BBC row 'marginal', inquiry hears

Dr Kelly was 'calm' before intelligence committee

The row between the government and the BBC over the Iraq dossier was "marginal" to wider questions about the use of intelligence ahead of the Iraq war, the Hutton inquiry into Dr David Kelly's death has been told.

Ann Taylor, chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), which interviewed Dr Kelly the day before he went missing, said the committee had decided there was little to be gained from taking evidence from BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan.

The BBC and Alastair Campbell row was a marginal issue but it did impinge on the authenticity, in intelligence terms Ann Taylor

She said the committee was not concentrating on the row between the BBC and the government over Mr Gilligan's reports because it wanted to draw its own conclusions about the way intelligence was used in the dossier.

'Calm'

She said: "The BBC and Alastair Campbell row was a marginal issue but it did impinge on the authenticity, in intelligence terms."

Ms Taylor was giving evidence on day 10 of the Hutton inquiry into the death of Dr Kelly, who was revealed as the source of Mr Gilligan's report that the Iraq dossier had been "sexed up" on the orders of Downing Street.

She said Dr Kelly seemed "calm and measured" as he told the committee he had not told Mr Gilligan that the dossier was "transformed" and described the document as "very sober...there is no emotive language in it".

In a transcript of the evidence session revealed at the inquiry, Dr Kelly says he met "every two months or so" with the intelligence services "if they want to discuss any raw intelligence with me or if they want any assistance in interpreting intelligence".

The inquiry heard that Dr Kelly told the committee that his judgement was that the claim that Iraq could deploy chemical and biological weapons in 45 minutes was in the dossier for "impact".

Asked about the events leading to Dr Kelly being identified, Ms Taylor said there had been a suggestion from Sir David Omand, intelligence chief at the Cabinet Office, that the MoD would send her an open letter saying an official had come forward to admit meeting Mr Gilligan.

'No precedent'

She said the suggestion was that the open letter would be the way "the public and press would be informed that someone had come forward".

But Ms Taylor said that although the committee might have wanted to take evidence from the official, she had not thought the idea was appropriate.

"If the government, Ministry of Defence, or any other part of the government, wanted to make a public statement about somebody coming forward as a possible source, then they should do that, not do it by way of a letter to the committee," she said.

Ms Taylor said Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon had written to her before Dr Kelly's appearance saying that as the scientist was a "junior official", his appearance should not be taken as a precedent for calling in any junior official within that department.

She said there had been no suggestion of guidance for questions in the letter.