A body found on Friday in central England has been tentatively identified as a missing Ministry of Defense adviser suspected as the source of allegations that the British government doctored a report about Iraq's nuclear program.
David Kelly's family reported him missing late Thursday when he didn’t return to his home in Southmoor, some 20 miles southwest of Oxford.
The body, found by police in a wooded area about five miles from Kelly's home, was to be identified Saturday, said Acting Superintendent David Purnell of Thames Valley Police. The cause of death was yet unknown, according to AP.
"But what I can say is that the description of the man found ... matches the description of Dr. David Kelly," Purnell told reporters.
Meanwhile, in Tokyo, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said an independent judicial inquiry was expected. "The Ministry of Defense should be making an announcement this afternoon in terms of the name of the judge and how he will conduct the inquiry," Blair's spokesman said.
"The government would cooperate fully and he would have access to any papers that he wants and to any people he wishes to speak to," the spokesman said.
Kelly, 59, a former UN weapons inspector, was at the center of a political storm over allegations that Blair's office altered intelligence on Iraq's alleged weapons programs to support the decision to join the US-led war against Iraq. The government denies the claim.
The Ministry of Defense, for its part, said Kelly might have been the source for a BBC report that Blair aides gave undue prominence to a claim that Baghdad could launch chemical or biological weapons on 45 minutes' notice.
On Friday, the ministry said that Kelly was told he had violated civil service rules by having unauthorized contact with a journalist, but "that was the end of it." It further said Kelly was not threatened with suspension or dismissal.
BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan subsequently said his source accused Alastair Campbell, Blair's communications director, of insisting on including the 45-minute claim. A Parliamentary investigation cleared Campbell of that allegation.
The controversy centers over the May BBC report citing an unidentified official saying the 45-minute claim was inserted to build up an intelligence dossier published last September.
Kelly told the Parliament committee this week he had spoken to the BBC, however he said he didn't make the claims in the report and didn't believe he was the source cited. The BBC has refused government requests to disclose who the source was.
However, Donald Anderson, who chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee where Kelly testified Tuesday, said the committee "felt pretty confident that he (Kelly) was not in fact the source." (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
