Dead Wrong: Straight Facts on the Country's Most Controversial Cover-Ups

by David Wayne

  •8:30 AM Thursday, July 17, 2003:

  Dr. Kelly and his wife wake up at their home in the somewhat remote village of Southmoor, about seven miles southwest of Oxford. Mrs. Kelly describes her husband’s mood this Thursday morning as “tired, subdued, but not depressed”. He has a well- deserved reputation as a workaholic and spends the morning working in his office at home, sending emails and taking phone calls.

  Analysis: Dr. Kelly was a Nobel Peace Prize-nominated scientist at the very top of his field; he was a tough professional and had withstood the media storm quite well. His wife, on the other hand, was not at all happy about it, and was feeling the pressure, physically as well as mentally.

  •8:45-9:00 AM

  Dr. Kelly informs his wife that he has a report to write for MoD (Ministry of Defence). He enters his study to work, as he typically does at home. His office is downstairs off the dining room, near the front door and is lined with many books and papers for the book that he is working on.

  •9:00-11:00 AM

  Dr. Kelly works in his study. His wife hears the phone ring at several different times, and she knows that he is taking calls related to his weapons inspections. Some of these phone calls are with Royal Air Force Wing Commander John Clark, who speaks with Dr. Kelly several different times this morning. Wing Commander Clark is the head of Counter Proliferation Arms Control for the Ministry of Defence and has been working closely with Dr. Kelly. The two are also friends and have been collaborating on weapons inspection tours of Iraq. Among other work items, Wing Commander Clark confirms Dr. Kelly’s flight plans for the following Friday. The MoD booked the flights for Friday, July 25. Wing Commander Clark (as well as other associates and friends of Dr. Kelly) stated that Dr. Kelly was very much looking forward to the trip, to return to Iraq and continue with his work there. As to the substance of their conversations, Wing Commander Clark later testified that they had discussed precisely that—looking forward to the business of returning to the weapons inspections in Iraq, as well as the media fallout and negative publicity, especially insofar as how Kelly had been handling it all right, but that it had affected his wife, and she had been taking it poorly:

  “When I asked him how he was going, he basically said he was holding up all right but it had all come to a head and his wife had taken it really very badly ... he did say his wife had been very upset on the morning of the seventeenth.” Dr. Kelly’s diary revealed that he had indeed made an entry in his diary for this upcoming trip. Obviously, a person planning suicide does not dote on the details of an upcoming trip, spending their time booking flights they won’t be taking. Victim is also on-record several times, confirming his eagerness to get back on the ground in Iraq and continue the work on inspections.

  •11:00 AM

  Dr. Kelly takes a coffee break, coming out of his study, and sits and drinks his coffee. His wife also gets a cup of coffee, and they exchange a few brief words, but do not drink their coffee together.

  •11:18 AM Email Sent

  Dr. Kelly returns to work in his study. He responds to an email he recently received from Judith Miller of The New York Times. Ms. Miller was the author of Germs: Biological Weapons and America’s Secret War. She has been in contact with Dr. Kelly and was following his very recent and secret testimony before the Intelligence and Security Committee. Her email reads:

  “David, I heard from another member of your fan club that things went well for you today. Hope it’s true. J.” Dr. Kelly’s reply was pregnant with serious implication: “Judy, I will wait until the end of the week before judging— many dark actors playing games. Thanks for your support. I appreciate your friendship at this time. Best, David” The fact that Dr. Kelly states he will wait until the end of the week before final judgment is certainly not suggestive of an impending suicide. The implication of “dark actors playing games” would logically seem to be the fact that high-ranking members of the government (Prime Minister Tony Blair, his top aide Alistair Campbell & Defence Minister Geoff Hoon) were perceived by insiders at this time, as using Dr. Kelly in order to discredit the BBC. Ms. Miller’s actions had actually assisted the West in making its fraudulent case for war (in the 2001 anthrax attacks, she was the only journalist to receive a package containing anthrax. After the attack, she began writing material that was very helpful to the White House’s false WMD claims). Yet even Ms. Miller later characterizes the response that she received from Dr. Kelly in an interpretation quite unfavorable to the top echelon of British leadership: “

  Based on earlier conversations with Dr. Kelly, the words seemed to refer to people within the Ministry of Defence and Britain’s intelligence agencies with whom he had often sparred over interpretations of intelligence reports.

  ” Dr. Kelly had reportedly been threatened with criminal prosecution and the loss of his pension if he did not cooperate with the Ministry of Defence inquiry. •

  •11:00 AM-12:00 PM Various Emails

  In addition to his several communications throughout this morning with Wing Commander Clark and his email to Judith Miller of The New York Times, Dr. Kelly also sends seven other emails, returning correspondence from several colleagues and other well-wishers, in a manner that is typically very upbeat.

  He answers an email from Professor Alistair Hay, a colleague, who had stated he was concerned that the Ministry of Defence would “not enable” email contact between he and Dr. Kelly, and that he hoped he was holding up under what must be immense pressure. Dr. Kelly responded: “Dear Alistair, Many thanks for your support. Hopefully it will soon pass and I can get to Baghdad and get on with the real job. Best Wishes, David”

  Dr. Kelly responds to a sensitive email—the sender’s name has been redacted for national security—the subject (with only the word “Media” in quotations) is “Media” presentation. The sender states “hope to see you abroad in a few weeks time.” Kelly responds:

  “(Recipient’s name redacted for security purposes), Quite a week. If all blows over I will be in Baghdad next Friday (sic). Hope to see you shortly after that. All the best, David” To Ron Manley, who has written “Sorry about your latest run in with the media” and sends his best wishes, Kelly responds: “Ron, Many thanks for your thoughts. It has been difficult. Hopefully it will all blow over by the end of the week and I can travel to Baghdad and get on with the real work. Best wishes, David”

  Dr. Kelly was a relatively new and enthusiastic member of the Baha’i faith and, as an example, sends an email to Geeta Kingdon, a fellow Baha’i member:

  Kelly’s response references the fact that he has been under sufficient threat that he even had to leave home for a week, possibly at an Intelligence “safe house”:

  “Geeta, Many thanks for your thoughts and prayers. It has been a remarkably tough time. Should all blow over by early next week then I will travel to Baghdad a week Friday (sic). I have had to keep a low profile which meant leaving home for a week! Back now. With best wishes and thanks for your support. David”

  He also responds to Debra Krikorian’s email, many portions of which have been deleted for security purposes, but she stated that she is “in town” and would like to meet with him when possible. Kelly’s response further confirms his “cloak-and-dagger” intrigue, again indicating that he has been under the protection of the Ministry of Defence for his own security:

  “Deb, Many thanks for the email. GKW let me know that you had been trying to contact me but I have been keeping low on MOD advice. If all blows over by the beginning of next week I will get to Baghdad soon. Regards, David”

  He responds to an email from colleague Philippe Michel who has stated “We are confident where is the truth and this one must be revealed rapidly”

  “Philippe, Many thanks for your email. I know that I have a lot of good friends who are providing support at a difficult time. Hope to see you soon. Regards, David” He also takes the time to respond courteously to colleague Malfrid Braut, who expresses his empathy for the situation Dr. Kelly finds himself in and also
wants to send Kelly a draft of a report:

  “Malfrid, Thanks. It has been difficult. I hope to get to Baghdad soon to really work. I will then probably be out of email contact but send me whatever you wish and I will respond as soon as I can.

  I am sure that Cairo remains absorbing. Best wishes, David” Analysis: The Hutton Inquiry lists the above eight emails (including Miller) as all being sent by Dr. Kelly at exactly 11:18 AM—that doesn’t seem very likely, given their length, thoughtfulness, and the sheer number of them. In any event, as with all his communications this morning, Dr. Kelly sounds very upbeat about returning to Iraq and getting on with “the real work” of weapons inspections even though he has been “laying low” and was away from home for a week due to security precautions implemented by the Ministry of Defence. His correspondence clearly attests to his mood on his final morning. He conducts his affairs in his typical manner: all-business, efficient, professional, polite, and quite obviously not behaving in a suicidal manner.

  •12:15 PM

  Mrs. Kelly returns home (she had gone out to pick up some photographs). She tells her husband about the photos.

  •12:30 PM

  Dr. Kelly leaves his study and joins her in the sitting room. In addition to talking about the photos, they also share some lunch, sitting opposite the table from each other, but do not speak a great deal (she feels he is very absorbed in his work).

  Dr. Kelly eats the sandwich that she made and also has a glass of water.

  Mrs. Kelly was later asked how she would describe her husband at 12:30 pm that day and she replied:

  “Oh, I just thought he had a broken heart. He really was very, very—he had shrunk into himself ... I had no idea at that stage what he might do later, absolutely no idea at all.” As Norman Baker points out, this is what attorneys refer to as reinterpretation after-the-fact with benefit of subsequent knowledge. What that statement actually tells us is that—at that precise moment—nothing out of the ordinary had taken place to even remotely suggest that her husband was suicidal.

  •1:30-1:45 PM

  As she often does, Mrs. Kelly goes upstairs to rest after lunch. She suffers from arthritis and it is flaring up today. Dr. Kelly returns to his study to continue working.

  Analysis: Note that it is actually Mrs. Kelly who is very bothered by the recent media storm and is the one who is in pain. The Copraxamol tablets that are later ascribed to being Dr. Kelly’s are not his. He has not been prescribed that medication and also has a very strong aversion to swallowing tablets. He walks for his back pain and that seems to work. The Copraxomol, which is a mild analgesic commonly prescribed for arthritis sufferers, probably belonged to his wife. And there is later a wide window of opportunity for items to be taken from the Kelly home to stage the crime scene.

  •Slightly prior to 2:00 PM

  Dr. Kelly goes upstairs to check on his wife who is lying down a bit because he knows that she hasn’t been feeling well today. She states: “Then shortly after I had lay down, he came to ask me if I was okay. I said: yes, I will be fine.”

  At this point it bears noting that if he was sympathetic enough to go upstairs and check on his wife, he’d certainly be sympathetic enough not to make matters dramatically worse by killing himself.

  •2:00 PM

  Dr. Kelly gets ready for his afternoon walk. His wife states: “And then he went to change into his jeans. He would be around the house in a tracksuit or tracksuit bottoms during the day. So he went to change and put on his shoes.”

  •2:30 PM

  Operation Mason officially begins (technically an investigation into Dr. Kelly’s death, by the Thames Valley Police). Analysis: Since the operation clearly began half an hour prior to Dr. Kelly even leaving his house for his afternoon walk, it has been quite logically suggested that other forces were at play, and that Operation Mason, in reality, was a police response to a newly known and active threat upon the life of Dr. Kelly.

  •2:53-2:54 PM Phone Call

  Mrs. Kelly hears the phone ring and, not having the cordless with her upstairs, goes downstairs to answer it because she had believed her husband had already left for his walk. She then hears Dr. Kelly talking on the phone and is fairly sure he is speaking to someone at MoD again (which was almost certainly Wing Commander Clark who testified that it was he who again called Dr. Kelly shortly before 3:00 PM, and that was the last time that they had spoken).

  •Slightly after 3:00 PM

  Dr. Kelly leaves the house for his afternoon walk. He took regular walks for his bad back. They were typically twenty-five minutes or less. He had told his wife earlier that he was going for his walk and would be back soon.

  His wife knew, in the way that spouses know specifically what to infer from the use of certain words, that he therefore planned on taking his regular brief walk (she testified as such), which would always put him back home in something under half an hour (as opposed to his longer ones, which were usually to Harrowdown Hill and took closer to an hour). If he was taking one of his longer walks, he always specifically mentioned that and would have taken his coat. He did not take his coat that afternoon.

  It would also be logical to infer that if he had actually packed away his pruning knife and pills and planned to do away with himself on his walk, he most probably would have made a more memorable gesture to his wife of many years. Instead, he simply told her that he was going out for his afternoon walk, as he normally did, and that he would be back soon, as he normally was.

  •3:20 PM

  Wing Commander Clark phones the Kelly home again. Mrs. Kelly answers and, sure this time that her husband is gone, she informs Clark that he’s not at home, having left for his walk a few minutes after 3:00.

  •3:20 pm-3:25 PM

  Ruth Absalom, a neighbor who has known him many years, sees Dr. Kelly and the two chat a bit. She places the time at somewhere around 3:00 but is not at all sure, but it obviously had to be a little later than that if he left his house shortly after 3:00 and then walked to where they meet, at Harris’s Lane, which is slightly less than a mile from Kelly’s home (at a brisk pace that would take at least 15 minutes). They talk for about 5 minutes. As they part, Dr. Kelly says “See you again then, Ruth.” The witness later describes Dr. Kelly’s demeanor during this conversation as perfectly normal, nothing at all out of the ordinary:

  “Just his normal self, no different to any other time when I have met him.” “We parted and he said ‘Cheerio Ruth.’” Since Dr. Kelly has been under the security watch of MoD, and/or MI5, and MI6 due to the known threats upon his life, it stands to reason that he would not be allowed to leave his home at this time unaccompanied or unsurveilled, to meander dangerously alone through the British countryside; especially considering that his afternoon walk was an established routine, thereby making it the most vulnerable point in his day. Yet, the above witness notes no other persons accompanying or surveilling Dr. Kelly at the time of his arrival, during their talk, or as he departs. The MoD has not produced documentation on the specific security procedures taken for Dr. Kelly, therefore, little is known except for the existence of Operation Mason. Operation Mason was a security program designed for the specific case of Dr. Kelly and it officially began at least thirty minutes prior to the time he left his home for his daily walk. So where was his security?

  The above witness also verifies that Dr. Kelly was not carrying anything. He did not have a bottle of water, or a pruning knife, or three ten-sheet-packs of Copraxomol, or a heavy jacket to conceal them in—yet, later, he was supposedly found with all of these.

  •3:25 PM

  Dr. Kelly continues on his walk, to Ruth’s right, down Appleton Road, in the direction of Kingston Bagpuize. Analysis: The direction in which Dr. Kelly continued walking was consistent with his regular short walks, and was not the walking route that he would have taken had he intended going to Harrowdown Hill (the location his body was later found).

  •3:25 -10:00 PM or later (Over seven hours missing)

 
Note that there are approximately seven missing hours between the time that neighbor Ruth Absolom bid goodbye to her friend (the last witness to see him alive), and the approximate time of Dr. Kelly’s death. We know from forensics that Dr. Kelly was alive during this time period. When the body was discovered on the following morning, the pathologist ignored standard procedure and failed to take the victim’s body temperature, with which an accurate time of death could be estimated. However, we know that the rigor mortis process generally takes six hours to begin and takes approximately twelve hours to become vivid. We know that Dr. Kelly’s body did not evidence the full effect of rigor mortis when it was eventually found at 10:00 AM on Friday morning. Therefore, working backwards, the time of death can be established—and the earliest time Dr. Kelly could have died— was 10:00 PM, Thursday night; and it could very well have been later. So he was alive for many hours after he had gone missing.

  •4:30-5:00 PM

  Mrs. Kelly states that when it was getting close to a couple of hours that he’d been gone, she realized that her husband had been gone too long and she “began to get rather worried.” The fact that she knew that his walks typically took less than thirty minutes, but did not begin to worry until almost two hours later, again suggests that—at the time in question— there was no reason for her to consider anything like suicide. There is also no mention anywhere in the record that Mrs. Kelly (or anyone else, for that matter) tried calling her husband on his cell phone, which would have clearly been the logical thing to do. He had his cell phone with him.