the ulnar artery, which is what Dr Kelly is claimed to have done.

Another piece of evidence against the Hutton tale was also published in these letters. Acetone was found in Dr Kelly’s blood, and one of the doctors reported that this only appears about 12 hours after your last meal. We were told that Dr Kelly had a few sandwiches for lunch on 17 July at about 1.00, so that means he didn’t die till about 1.00 a.m. So what the hell was he doing between about 3.30 when he happened across his neighbour going away from Harrowdown Hill, and the time he died? Lord Hutton didn’t bother to ask.

Some comical evidence was given about this by Professor Hawton, a very distinguished psychiatrist. His evidence runs as follows: I have never clapped eyes on Dr Kelly, but I get the very strong feeling that he killed himself. He felt increasing distress and was worried he was going to lose his job. I know that none of his bosses in the MoD said they were going to sack him, but what the hell? That’s what I’ve been asked to say. Oh and that photograph of the knife you showed me? That is definitely a photograph of the knife that Dr Kelly used to keep in his drawer in his study. Of course I’ve never seen the knife, but you know, I just have this gut feeling.

On 17 July Dr Kelly was writing an e-mail to his bosses with a list of journalists he had met over the years. This had been asked for by a member of the House of Commons Committee which interviewed him. It included the name Susan Watts, another BBC hack who he’d spoken to about the 45-minute claim. According to Wing Commander Clark, one of Dr Kelly’s colleagues, he rang and spoke to Dr Kelly at about five to three. According to him he asked Dr Kelly’s permission to change the position of the name Susan Watts in the letter to go to the House of Commons. In view of what the MoD did to Dr Kelly without his permission it’s not likely they would bother asking about that. But they say they did.

Immediately after that call, Dr Kelly left his house for the last time. This just doesn’t ring true. According to Hawton, Dr Kelly has pondered his situation and decided he had just one way out – suicide. Hawton said that Dr Kelly was content with this decision. So if Dr Kelly had his penknife and the tablets all ready to go, why the hell would he have bothered to answer the phone?

Long after the appearance of Lord Hutton’s Report Norman Baker MP decided to get involved. He made some interesting discoveries. He found out that the Coroner had in fact given a death certificate for Dr Kelly about two weeks in to the Hutton Inquiry. Of course, Hutton never told us that. Norman Baker MP also found out that there were no fingerprints on Dr Kelly’s water bottle or his penknife. However, there was some of Dr Kelly’s blood on the bottle. Nice trick if you can manage it. So he picks up his bottle without touching it with his finger ends, smears it with blood from God knows where and then puts it down again as far as he can from a point where it would be simple to pick it up again. And the press just lapped it up.

In November 2006 Lord Hutton took the unusual step of trying to explain his decision. He wrote an article for some learned journal. One thing he said – there was no need to find out if the 45-minute claim was accurate. Oh yeah? Well now, if he found out it was false it would put Dr Kelly’s statements in a whole new light, so dead right we don’t want that. Leave it out. Funny thing is, there was another Inquiry – by Lord Butler, and he reported in July 2004. He said, although he wasn’t very clear about it, that the 45-minute claim was withdrawn in July 2003. Oh what a shame – just six months too late to help Dr Kelly.The strange thing is that two senior blokes to give evidence to Lord Hutton in August and September both said that the claim was still valid. That means they were telling porkies. Did you ever. They were trying to make sure that no one queried the report. Now what do you suppose they got up before Hutton said we decided this claim was crap in July 2003, don’t you think at least one journalist might have popped a question in - like what day in July 2003? Seem to remember that Dr Kelly went missing in July 2003 could there be a connection eh?

Another strange thing is how late the Kelly family called up the police. Dr Kelly had his mobile with him but he didn’t call home. Apparently – we were never shown his phone bill. Mrs Kelly didn’t call Dr Kelly. Apparently – we were never shown his phone bill. So the police came round at about midnight. They were told that Dr Kelly had gone for a walk at five past three, and his walk normally takes about 30 minutes. So he was about eight hours overdue.

Now you and me, we’d probably ask his family where he usually went when he was on one of his walks. But our Oxford plods weren’t up to it. They only thought of this question at about seven in the morning. Shame! So what did our buoys in blue actually do? Why, they went looking around his house and grounds. They also turfed Mrs Kelly into the garden at one point to shove a dog through the house. There was a very special reason for this, as we’ll see later.

A police helicopter was sent up as well. But heres a strange thing – it did not use its searchlight. Yeah, right on. If your’e looking for someone at night you don’t use your searchlight – got to save energy. But the heat seeker should have found him, but it didn’t. There’s a little clue there.

Norman Baker MP wrote a book about Dr Kelly’s death. He reckons to have spent a lot of time investigating the case. Funny thing, he manages to show two different groups of people actually killed Dr Kelly. Now me, I only think that one group could of done it. Also Norman Baker MP managed to miss out some very important documents from the Hutton website, which seems kind of careless. And they are just the ones that show a completely different story and lead to the real truth about where and why it all went horribly wrong for a brave and principled man. Watch this space.

From:

http://www.expat.ru/forum/expat-cafe/128604-memoriam-dr-david-kelly-rip.html

David Kelly's closest female confidante on why he COULDN'T have killed himself

By Sharon Churcher

31st August 2008

A female confidante of Dr David Kelly raised disturbing new questions last night over how the Ministry of Defence weapons inspector was able to kill himself.

After his body was discovered in woods near his Oxfordshire home in July 2003, a Government inquiry led by Lord Hutton ruled that he committed suicide by slashing his left wrist with a knife and taking an overdose of co-proxamol, a painkiller commonly used for arthritis.

He was said to be anguished about being named as the source of a BBC report, which alleged that Tony Blair ‘sexed up’ a dossier justifying the invasion of Iraq.

Mystery death: Professor David Kelly appearing at the House of Commons during the Iraq inquiry

But five years after his death at 59, his close friend, American military linguist Mai Pederson, has come forward to dispute this account.

The Hutton inquiry heard that he died after making several cuts to his left wrist, which severed the ulnar artery, buried deep in the tissue on the side of the hand nearest the little finger.

An earlier coroner’s inquest was halted when the Government used an obscure law to turn the investigation over to Lord Hutton. His inquiry concluded that ‘there was no involvement by a third party’ in the scientist’s death, which was said to be caused primarily by the cut artery and hastened by the painkillers.

Ms Pederson, a former US Air Force officer, met Dr Kelly when she was assigned to work in 1998 as a translator for the UN weapons inspection team in Iraq.

And she revealed in an interview with The Mail on Sunday that, in the months leading to his death, the right-handed scientist was unable to use his right hand for tasks requiring strength because of a painful injury to his right elbow.

According to Ms Pederson, when she dined with Dr Kelly at a Washington restaurant in the spring of 2003, the hand’s grip was so weak that he struggled to get a knife through a steak he had ordered.

The linguist, who counselled Dr Kelly during his conversion to the Baha’i religious faith that she follows, says he had begun to favour his left hand for even relatively minor tasks, a tendency she observed on numerous other occasions.

'He couldn't cut a steak': Mai pederson is unconvinced David Kelly took his own life

‘David would have had to have been a contortionist to kill himself the way they claim,’ she said.

‘I don’t know whether he was born right-handed but by the time I first met him he favoured his left hand for any task that required strength, like opening a door or carrying his briefcase.
‘When he embraced friends at the beginning and end of Baha’i meetings, it was his left arm that you felt hugging you and you could tell his right arm hurt him because he rubbed the elbow a lot.

‘I didn’t want to pry but he finally told me the reason in the spring of 2003. It was the last time I saw him before he died. He was visiting America on business and we went out to dinner.

‘He ordered steak and he was holding his knife very oddly in the palm of his right hand, with his wrist crooked, trying to cut the meat.

‘He told me that some time ago he had broken his right elbow and it was never fixed properly, so he had real problems with it. It was painful and it never regained its strength.
'I just don’t see how he could have used his right hand to cut through the nerves and tendons of his left wrist - especially as the knife he supposedly used had a dull blade.’

Ms Pederson said she believed she was familiar with the knife Dr Kelly is said to have used.
‘He always wore a Barbour jacket and he kept a knife in his pocket,’ she said. ‘It had a folding blade and I remember him telling me he couldn’t sharpen it because his right hand didn’t have the strength to hold a sharpener.

‘It would have taken him a long time to reach the artery that was severed and it would have been very painful.

‘As a scientist, David had no need to kill himself that way. I don’t understand why the British Government isn’t thoroughly investigating this. Logically, he cannot have committed suicide.’

David kelly gave evidence during an inquiry into whether the Government had 'sexed up' the reasons for going to war with Iraq

Ms Pederson, 48, whose military duties have included intelligence assignments, has avoided the spotlight since Dr Kelly’s death. But she says she is perturbed by mounting evidence that he may have been murdered.

The Mail on Sunday revealed last week that after his disappearance, a heat-seeking search helicopter flew over the exact spot where his corpse was later discovered. Yet the thermal-imaging equipment picked up no sign of a body – which some experts say suggests he was killed elsewhere.

Moreover, a group of doctors, surgeons and anaesthetists has called for a new inquiry into his death, contending that a cut to the ulnar artery would not cause catastrophic bleeding. Little blood was found at the scene.

They also maintain that the 29 or so painkillers Dr Kelly supposedly swallowed were only one-third of the dosage normally considered as lethal.

Even more mysteriously, there were no fingerprints on the knife he allegedly wielded nor on the bottle from which he supposedly drank water to wash down the tablets.
But perhaps most key is the information that Ms Pederson provided to Thames Valley Police, who were assisting the Hutton inquiry.

When officers flew to meet her in America in August 2003, she says she told them during two days of interviews that she was baffled about how Dr Kelly could have killed himself.

‘The facts just don’t add up,’ said Ms Pederson. ‘The more I have heard about this, the more I have thought about the significance of his weak right hand. I told the police about it when they interviewed me. I said, “How could David have cut his left wrist using a dull knife with his weak right hand?”

‘They said, “It wasn’t a straight cut. It was jagged.”

‘When I heard nothing more about it, I assumed they had come to an informed decision - that it was suicide. But now, knowing all that we do, I feel it is time for a disinterested public inquiry.'

Copies of the Hutton report into the events surrounding Dr Kelly's death
Ms Pederson has been one of the more elusive figures in the mystery of Dr Kelly’s death.

There have been rumours that she might have been romantically involved with the married scientist.

However, the vivacious brunette strongly denied this in a previous interview with The Mail on Sunday, pointing out that both her religion and military rules prohibit adultery.

Ms Pederson, who is fluent in Arabic, German and French, met Dr Kelly when she was seconded to the UN team in Iraq as a translator. In the tense atmosphere, she developed a close bond with him. They had long conversations about her devout beliefs in the ecumenical teachings of the Baha’i faith, to which he converted a year later.

She recalled: ‘He was like my big brother. I was the only linguist on the team and I would work until 11 or 11.30 at night and then go for a walk to get rid of the stress and the pressure. Other team members would walk with me but eventually it was mostly David because of his British passion for his daily constitutional.

‘The only time it was safe to talk about anything important was when we were walking. At our hotel, the Iraqis monitored us. The only place to change our underwear and not be filmed by their surveillance equipment was behind the shower curtains in our rooms.

‘The desk clerk at the hotel constantly called me, saying he was enamoured by me. I later discovered he was a lieutenant in the Iraqi military and I think it was a clumsy effort to elicit information from me.

‘One night, a group of us were out walking and suddenly a red laser shone out. It went from David’s heart to his head and it pretty much stayed on the middle of his forehead.

‘The inspectors said it happened all the time. The idea was to intimidate David, showing they could pick him out as a target even in the dark.’

Enraged, Ms Pederson insisted that the Russian inspector heading the team complain to General Amer Al-Saadi, Saddam Hussein’s British-educated weapons adviser.

'The general said it was children playing,’ she said derisively. ‘The other thing that bothered me was that key people on the team were constantly getting sick.

‘The symptoms were very similar to anthrax. We joked that they were poisoning us so we couldn’t finish our job. David pretty much lived on Vegemite and bread.’

After Ms Pederson returned to America, she was stationed at the Defence Language Institute in California. It has been described as a spy school but she says she worked as a personnel officer. The US Air Force often sent her on assignments that required a linguist, which she is not permitted to discuss.

She met Dr Kelly again after she was transferred to the Pentagon. ‘It was October 2002 and he was visiting Washington,’ she said. ‘He told me that the Iraqis had drawn up a hit list of people to be killed.

‘He said, “I am number three and you also are on it.” At the time, it didn’t really bother either of us. We understood there was a danger because of our jobs.

‘He also told me that if we invaded Iraq, he would be found dead in the woods. He loved to walk in the woods near his home. But he knew that walking alone made him vulnerable. The Iraqis wanted him dead.’

In May 2003, journalist Andrew Gilligan reported on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that a source had disclosed that the Blair administration had ‘sexed up’ the dossier, accusing Saddam of harbouring weapons of mass destruction.

Dr Kelly was subsequently named as the source and the Hutton inquiry concluded that this plunged him into depression

Ms Pederson concedes that he was ‘upset’ by the episode but says that he brushed it off, insisting he had been misquoted.

And far from being opposed to the Government’s dossier, she says he was convinced that Saddam lied when he told the UN that he was no longer developing WMDs.

She said: ‘David believed the Iraqis were not being forthcoming during our inspections about their potential for making weapons. If they weren’t up to anything, why did we have to be accompanied by minders? And why were people scared to talk to us?

‘David’s position on the invasion was that it was regrettable but necessary because UN sanctions had failed. He said he was misquoted and his words were twisted and taken out of context.

‘He wasn’t depressed. He was upset. I have taken courses on suicide prevention and he exhibited none of the signs.

‘He was planning for his retirement. He wanted to make more money to provide for his family and he’d had job offers in the States as well as Europe. Also, he was excited that one of his daughters was getting married. He said, “The controversy will blow over.” ’

Ms Pederson claims that at the time of his death, Dr Kelly was looking forward to returning to Iraq. ‘Had he been alive, he finally would have been free to look for evidence of WMDs,’ she said. ‘If anyone could have found them, it would have been David.

‘I am not saying that the Iraqis killed him. But that is one possibility that should be investigated. All the facts suggest that David did not kill himself. It is against our Baha’i faith.

‘But for David there were also personal reasons - he believed his mother’s death was suicide. Research shows that suicide runs in families and I asked him if he would ever do that. I said, “Hypothetically, if you are ever at your wit’s end, promise me that you will seek help.”

‘He said, “I don’t see the relevance. I would never take any life, let alone my own.” He finally did say that if he was ever desperate, he would get help. That’s important because he was a man of his word. He could never hurt his wife and daughters the way that he was hurt by his mother’s death.’

Ms Pederson’s Washington DC lawyer, Mark Zaid, has made available to The Mail on Sunday parts of her final statement to Thames Valley Police, given on September 1, 2003.

A red rose lies on the David Kelly's grave. But the story behind his death is not yet ready to rest in peace

Its ten pages would appear critical, since they describe Iraqi death threats and the incident with the laser. She also stated that she was bewildered about how Dr Kelly could have taken an overdose, as he suffered from a disorder that made it difficult for him to swallow pills.
‘I was so confused when I heard he had swallowed a load of painkillers,’ she told the officers.

She also emphasised in the statement that he suffered from pain and problems ‘grabbing things with his right hand, which he attributed to breaking his elbow’.

Police have implied that she did not give them permission to give her statement to the Hutton inquiry. But in fact she stipulated: ‘If specific information [in the statement] is deemed relevant to the coroner’s inquiry into the death of David Kelly, I am willing for Thames Valley to reveal the information in a non-attributable way.’

However, her statement was never given to the inquiry. The then Assistant Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, Michael Page, testified that it ‘contained nothing of relevance’.

After the inquiry, Ms Pederson started to get death threats. ‘Some were from nuts,’ she said. But others, she believes, may have been related to her sensitive work with Dr Kelly in Iraq. And she spoke on condition that we do not reveal her whereabouts.

‘I can’t say for sure that David was murdered,’ she said. ‘But his life had been threatened because he strived to do what was best for humanity.

‘He deserved more from his country than an investigation that overlooked the fact that his right hand was so weak that he had problems cutting a piece of steak.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1050919/David-Kellys-closest-female-confidante-COULDNT-killed-himself.html

Police helicopter failed to spot dead body of 'suicide' scientist

BY GARRICK ALDER

New information obtained by Bedfordshire on Sunday says the body of Dr David Kelly was not discovered despite the police helicopter flying directly over the spot where he was eventually found.

Dr Kelly was found dead in July 2003 at the height of the controversy over the Iraq invasion. There has never been an inquest but in 2004 the Hutton Inquiry declared his death a suicide.

Bedfordshire Police's helicopter was used in the Oxfordshire search for the missing scientist.

BoS used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to gain access to flight records.

These show that the helicopter flew directly over the spot where Dr Kelly's body was discovered, after he was supposedly already dead.

Heat-imaging equipment, used on both night flights, should have discovered Dr Kelly's corpse, which still had a temperature of 24 degrees centigrade when found.

Bedfordshire Police were unwilling to reveal precise details of the helicopter's imaging system but stated: "It can read a car number plate three-quarters of a mile away from a height of 1,000 feet."

Thames Valley Police's assistant chief constable told the Hutton Inquiry only that the helicopter searched 'around the area of Dr Kelly's house'.

The flight summary records: 'Area search included bridle paths from Longworth north to the River Thames east to Newbridge and back to Kingston Bagpuize.' The Longworth-Thames leg of this ten mile journey took the helicopter directly over Harrowdown Hill at 2.50am on July 18.

According to Hutton Dr Kelly's body had already been there for at least one hour and 35 minutes. Dr Kelly died after supposedly taking an overdose of tablets and cutting his wrist with a blunt knife. The post mortem found that Dr Kelly had died from loss of blood.

A spokesman for Thames Valley Police said: "There has been a thorough investigation into the death of Dr David Kelly and that investigation has been the subject of a major inquiry."Everything we have to say on the matter is fully documented and is a matter of public record."We have no further comment to make."

Lewes MP Norman Baker is an outspoken critic of the official version of Dr Kelly's death. He told Bedfordshire on Sunday: "This new information is significant. It indicates that the helicopter, equipped with heat-seeking technology, searched exactly the area where Dr Kelly's body was later discovered but found nothing."

This provokes a number of new questions about the circumstances of the death of the country's most eminent weapons inspector.

"The Government must now re-open the inquest into the death of Dr Kelly and set a date for a proper inquiry into the Iraq War."

http://www.harlowstar.co.uk/bedsonsunday-news/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=340617

EDITOR'S NOTE:

To be clear on this one would need to know:

1. Is a thermal-imaging search subject to operator error -- i.e. is it possible to miss a heat source?

2. Does whether or not a heat source is picked up depend on the level of heat -- i.e. if Dr Kelly's body temperature was approximately 30 degrees at 2.50am, would that have been picked up by the thermal imaging equipment?

3. Might dense forest cover prevent a heat source being picked up - especially if it is below normal body heat?

Friday, February 22, 2008

"Without access to the evidence we can only work on likelihoods"

The Strange Death of Dr Kelly. Interview with Rowena Thursby

Some of the credit for not ever letting the Dr Kelly issue drop goes to a lady by the name of Rowena Thursby. In the wake of the unquestioned suicide verdict and the one-sided nature of the Lord Hutton report, Ms Thursby had the resolve to piece together the many voices of dissent. She posted articles on her blog and won the backing of a number of health professionals and medical experts who were increasingly sceptical of the investigative process as well as the official verdict. Ms Thursby kindly accepted to help me explore the issue and answered a few questions.

"I had never been particularly interested in politics", she told me, "but for me 9/11 was the catalyst for extensive reading, as I attempted to comprehend the political processes behind it. It became clear that the PNAC neoconservative think tank had been set on controlling the massive resources in the Caspian Sea basin long before 9/11 -- and capturing control of Iraq was central to their geopolitical plan".

Her analysis on the months leading to the Iraq invasion would only be questioned by all but a handful of people. No doubt two would be Tony Blair and Alistair Campbell:

"During 2002 it became increasingly clear that the American government was intent on invading Iraq and looking for a pretext. Searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq provided one. So when Dr David Kelly insisted upon accuracy when talking about WMDs, he eventually found himself in a perilous situation. There can't have been many intelligent people around who did not wonder, when he was found dead in the woods two days after being hauled in front of the Foreign Affairs Committee, if he had been 'dealt with'.Joseph Wilson, mindful of his own safety, was one of them".

Joseph Wilson's, the US former ambassador to Niger, is an interesting case in point. Like Kelly, he became one of the whistleblowers of the lies behind the Iraq invasion. In an article for the New York Times, he stated that the George W. Bush administration had distorted intelligence to "exaggerate the Iraqi threat". A week later, the US Government unleashed its revenge. Wilson's wife's covert CIA identity as "Valerie Plame" was outed in a Washington Post column, putting her safety at risk and obviously setting an abrupt end to her career. No wonder Joseph Wilson wrote, "I too wondered about Kelly's death…I was horrified that I could actually harbour suspicions… that a democratic government might actually do bodily harm to an opponent".

Ms Thursby, did you ever feel hampered as you began your work to find out more?

"When I was in the thick of it - around the time of the Hutton Report -3,000 e-mails related to the Kelly investigation vanished from my Outlook Express inbox".

But shouldn’t journalists ask the questions that yourself and Norman Baker dared to?"

I lament the fact that there is hardly any investigative journalism nowadays. Few journalists appear to be willing to sink their teeth into a story and stay with it. I suspect many journalists are selected for their tendency to stick to the straight and narrow. Those with more maverick inclinations find they do not have the resources to investigate at a meaningful level".

Do you believe Norman Baker's book can help reopen the case or at least re-focus public opinion? I have the feeling the "it's-the-usual-loonie-conspiracy-theorists" has been already unleashed with a vengeance...

"To make any real difference it needs a whistleblower to come forward with convincing evidence - sufficient to convince not only the Coroner but also Mrs Kelly, who believes it was suicide".

How can her position be explained? Did you speak to her?

"I spoke to Mrs Kelly about the possibility of bringing a judicial review on the Coroner's decision not to re-open the inquest in 2004. She was dead against it because she firmly believes her husband committed suicide. I find her certainty puzzling".

Norman Baker's book ends with a theory. Iraqi hitmen may have been involved in Dr Kelly's 'wet disposal'. Some people dismiss it as conspiracy theory yet it's also true that conspiracy theories arise when a case is shrouded in secrecy.

"Without access to the evidence, we can only work on likelihoods. While it is possible Iraqi hitmen were responsible, I doubt they would have been able to act beneath the radar of British/American intelligence. George Galloway was of the view that the Iraqis barely sneezed without US permission. To set up a suicide scene would require knowledge of the pills, the jacket and the knife -- and the opportunity to take them from the Kelly household such that no one would know they were missing; it seems unlikely that Iraqis would be able to accomplish that without assistance".