Blair's Britain: Grotesque and Hideous

Suicide of top scientist proof of skullduggery, deceit and liesWhat makes a 59-year-old father of three girls, comfortably off and near to retirement, at the top of his profession, walk off into the woods and slash his wrist?

Mr. David Kelly slashed his wrist this weekend, in desperation. Days after the grilling, or the bullying, he received at the hands of the House of Commons Select Committee to discern whether the reports which provided Blair with his causus belli had been "sexed up", he felt he could not face life any longer.

Dr. David Kelly was not just another scientist, another grey figure in the background. Dr. David Kelly was the country's top expert. He was the chief scientific officer, senior adviser to the Ministry of Defense proliferation and arms control secretariat and senior adviser to the Foreign Office non-proliferation department. Dr. David Kelly had spent seven years in Iraq as a United Nations weapons inspector. Dr. David Kelly had visited Iraq no less than 37 times, he was former deputy chief scientific officer at the chemical and biological defense department and Dr. David Kelly was hawkish about the Saddam Hussein regime.

Even so, Dr. David Kelly was an honest man, a man of integrity. Dr. David Kelly was not a liar and a cheat and he decided to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but. The causus belli used by George Bush and Tony Blair was that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction which could be deployed in 45 minutes. They had documentary evidence. They had firm intelligence reports.

Dr. David Kelly knew that this was not the case. Despite his intense disliking of the Hussein regime, he could not turn his back on a lifetime of scientific research and lie through his teeth to justify an illegal war in which thousands of innocent civilians were slaughtered.

Dr. David Kelly told the select committee that there was just a 30% chance that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons and that the claim that Iraq could deploy WMD in 45 minutes was "very unlikely". Dr. David Kelly knew the truth and now it transpires that he was the source who told the BBC that the government's claims were unfounded.

A war was fought, thousands of people were killed, based upon a false premise, upon forged documents and lies. The liars and cheats are still in office, one in London, the other in Washington. Na innocent man, an honest man, a respected scientist, father of three, is dead, because the pressure put upon him was too much for him to bear.

We can draw our own conclusions as to what that pressure was.