Scientist hunt yields body

LONDON - Police searching for a former UN weapons inspector at the heart of a row over whether the British Government twisted intelligence to justify war in Iraq have found a body.

David Kelly, a soft-spoken microbiologist at the Defence Ministry who had worked for UN inspectors in Iraq, disappeared after he went out for a walk on Thursday with no coat despite heavy rain.

"The body of a man has been found," said Acting Superintendent Dave Purnell, but he could not confirm the man's identity.

Kelly had been grilled by parliamentarians on Tuesday after admitting he spoke to a BBC reporter, Andrew Gilligan.

Gilligan said in May that a senior intelligence source told him the Government "sexed up" intelligence on Iraq.

Gilligan's report sparked parliamentary hearings into how the Government made the case for war, forced Prime Minister Tony Blair on to the defensive and pitted Government officials against the BBC in a heated war of words.

Clearly uncomfortable in the spotlight, Kelly, 59, had told the foreign affairs committee he had met Gilligan, but denied telling him that Blair's communications chief, Alastair Campbell, had ordered intelligence to be hyped.

The Government said it thought Kelly might be Gilligan's only source, suggesting that differences between his account and Gilligan's proved the BBC story was wrong.

Gilligan has not said whether he had a source for his report other than Kelly.

Under questioning from the parliamentary committee, Kelly said he did not believe he was the main source of the story. Committee members appeared to agree, labelling him a Government "fall guy".

"Dr Kelly is a scientist. He's not used to the media glare, he is not used to the intense spotlight he was put under, and frankly, even hardened professionals can find that type of pressure hard to cope with," committee member Richard Ottoway, an Opposition Conservative politician, told Sky television.

"We concluded he had been given rather bad treatment by the Government. So let us hope nothing sinister has happened here. But it does bring into question exactly what the Government thought it was doing by putting him up as a witness on its behalf."

Gilligan quoted his source as saying Campbell had pressed intelligence chiefs to insert into a dossier on Iraq a dubious assertion that Baghdad could use weapons of mass destruction at 45 minutes' notice.

Campbell has denied the allegation.

MPs grilled Gilligan behind closed doors on Thursday and said the reporter had backed away from his allegations against Campbell. The reporter himself called the questioning an "ambush".

Three months after Saddam's overthrow, no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq.

In a sign of the pressure Kelly faced this week, he told the committee he was unable to answer questions about just which journalists he had met in recent months because he was unable to get home to consult his diaries.


- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq