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28-8-2003 Scotsman The Hutton Inquiry: Lunch that led to naming of Kelly By Gethin Chamberlain GEOFF Hoon has been left to carry the can for the decision to name Dr Kelly - but it was a meeting between the BBC's director of news, Richard Sambrook, and journalists from a national newspaper that set in motion the chain of events that led to the weapons expert being identified. Mr Sambrook met the Times editor, Robert Thomson, and a number of journalists from the paper on 3 July this year as part of a series of meetings with national newspapers organised to press the BBC's case against the government. During the lunch, Mr Sambrook spoke to reporter Tom Baldwin, who subsequently wrote a piece for the Times providing vital clues to the identity of the source of the contentious BBC story accusing the government of "sexing up" its dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The Times piece identified the source of the story, by the reporter Andrew Gilligan, as "a military expert based in Iraq". That narrowed the field dramatically, leading journalists towards Dr Kelly. By the time they started to put lists of names to the Ministry of Defence, the decision to confirm Dr Kelly's identity had been taken. The evidence that confirms the BBC's key role in the naming of Dr Kelly has been buried in the sheer volume of evidence presented to the Hutton Inquiry over the last two and a half weeks. But on the third day, Mr Sambrook told the inquiry that he had met a number of journalists from the Times on 3 July. Questioned by James Dingemans QC, the senior counsel to the inquiry, he said: "I had a lunch at the Times newspaper with the editor, Robert Thomson, and about five or six correspondents." Two days later a report appeared in the Times which asserted: "The source for bitterly contested allegations that Downing Street 'sexed up' its dossier on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction is a military expert who is now based in Iraq, BBC insiders are claiming." Mr Sambrook denied giving the Times journalists details about Dr Kelly, but he confessed that under questioning by Mr Baldwin he had divulged a number of details about the BBC's source, which had been passed to him in confidence by Mr Gilligan. "Tom Baldwin asked whether I knew who the source was and I said: 'Yes, I did'," said Mr Sambrook. "He asked me a number of questions about the source, and I simply used the phrase that Andrew Gilligan had used to describe him, 'a senior official involved in compiling the dossier', and I would not go any further than that. "Mr Baldwin pressed me quite hard on whether we had gone back to the source and when I said not, he pressed me on why not, and I simply said they were unavailable due to the nature of their work, which was the phrase that I had heard Andrew Gilligan use in similar circumstances. Mr Baldwin then said: 'You mean they are out of the country?' I said: 'Something like that', intending to be equivocal." But Mr Baldwin told the inquiry last week that Mr Sambrook was the main source of his story, which appeared under the headline "BBC dossier source believed to be in Iraq". Mr Sambrook had agreed to be the source of a story claiming that Mr Gilligan had been banned from writing articles for other news organisations, said Mr Baldwin. Mr Dingemans asked: "In the article you said the source was believed to be a military expert who is now based in Iraq and among the 100 British intelligence and weapons specialists currently in Iraq. Where did you get the information for that from?"
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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