August 25, 2003	Monday	Jumadi-us-Sani 26

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

LONDON, Aug 24: British Prime Minister Tony Blair was bracing Sunday for the toughest week of his political life, as the spotlight turned to his role in the death of an Iraq arms expert at the centre of claims that his government went to war under false pretences.

On Thursday, Blair will testify to a judicial inquiry into the apparent suicide of government scientist David Kelly, an appearance which could potentially make or break his government.

With polls saying two-thirds of Britons believe he misled the country over the reasons for going to war, a mass of official documents newly released by the inquiry have placed Blair’s role in the affair under increased scrutiny.

Among 9,000 pages published late Saturday were notes of government meetings suggesting the prime minister was intimately involved in deciding whether Kelly should be named as the source of a controversial BBC report into the case for war.

Also deeply embarrassing for

Blair is a letter showing the anger of Kelly’s family after government officials smeared the dead scientist’s reputation following his death.

Kelly’s body was found with a slit wrist in woodland near his home on July 18, shortly after he was identified as the informant for a BBC story alleging the government had exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq’s illegal weaponry.

The probe into Kelly’s death, led by senior judge Brian Hutton, will hear from Defence Secretary Geoff

Hoon on Wednesday, the day before Blair is called to the witness box at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London.

Among the new documents — many of which would have normally been kept under wraps for 30 years — were notes of meetings Blair had had with key officials over whether Kelly should be named.

A memo from top intelligence official John Scarlett contains details of a series of discussions with Blair and others about the issue.

“Agreement that the issue would eventually become public,” reads a note from July 8, ending: “Not much time left.”

Also released was an angry letter from Kelly’s widow and daughters demanding to know why government officials had likened Kelly to fictional fantasist Walter Mitty, a slur for which Blair’s spokesman apologised last month.

“If information of this nature is being disseminated, either formally or informally, I should like to know on whose authority this is being done,” the family’s solicitor said.

The Hutton inquiry has already sat for two weeks, hearing a mass of sometimes impenetrable and often contradictory evidence.

However, according to a poll released Sunday, the claim at the very centre of the controversy — that Blair exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq — is proving difficult for him to shake off. —AFP