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★阿修羅♪
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ガーデイアン：ブレア首相が東京で、英国防省がケリーの死に至る事情の独立司法調査行うと言明。
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1001129,00.html
MoD to hold inquiry into Kelly death
Matthew Tempest and agencies
Friday July 18, 2003
Tony Blair arriving in Tokyo today. Photo: AP
The Ministry of Defence is to hold an independent judicial inquiry into the circumstances leading up to the death of David Kelly, the prime minister's official spokesman said today.
The move has yet to be confirmed by the MoD itself, although a judge is expected to be appointed as early as this afternoon.
Mr Blair's spokesman, speaking as the prime minister arrived in Tokyo on the latest leg of his marathon diplomatic mission, said: "We have indicated that if this is Dr Kelly's body, then the government intends to hold an independent judicial enquiry.
"In these circumstances, people should not jump to conclusions and they should exercise restraint."
He said: "The prime minister is obviously very distressed for the family.
Mr Blair's official spokesman added: "The prime minister has been speaking for a fair amount of time on the phone in recent hours to the permanent secretary at the ministry of defence, Sir Kevin Tebbitt and the defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, and [the] constitutional affairs secretary, Charles Falconer."
The discovery of the body in the Oxfordshire beauty spot -now presumed to be the missing defence scientist - will also require a coroner's inquest. The remains are expected to be identified formally tomorrow.
The move - in stark contrast with the government's refusal to sanction a judicial inquiry into the intelligence basis of the Iraq war - arises partly from the highly unusual circumstances that brought Dr Kelly into the public eye.
Although the MoD official "outed" himself to his line manager for having met BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan, a bizarre chain of events was then set in motion which saw Dr Kelly televised and highly dramatic grilling by the foreign affairs select committee.
The MoD issued a statement, agreed with Dr Kelly, not naming him but calling on the BBC to confirm whether he was the source. When the broadcaster refused to do so, his name emerged into the media.
Earlier today the Conservative member of the FAC Sir Richard Ottaway told Sky News: "Now that political machinations have actually, or could have, resulted in the death of a potentially important person in this whole thing, I don't think it will help the government one iota.
"I think it brings into stark, stark exposure the role that the spin doctors inside the government and the Labour party are handling this situation."
Later Mr Ottaway was asked on Radio 4's World at One if he thought the committee had been convinced that Dr Kelly was Mr Gilligan's source.
He replied: "Some of us were convinced that he definitely was not, others less so, but the balance of opinion was highly unlikely."
Mr Ottaway said the committee reconvened to simply ask Gilligan to name his source because it was quite clear Dr Kelly was not the source.
"There are games going on here, there are people trying to make points, trying to shut down avenues of inquiry, trying to open up things.
"But putting up Dr Kelly was just part of the distraction and it's had the most ghastly result and I am deeply critical of those involved."
Mr Ottaway said yesterday's ad-hoc reconvening of the FAC, without all members present, to grill Mr Gilligan for a second time, was an "abuse of the process".
"It is more game playing. Dr Kelly agreed that it wasn't his opinion that he wasn't the source, but he couldn't have been the source because he was unaware of the revelations in the story, which were subsequently proved true," he said.
John Maples, another Conservative member of FAC, said: "There must be more to this than we had thought. I do not know what that means, I just think there is.
"I would have thought he would have gone away from that meeting feeling better, feeling at least 'I am in the clear with these guys'."
But the foreign affairs committee chairman, Donald Anderson MP, was keener to downplay today's events. He told Sky News there was "no way in which government ministers can be blamed" for the way in which Dr Kelly's name became public.
He added: "It is awful, but this is not relevant any more to the work of our committee."
Asked on the BBC World at One if he thought the questioning of Dr Kelly had been too strong, he said: "If it was strong, the criticisms appear to be more directed against the MoD, rather than against him.
"I concede of course it was wholly outside his normal experience, therefore must have certainly been an ordeal for him.
Mr Anderson was asked if he was surprised that government ministers immediately said that as far as they were concerned, Dr Kelly was the source and they would continue to believe that until the BBC said something different.
Mr Anderson replied: "Well, it appears that he was, because on the process of elimination he was the only one who mentioned the 45 minutes."
Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy welcomed the announcement of a judicial inquiry.
He said: "I welcome the fact the prime minister has said there will obviously have to be a full-scale inquiry into what on earth led to this happening."
This afternoon the Conservative leader, Iain Duncan Smith, welcomed the news of the inquiry, but said it should be "wide-ranging" rather than just focussing on the circumstances around the death of Dr Kelly.
He also called for the prime minister to return to Britain from his diplomatic trip to the Far East.
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