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Papers say Hoon is in big trouble

The wife of the government weapons expert David Kelly, Janice Kelly, arrives at the High Court in London on Monday to give evidence before the Hutton Inquiry into her husband's death. PHOTO: AFP

"Devastating" testimony by the widow of weapons expert David Kelly to an inquiry into her husband's death could be enough to seal the fate of Britain's embattled Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon, London's newspapers said yesterday.

"How can Hoon survive this?" read a headline in the Daily Mail tabloid, a day after Kelly's widow said she felt betrayed by the defense ministry for exposing her husband as the source of a disputed BBC report alleging the government exaggerated the threat of Saddam Hussein's Iraq ahead of the US-led war.

Kelly's body was found on July 18 with a slit wrist in woods close to his home near London, a week after the Ministry of Defense said he was the likely source of the BBC report.

Kelly's widow, Janice, testified on Monday before judge Lord Hutton, as the inquiry entered a fourth week of hearing evidence.

The Daily Mail, a fierce opponent of the Labour government, described her testimony as "devastating," as did The Guardian broadsheet.

The Mail added that her evidence revealed "a string of [government] lies" and a "cold betrayal of a decent man."

"Had he a shred of honor, the wretched Geoff Hoon would now resign from a [defense ministry] that has so disgraced itself while he is nominally in charge," the Mail said in its editorial.

"Yet let nobody imagine that his departure will clear the air. The man from his own evidence to the Hutton Inquiry is a mere puppet. Others pull the strings," it said.

In evidence to the inquiry last week, Hoon denied being responsible for outing Kelly, preferring to blame British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office and juniors in his own department for leaking his name.

The Times said evidence given by Janice Kelly was "potentially devastating for Geoff Hoon" while the Financial Times said it "may seal the fate" of the cabinet minister.

A writer in The Independent wrote that Hoon's "assertions that his employee was well treated [by his bosses at the defense ministry] will never stand up again."

The Daily Telegraph, however, was uncertain whether Janice Kelly's testimony was politically damaging, arguing that it was becoming increasingly clear that Kelly's death "was not so much a public scandal as a private tragedy, for which his widow and family deserve the greatest sympathy."

Meanwhile, other members of Kelly's family told in Monday's inquiry of how he had gradually persuaded them of the justice of going to war against Iraq.

His sister, Sarah Pape, said he had convinced the skeptics in the family. She herself had approached him thinking he would agree with her that there was nothing new to justify war.

But she said: "I knew that he felt that the sanctions had hurt the Iraqi people very hard but had not made that much difference to Iraq's ability to produce weapons of mass destruction.

"I was very surprised when he was absolutely convinced that there was almost certainly no solution, other than a regime change, which was unlikely to happen peacefully, and regrettably would require military action to enforce it."

She added: "I know my husband ... said that he had said to my brother `Oh, but surely if they just relax a bit and give Saddam Hussein enough rope, he will hang himself.'

"My brother said: `That is absolutely what we cannot do because if you had any idea of the consequence of what he might do if we take our eye off the situation, it would affect many, many people, civilians quite likely, and it would just be unacceptable to allow that to happen.'"
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