Posted on 01/28/2004 12:01:45 AM PST by Pikamax
Blame falls on BBC as Hutton report leaks
Richard Norton-Taylor, Michael White and Patrick Wintour Wednesday January 28, 2004 The Guardian
The government is expected to be cleared by Lord Hutton today of the central charge that it sexed up its Iraqi weapons dossier, the Guardian has learned. He is believed to have exonerated Alastair Campbell, the prime minister's former communications chief, from unduly influencing the joint intelligence committee, chaired by John Scarlett.
Lord Hutton is also understood to have cleared Tony Blair of wrongdoing in the stategy which led to the unmasking of the government scientist, who later killed himself.
He is also understood to criticise David Kelly for talking to journalists without authority.
However, the judge is believed to criticise the BBC and its reporter, Andrew Gilligan, for its handling of the Kelly affair.
Meanwhile, today's Sun newspaper claims that the re port shows Mr Blair's government did not "sex up" the Iraq weapons dossier or deliberately engage in an "underhand or duplicitous strategy" to leak the name of Mr Kelly to the press.
Downing Street "categorically denied" that it had leaked anything from the report which was given under 24-hour embargo yesterday to key witnesses.
That did not stop the Conservatives blaming No 10 and demanding a full inquiry into the leak, which the Sun in sisted did not benefit the leaker, which it did not name, either "financially or politically".'
That may be significant if the Sun's account proves a balanced one, not leaked to support the pro-government stance the newspaper took throughout the war and Lord Hutton's inquiry.
The Sun was also virulently anti-BBC.
According to the Sun, the MoD was "to be criticised" for not telling Dr Kelly that his name could be confirmed or that it would eventually come out or - later - had emerged. But the weapons scientist was not "an easy man to help or advise" and there was "no covert strategy to leak his name," the newspaper claims.
Dr Kelly is blamed for breaking official rules for talking to Gilligan, who alleged that No 10 deliberately "sexed up" intelligence reports on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction against the advice of MI6 and knowing it to "probably" be false.
Mr Campbell is also cleared by Lord Hutton, who says he cannot decide whether Gilligan's recollection of his discussion with Dr Kelly is correct after Gilligan mislaid his notes.
"In light of uncertainties arising from Mr Gilligan's evidence and the existence of two versions of his notes, it is not possible to reach a definite conclusion of what Dr Kelly said.
"But I am satisfied Dr Kelly did not say the government probably knew or suspected the 45-minute claim was wrong before the claim was inserted in the dossier.
"The allegation reported by Mr Gilligan that the government probably knew the claim was wrong or questionable was unfounded," Lord Hutton reportedly says.
"The context of the broadcast in which the 'sexing up' allegations were reported, I consider that allegation was unfounded."
Lord Hutton is also critical of Dr Kelly's conduct.
"His meeting with Mr Gilligan was unauthorised and in discussing intelligence material with him, Dr Kelly was acting in breach of the civil service code of procedure."
Gilligan had no grounds for attacking Mr Campbell's conduct.
"I do not consider it was improper of Mr Scarlett and of the JIC (joint intelligence committee) to take into account suggestions made by No 10 and adopt those suggestions if they were consistent with the intelligence availible."
Lord Hutton is said to assert that the reason the 45-minute claim - that Iraq could attack other states, including British bases in Cyprus, according to media reports - did not appear in draft assessments until September 9 2002 was because the intelligence on which it was based was not received by MI6 until August 29.
He also accuses the head of BBC news, Richard Sambrook, of failure.
"The BBC failed before Richard Sambrook wrote his letter of June 27 (2003) to Alastair Campbell to make an examination of Mr Gilligan's notes to see if they supported the allegations he had made."
He went on: "The BBC management failed to appreciate the notes did not fully support the most serious of the allegations made in the 6.07 broadcast."
Lord Hutton then criticises the BBC's governors.
He says: "The governors are to be criticised for failing to make a more detailed investigation into whether the allegation by Andrew Gilligan was properly supported by his notes and failing to give proper and adequate consideration to whether the BBC should publicly acknowledge that this very grave allegation should not have been broadcast."
Referring to the decision of No 10 to confirm the name of Dr Kelly as the source of the story - if his name was put to the MoD by journalists - a key point of contention in the Hutton inquiry, Lord Hutton asserts: "There was no dishonourable or underhand or duplicitous strategy by the government, covertly to leak Dr Kelly's name to the media."
He suggests the MoD confirmed Dr Kelly's name because it believed it would not be sensible to try to conceal the name. But he adds that the MoD was "at fault and has to be criticised for not informing Dr Kelly that its press office would confirm his name or tell him that it had been confirmed."
The law lord is also said to have rebuked Mr Blair's official spokesman, Tom Kelly, for having suggested in a conversation with a journalist that Dr Kelly might have been a "Walter Mitty" character.
But he added that he did not believe that this was a covert attempt to discredit the scientist.
Hutton: The Verdict (For those interested in the Hutton investigation of Tony Blair & the BBC)
Are the two papers related ?
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