August 6, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-us-Sani 7, 1424

LONDON, Aug 5: One of British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s official spokesmen apologized on Tuesday for comparing the late British weapons expert, David Kelly, with the fictional daydreamer, Walter Mitty.

In a statement, Tom Kelly said he had made a “mistake” by drawing the comparison during an off-the-record weekend chat with journalists, but denied he was trying to discredit the respected former UN arms inspector.

“I, therefore, unreservedly apologize to Dr Kelly’s widow and her family for having intruded on their grief,” said the spokesman.

The apology was yet another humiliating setback for Downing Street, as controversy over the way Mr Blair and his Downing Street team led Britain into war against Iraq refused to go away despite the summer holidays.

David Kelly, a Ministry of Defence expert on Iraqi chemical and biological weapons, has been identified as the source of a disputed BBC report that Downing Street misused intelligence to beef up the case for war.

He was found dead with a slit wrist on July 18 in woods near his Oxfordshire home. His funeral is set for Wednesday, opening the way for a judicial inquiry to begin hearing witnesses next Monday.

The two Kellys are not related.

In his statement, spokesman Kelly said he mentioned “Walter Mitty” during a “private conversation” with journalists about the judicial inquiry into arms expert Kelly’s death, which Lord Brian Hutton opened last Friday.

The Independent newspaper — but not others — seized on the remark, quoting a government “insider” on its front page Monday as saying of David Kelly: “This guy was a Walter Mitty.”

In US writer James Thurber’s 1941 short story, later made into a Danny Kaye movie, Walter Mitty is a shy, hen-pecked husband who escapes his dull life by fantasising about himself in feats of military and medical heroism.

Several major British newspapers twisted the metaphor, saying Walter Mitty suffered from “delusions of grandeur,” as suspicions grew that Downing Street’s infamous “spin” machine was out to sully David Kelly’s name.

“In my opinion, it was an attempt to slander a man who, by virtue of being buried tomorrow, cannot defend himself,” said Glenda Jackson, the former actress and left-wing Labour MP.

In his statement, Tom Kelly said: “What I was trying to do, at the request of several journalists, was to outline the questions facing all parties that the Hutton inquiry would have to address, but to do so in a way that made it clear that it was for the inquiry to reach its judgment on the conflicting evidence before it, not me, or the government.”

“It was in that context that the phrase ‘Walter Mitty’ was used, but it was meant as one of several questions facing all parties, not as a definitive statement of my view, or that of the government,” he said.

“We were discussing questions, not answers,” added Kelly, a former BBC journalist in Northern Ireland and one of Blair’s two official spokesmen. “I now recognise that even that limited form of communication was a mistake, given the current climate.”

Mr Blair is on holiday in Barbados. He is expected to appear before Lord Hutton’s judicial inquiry next month.

blistering fire: British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government came under blistering fire on Tuesday, accused by critics of attempting to smear the reputation of Dr David Kelly.

Glenda Jackson, a former minister from Blair’s Labour party and an outspoken critic of the government’s policy on Iraq, said attempts by Blair’s Number 10 Downing Street office to discredit Kelly hours before his funeral were “obscene”, “unspeakable” and “beneath contempt”.

“It would seem that Number 10’s capacity to disgust us would seem positively boundless,” she told BBC radio.

“We are in a situation where a man has lost his life, his family has been deprived of a husband and father, and it would seem that Number 10 is determined to take away his reputation.”

Blair’s reputation for “spin” and the failure to discover any lethal weapons in Iraq — the reason he gave for waging war — have seen his public trust ratings plunge.

The latest opinion poll on Tuesday showed that 52 per cent of the public either trust him “very little” or “not at all”. Kelly committed suicide last month after being named as the source of a BBC report that the government had hyped up the weapons threat from Iraq. The story and its consequences have sparked the worst crisis of Blair’s six-year rule.

A judicial inquiry, led by Lord Hutton, was launched last Friday into the circumstances surrounding Kelly’s death. Senior figures including Blair will give evidence in the coming months.—AFP/Reuters