Missing advisor's testimony

2003-07-18 17:05

London - David Kelly, the British Ministry of Defense adviser who was reported missing on Thursday, testified on July 15 to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.

He was asked whether he was the source for a report by a British Broadcasting Corp journalist accusing Alastair Campbell, the prime minister's communications director, of interfering in the preparation of intelligence reports on Iraq.

Kelly was specifically asked about his meeting with BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan on May 22. Following is an extract from that testimony:

Kelly: My conversation with him was primarily about Iraq, about his experiences in Iraq and the consequences of the war, which was the failure to use weapons of mass destruction during the war and the failure by May 22 to find such weapons. That was the primary conversation that I had with him.

Bill Olner (Labor Party): You certainly never mentioned the "C" word that he went on to explain in his column?

Kelly: The "C" word?

Olner: The Campbell word.

Kelly: The Campbell word did come up, yes.

Olner: From you? You suggested it?

Kelly: No, it came up in the conversation. We had a conversation about Iraq, its weapons and the failure of them to be used.

Olner: How did the word "Campbell" come to be mixed up with all of that? What led you to say that?

Kelly: I did not say that. What I had a conversation about was the probability of a requirement to use such weapons. The question was then asked why, if weapons could be deployed at 45 minutes notice, were they not used, and I offered my reasons why they may not have been used. ...

It came in in that sense and then the significance of it was discussed and then why it might have been in the dossier. That is how it came up.

Greg Pope (Labor): Gilligan said in his article in the Mail on Sunday of 1 June "I asked him," the source, "how this transformation happened. The answer was a single word. 'Campbell."' In your conversation with Gilligan did you use the word "Campbell" in that context?

Kelly: I cannot recall using the name Campbell in that context, it does not sound like a thing that I would say.

Pope: Do you believe that the document was transformed, the September dossier, by Alastair Campbell?

Kelly: I do not believe that at all.

- SAPA