Dr. David Kelly

David Kelly died, aged 59, on July 18, 2003; a British biological weapons expert, he was said to have slashed his own wrists while walking near his home. Kelly was the UK Ministry of Defence's Chief Scientific Officer and senior adviser to the proliferation and arms control secretariat, and to the Foreign Office's non-proliferation department. The senior adviser on biological weapons to the UN biological weapons inspections teams (UNSCOM) from 1994 to 1999, he was also, in the opinion of his peers, pre-eminent in his field, not only in this country, but in the world.

In late May 2003 the BBC reported that a top British Intelligence official had admitted that the British Government had falsified evidence about weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in order to invade Iraq alongside the United States. Upon Kelly's death, the BBC admitted that Kelly was the official they had quoted in May.

Upon his retirement, Hans Blix stated that the United States misrepresented United Nations weapons reports, and that the United States placed unjust pressure upon him and his inspections team to find WMD in Iraq. Blix firmly insisted that no evidence of such weapons existed, and vanished from the scene for retirement after the Iraq inspections fiasco.

Kelly experienced depression, says his wife, as a result of pressure on him from British officials to stand alongside Britain and White House claims of WMD in Iraq, a request Kelly refused. Britain's Parliament interrogated Kelly on his claims of no WMD in Iraq, after Tony Blair sided with George Bush's contrary claim.

However, Kelly was not the type of man, according to family and friends, who would fade out willingly, depressed or not. Whether Kelly sliced his own wrists, or whether the deed was provided by a British Government Mafia, Kelly died neither by natural causes nor by accident.