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Dr Kelly and the trailers (published in part in The Independent on Sunday, 17 August 2003, as a sidebar to main article) On 5th June, Dr Kelly paid his first visit back to Iraq since the invasion. On his five-day stopover, he inspected the mobile trailers that Tony Blair had claimed the previous week were for the production of biological weapons. Dr Kelly came away with the impression that they were no such thing. According to Bryan Wells, a senior official at the Ministry of Defence whom Kelly advised, Kelly "was of the view that these were not biological weapons facilities". When a report came out in the Observer newspaper on 15 June that cited "a British scientist and biological weapons expert, who has examined the trailers in Iraq", claiming that the trailers could not be used for making biological weapons, suspicion within the government fell on Dr Kelly. The concern about Dr Kelly's views being aired further is apparent in a hand-written note by John Scarlett, chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee, to whom the responsibility for writing the September dossier was given. At the time when there were considerations about whether or not Dr Kelly should be allowed to appear before the Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC), Scarlett wrote: "Note also that Kelly may state his view, if given the chance by the FAC that trailers are not for BW [biological weapons] production". This could be interpreted to mean that the possibility that Dr Kelly might give his expert opinion on the trailers to a public audience was a factor militating against his appearance. Scarlett sent the note to Jonathan Powell (Downing Street chief of staff), David Manning (Mr Blair's senior foreign policy advisor) and Alastair Campbell.
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Author: Glen Rangwala Back to the Index
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