Dr Kelly Interview - Germ Warfare

The last interview with Dr Kelly was made in the middle of June 2003, about a month before his death.  Made for the Australian company ABC tv it can be watched as google video http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=268935367757039981  It's about 48 minutes long and is absolutely fascinating!

Apart from the obvious Dr Kelly interest it also serves an excellent purpose in giving an overview of the development of biological warfare research.  This is not about Iraq, at that moment a much too sensitive subject, but about for instance the clean up of Guinard Island, in which Dr Kelly was involved.  This island is off the coast of Scotland and is where experiments were carried out in the Second World War on sheep to test the efficacy of anthrax as a weapon.  Another important job that Kelly was involved with was the inspection of the Soviet biowarfare facilities, their programme being far bigger than anything in the Middle East.  

One or two other points.  The video confirmed that Dr Kelly was a person who spoke fairly quietly, this being relevant when one remembers that members of the FAC on 15 July 2003 had some difficulty hearing his answers until the fans were switched off.  It has been suggested that David Kelly was uncomfortable at the televised session of the FAC but certainly there seems to be no problem at the time the ABC film was being made.

Our usual perception of Dr Kelly is I think of a person who always wore spectacles but in the video there is quite a lot of footage of him not wearing them.  The searchers don't state whether he was wearing his spectacles when they found him but certainly Dr Hunt says they weren't on his face and finds a pair (presumably Kelly's) in a pocket of the Barbour jacket Dr Kelly was wearing.

At the Hutton Inquiry other witnesses, such as neighbour Ruth Absalom, could have been usefully asked whether he was wearing them.  Mrs Kelly should also have been questioned as to the sort of occasions in which he typically didn't wear them.

The first police officer to see the body (so the narrative goes) was DC Graham Coe.  His memory seems to come and go ... it will be recalled that he forgot that there was a third person accompanying  him and DC Shields when they were on the way to Harrowdown Hill.  In an interview with the Mail on Sunday of 8 August 2010 Coe says 'I think he was wearing his glasses and I think his eyes were closed'.  A lot of uncertainty.  If Dr Kelly set off from his home not wearing them or was likely to take them off  then I would have thought his spectacles case would have been in his pocket.

The email exchanges that led up to the filming are on the Hutton Inquiry website http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20090128221550/http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/com/com_4_0032to0035.pdf