[A-List] UK state: Iraq crisis

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Saving face on both sides, the quid pro quo appears to be the blood of Hoon
for the blood of Gilligan. Everyone (bar these two) goes home happy and
nobody is any the wiser. Or so it is hoped...

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Which is the truth, Mr Hoon?

Richard Norton-Taylor, Nicholas Watt and Ewen MacAskill
Tuesday September 23, 2003
The Guardian

Geoff Hoon's claims that he was only marginally involved in the outing of Dr
David Kelly were dramatically contradicted yesterday when extracts from
Alastair Campbell's personal diary were released by the Hutton inquiry.

Moments after leaving the witness stand at the end of his second testimony
to the inquiry, the defence secretary was placed at the centre of the
intense efforts in Whitehall to release details about the scientist when the
first of two pages of extracts from the diary flashed up on the inquiry
screen.

The extracts contain six references over four days in which Mr Hoon pressed
for Dr Kelly's identity to be made public. Referring to a conversation with
Mr Hoon, Mr Campbell wrote on July 4: "GH and I agreed it would fuck
Gilligan if that was his source."

The idea - shared with equal passion by Mr Hoon and Mr Campbell - was to get
Dr Kelly to say that the BBC journalist, Andrew Gilligan, had misrepresented
him by claiming Mr Campbell had inserted claims in the government's dossier
on Iraqi weapons knowing them to be false.

The portrayal by Mr Campbell in his diaries of the defence secretary as a
man driven to unmask Dr Kelly apparently contradicts Mr Hoon's evidence to
the inquiry. In his second appearance before Lord Hutton yesterday, Mr Hoon
emphatically denied a claim by the Kelly family lawyer, Jeremy Gompertz QC,
that there was a government "conspiracy" to identify Dr Kelly.

The revelations in Mr Campbell's diary were seized on by Lord Hutton and by
the inquiry's senior counsel, James Dingemans QC, who have persistently
focused on the naming of Dr Kelly. Mr Campbell, who followed Mr Hoon in
giving evidence yesterday, was questioned almost line-by-line about the two
page extract from his diary which covered a nine day period from July 4.

In entries covering the period July 4-9, Mr Campbell wrote:

· "GH said his initial instinct was to throw the book at him [Dr Kelly], but
in fact there was a case for trying to get some kind of plea bargain."
· While outing Dr Kelly would be good for the government - by undermining
Andrew Gilligan's claim to have spoken to someone directly involved in
drawing up the dossier - it would be fraught with danger. "It was
double-edged but GH and I agreed it would fuck Gilligan if that was his
source. He said he was an expert rather than a spy or full-time MoD
official."
· Tony Blair resisted pressure from Mr Campbell and Mr Hoon to provide
details about Dr Kelly to the BBC governors and to the Commons foreign
affairs select committee. Mr Campbell wrote: "GH and I felt we were missing
a trick... GH and I both wanted to get the source up but TB was nervous
about it."
· On July 9, the day Dr Kelly was identified by the press, Mr Campbell
wrote: "The biggest thing needed was the source out... We agreed that we
should not do it ourselves."

Asked at the Hutton inquiry yesterday who he meant by "we", Mr Campbell
replied: "No 10."

But he distanced Mr Blair from the exercise, saying in several diary entries
that the prime minister wanted to leave the handling of Dr Kelly to MoD
officials. The diary records: "TB was fine about [telling the BBC the
government knew who the source was] but backed off after speaking to [an
official] who felt the guy had to be treated properly."

Extracts from Mr Campbell's unpublished diary were released - with the
author's permission - to the inquiry after Mr Hoon was cross-examined about
his earlier evidence. Mr Hoon attempted to clarify his evidence of last
month when he appeared to say that he knew little of the "naming strategy"
which led to the unmasking of Dr Kelly.

In his evidence yesterday, Mr Hoon admitted that he personally approved the
MoD's tactic of confirming Dr Kelly's name to journalists helped by the
press statement describing the government scientist's role without naming
him.

The inquiry has heard - and Mr Hoon admitted it yesterday - that Dr Kelly
had not been consulted about the naming strategy.

But he insisted that the MoD had done little wrong. Mr Hoon was asked by Mr
Gompertz whether there was a "deliberate strategy to leak Dr Kelly's name in
the public arena without appearing to do so" by a combination of an MoD
press statement, a briefing paper for the media, responses by the prime
minister's spokesman and other leaks.

Mr Hoon flatly denied it. Asked whether Dr Kelly's name was leaked, he
replied: "Not by me."

However, pressed by Mr Gompertz, he then admitted the MoD's actions helped
identify Dr Kelly.

Mr Hoon also admitted yesterday he hoped Dr Kelly would help the government
by contradicting Gilligan's claims. It helped "everyone... and most
importantly the public", said the defence secretary.

Mr Hoon has previously insisted that the reason why he and others wanted Dr
Kelly to be identified - and thus be asked to appear before the Commons
foreign affairs committee - was to avoid accusations of a cover-up.

The outing of Dr Kelly is core issue for the inquiry, Lord Hutton had made
clear.

But the inquiry yesterday also heard fresh evidence about how the
government's Iraqi weapons dossier, published last September, was hardened.

Mr Hoon blamed the press for suggesting that the claim Iraq could deploy
chemical and biological weapons in 45 minutes applied to strategic weapons
and not battlefield ones. The government at the time made no attempt to
correct assumptions by the media based on the dossier that the 45 minutes
claim referred to long-range weapons. Mr Hoon said yesterday there was
little point in arguing with the press since they never corrected things.