INDEPTH: HUTTON INQUIRY
Key findings of the Hutton Inquiry
CBC News Online | February 2, 2004
In August 2003, an inquiry began into the death of David Kelly, a weapons expert who was the source of a BBC radio report that alleged the Tony Blair government exaggerated, or "sexed up," a dossier of intelligence reports on Iraqi weapons.
Kelly apparently killed himself in a wooded area near his home in Oxford shortly after he was named as the source of the story.
Here are the key finds of they inquiry, released on Jan. 28, 2004:
- David Kelly broke government rules on contacting the media when he met privately with BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan because Kelly's superiors hadn't given him permission to do so.
- The BBC was at fault for not properly fact-checking the allegation in Gilligan's report that the British government knew the claim that Iraq could launch a chemical weapons attack in 45 minutes was wrong before that claim was put into the dossier. The "editorial system which the BBC permitted was defective," Hutton wrote.
- The government did not have a "dishonourable, underhand or duplicitous strategy" when it covertly leaked Kelly's name to the media. However, the Ministry of Defence was "at fault and to be criticized" for not telling Kelly that it would confirm his identity to journalists who suggested his name.
- Kelly committed suicide after a loss of self-esteem because he felt he had lost people's trust and because of the media frenzy surrounding him.
- No one involved in the matter could have foreseen that Kelly would commit suicide.
- BBC executives focused too much on defending the corporation's independence and not enough on investigating whether the British government's complains about the story where valid.
- Although Joint Intelligence Committee chairman John Scarlett tried to make sure the Iraqi weapons dossier contained reliable intelligence information, he may have been "subconsciously influenced" by Prime Minister Tony Blair's wish for the dossier to make a convincing argument for the invasion.
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 The National's Kelly Crowe looks at how the Hutton Inquiry has affected the reputation of the British government.
(Aug. 27, 2003. Runs 10:12)
Jennifer Welsh, a political scientist at Oxford University, spoke to The National's Kelly Crowe about Tony Blair and the Hutton Inquiry. This is an exerpt from that interview. Born in Regina, Welsh has also taught at the University of Toronto and Harvard University.
(Aug. 27, 2003. Runs 13:27)
 On The Current Anna Maria Tremonti talks about her interview with David Kelly that appeared on the fifth estate
(August 28, 2003. Runs 10:27)
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