Airstrip One

Of Little Note

Isn't it funny how they've not found a suicide note in the case of Dr Kelly? After all he's a scientist - a profession addicted to scribbling everything down - and he's committed suicide because he feels he's been unfairly traduced. Hmmmmmm.

On another strange conspiratorial twist, does anyone remember John Reid talking about "rogue elements" in the security services? Well although Kelly was not a full time member of the security services, he certainly worked for them and was certainly rogue. Was he a lone rogue, or was he working for a larger rogue faction, and was he part of the "rogue elements" that Reid was going on about?

I still think it's suicide as nothing else fits the facts well.

Any way that's not the main thing. The BBC baiting is all good fun, and someone really should ask them why they think they deserve to be a power in the land like the unions in the 1970s, but it's not the main point.

The main point is would the British public have gone into the war if they didn't believe that Iraq was somehow a threat? Or was it the freedom of the Shias or the security of Israel that persuaded the British public?

Did Blair's constant reference to "intelligence sources" help convince a sceptical British public that their troops, taxes and name should be used to get rid of the "threat" from Saddam?

Did the dossiers, no matter how laughable play an important part in this?

Was the Iraqi threat utterly empty when finally probed and were our intelligence services aware of it?

If the answers to the above (albeit loaded) questions are that we were lied into war then the answer must be who did it?

Was it the intelligence services who misled us, were they simply stupid or did they provide good information which was sexed up by someone near the Prime Minister?

The answer is becoming clearer and the Kelly suicide is now a distraction. Whether Kelly was the main source, whether the words "sexed up" came from Gilligan or were out of the mouth of a source (the inference was clear) - all this is by the by.

The main point of the argument over the last month is did the government deliberately misuse intelligence sources to falsely paint the situation to the British public?

Of course they did. Campbell Blair out.