Second journalist told about Campell's role in Iraq dossier

By KIM SENGUPTA

Alastair Campbell's alleged role in "sexing-up" the September dossier to justify war in Iraq was disclosed to a second BBC journalist by Dr David Kelly, the Hutton Inquiry heard yesterday.

Susan Watts, the science editor of BBC2's Newsnight, was told that Mr Campbell was central to inserting the 45 minute claim into the dossier two weeks before Dr Kelly made the same allegation to reporter Andrew Gilligan.

The disclosure, which came at the end of the second day of the special inquiry into the death of the scientist, immediately swung the advantage to the Corporation in its bitter ongoing confrontation with No 10 over the affair.

Ironically, Ms Watts did not follow up Dr Kelly's information because she considered it a "gossipy aside".

But she realised the full extent of his knowledge when another key aspect of what the scientist had told her that the '45 minutes' claim was 'single sourced' was confirmed by the Government three weeks later.

Ms Watts told the inquiry that she was speaking to Dr Kelly about Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destuction on May 7th when she asked about the claim, in the Government dossier that Saddam Hussein could carry out chemical and biological attacks within 45 minutes.

Ms Watts, reading from her shorthand notes, told the Inquiry that Dr Kelly said: " It was a mistake to put in. Alastair Campbell seeing something in there. Single source, not corroborated. Sounded good".

Ms Watts told the Inquiry that she did not realise the significance of what she had been told.

"Because I did not consider it particularly controversial. I found it to be a glib statement."

She said that she had only realised how good Dr Kelly's information was when Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram confirmed that the intelligence had come from a single source following Mr Gilligan's report on Radio 4's Today programme on May 29.

"With hindsight, he was passing on that information three weeks before it became public which does indicate that he had extraordinary access to the information in that dossier," she said.

Ms Watts said that she had taped another conversation - expected to be played to the inquiry today - she had with Dr Kelly, on 30th May, which, it is said, further corroborates Mr Gilligan's account of what Dr Kelly told him about Mr Campbell's role in the September dossier.

Earlier Mr Gilligan, the defence and diplomatic correspondent of the Today programme, admitted to the Inquiry that the was wrong in stating in a broadcast that Downing Street had inserted the '45 minutes' allegation despite knowing that it was wrong.

Mr Gilligan acknowledged that Dr Kelly had told him that the single source for the claim was deemed to be 'unreliable' by the intelligence services, but this did not necessarily mean that the Government knew it was wrong.

He said : "But I have to say with the benefit of hindsight, looking at it now with a fine tooth comb, I think it wasn't wrong to have said, but it wasn't perfect either. What this was was the product of a live broadcast. It was, I do believe, a fair assessment to draw from what he said to me, but I think, on reflection, I didn't use exactly the right language."

The Inquiry was also read a memorandum from Kevin Marsh, the editor of Radio 4's Today programme to Stephen Mitchell, the head of Radio News, in which he said about Mr Gilligan's broadcast " This story was a good piece of journalism marred by flawed reporting. Our biggest millstone had been his loose use of language and lack of judgement in some of his phraseology."

He had previously received an e-mail from Mr Marsh praising him for his work on the Iraqi weapons story.

He added: "It was not my intention to give anyone the impression that the Government had lied or made up its intelligence. It seems that some people got that impression".

Mr Gilligan facing prolonged and often hostile questioning from James Dingemans QC, counsel for the Inquiry, stood by his claim that Dr Kelly had said Mr Campbell had been responsible for the "transformation" of the dossier in the week before its publication last September.

He even went further by stating that this transformation included the 45 minutes claim - something that Mr Cambell strenuously denied before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

Mr Gilligan also claimed, for the first time, that Dr Kelly had agreed upon quotes that could be used in his news report. And that certain matters had been left out at the scientist's request.

However the inquiry was told that Dr Kelly disputed Mr Gilligan's account of the meeting during evidence to two Parliamentary inquires and in an interview with his line manager at the Ministry of Defence.

"I think that is not really an accurate reflection of the conversation we had," he told his MoD manager.

Mr Gilligan said that he had not mentioned Mr Campbell in his original story for the Today programme - simply referring to Downing St - as Mr Campbell had already complained about a number of his previous reports and he did not want another row.

"I had a difficult relationship with Mr Campbell," he said. "I think he had an issue about some of my reporting. I didn't want to name him in that context."

Mr Gilligan said that following the broadcast of his report on the Today programme he had twice tried to contact Dr Kelly but had been worried that if he telephoned him his identity could be compromised.

"I was concerned - this might be paranoid or might be sensible - that either my calls or his might be being monitored," he said.

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Herald Feature: Iraq