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Jack Straw could face probe over `naming` of Kelly
London, Sept 09: British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw may be probed by an inquiry into David Kelly`s death after it emerged today that a foreign office aide had wanted the arms expert to be named as the source of a controversial BBC report on Iraqi weapons.
London, Sept 09: British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw may be probed by an inquiry into David Kelly's death after it emerged today that a foreign office aide had wanted the arms expert to be named as the source of a controversial BBC report on Iraqi weapons.
Documents released by senior judge Brian Hutton's inquiry, and highlighted by the independent newspaper, include internal memos relating to the issue of whether the late Iraq
weapons expert's name should be made public.
"I don't think there is a problem for us if the press name (Kelly)," Straw's political adviser Peter Ricketts wrote in an e-mail on July 9, the same day that Kelly's name was confirmed to journalists by the ministry of defence press office.
Kelly was the source of a BBC report on May 29 that Downing Street had "sexed up" a September 2002 dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to beef up the case for war. A highly respected ministry of defence expert on Iraqi biological weapons, Kelly was found dead with a slit wrist on July 18 in Woodland near his home in the English countryside.
Doubts over the use of intelligence over Iraq and Kelly's apparent suicide have left Prime Minister Tony Blair nosediving in opinion polls and facing the worst political crisis in his six-year tenure.
Blair's top aide and communications chief Alastair Campbell resigned last month over the row and there is widespread speculation that Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon could follow depending on the outcome of the inquiry.
Bureau Report
"I don't think there is a problem for us if the press name (Kelly)," Straw's political adviser Peter Ricketts wrote in an e-mail on July 9, the same day that Kelly's name was confirmed to journalists by the ministry of defence press office.
Kelly was the source of a BBC report on May 29 that Downing Street had "sexed up" a September 2002 dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to beef up the case for war. A highly respected ministry of defence expert on Iraqi biological weapons, Kelly was found dead with a slit wrist on July 18 in Woodland near his home in the English countryside.
Doubts over the use of intelligence over Iraq and Kelly's apparent suicide have left Prime Minister Tony Blair nosediving in opinion polls and facing the worst political crisis in his six-year tenure.
Blair's top aide and communications chief Alastair Campbell resigned last month over the row and there is widespread speculation that Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon could follow depending on the outcome of the inquiry.
Bureau Report