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Jurist stumps for support By Kevin Shopshire DAILY PRESS & ARGUS Some of the first salvos in the race for the Michigan Supreme Court were fired in the county last week at the Livingston County Democratic Party's annual fund-raising dinner. Incumbent Justice Marilyn Kelly was at the dinner, seeking support for her second eight-year term on the state's highest court. The justices are nonpartisan positions, but the candidates are nominated by the state Democratic and Republican parties at their conventions. Incumbents do not have to go through that process; they are only required to file an affidavit of identity. Both...

"'It's going to make a mockery out of the nomination process for the Democratic Party,' said Boston City Councilor James M. Kelly. 'People come from across the country, and the purpose of them being here is to nominate a candidate for the party.' If Kerry goes ahead with the delay, Kelly predicted 'frustration and anger' among city residents and convention delegates who find, on top of traffic jams, that their part in history has been taken from them." (Jenna Russell and Patrick Healy, "Kerry Idea Finds Support; City Wary," The Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/kerry/articles/2004/05/23/kerry_idea_finds_support_city_wary/, 5/23/04)

Jack Kelly: Clown commission Events of 9/11 deserve more than this inquiry Sunday, May 23, 2004 Paul Beston thinks that its hearings in New York May 18 and 19 were the time when the national disgrace known as the 9/11 commission "jumped the shark." This is a Hollywood expression for wretched excess, silliness beyond which a program is no longer viable. It is derived from the final days of the sitcom "Happy Days," in which the character Fonzie, wearing his trademark leather jacket, jumped over a shark on water skis. "While the 9/11 commission is about as substantive as a...

Commissioner Kelly is ready to deal with activists at the RNC 2004. But have no fear, he has "a lot of experience in facilitating free speech." PRESSMAN: Will you--will you infiltrate the demonstrators with police officers, undercover, who will try to determine whether there is any violence brewing? Commissioner KELLY: I'm not going to get into the specific tactics of--of what we're going to do. It's, you know, too early in the game. We're going to do everything that we can do lawfully, legally, reasonably to protect this city and to make certain that this is a--a peaceful and safe...

CHICAGO, March 11 /PRNewswire/ -- In yet another step toward R. Kelly's legal vindication, a Florida judge today threw out the evidence that had been the basis for child-pornography charges filed 14 months ago against Kelly by authorities in Polk County, Florida. "I've always had faith in our system of justice, and I do believe justice was done here today," said Kelly. "As I've said before, I am confident that when all the facts are brought out, people will see that I'm no criminal." Kelly, who was at home in Chicago when the Florida judge issued his ruling, got news...

Gibson goes for shock value over substance.... The message -- that if you do not embrace Jesus Christ, you will go directly to hell -- could not be presented any more oppressively. The Passion of the Christ, finally, is an invitation-only affair -- if you're not a believer the way Gibson thinks you should believe, you have no place at his (or His) table.

BBC chief resigns over Iraq weapons adviser report ( ) LONDON, Jan 29, 2004 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- British Broadcasting Corp. chief Greg Dyke resigned Thursday, the second top BBC official to step down after a judicial inquiry harshly criticized the broadcaster's journalistic standards. On Wednesday, senior judge Lord Hutton criticized the 81-year-old network for an "unfounded" report it broadcast last year accusing the government of "sexing up" a prewar dossier about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction with information it knew was wrong. Gavyn Davies, the chairman of the BBC's board of governors, resigned Wednesday - the first time...

BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan has resigned in the wake of the criticism directed at him in the Hutton report. Mr Gilligan conceded some of his story was wrong, and apologised for it. He said his departure was at his own initiative, but described the BBC collectively as the victim of a "grave injustice". Earlier departing BBC director general Greg Dyke said he was shocked by the findings of the Hutton Inquiry and did not accept all of the report. He said Lord Hutton had "given the benefit of doubt to every government witness and not to any at the...

BBC chairman Gavyn Davies is to resign in the wake of Lord Hutton's criticisms of the corporation's reports. BBC political editor Andrew Marr said Mr Davies would tell the corporation's governors of his decision when they met at 1700 GMT. It comes after Lord Hutton said the claim in BBC reports that the government "sexed up" its dossier on Iraq's weapons was "unfounded". And he criticised "defective" BBC editorial processes over defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan's broadcasts of the claims on the Today programme. Lord Hutton also said he was satisfied Dr Kelly had killed himself after being named as the...

Live Video of Lord Hutton delivering his report on http://news.bbc.co.uk/ now

It was the call every journalist in Westminster was waiting for — and Britain’s top political editor Trevor Kavanagh got it. For days the big question at the Commons has been the verdict of Lord Hutton’s report on the death of Dr David Kelly. And before MPs and the Cabinet got to hear the conclusions of Lord Hutton, Trevor noted them all down from a trusted source — then set about writing the Scoop of the Year. Tony Blair is today sensationally cleared of any “dishonourable or underhand” conduct leading to the suicide of tragic scientist David Kelly. Lord Hutton’s...

LONDON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - David Kelly, the weapons expert whose suicide rocked the British government, believed Iraq did pose an immediate threat, the BBC said on Wednesday, just days before a critical report into his death. Kelly told the BBC before the war that Iraq's weapons could have taken "days or weeks" to deploy. But he did not back Prime Minister Tony Blair's notorious claim that they could be fired in 45 minutes. The failure to find Iraq's weapons of mass destruction -- the primary Anglo-American motive for war -- has eroded public trust in Blair, putting him in...

Tonight at 9:30 p.m., C-SPAN2 presents a press conference by some military families who went on a tour of Iraq last week that was orchestrated by Medea Benjamin.I attended the press conference today. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll hurl. I did.

When he was nabbed eariler this year in Miami, Kelly told cops--according to the police report-- that 'former managers' might have been trying to set him up, 'taking pictures of people that look like me' cavorting with the underaged.Kelly has now extended that defense, as it were, to his Cook County case, according to a motion flied yesterday.While simultaneously questioning whether his video co-star was a minor, Kelly notes that he might mount a 'computer morphing' defense.The performer it seems, may argue that some unknown conspirators digitally dropped him into the raunchy video (or perhaps, replaced his of-age consort with...

New evidence submitted to the Hutton Inquiry supports recent claims of bias against the BBC’s coverage of the Iraq War. Whose Agenda? The BBC Reporters’ Log on the Iraq War, a quantitative analysis of articles posted online by BBC journalists throughout the War, found that correspondents were more likely to criticise Coalition strategy and discuss setbacks than to offer praise or evaluate advances. Reporters were also more likely to be sceptical of claims made by the Coalition than they were of claims made by the Iraqi authorities. Whose Agenda? is based on 1343 posts made on the BBC Reporters’ Log...

A computer expert has pointed to "seeming anomalies" on the handheld computer BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan used to record his conversation with Dr David Kelly. The weapons expert's apparent suicide came after he was named as the suspected source for Mr Gilligan's story about the government "sexing up" intelligence in its Iraq weapons dossier. Forensic computer expert Edward Wilding told the inquiry he was worried about why Downing Street media chief Alastair Campbell's name did not appear in one of the memos on Mr Gilligan's Sharp personal organiser. He had also found some experimentation with the computer. "Somebody was looking...

BBC news chiefs had doubts about reporter Andrew Gilligan's ability to present his material in a subtle way, the Hutton Inquiry has heard. Mr Gilligan has admitted making several errors and "slips of the tongue" in his radio reports on the Government's Iraq weapons dossier which started the row between the BBC and Downing Street. The corporation's director of news Richard Sambrook told the inquiry that Mr Gilligan "painted in primary colours" and there were question marks over "nuance and subtlety". In his live report on Radio 4's Today programme at 6.07am on May 29 Mr Gilligan quoted an anonymous...

Gilligan admits dossier row errors BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan has admitted making mistakes in live broadcasts reporting claims the government had "sexed up" its dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Mr Gilligan stood by the story he based on a conversation with government weapons expert Dr David Kelly. But under tough cross-examination at the Hutton inquiry into Dr Kelly's death, Mr Gilligan said he had made "slips of the tongue" in unscripted broadcasts. He was followed into the witness box by BBC director of news Richard Sambrook, who said there were errors in the BBC's strongly-worded response to the...

Internal emails disclosed to the Hutton Inquiry reveal that BBC governors feared the corporation was partly to blame for the death of Dr David Kelly, whose apparent suicide triggered the judicial investigation. Three days after Dr Kelly's body was found, Professor Fabian Monds, the BBC governor in Northern Ireland, sent an email to Gavyn Davies, the chairman, expressing his concern. "We are all troubled by the thought that our actions may have contributed, however indirectly, to this tragedy. Dr Kelly is one victim of this situation; there are others," said the email. Another governor has also expressed disquiet about the...

Just before the summer break, a valued and distinguished member of the Henley Conservative Association came up to me at a garden party and started giving the member a hard time. I wouldn't claim that he shouted, or that foam flew from his chops. But he certainly jabbed me in the chest, and there was real anger in those seen-a-thing-or-two eyes. It was Iraq, and the Weapons of Mass No-Show; and what got his goat, he said, was his sense that no one - no one in Parliament, no one in the press - had really defended him, as British...

The Prime Minister is said, by journalists paid to make that sort of judgment, to have "done well" during his appearance before the Hutton Inquiry yesterday. What was meant, apparently, is that he seemed confident, was not shaken by any of counsel's questions and made his point of view plain. That may well be. To an objective observer, however, he does not seem to have advanced the purpose of the inquiry very far. It was set up, it should be remembered, to examine the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr David Kelly, the Ministry of Defence scientist who, we now...

MoD blamed on 45-minute claim By Michael Smith, Defence Correspondent (Filed: 01/09/2003) The Ministry of Defence was to blame for removing a key element of the 45-minute claim that would have allowed David Kelly to back the Iraq dossier, documents released to the Hutton Inquiry show. The original top secret Joint Intelligence Committee report, based on intelligence from a high-ranking MI6 agent-in-place inside the Iraqi military, indicated that the weapons had to be prepared and be on the front line. But this crucial qualification was removed on the advice of a junior analyst in the Defence Intelligence Staff, new documents...

A remarkable article by Dr David Kelly, published for the first time today, reveals the government scientist's true views ahead of the war on Iraq and his expert assessment of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. In a development which could have a major influence on the Hutton inquiry, Kelly said that, although the threat was 'modest', he believed military action was the only way to 'conclusively disarm' the country. He also argued that there was evidence Saddam still had chemical and biological weapons and regime change, the policy of the United States, was the only way to stop the...

5pm update http://politics.guardian.co.uk/kelly/story/0,13747,1029682,00.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scarlett: dossier not 'sexed up' · Intelligence chief before Hutton · Kelly 'hinted Gilligan led him on' · Source of 45-minute claim revealed Matthew Tempest, Chris Tryhorn and Owen Gibson Tuesday August 26, 2003 Intelligence chief John Scarlett today told the Hutton inquiry into Dr Kelly's death he had known immediately that Andrew Gilligan's BBC report alleging the dossier on Iraq weapons had been "sexed up" by Downing Street was "completely untrue". Mr Scarlett, the chairman of the joint intelligence committee, said he had been sitting at his desk on the morning of May 29 when...

Origin of 45-min claim revealed Matthew Tempest and Chris Tryhorn Tuesday August 26, 2003 The origin of the disputed 45-minute claim on Iraqi weapons came from a secret intelligence report dated August 30, the Hutton inquiry heard today. The claim that Iraq could deploy "chemical and biological munitions" within 45 minutes was made in a classified email issued by a member of the joint intelligence committee (JIC) - but with both sender and recipient blacked out for security reasons. It was distributed to Downing Street and Whitehall staff six days later on September 5 as new drafts of the September...

Dr David Kelly predicted he would be "found dead in the woods" if Iraq was invaded, months before his apparent suicide, the Hutton Inquiry has heard. Foreign Office official David Broucher said Dr Kelly had made what he thought to be the "throwaway" remark in February. Mr Broucher said he met the weapons expert in Geneva. Dr Kelly had told him that continued inspections "properly carried out would give a degree of certainty about compliance" with UN disarmament demands. "He said he had tried to reassure them that if they cooperated with the weapons inspections, they had nothing to fear,"...

Blair Reacted Quickly to Naming of Iraq Expert Mon August 18, 2003 09:49 AM ET By Dominic Evans LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair called an immediate meeting of his top advisers on hearing that a senior weapons expert had named himself as a possible source for a damning BBC report on Iraq, an inquiry heard on Monday. The revelation, made by Blair's chief of staff Jonathan Powell, suggests how keen Blair was to rebut the BBC story, which accused the government of exaggerating Iraq's weapons threat to justify its case for war. Weapons expert David Kelly told...

Statement shows BBC may have ‘sexed up’ its coverage THE BBC yesterday ended an epic 52-day pretence about its source for claims that Downing Street deliberately deceived the British people by “sexing up” a dossier on Iraq to strengthen the case for war. But it is now the BBC that appears to have deliberately deceived viewers, listeners, its Board of Governors and Parliament about the origins of this extraordinary battle with the Government. The apparent suicide of David Kelly has changed the rules of engagement. By confirming that the Ministry of Defence adviser was the source, the BBC yesterday laid...

<p>The worst thing that can be said of a serious news organization is that it is cavalier about reporting the truth as it understands it. Gain a reputation for political bias in reports billed as objective and you can be sure to lose the trust--and patronage--of a significant part of your audience. So only a media giant whose shareholders are under lock and key could be as sanguine as the British Broadcasting Corporation's senior management has been after this week's embarrassing revelations.</p>

LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Startling revelations in a suicide scandal have shaken the foundations of the British Broadcasting Corporation, exposing rifts in its ranks and calling its gold-standard reputation into question. Held up as a bastion of truth from the dusty streets of Afghanistan to the Australian outback, the BBC is scrambling to defend itself after damning evidence in a public inquiry this week laid bare internal wranglings over "flawed reporting." BBC editors and reporters have been giving evidence in an inquiry into the suicide of David Kelly, an Iraq weapons expert who was the source of a BBC...

'Phew -- What A Scorcher!" used to be the headline Fleet Street newspapers kept optimistically in permanent type for those rare and wonderful days when the sun shone brightly on Britain. It is doing so at the moment. Temperature records are being broken; pictures of girls in bikinis and little boys jumping off bridges into the River Thames decorate the front pages; and doctors are issuing warnings about heatstroke and skin cancer. But the story that deserves "Phew -- What A Scorcher" headlines is taking place in a cool London office where Lord Hutton, a former Lord Chief Justice in...

BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan LIED to MPs about the sexed-up dossier affair, it was revealed yesterday. He also MISLED them about his contacts with tragic Ministry of Defence weapons expert Dr David Kelly. And in a dramatic twist to the war between the BBC and No10 he was BLASTED by his own boss for “flawed” reporting. As Gilligan, 34, gave evidence on the second day of the Hutton Inquiry into Dr Kelly’s suicide, the full text of the secret evidence the reporter gave to the foreign affairs select committee was released. It showed he changed his story about the role...

BBC's public stance hid doubts on Gilligan Matt Wells, media correspondent Wednesday August 13, 2003 The Guardian The BBC suffered a damaging blow at the Hutton inquiry yesterday with the revelation that senior editors at the corporation and even the board of governors had serious concerns about Andrew Gilligan's Iraq dossier stories. Kevin Marsh, the Today programme editor, said in a private email that Gilligan's account of how the government made the case for war was "marred by flawed reporting" and concluded that his "loose use of language" was "our biggest millstone". He promised to make substantial changes to Gilligan's...

Gilligan claims reopen controversy Click here to enter the Hutton inquiry website Julia Day and Claire Cozens Tuesday August 12, 2003 Gilligan: claims point finger at government Andrew Gilligan has dropped series of bombshells at the Hutton inquiry - including a claim that drags Alastair Campbell back to the centre of the affair. In direct contradiction to evidence given yesterday, Gilligan made the dramatic claim that Ministry of Defence scientist David Kelly had said Alastair Campbell asked if anything else could go in to the September dossier because the real information in the original dossier was unusable and dull. Dr...

Round one to Campbell By SIMON HUGHESand TREVOR KAVANAGH RELATED STORIES • Sun Says DOWNING Street was dramatically cleared lastnight of “sexing up” adossier on Iraqi arms. Tony Blair and his media supremo Alastair Campbell emerged as the clear winners from the first day of the Hutton inquiry into the suicide of Dr David Kelly, 59. Lord Hutton was told Mr Campbell played NO role in the warning that Saddam was 45 minutes from war. Mr Campbell had NO knowledge of the threat until after it was inserted in the dossier. And there was NO objection from MI6 or intelligence...

A brilliant scientist showered with praise, but not pay Kelly was trapped in 'black hole' of Whitehall machine Richard Norton-Taylor Tuesday August 12, 2003 The Guardian A picture emerged yesterday of one of the world's most respected experts on Iraq's chemical and biological weapons programme poorly treated by a Whitehall machine which came to regard him as a threat it could not control. The Hutton inquiry's first day of evidence showed, through internal documents and witnesses, how David Kelly's valuable advice was widely sought by a Whitehall which had little concern for his personal wellbeing. Terry Taylor, a fellow UN...

Hutton inquiry: Kelly 'went too far in briefing journalist' By Gavin Cordon, Cathy Gordon and Vanessa Allen, PA News 11 August 2003 David Kelly breached government confidence in his briefings to journalists, the inquiry into the death of the Government weapons expert was told today. On the opening day of the inquiry, a senior Ministry of Defence official said Dr Kelly appeared to have gone "outside the scope of his discretion" when he spoke to the BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan. The inquiry, headed by senior judge Lord Hutton, was launched after Dr Kelly apparently took his own life. He had...

The sad case of Dr David Kelly, the Ministry of Defence scientist, grows ever more complex. What began as a dispute between Downing Street and the BBC over the veracity of a government dossier has turned into a bitter quarrel involving Parliament as well. A judicial investigation has been set up to sift grain from chaff, and its outcome, it is said, might threaten the futures of the BBC director-general, the Secretary of State for Defence, Alastair Campbell, perhaps even the Prime Minister himself. The dust cloud created has obscured the original principals. Andrew Gilligan, the BBC journalist whose meeting...

In the 48 hours since the death of UK WMD scientist David Kelly several key pieces of evidence concerning his final hours and frame of mind have now come to light. These are extracted from key articles and linked below. Notably they do not point to a seemingly suicidal or internally tortured end for the scientist who has taken to the grave the truth about his relationship with the UK PM's office and the alleged "sexing up" of Iraqi WMD intelligence. In the wake of some reports that the death has been "confirmed as suicide" it is important for news...

Dead scientist revealed Iraq dirty bomb By Nicholas Rufford / The Sunday Times London - David Kelly, the British weapons expert at the centre of the Iraq dossier row, had amassed firm evidence to show that Saddam Hussein built and tested a "dirty bomb." Designed to cause cancer and birth defects, the radiological weapon could have been used by terrorists to create panic and widespread contamination in a crowded city. Kelly, who committed suicide last month, presented evidence of the bomb to the government in 1995 and recommended to Foreign Office officials that it feature in the government's intelligence dossier...

The backlash: growing doubts over Kelly's story By Andy McSmith, Political Editor 03 August 2003 David Kelly's family will have to fight a rearguard battle to prevent his reputation from being shredded in the forthcoming Hutton inquiry, it became increasingly clear this weekend. The scientist, whose funeral is being held on Wednesday, is likely to come under posthumous attack from both the Government and the BBC, with one side disputing his allegations about events leading up to the war with Iraq, and the other accusing him of lying about conversations with journalists. One senior BBC source described the confrontation between...

Lord Hutton is to set out how he intends to conduct his inquiry into the death of Government scientist Dr David Kelly. The preliminary session was set after the Law Lord met Dr Kelly's widow. At a preliminary hearing, Lord Hutton will explain how he plans to conduct the investigation and possibly outline who he intends to call to give evidence. He is also expected to hear requests from broadcasters to lift a ban on television cameras at everything but the opening and closing statements. Media interest is huge, with journalists from all over the world expected in such high...

Gilligan's secret evidence Patrick Wintour, chief political correspondent Friday August 1, 2003 The Guardian Labour and Tory MPs accused the BBC reporter at the heart of the Iraqi weapons row of "leading the public up the garden path in a most staggering way", according to confidential transcripts of a cross-examination of Andrew Gilligan by the Commons foreign affairs committee seen by the Guardian. The transcripts, passed by MPs to Lord Hutton's inquiry, show that former Tory defence minister Sir John Stanley accused Mr Gilligan of shifting his ground. "I cannot tell you how serious it is to mislead a committee,"...

Plans to publish details of Andrew Gilligan's controversial second appearance before the foreign affairs select committee have been postponed indefinitely following an intervention by the chairman of the BBC. The FAC chairman, Labour MP Donald Anderson, today said he had "reluctantly" agreed to shelve plans to publish the transcript following a written request from Gilligan and a "private communication" from the BBC chairman, Gavyn Davies. Gilligan's request, which only emerged today, appeared to contradict his insistence last week that the transcript of his FAC hearing be published to show what he claimed was the "deliberate misrepresentation" of his evidence by...

Awkward audience for the PM is silenced by Cherie By Donald Macintyre in Beijing 23 July 2003 Cherie Booth came to the rescue of her husband yesterday after a question and answer session in which he had been asked some of the most testing, directly personal and inquisitorial questions on his premiership from any audience - let alone one made up of foreign students.She launched into an impromptu rendition of the Beatles' "When I'm 64" after the Prime Minister had been pressed to "sing a song" by a group of Chinese university students who had just subjected him to an...

THE BBC has admitted that it had made "slips of the tongue" in describing its source for bitterly contested allegations about the intelligence dossier on Iraq released by the Blair Government last September. The BBC acknowledged that a number of journalists, including defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan, made errors when claiming the stories were based on an "intelligence source" when, in fact, David Kelly, who committed suicide last Friday and has subsequently been revealed by the BBC as its source for claims the dossier was "sexed up" by Downing Street, was a Ministry of Defence consultant. A BBC spokesman said on...

BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan had a second conversation with David Kelly after their initial May 22 meeting to confirm the quotes he could use, the inquiry into the circumstances of the microbiologist's death will be told. The BBC's evidence to Lord Hutton's investigation will reveal Gilligan went back to Dr Kelly to check which parts of their initial conversation to use before broadcasting his May 29 report on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Gilligan is said to have made contemporaneous notes about his May 22 meeting with Dr Kelly in a central London hotel on an electronic device, which has...

An account in the Observer brings the moment into focus: The Thistle Charing Cross in the Strand, midday, May 22. Outside the Victorian landmark is one of the busiest streets in the world and a train station linking London with the coast. Inside, a quiet dining room, where two men — a journalist and a scientist attached to the ministry of defense — sit chatting over a lunch. "The two men…could not have been much more different," says the paper. "One was Andrew Gilligan, the Today programme's defence correspondent — garrulous and heavy set. Sitting opposite was [Dr. David] Kelly....

BBC governors break ranks over Iraq dossier Jason Deans Tuesday July 22, 2003 Two BBC governors have broken ranks and criticised the corporation's handling of the David Kelly tragedy, according to reports. One believes there should be a second extraordinary meeting of the board of governors to review whether they had all the facts needed when they met on July 6 and backed journalist Andrew Gilligan's Iraq dossier story, according to the Times. "I still think it is right that we went to such great lengths to protect our source. But in the light of all the new revelations, if...

Murdoch papers open fire on BBC Dominic Timms Monday July 21, 2003 Sun's Kavanagh: "Heads must roll at the BBC" Newspapers controlled by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch laid into the BBC this morning, seeking to place the blame for the death of government advisor David Kelly firmly at the feet of the corporation. "BBC in crisis as Blair mood swings," splashed the Times, claiming it was the corporation, rather than a battered Labour government, that was "fighting to save its credibility." The paper alleged the BBC may even have "sexed-up" its own coverage. "It is now the BBC that appears...