BBC Journalist Defends Report on 'Sexed-up' Iraq Weapons Dossier

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, August 13, 2003

BBC Journalist Defends Report on 'Sexed-up' Iraq Weapons Dossier

The BBC reporter at the center of an allegedly "sexed-up" Iraq weapons dossier Tuesday defended his controversial report, accusing the government of playing up the risk to bolster their case for war.

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The BBC reporter at the center of an allegedly "sexed-up" Iraq weapons dossier Tuesday defended his controversial report, accusing the government of playing up the risk to bolster their case for war.

Andrew Gilligan, who gave evidence on the second day of a judicial investigation into the death of government weapons expert David Kelly, told the inquiry that Kelly told him on May 22 that the Iraq dossier published last September had been "transformed a week before publication to make it sexier".

Kelly was found dead with a slit wrist last month after being named as the source for Gilligan's report that British Prime Minister Tony Blair's media chief Alastair Campbell had ordered intelligence officers to exaggerate the Iraqi weapons capability to make the case for war more compelling

The claim was vehemently denied by the government and had sparked off a row between government and BBC.

During the inquiry on Tuesday, Gilligan also said Kelly told him that the "classic" example of the dossier being transformed was the inclusion of the claim that weapons could be deployed by Iraq in 45 minutes.

Gilligan stressed that Kelly was not suggesting the 45-minute claim had been invented but that it should not have been in the dossier because it was not reliable.

He added that most British intelligence experts were unhappy with the dossier on alleged Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, because "it didn't reflect the considered view they were putting forward".

The inquiry, led by British senior judge Lord Hutton, heard evidence on Monday that some members of defense intelligence staff were so concerned about the dossier that they complained formally to their superiors.

Earlier reports said Kelly's death has plunged Blair into the worst political crisis of his six years rule, especially when no banned weapons have been found in Iraq by coalition forces.

Blair, currently on holiday in Barbados, is expected to appear before the inquiry.

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