UK: The suicide of David Kelly (8.01.03)

It is hard to comprehend the attention paid to the suicide of Dr. David Kelly, the scientist caught up in the row over the justification for war in Iraq. The BBC devoted a whole newscast this morning to the opening remarks of the chairman of the investigation into Kelly's suicide From the US, George Sassoon writes; "My theory about poor Dr. Kelly's suicide is that he was threatened with loss of his pension. Selflessly, he committed suicide while still in office to protect his widow's rights to a reduced pension. I can't believe that such a man would do it simply because he was given a hard time by some committee of idiots".

RH:
It turns out that I was right. As a disgruntled scientist, he was the one who told the BBC that Blair's statement about the imminence of a strike by Iraq was exaggerated. He was sharply criticized by his superior for his unauthorized contact with the media.