[Opinion] Tragic Death of Dr. Kelly

At Victorian Charring Cross Hotel in London on May 22, a quite and serious-looking man was sitting face to face with a man who looked just opposed to his character. The outgoing man was Andrew Gilligan, a BBC reporter writing defense-related stories. He was preparing a report on the dubious government claims on the existence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq, which UK and U.S. cited as the reason for their attack on the country. There must have been no other man who knew better about the existence of WMD in Iraq than this quiet scientist. He had been working as a key UN arms inspector, traveling to Iraq 36 times for 7 years since the Gulf War. None of the two men, however, knew what would happen in two months, according to the daily Guardian.

Dr. Kelly, who served his country for decades as a devoted scientist, chose death, after finding himself caught in the power game in a way he never wanted. It all began with Gilligan`s May 29th report, which claimed ˝the Downing Street sexed up the 2002 dossier on Iraqi WMD.˝ On June 1, Gilligan wrote, ˝According to an unidentified source, Blair`s communications chief Alastair Campbell redrafted the dossier to include the claim that Saddam Hussein could launch illicit weapons on 45 minutes` notice.˝ The BBC reports sparked a war of words between the communications chief and the broadcasting company. Campbell continued denying the claim, while the Defense Ministry pointing out Dr. Kelly as the source. The scientist was brought to a hearing in the parliament, where he was labeled as rubbish.

The police confirmed that his death was a suicide, but no one knows why he chose to kill himself. Dr. Kelly reportedly said worriedly to his journalist friend that the BBC reporter misinterpreted him. At the hearing, he first denied, ˝I don`t think I am the only source,˝ and later he said that he believed the reporter wrote `the 45 minutes` and `sex-up` parts based on his assumption. While expressing sorrow for his tragic death, however, BBC insists that it did not misinterpret his words. What is true and what is not? The dead man cannot tell.

The Downing Street and BBC are at the center of the heated debated over political power games, media ethics, truth and morality. Prime Minister Tony Blair, who now has blood on his hands, the Ministry of Defense, lawmakers and BBC were blindly seeking their own interests, and are now under pressure. What is more important is, however, whether there is any WMD in Iraq and what is happening in Iraq after the country was `liberated` at expense of innocent lives. In an e-mail message sent to one of his friends, Dr. Kelly wrote, ˝I will go back to Iraq to do my job after all these end.˝ And it seems that the war has yet to end in Iraq and in Britain.

Kim Sun-deok, Editorial Writer, yuri@donga.com