Blair

Iraq: Its Infrastructure of Concealment, Deception and Intimidation (more commonly known as the Dodgy Dossier, the Iraq Dossier or the February Dossier^{[citation needed]}) was a2003 briefing document for the Blair Labour government. It was issued to journalists on 3 February 2003 by Alastair Campbell, Blair's Director of Communications and Strategy, and concerned Iraq and weapons of mass destruction. Together with the earlier September Dossier, these documents were ultimately used by the government to justify its involvement in the2003 invasion of Iraq.

The term Dodgy Dossier was first coined by online polemical magazine Spiked^[1]. The term was later employed by Channel 4 News when its reporters were made aware of Glen Rangwala's discovery^[2] that much of the work had been plagiarised from various unattributed sources. The most notable source was an article by Ibrahim al-Marashi entitled Iraq's Security & Intelligence Network: A Guide & Analysis^[3], which was published in the September 2002 issue of the Middle East Review of International Affairs.^[4]

Whole sections of Marashi's writings on "Saddam's Special Security Organisation" were repeated verbatim including typographical errors, while certain amendments were made to strengthen the tone of the alleged findings (eg. "monitoring foreign embassies in Iraq" became "spying on foreign embassies in Iraq", and "aiding opposition groups in hostile regimes" became "supporting terrorist organisations in hostile regimes").

In its opening paragraph the briefing document claimed that it drew "upon a number of sources, including intelligence reports". Before the document's release it had been praised by Tony Blair and Colin Powell as further intelligence and quality research. The day after Channel 4's exposé, Tony Blair's office issued a statement admitting that a mistake was made in not crediting its sources, but did not concede that the quality of the document's content was affected.

The claims contained in the 'September' and 'Iraq' Dossiers were called into question when weapons of mass destruction were not found in Iraq, and the dossiers were encompassed byHouse of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee inquiry. The Committee subsequently reported that the sources should have been credited, and that the dossier should have been checked by ministers before being released. The dossier had only been reviewed by a group of civil servants operating under Alastair Campbell. The committee stated that the publication was "almost wholly counter-productive" and in the event only served to undermine the credibility of the government's case.

The controversy over the 'Iraq Dossier' was mentioned frequently in the government's conflict with the BBC over the claim in the 'September Dossier' that Iraq could deploy biological weapons within 45 minutes of an order to do so, and the controversy surrounding the death of Doctor David Kelly. Andrew Gilligan, the BBC journalist who wrote a report which claimed that the September Dossier had been deliberately exaggerated, stated before the Hutton Inquiry that recalling the February Dossier had led him to file his report based on his interview with David Kelly without seeking confirmation from other sources.

The dossier became a point of amusement in British politics. In a Prime Minister's Questions conflict with Blair, Michael Howard (then leader of HM Opposition), informed Blair that the conservatives "had a full dossier on him", and "they hadn't even had to sex it up!".

David Kelly

Death

[edit]"Many dark actors playing games"

On the morning of 17 July 2003, Kelly was working as usual at home in Oxfordshire. Publicity given to his public appearance two days before had led many of his friends to send him supportive e-mails, to which he was responding. One of the e-mails he sent that day was to New York Times journalist Judith Miller,^[13] who had used Kelly as a source in a book on bioterrorism, to whom Kelly mentioned "many dark actors playing games."^[14][15] He also received an e-mail from his superiors at the Ministry of Defence asking for more details of his contact with journalists.

[edit]Daily walk and subsequent death

At about 15:00, Kelly told his wife that he was going for a walk, as he did every day. He appears to have gone directly to an area of woodlands known as Harrowdown Hill about a mile away from his home, where he allegedly ingested up to 29 tablets of painkillers (co-proxamol, an analgesic drug). He then allegedly cut his left wrist with a knife he had owned since his youth.

[edit]Investigation

Kelly's wife reported him missing shortly after midnight that night, and he was found early the next morning.^[16] The government immediately announced that Lord Hutton would lead the judicial Hutton Inquiry into the events leading up to the death. The BBC shortly afterwards confirmed that Kelly had indeed been the single source for Andrew Gilligan's report.

The Hutton Inquiry reported on 28 January 2004 confirming that Kelly had committed suicide. Lord Hutton wrote:

I am satisfied that none of the persons whose decisions and actions I later describe ever contemplated that Kelly might take his own life. I am further satisfied that none of those persons was at fault in not contemplating that Kelly might take his own life. Whatever pressures and strains Kelly was subjected to by the decisions and actions taken in the weeks before his death, I am satisfied that no one realised or should have realised that those pressures and strains might drive him to take his own life or contribute to his decision to do so.

Hutton concluded, controversially, that the Ministry of Defence were obliged to make Kelly's identity known once he came forward as a potential source, and had not acted in a duplicitous manner. However, Hutton criticised the MoD for not alerting Kelly to the fact that his name had become known to the press.

[edit]Controversial issues

[edit]"I will probably be found dead in the woods"

During the Hutton inquiry, a British ambassador called David Broucher reported a conversation with Kelly at a Geneva meeting in February 2003. Broucher related that Kelly said he had assured his Iraqi sources that there would be no war if they co-operated, and that a war would put him in an "ambiguous" moral position.^[6] Broucher had asked Kelly what would happen if Iraq were invaded, and Kelly had replied, "I will probably be found dead in the woods." Broucher then quoted from an email he had sent just after Kelly's death: "I did not think much of this at the time, taking it to be a hint that the Iraqis might try to take revenge against him, something that did not seem at all fanciful then. I now see that he may have been thinking on rather different lines."

According to an entry in one of Kelly’s diaries, as related by his daughter Rachel to the Hutton Inquiry, the meeting actually took place on February 18 2002^[17] a year earlier than that related by David Broucher.^[18] And any such references to 'Resolution 1441' could not have taken place as it hadn't been passed until November 8, 2002. As such it could not be a source of hostility by the Iraqis.^{[original research?]}

[edit]Fatality of ulnar artery cuts

Although suicide was officially accepted as the cause of death, some medical experts have raised doubts, suggesting that the evidence does not back this up. The most detailed objection was provided in a letter from three medical doctors published in The Guardian,^[19] reinforced by support from two other senior physicians in a later letter to the Guardian.^[20] These doctors argued that the autopsy finding of a transected ulnar artery could not have caused a degree of blood loss that would kill someone, particularly when outside in the cold (wherevasoconstriction would slow blood loss). Further, this conflicted with the minimal amount of blood found at the scene. They also contended that the amount of co-proxamol found was only about a third of what would normally be fatal. Nor was he seen to have left the house with any bottled water or other liquid which would have been essential to assist in the consumption of the pills. Dr. Rouse, a British epidemiologist wrote to the British Medical Journal pointing out that the act of committing suicide by severing wrist arteries is an extremely rare occurrence in a 59-year-old man with no previous psychiatric history.^[21] Nobody else died from that cause during the year.

[edit]Little blood lost

Dave Bartlett and Vanessa Hunt, the two paramedics who were called to the scene of Kelly's death, have since gone public with their view that there was not enough blood at the location to justify the belief that he died from blood loss. Bartlett and Hunt told the Guardian that they saw a small amount of blood on plants near Kelly's body and a patch of blood the size of a coin on his trousers. They said they would expect to find several pints of blood at the scene of a suicide involving an arterial cut.^[22][23]

However, two of Britain's top forensic pathologists, Chris Milroy and Guy Rutty, dismissed the paramedics' claims, saying it is hard to judge blood loss from the scene of a death, as some blood may have seeped into the ground. Milroy also told the Guardian that Kelly's heart condition may have made it hard for him to sustain any significant degree of blood loss.^[24]

[edit]No fingerprints on knife

On 15 October 2007, it was discovered, through a Freedom of Information request, that the knife with which Kelly allegedly committed suicide had no fingerprints on it.^[25][26]

[edit]Lack of formal inquest

The Hutton Inquiry took priority over an inquest, which would normally be required into a suspicious death.^[27] The Oxfordshire coroner, Nicholas Gardiner, considered the issue again in March 2004. After reviewing evidence that had not been presented to the Hutton Inquiry, Gardiner decided that there was no need for further investigation. This conclusion did not satisfy those who had raised doubts, but there has been no alternative official explanation for Kelly's death.

[edit]Reactions

The BBC broadcast a programme on Kelly on 25 February 2007 as part of the series The Conspiracy Files;^[28] the network commissioned an opinion poll to establish the views of the public on his death. 22.7% of those surveyed thought Kelly had not killed himself, 38.8% of people believe he had, and 38.5% said they did not know.^[29]