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Inquiry reveals doubts over WMD
LONDON, England -- Evidence presented at the inquiry into the death of weapons expert David Kelly has revealed uncertainty within the British government over a dossier on Iraq's weapons. In an e-mail presented to the inquiry, now in its second week, Prime Minister Tony Blair's chief of staff questioned the strength of intelligence used in the dossier to justify war against Saddam Hussein. Writing to a senior intelligence official a week before publication of the controversial September 2002 dossier, Jonathan Powell said: "The document does nothing to demonstrate a threat, let alone an imminent threat, from Saddam. "It shows he has the means, but it does not demonstrate he has the motive to attack his neighbors, let alone the West." The inquiry, chaired by Lord Hutton, is examining the circumstances surrounding the apparent suicide of Kelly. The weapons expert had been named as the main source of a BBC report which claimed the government had embellished the dossier to exaggerate the threat posed by Saddam. Powell's evidence revealed the depth of government fury at the claims in the report by BBC defense correspondent Andrew Gilligan. "We thought they were a very serious allegation to make against a government," Powell told the inquiry. "That it had inserted into the dossier some intelligence which it knew to be untrue and stuck them in there for its own purpose." He added: "We were locked in confrontation and there was no way the BBC could gracefully climb out." In another e-mail shown to the inquiry, sent in early July, Tom Kelly, one of the prime minister's official spokesmen, told Powell: "This is now a game of chicken with the Beeb (BBC)." Powell was one of several key government aides giving evidence Monday. Earlier Pam Teare, director of news at the Ministry of Defence, said that as far as she was aware, Gilligan had not contacted the MoD to check his story before broadcast. Teare said she was "surprised at the categorical way the presenter had said that it (the story) had been checked with the MoD, because I was certainly not aware of it." She said she had not actually heard the May 29 radio broadcast in which Gilligan made his claims. "I was actually just leaving that morning to go on holiday. I returned to the office on June 9," Teare said. When questioned about Kelly being named as the source of Gilligan's report, she admitted it was her department's official strategy to confirm Kelly's identity if asked by journalists. She denied the ministry leaked clues to help the media identify Kelly. Teare and Powell are the first in a series of government officials scheduled to appear before the inquiry over the next four days. Sir David Manning, Blair's foreign affairs adviser, also was to appear Monday. Alastair Campbell, Downing Street's director of communications and strategy, is expected to take the witness box Tuesday. On Wednesday, the inquiry will hear from Tom Kelly, who made a public apology to David Kelly's family ahead of his funeral after describing the late scientist as a "Walter Mitty"-style fantasist. On Thursday the inquiry will hear from Donald Anderson, chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, which gave Kelly a rough ride just days before his death. Anderson will be followed by a series of journalists -- Nick Rufford of the Sunday Times, James Blitz of the Financial Times, Richard Norton-Taylor of The Guardian and Tom Baldwin of The Times.
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