August 20, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-us-Sani 21, 1424

LONDON, Aug 19: British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s top media adviser, Alastair Campbell, on Tuesday rejected claims that he “sexed up” a dossier on Iraq ahead of the invasion, as an inquiry into the apparent suicide of weapons expert David Kelly heated up.

Asked if he had any influence on the insertion in the dossier of the controversial headline claim that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes, Mr Campbell replied: “None whatever.”

“I had no input, output, influence upon it whatever at any stage in the process,” Mr Campbell, looking calm and relaxed, told the inquiry headed by senior judge Brian Hutton.

The inquiry is probing the circumstances that led to the apparent suicide of Kelly, a senior government weapons scientist, after he was named as the source of a BBC allegation that Blair’s office “sexed up” intelligence data to help justify invading Iraq.

Mr Blair committed over 40,000 British troops after the dossier helped to convince a sceptical parliament to back military action.

BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan alleged in a British newspaper article on June that Campbell was responsible for inserting the sensational claim into the dossier, a week before its Sept 24 publication.

The resulting furore between Campbell and the BBC led to Kelly being grilled by two parliamentary committees after he was “outed” as the source of the BBC allegations.

Blair ordered an independent judicial inquiry into Kelly’s death on July 18, hours after Kelly’s body was found with a slit wrist in the countryside near his home, west of London.

Campbell said that he had offered “presentational” advice on the production of the dossier but that senior intelligence figures had given their full support over its publication.—AFP