British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon were sharply criticized by London's press yesterday after they were accused of playing key roles in the grilling of arms expert David Kelly prior to his presumed suicide.
"Blair's role in grilling of Dr Kelly," headlined The Daily Telegraph's front page.
"How the political establishment hounded Dr Kelly to the end," said The Independent, while in the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror tabloids the message was simply: "Thrown to the wolves."
British government scientist David Kelly was found dead with a slit wrist on July 18 after the defense ministry said he was the likely source behind claims reported by BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan that London "sexed up" its case for war on Iraq.
The claims that London embellished a dossier on Iraq's weapons ahead of the US-led war in March and apparent suicide of Kelly has triggered a political crisis for Blair. Reports suggest that Hoon is already being lined up as the government's fall guy over the affair.
An independent judicial inquiry into Kelly's death, ordered by Blair and being held in London, heard a fourth day of evidence Thursday.
Thursday's evidence "adds up to a scandalous catalogue of bullying and intimidation of a civil servant who dared to cross swords with the government", the Daily Mirror said in its editorial.
"Those who harassed him should hang their heads in shame."
The inquiry heard Thursday that Blair personally ordered defense ministry bosses to grill Kelly for a second time over his contacts with Gilligan.
The revelation about Blair's intervention was the first time the prime minister had been implicated in evidence to the inquiry.
Blair's intervention was disclosed by Martin Howard, Deputy Chief of Defense Intelligence, who had been told to organize further questioning of Kelly following an initial grilling on July 4 by the defense ministry's personnel director Richard Hatfield.
Howard recalled "high-level telephone discussions" between Blair's security co-ordinator Sir David Omand and Sir Kevin Tebbit, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defense.
"I recall the response from Sir David Omand to Sir Kevin Tebbit which recorded the prime minister's views that before we had decided on the next steps that should be taken, it would be sensible to go into a bit more detail into the differences between what Dr Kelly had said and what Andrew Gilligan had claimed," Howard told the inquiry.
Kelly was again interviewed by Hatfield on July 7 after which he was sent a formal letter reprimanding him for his conduct and warning of "serious consequences" if there was any further breach of standard procedures in his contacts with journalists.
Meanwhile, the inquiry also learned Thursday that Hoon overrode the advice of his most senior civil servant to order Kelly to appear in public before a parliamentary committee, three days before his body was found.
Kelly had told the committee, set up to investigate the BBC report that London "sexed up" its September 2002 dossier on Iraq, that he was not the source of the story.
Blair and Hoon, both currently on holiday abroad, are expected to be summoned to give evidence before the end of the inquiry which should last several weeks.
BBC defense correspondent Gilligan said on May 29 that a senior British official, confirmed by the BBC to be Kelly following his death, had told him the government's dossier on Iraq was "sexed up" against the wishes of the intelligence services.
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