The Common Ills: They go after whistle-blowers, don't they?

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

They go after whistle-blowers, don't they?

Dr. David Kelly was the weapons inspector who spoke, off the record, to the BBC's Andrew Gilligan about the intelligence dossier being "sexed up" to push the case for illegal war. Shortly after being outed as the source, Kelly's body was discovered (July 17, 2003) and the official cause of death was listed as suicide. A group of British doctors have been challenging that finding.

For those learning of Kelly today, or even in 2007, it might not seem like much, the "sexed up" claim, but at the time it was explosive. Today, the lies of war are well known -- even though a number in the press pretend otherwise. In 2003, with the illegal war already going horribly and visibly wrong, Kelly's statements were explosive.

He was among the first Iraq War whistle-blowers. His death was clouded with questions which remain even now as Justin Schlosberg (New Statesman) notes this morning:

For any journalist genuinely concerned with ‘the facts’, it would have been clear from the outset that the only thing we know in relation to this case is that we don’t know how Kelly died. It is possible that he did die in the way Hutton said he died (albeit extremely unlikely according to mainstream medical opinion), and that conflicting evidence was the result of random anomalies; just as it is possible that Kelly was murdered, with or without the connivance of elements within the British state. The point is that no cause of death has been established on the basis of likely probability, let alone beyond reasonable doubt.
But there is something else we know which is that there has been unprecedented misinformation, obstruction of justice and on-going suppression of information in relation to this case. Only around a quarter of the police documents submitted to Hutton have been published and much of the remaining evidence has been sealed under an extraordinarily high level of classification for 70 years. It includes medical reports, photographs of the body and supplementary witness statements. The justification for this enduring secrecy is to prevent undue distress to the bereaved. But David Kelly was a public servant who suffered an unnatural death in extremely controversial circumstances. In far less controversial cases, the interests of the bereaved never outweigh that of the public interest in having a formal coroner’s inquest into an unnatural death.

If he took his own life, he did so because of what Tony Blair, Alistair Campbell and others put him through, the demonization, etc. If he was actually killed, it would be with Blair's approval. Some have tried to argue that Dick Cheney ordered the hit. While the US could have been involved in discussions of taking out David Kelly, it is unlikely that they would have led a hit on British soil at a time when the leaders of both countries were arms entwined, legs entangled, joined at the hip close.

(For young readers, former President of Vice Dick Cheney, the pathetic and comical figure that now pops up from time to time -- like a herpes outbreak -- was once considered a sinister mastermind because he managed to push for a war -- an illegal war that many leaders had wanted. There is no genius in Dick Cheney, just depravity.)

Vikram Dodd (Guardian) writes:

Debate still surrounds Hutton's conclusion that Kelly committed suicide. The inquiry found that Kelly died after cutting an artery, had taken an overdose of painkillers and had heart disease which left his arteries "significantly narrowed". Thus, said experts, less blood loss may have killed the scientist than that needed to kill a healthy man.
Among those who have called for an inquest or have doubts it was a suicide are former Tory leader Michael Howard, and Liberal Democrat minister Norman Baker, who wrote a book saying Kelly was most likely murdered.
A group of doctors say Hutton's findings should be discarded and a new inquest held. Dr Stephen Frost said: "We have lots of evidence … No coroner in the land would reach a verdict of suicide as Lord Hutton did."
Experts in forensic pathology point out the sceptics may be expert in their own fields, but not in the science of establishing the cause of death.

However he died, he is one of the many punished and demonized for telling the truth. The government impulse to kill the messenger is alive and well as we have seen with the court-martial of Bradley Manning and the US government's desperate attacks on NSA whistle-blower Ed Snowden.

The following community sites -- plus Adam Kokesh, Antiwar.com, Chocolate City, Susan's On the Edge, and the Guardian -- updated last night and this morning: