The death, apparently by suicide, of British weapons expert David Kelly adds another chapter to the seemingly endless, and now self-perpetuating, WMD controversy. Kelly’s death was immediately blamed on Tony Blair–a reporter asked him in Tokyo yesterday “whether the death weighed on his conscience and whether he, or any members of his government, might resign.”
Never considered, of course, is the possibility that Kelly’s own actions weighed on his conscience and precipitated his suicide. Kelly was suspected of being the source of false allegations against the Blair administration. He denied under oath that he gave the BBC the false information. If he was lying, and was in fact the source of the false accusation, he might not only have suffered from a guilty conscience, but feared that his exposure as the source of the slander was inevitable. If Kelly was telling the truth and was not the source of the slander, it is hard to see why being called before a Parliamentary committee and truthfully denying any involvement would render him suicidal.
Of course, Kelly may have been despondent for personal reasons having nothing to do with any of this. But there is no logical basis on which anyone can leap to the conclusion that Blair or his government was somehow to blame.
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