29

Requiem for the Suicided: Dr David Kelly

Another in James Corbett’s series focusing on suspicious or unexplained deaths

Famed microbiologist and UN weapons inspector Dr. David Kelly became the centre of a dispute between the BBC and the UK government over claims that the government had “sexed up” its dossier on Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction in order to sell the Iraq war to the public. He was found dead on Harrowdown Hill on July 18, 2003. It was ruled a suicide. Today we look at the troubling discrepancies, inconsistencies and questions surrounding that official verdict, and broach the question of what secrets Dr. Kelly may have taken to the grave…


SUPPORT OFFGUARDIAN

If you enjoy OffG's content, please help us make our monthly fund-raising goal and keep the site alive.

For other ways to donate, including direct-transfer bank details click HERE.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

29 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Dick Kent
Dick Kent
Dec 19, 2017 10:40 AM

The Frank Olson case is related to the David Kelly case. Eric Olson had his father exhumed: “In 1994 had his father’s body exhumed and examined by the country’s leading forensic pathologist who determined that Olson had suffered a blow to the head before falling from the window.”
http://www.anthraxwar.com/1/?p=518
“After an exhaustive investigation by a team of twenty detectives that stretched over several years, the police recommended the prosecution of Porton Down scientists and senior MOD officials. But in July 2003, just days before David Kelly was found “dead in the woods” the Crown Prosecution Service quietly announced that they were dropping the case. The British press, who had made headlines of the story when the police first announced their investigation in 1999, ignored this latest twist and another dark chapter in germ war history was lost in the shadows.
Were Frank Olson, Bruce Ivins and David Kelly all scientists who wanted out? Had they reached a point in their work at which they could no longer continue in good conscience?”

Joerg
Joerg
Dec 19, 2017 11:58 AM
Reply to  Dick Kent

Olson and Ivins, yes, indeed! Very good, Dick Kent!
Here an article on that from 2008: “WAPO: PURPORTED ‘ANTHRAX KILLER’ HAD ‘NO ACCESS TO DRY, POWERED ANTHRAX,’ ACCORDING TO EXPERT, LAB OFFICIALS” – http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6239

Dick Kent
Dick Kent
Dec 19, 2017 10:27 AM

There is a parallel case of a Government Scientist Jumped/fell out of a window in the USA in 1953, the difference is that there is a great deal of evidence obtained using the freedom of information act. President Ford personally apologised to the family – an attempt at damage limitation. Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were involved in the failed cover up.
“This is the case of 1953 death of Frank Olson—a military scientist whose supposed “suicide” was complicated when the Rockefeller Report of 1975 revealed that he’d been secretly dosed with LSD.”
You can see the documentary Wormwood by Errol Morris on Netflix, it is meticulous particularly due to Frank Olson’s son Harvard-trained clinical psychologist Eric’s determination to get to the truth.

Joerg
Joerg
Dec 18, 2017 11:38 PM

ROBIN COOK
(The great!) James Corbett’s guess is, that Dr. Kelly wasn’t killed because of his opposition to and his unmasking of the Iraq war, but because he knew “too much” of other things. Things that we could only speculate about.
But the also very strange death of Robin Cook seems to indicate that intimidation alone of countless persons (we may never hear of) receiving this ‘warning’ could have been very well the only motivation for (possibly) murdering Dr. Kelly and Robin Cook.
To Robin Cook see: http://shaphan.typepad.com/blog/robin_cook/
…and: “Will There Ever Be an Investigation Into the Death of ROBIN COOK…?” – https://theburningbloggerofbedlam.wordpress.com/2015/08/19/will-there-ever-be-an-investigation-into-the-death-of-robin-cook/

Joerg
Joerg
Dec 18, 2017 10:06 AM

Additionally:
“DRUG EXPERT CLAIMS DAVID KELLY WAS MURDERED AS HE COULD NOT HAVE TAKEN OVERDOSE” – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1329272/Drug-expert-claims-David-Kelly-murdered-taken-overdose.html
Also a dead witness: “SUICIDE RIDDLE OF WEAPONS EXPERT WHO WORKED WITH DAVID KELLY: SCIENTIST TELLS WIFE HE IS GOING FOR A WALK, THEN TAKES HIS LIFE IN A FIELD… JUST LIKE HIS FRIEND”- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2133201/Dr-Richard-Holmes-Suicide-riddle-weapons-expert-worked-David-Kelly.html

flybow
flybow
Dec 18, 2017 12:44 AM

Kelly was clearly murdered. But using the daily heil as a source? Fuck me. That is sad.

Admin
Admin
Dec 18, 2017 12:45 AM
Reply to  flybow

Surely anything can be used as a source – providing their information is sound and itself well-sourced? The idea of dismissing evidence based on where it comes from and not on what it is is the basis of propagandist narratives everywhere.

BigB
BigB
Dec 18, 2017 9:40 AM
Reply to  flybow

Actually flybow: as egregious as the Daily Heil is – on this one issue, I have to give them credit. They have kept the issue in the public eye, called for a new inquiry, and published the paramedics evidence and Gordon Thomas’s claims. Credit where credit is due? Other than that, I totally agree!

vexarb
vexarb
Dec 17, 2017 8:47 PM

Two sinister figures loom over the corpse: TB.Liar and Lord Hutton, both of Dodgy Dossier fame. Bliar presented Dodgy to Parliament, and Huoton judged he done it in good faith. Trust me, I’m a High Court judge and I tell you Dr.Kelly bled to death , never mind what the medics and the paramedics say, Trust me, there’s also no need for a coroner’s inquest, I’m a High Court judge and I outrank a coroner’s court. Coroners cannot be relied upon anyway, I had to reprimand one quite severely over his opinion on Bloody Sunday. Whereas I am known as A Safe Pair of Hands. Which is why Prime Minister Blair and Foreign Minister Straw chose me to judge the Pinochet case; and I judged that case fairly, I have a reputation as a fair judge — it’s even in Wikipedia. So we’ll just close the Kelly case and seal it for 70 years, shall we.

rtj1211
rtj1211
Dec 17, 2017 7:19 PM

Part of the Establishments modus operandum is to maintain a constant stream of unsolved mysteries, accusations etc which are not intended to be resolved until the Establishment wishes it so.
Kennedy * 2 and MLK: 50 years and counting, the arguments continue.
Global VIP paedophile accusations: 60+ years and many of the accusations remain simply that.
Princess Diana: was she murdered, was she pregnant, what did she know? 20 years on, the industry still lives.
9/11 and 7/7: conspiracy theories continue, calls for new investigations abound. The State of Israel just gets on with its business.
David Kelly and Iraq: small potatoes, but crucial to understanding Blair.
Global warming: misdirection, malfeasance, you name it: still awash with cash.
Russia-bashing: not quite DefCon 5, but certainly the greatest State Sponsored lying this decade.
People need to start realising that without much more forceful actions, answers will never emerge. Just as the Establishment intends…..

flaxgirl
flaxgirl
Dec 18, 2017 3:06 AM
Reply to  rtj1211

Kennedy * 3 (John, Jr)

Big B
Big B
Dec 17, 2017 5:57 PM

Fascinating: I have long been interested in the death of Dr Kelly. Personally, I have never had much doubt he was suicided: the real question is – “why?” From the last five minutes of the documentary …”Porton Down received the Ames Strain of anthrax in the late 80s” …would that be the same strain of the bacillus that was at the heart of the AMERITHRAX case? Indeed it would. What did he know about Operation Coast? Was Zimbabwe ever subjected to bio-attack from (non-endemic) ebola and marburg viruses? What work was he involved in when he worked with Mossad as an ‘adviser’: at Israel’s beyond top secret Institute for Biological Research.? Did they try and develop a bio-genetic virus that would only target Arabs: the so-called ‘Arab Bomb’? Is there any link with the rash of mysterious deaths of microbiologists – who all seemed to want to off themselves after 9/11? Some of whom seem to have been investigating Israel???
Gordon Thomas is the source of a number of claims about Dr Kelly, that if true, would be explosive. Among those that intrigue me is that Kelly was associated with at least two of the US’ top scientists – Dr Benito Que and Dr Don Wiley – who also decided to off themselves in 2001. But the most intriguing aspect of this case is his relationship with Soviet defector Vladimir Pasechnik: who, not only did Kelly debrief, and was a close colleague at Porton Down – he also helped him found Regma Biotechnologies, which had three year contract with the U.S. Navy for “the diagnostic and therapeutic treatment of anthrax”. Pasechnik died ten days after meeting Wiley. Coincidence?
Also from Thomas: there was another former Russian defector, Kamovtjan Alibekov. who set up Hadron Advanced Biosystems in America. Before his death, Kelly had been discreetly headhunted by two companies. One was Hadron Advanced Biosystems, which has close ties to the Pentagon. Then there was an Israeli plane – shot down by a ‘stray’ Ukrainian missile (MH17-like?) over the Black Sea. Those killed included 5 microbiologists returning to their labs in Russia. Why did Mossad send a team to Ukraine to investigate the crash? Did Pasechnik know them: or did Kelly?
[Most of these claims are based on Thomas’ books: “Inside British Intelligence” and “Gideons Spies.” But I found this excerpt of one of his articles online: http://www.stevequayle.com/index.php?s=192%5D
I’m probably being a crazy old conspiracy theorist: and not all these claims may stack up (although Thomas’ claims are based on face to face interviews) – but it seems to me that there is a lot more to Kelly’s murder than might first meet the eye. Alistair Cambell outed him; Blair buried him (allegedly) – because of WMD’s? Or because in the dirty world of bio-warfare (and in the pharma world of antidotes and remedies to bio-warfare) – did he simply know too much??? We will probably never know: especially now his body has been exhumed and cremated. And most of what I have written can probably be explained by coincidence!

binra
binra
Dec 17, 2017 7:31 PM
Reply to  Big B

When you associated pharma with (only) the antidotes to bio war I thought – do you still operate under the pharma reality-distortion field? If iatrogenic drugs and procedures contributing to and also used to treat cancer and heart disease are in fact a large part of the first two causes of death in the US (and likely similar in other ‘developed’ countries, medical treatments are at least officially the third leading cause of death. Ok so everyone dies one way or another, maybe the stats assign causes that are not in fact as stated because life is more complicated than numbers – but quality of life has no ‘statistical’ basis of accounting.
War upon humanity is largely unrecognised or diverted to sideshows.
What is implicit in your sketching out is that scientific talent is captured and used by not only corporate interests – but by trans global political agenda that captures its own regulators and is one or many steps ahead of any government or legal attempt to hold to account.
Gov-Corp control of science and technology, is not only to have first options on what and how anything will be used, but also to generate psyops under the umbrella of seemingly benign organisations.
I once wondered why Pasteur was accepted over Bechamp – as just one example of a ‘wrong turn’ that set up the germ theory that set up the basis for the vaccination ‘industry’. But it seems that power selects those who are flawed and are therefore controllable to provide the desired results. The weaponisation of biologicals does not have to be openly used, and includes things such as fluoride and pesticides as well as toxic food. To a significant extent, I wonder if ‘infectious’ plagues are not used as a cover story for toxicity alongside malnutrition. Note that many who look well fed or over fed, can be malnourished in terms of what the body needs to support and renew itself. Sickness is not just a trillion dollar ‘industry’. But nor is the germ theory a given – but the nocebo effect is potent – as negative voodoo.

Big B
Big B
Dec 17, 2017 8:32 PM
Reply to  binra

“[D]o you still operate under the pharma reality-distortion field? ”
No: I was writing within the specific context of Dr Kelly. In the broader context: I am well aware of the iatrogenic, overutilisation, opioid and vaccine related pandemics developing in America – only they are not relevant to Dr Kelly’s field of expertise. The narrow focus is on whether Dr Kelly was killed for essentially outing the WMD lies – which even Corbett thought was not plausible (given that it came out anyway, and did not disrupt the pre-determined outcome – the Iraq War.) As featured in the documentary: Gordon Thomas was preparing to ghost write Kelly’s ‘autobiography’ – I wanted to highlight some of the other reasons Kelly may have been killed. I have no reason to distrust Thomas: his books seem well researched – but he does seem to be a sole source on this, so it is hard to corroborate his research. And given his revelations about bio-weapons, that’s not hard to understand. Government’s don’t advertise their bio-weapon capability. What did Kelly tell him? Was he going to retire and make his fortune in the private sector: turning his expertise into hard cash to replace his paltry pension? I do not know: but I sure as hell am intrigued …not that it will ever come out. The official narrative is that the balance of his mind was disturbed by being thrust into the media maelstrom: to avoid it, he took his own life. Call me a conspiracy theorist – but I choose not to believe that. I believe that is a smokescreen to a deeper, more sinister truth …one I will never discover truth of. There is more to this than meets the eye: even with Corbett’s excellent expose, IMHO.

Binra (@onemindinmany)
Binra (@onemindinmany)
Dec 17, 2017 8:52 PM
Reply to  Big B

Anyone privy to dangerous secrets and still alive, invokes dangerous outcomes for themselves if acting in a way that makes them seem a liability rather than an asset to those who most want the secrets kept.

Big B
Big B
Dec 17, 2017 8:56 PM

Absolutely.

summitflyer
summitflyer
Dec 18, 2017 9:11 PM

All should take out insurance as in digital copy of what is crucial info. left in good hands should anything happen to them .It is very dangerous today to have information on the elite that could or is damaging to them.Seth Rich comes to mind .

Harry Stotle
Harry Stotle
Dec 17, 2017 9:17 PM
Reply to  Big B

‘Was he going to retire and make his fortune in the private sector: turning his expertise into hard cash to replace his paltry pension?’ – Kelly moved in fairly rarefied circles and the evidence suggests he was driven primarily by intellectual curiosity, or the pursuit of exellence rather than mammon.
He must have known a few dark secrets certainly since his time as head of the Defence Microbiology Division at Porton Down and I suppose its possible he might have considered payback (i.e. making public a few inconvient facts) after being sacrificed in the way he was, but I don’t really think this is likely either.
The only thing we know for sure is that Kelly did not for one minute buy into the 45 min WMD meme, and without this element in the dodgy MI6 dossier, a dossier not even counter checked by the MoD’s Defence Intelligence Staff, there was, as Iraq and many other have since learned to their cost, no case for another war of aggression in the Middle East.
When your chief weapons inspector says something like this it is obviously an insurmountable problem for a British leader in thrall to the hawks – so what to do when plans are already in place to unleash hell?
Of course you don’t need to be Einstein to work any of this out so the ongoing ambiguity surrounding Dr Kellys death is unlikely to be accidental; in other words the powers that be must have already weighed up the pros and cons of conspiracy theories that would follow in the wake of the official story because in some way it would serve their agenda rather than ours.

BigB
BigB
Dec 17, 2017 11:36 PM
Reply to  Harry Stotle

He also exposed the “Winnebago’s of Death” as mobile weather balloon stations – exactly as the Iraqis said. Given that we will never know why he was killed – it doesn’t seem to me that he was a threat …unless he was planning to write a book, as has been suggested. He kept some of the governments darkest secrets for thirty years. The WMD comments he made to Gilligan were off the record – he wasn’t outed till after his death. Something changed that made him a threat: he does seem to have concerns about money – but people go from government to private sector without divulging secrets all the time. He got religion in ’99 – that could be a factor? WMDs seem the least of reasons to kill him? Dark actors: indeed?

bevin
bevin
Dec 18, 2017 3:21 AM
Reply to  Harry Stotle

“The only thing we know for sure is that Kelly did not for one minute buy into the 45 min WMD meme..”
Did you? Did anyone with any sense? I certainly didn’t and I’m not sure that I knew anyone who did.
The case made for war-by both Blair and the US- was clearly designed to serve as a propaganda cover story with a half life of days. The idea was that Iraq could not hold out for more than a few days, real Intelligence was that it was virtually defenceless, almost unarmed. And then what the egregious Blunkett called the ‘Baghdad Bounce’-the victory parades, the looting, the oil fields, the contracts- would kick in and nobody would care why or how it all started.
So Kelly wasn’t telling anyone, via Gilligan, anything that was not fairly bloody obvious.

Cherrycoke
Cherrycoke
Dec 18, 2017 7:11 AM
Reply to  Big B

Hadron Advanced Biosystems ties in with the endlessly fascinating PROMIS saga. PROMIS was, to cut a long story short, the mother of all software backdoors and definitely related to Hadron, Wackenhut, Earl Meese, Iran-Contra etc .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Riconosciuto
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosecutor%27s_Management_Information_System
https://www.wired.com/1993/01/inslaw/
A condensed version of Cheri Seymour’s book “The Last Circle” is available here:
http://www.lycaeum.org/books/books/last_circle/1.htm
Yes, they also seemed to have worked on an “Arab bomb” (see also “Rebuilding America’s defenses: “And advanced forms of biological warfare that can “target” specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool. ”
When following these links, you may also encounter one Fred Crisman…
In any case, interesting that Kelly has ties to that particular wilderness of mirrors.

mohandeer
mohandeer
Dec 17, 2017 3:48 PM

Reblogged this on Worldtruth and commented:
The truth about Kelly’s death will not now ever be known, he’s in his grave and dead men don’t talk. Which is rather the point of the question “why would MI5/6 need him dead?” Just following Nikki Haley’s lesson in the use of the English Language I can state that there is irrefutable evidence that Dr. Kelly did not take his own life. Where there is a total lack of evidence to either prove or disprove any allegation then any claim becomes irrefutable. The only ones that could refute this claim would need to provide evidence to the contrary and that would be someone involved in his killing or the dead man himself.

Ross Hendry
Ross Hendry
Dec 17, 2017 2:41 PM

Along with many others I have always believed Dr. Kelly was murdered. His wife apparently doesn’t share this view – “friends say that despite the lack of a coroner’s inquest, she has never been minded to challenge the official verdict of his death, namely that he took his own life.”
Mrs Kelly says the last time she saw her husband he “had a broken heart”. Even so it’s surely odd that a presumably loving wife wouldn’t want a proper coroner’s Inquest to help confirm the suicide verdict. It all gives rise to the suspicion that she and the other family members have been leant on (possibly with the dark suggestion that there are issues of “national security” that require her to keep mum and accept the official verdict).

Harry Stotle
Harry Stotle
Dec 17, 2017 4:52 PM
Reply to  Ross Hendry

I understand it was Mrs Kellys supply of coproxamol that were taken by her husband, and this may have influenced her thinking?
Coproxomol, is a compound analgesic containing paracetamol and dextropropoxyphene and is certainly a problematic drug (leading to its withdrawl in 2005)
According to this authority ‘In comparison with other drug fatalities, death characteristically occurs rapidly, as little as 1hr after ingestion and usually before hospital treatment can be initiated. Toxicity is increased by alcohol. The fatal dose may be as small as 15 tablets or possibly less. Many victims are young and some never intended to take their life. Convulsions and respiratory failure precede death.’
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6480014
It usually takes around 40% loss of circulating blood volume loss die from an exsanguinating wound so given the lack of blood at scene it seems impossible to imagine the wrist laceration to the ulna artery would cause death.
Given the political backdrop to Dr Kelly’s death and many anomalies surrounding the circumstances of it one would have assumed the British authorities would not only want to ensure justice was done but that it was seen to be done – but no, we have this dogs dinner.

Harry Stotle
Harry Stotle
Dec 17, 2017 2:09 PM

Interesting account of media machinations from David Kelly’s friend, Tom Mangold, who says;
“Now just sit back for a moment and think quietly about what that allegation was saying. The BBC, the world’s most reputable broadcasting organisation whose news reports were guaranteed to be wholly truthful and impartial had just claimed that Tony Blair might be a cheat and a liar who had, with malice aforethought led the British people to war based in part on a colossal intelligence deception organised by him or his lackeys.
This had happened on BBC Radio 4 at 6.07 in the morning.
What should have happened next and didn’t? Let me tell you.
Any half-sober, trainee apprentice deputy news editor from a provincial weekly, with an L plate pinned to his back, on day one of work experience would have had the gumption and the instinct to summon Gilligan from his bedroom, straight to the Today office, and there, asked him politely to see his shorthand notes to confirm that his source had indeed said what Gilligan alleged he had said. Quite simple. I’ve been asked that several times. It’s routine procedure whenever the office sees a shit-storm gathering a few miles away.
Had this happened, what would our work experience junior have discovered? A regular BBC notebook filled with the nice neat shorthand notes of a trained reporter ? Er. No. Not quite.”
https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/tom-mangold/do-you–remember-what-happened-to-david-kelly
Mangold goes on to say; “Gilligan’s note-taking at that seminal meeting with Kelly was subsequently to be placed under forensic examination at the first enquiry into the Kelly affair chaired by Lord Hutton. It transpired there were serious problems with Gilligan’s little electronic organiser. There were ‘anomalies’ in two sets of notes covering the same thoughts of Kelly…the date stamp inside the organiser was incorrect…it was unclear whether and when David Kelly had actually mentioned Alastair Campbell as being behind the dodgy dossier deceits. “I am not quite sure when the word Campbell was mentioned during the conversation. I know it was mentioned by David Kelly. But it may have come towards the end”, Gilligan told the Hutton Enquiry. Gilligan said he had made some notes as Kelly spoke but admitted some had been made after the actual interview.
Counsel for the Hutton Enquiry said: “The absence of Mr Campbell’s name in the first set of (electronic) notes may suggest that it was more likely to be Mr Gilligan’s question than Dr Kelly’s answer”. In other words suggesting Gilligan may actually have put Campbell’s name into Kelly’s mouth.”

rtj1211
rtj1211
Dec 17, 2017 7:21 PM
Reply to  Harry Stotle

Just where is the evidence that the BBC is the world’s most reputable and trustworthy news organisation?
It is a substation of MI6, it is a State Propaganda service and for a few decades harboured a rampant child molestation unit….

Harry Stotle
Harry Stotle
Dec 17, 2017 8:09 PM
Reply to  rtj1211

True, but in the context of Mangolds account the point is the Beeb was a media source the public paid attention to – in other words if you are in the midst of plans to foment a long term military operation in the Middle East it was a blow to be called out by Britains leading weapons inspector.

binra
binra
Dec 17, 2017 1:31 PM

Narrative control operates more severely in terms of public office or influence.
Robin Cook also comes to mind.
Cooked up ‘intelligence’ is nothing new.
Lies are considered justifiable means by those who put the end above the means.
Once the wherewithal for the deed is its doing, any history can be buried by new diversions.
Allegiance to ‘power’ or in its terms ‘survival’ has to override all sense of personal integrity to ‘deserve’ (preserve) privilege.
When Emperors had buildings constructed with secrets held within their facade, the architects and builders of the secret would be killed or buried with the foundations. This idea of denying our secret intent, and killing and suppressing witness, is the idea of asserting a face of power in the world. When the deceits are revealed, such power no longer has any claim to a heart allegiance.
The global idea holds as many variants as are fed out on a need to know basis. While the face can preserve a mask that attracts an emotional allegiance, its own captive followers will defend against challenge of any who blow the whistle.
Power based on manipulative control, must weaponize, rather than engage in, communication. A principle facet of which is to entrap opponents by their own reactions. Anyone in any kind of group will align with its undercurrent identity automatically – for that which gives a sense of self or power is automatically defended. But at any given time, the demands of a group identity may cross a line that cannot be tolerated by an individual, and they will then open perspectives that are different from their groupthink or society-think, and critical of what before was kept unsaid or unthought.
Separations can be traumatic and beneath the seemingly separate self-sense is the psychic-emotional level of suppressed separation trauma. From some ‘team identities’ there is no exit. Or no exit without penalties that induce persisting under ‘the devil you know’.
Everyone has a price – it is said. But perhaps everyone has an innate worth that no price can buy the willingness to forsake? Hate keeps us safe from uncovering what we fear would oblige us to forsake the ‘devil’s bargain’, and find ourself targeted and exposed in all that we most fear. Thus our heart must be hidden to keep it from a murderous intent/world. This is how we learn the masking of the world, and forget who we are by joining in its group-think.

vierotchka
vierotchka
Dec 17, 2017 12:58 PM

Full transcript of Gilligan’s ‘sexed up’ broadcast (from when the Guardian still was a decent media):
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/jul/09/Iraqandthemedia.bbc
That is when Blair intervened in the BBC’s board of directors and the BBC went bad.