David Kelly in the World Press

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David Kelly in the World Press

Source: The Guardian, 2003-07-23

Candidate: David Kelly

Speculation over the circumstances surrounding the death of David Kelly was not confined to the British press. Papers in Europe and the Middle East were equally fascinated by the events that culminated in the weapons expert's apparent suicide in an Oxfordshire wood last week - and by the consequences for Tony Blair.

The European papers' treatment of Dr Kelly's death was noticeably less conspiracy-prone than that of their Middle Eastern counterparts, but their sense of anger and scepticism was evident. "An honest expert has died in Dr Kelly, but not the search for truth about a war built on lies," said El Pais, which, like many other Spanish papers, remains deeply suspicious of the reasons for the war in Iraq. "The disappearance of Saddam's ignominious regime is no justification for [the leaders of America, Britain and Spain] to deceive their citizens."

El Mundo was no less indignant, but felt the BBC was as much to blame for events as the government. "Both institutions come out of this looking bad because their power game has had only one palpable result - the tragic, unjust death of a decent man who was cynically exploited."

Le Monde shared El Pais's view that the real debate was about far more than the death of one man. "The serious political crisis that confronts the British prime minister does not have its origin in the death of Dr Kelly," argued the French daily, "but in his government lying about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction."

Germany's Die Welt and Austria's Die Presse were united in their gloomy predictions of Mr Blair's future. The former described Dr Kelly's death as "a turning point of the kind that tends to make history", while the latter branded it "the most serious crisis" of the prime minister's six years in Downing Street.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung was more explicit. "Not only the attempt, but the ways and means that Mr Blair's government employed to set up Dr Kelly as a scapegoat go beyond the usual tricks of spin," said the paper. "The prime minister may now find himself on the pillory."

Considered speculation gave way to open accusation as the Middle Eastern press pondered the matter. The Hebrew-language Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot argued that Dr Kelly's death had reconfigured the moral and political debate over the war in Iraq and "stamped the affair with a tormented human image and with a whiff of conspiracy".

Its assertions, however, melted into meekness when set against much of the comment in an angry Arab press still furious about the war. Egypt's al-Jumhuriyah was a case in point. Despite having no evidence to support its claim, the state-owned paper had no doubt that Dr Kelly had been "assassinated".

Al-Hayat also laid the hints on rather heavily. "Getting rid of Dr Kelly is undoubtedly a strong and final warning to the British media and media men that challenging the state in the 'secrets' of war leads to destruction, even if these secrets are fabricated," said the London based-daily.

The Tehran Times pronounced the death "suspicious", but opted for restraint over invective, unlike fellow Iranian paper Jomhuri-ye Eslami, which proclaimed the death "a big disgrace for the British and American governments ... While they deafen the world with their cries of support for human rights, they resort to lies, deceit, threats and killings in order to perpeatuate their dirty and inhuman rule."

Al-Watan took a similarly bitter line. The Saudi paper was pleased that Mr Blair had agreed to cooperate with the Hutton inquiry, but reminded him that cooperation would "not restore the credibility of the British government, nor bring Dr Kelly back to life ... Moreover, it will not bring back to life thousands of innocent Iraqis whose only fault was that Saddam ruled their country and made it easy for others to fabricate pretexts and reports to destroy and control Iraq and its wealth".
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User Originated Comments:

From:
2006-01-03 00:00:00

From: bull-bush
1999-11-30 00:00:00
so.. dr kelly had information.. lets see, this
reminds me of senator paul wellington who was
killed with his family on september 2002, was that
really a plane crash? oh yea everyone says its
verified, well, research some of his well
publicized political advertisments, he is an
honest man, and so was dr. kelly, and for no
reason he should have been
murdered.

everytime something comes out
of the media, i never ever believe it, i always
believe my intuition, media is one sided??? no
one fights for truth, while more sh@#%@ is dug
under the mat, big money politicians just burry
the cr-p and repeat the same stuff over and over,
oh he commited suicide, he just couldnt take
it.
pleeeease... i want this over already,
im tired of listening to bush in his 4 year term.
tony blair has nothing to be involved in, neither
do any world leader, dubya's crisis for thousands
of people in the uk was done by him cia/fbi/ his
daddy'o and all his sheep in crawford tx.
and
the millions who saw the death of other important
leaders like sergio de viero the un leader was
another big hit. bush just needs to shut his pie
hole. the world does not need to listen to more
terror inside the white house, stop threatening
that we'll be on defcon 999, its unhealthy,
frightening, and unfocusthly inhumane..
i'll
believe dr. kelly took his life for such
pressure..

but one more thing..

everything started when president bush was
elected.
ever play domino?? next one hits
next...
i hope it stops in
2004
sheesh

From: spun to death
1999-11-30 00:00:00

From: Ukjent
1999-11-30 00:00:00
uk government now build their case to conclude
that kelly lied and exaggerated. so convinient he
is dead and cannot comment. ask: who has benefited
from kelly's death.
i say: a serious man like
kelly would not see the time right for death. he
was too busy defending his honour.

From: sally
1999-11-30 00:00:00
below is a letter i have just sent to
crimestoppers, uk in the hopes that they will send
it on to the thames valley police. i am not
convinced by explanations of "apparent suicide"
but neither am i a conspiracy freak. it just
doesnt make sense in the light of the deaths of
other microbiologists. an article written in the
globe and mail wrote about this in march 2002 when
the total at that time was only eleven. the total
number of dead microbiologists is now (including
david kelly) eighteen (18). eighteen in under two
years??? and none of them died of cancer?

anyone else think this is weird? if
you do, why don't you sent an email to the police
to make sure they investigate this properly. what
we need is some public pressure. if they are made
aware that many people are worried about the glib
description of "suicide" they may be forced to
answer public concern.

the guys at the
white house are true nutters and, after illegally
invading iraq, i dont put it past them to be
considering other forms of less conventional
warfare. anyone who knows about this is
automatically dangerous if it looks as though they
might be beginning to leak. there are more reasons
to suppose it is murder than reasons for suicide.

even worse, i don't think people in
blair's government know anything about this, given
the unpleasant consequences. they all seem to be
remarkably na�ve about the government they have
sought to make an alliance with. haven't they read
the pnac document about genetic biowarfare, a
stated aim of the current bush administration?

background information for
the thames valley police team in charge of
investigating dr kelly's
death.

dear
sirs,

having followed closely the
investigation into the death of dr kelly and lord
hutton's current inquiry, i was struck by the
similarities of dr kelly's background to a series
of deaths reported around the world, all top cl-ss
scientists with specialisms in microbiology, which
brings the total to 16 since november
2001.

not wishing to send anyone off on
a wild goose chase or take up the time of busy
police investigators, i have hesitated to send
this to you, but as i am totally unqualified to
judge its relevance i feel someone at thames
valley police should at least be informed.

the following information comes from
detailed research in an extensive file on the
cooperative research website managed by paul
thompson:
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/a
aanthrax.html

it has been edited by me
to show the deaths catalogued but i strongly
recommend reading the entire thread entitled
"anthrax attacks and microbiologist deaths" in
order to get a complete picture.

the
methodology for the research simply puts in
chronological order references from international
press reports.

best
regards

..........
(british
citizen living in barcelona,
spain)

(contact details withheld for
privacy)
.....

november 12, 2001:
the beginning of numerous mysterious deaths of
renowned microbiologists. a good place to start
learning about this is a globe and mail article,
which calls these deaths a "tale only the best
conspiracy theorist could dream up" yet hard to
explain [globe and mail, 5/4/02] (the memphis
flyer also provides a good overview, but is much
more speculative: [memphis flyer, 3/7/02]). the
first dead microbiologist is dr. benito que, 52,
was "an expert in
infectious diseases and
cellular biology at the miami medical school.
police originally suspected that he had been
beaten on november 12 in a carjacking in the
medical school's parking lot. strangely enough,
though, his body showed no signs of a beating.
doctors then began to suspect a stroke." [globe
and mail, 5/4/02]

november 16, 2001:
dead microbiologist: dr. don wiley, 57, disappears
during a business trip to memphis, tennessee. [fox
news, 11/24/01] he had just bought tickets to take
his son to graceland the following day. police
found his rental car on a bridge outside memphis.
his body was later found in the mississippi river.
forensic experts said he may have had a dizzy
spell and fallen off the bridge. police will only
say, "we began this investigation as a missing
person investigation. from there it went to a more
criminal bent." [cnn, 11/29/01] "wiley is seen as
one of the world's leading researchers of deadly
viruses, including hiv and the ebola virus." [cnn,
12/22/01] wiley worked at the howard hughes
medical institute at harvard university, and was
an expert on the immune system's response to viral
attacks. he was widely regarded as the nation's
foremost expert in using special x-ray cameras and
mathematical formulas to make high-resolution
images of viruses. [boston globe, 12/21/01] the
fbi is monitoring the investigation because of his
research knowledge. [globe and mail,
5/4/02]

november 21, 2001 (b): dead
microbiologist: world-cl-ss microbiologist and
high-profile russian defector dr. vladimir
pasechnik, 64, dies of a stroke. pasechnik, who
defected to britain in 1989, had played a huge
role in the development of russian biowarfare,
heading a lab of 400 "with an unlimited budget"
and "the best staff available." he says he
succeeded in producing an aerosolized plague
microbe that could survive outside the laboratory.
he was connected to britain's spy agency and
recently had started his own company. "in the last
few weeks of his life he had put his research on
anthrax at the disposal of the [british]
government, in the light of the threat from
bioterrorism." [london times, 11/30/01, new york
times, 11/23/01, globe and mail,
5/4/02]

november 24, 2001: three more
dead microbiologists: a swissair flight from
berlin to zurich crashes during its landing
approach; 22 are killed and nine survive. among
those killed are dr. yaakov matzner, 54, dean of
the hebrew university school of medicine; amiramp
eldor, 59, head of the haematology department at
ichilov hospital in tel aviv and a
world-recognized expert in blood clotting; and
avishai berkman, 50, director of the tel aviv
public health department and businessman. [cnn,
11/25/01, swissair manifest,
11/24/01]

december 10, 2001: dead
microbiologist: "dr. robert schwartz, 57, was
stabbed and slashed with what police believe was a
sword in his farmhouse in leesberg, va. his
daughter, who identifies herself as a pagan high
priestess, and three of her fellow pagans have
been charged." [globe and mail, 5/4/02] all were
part of what they called a coven, and interested
in magic, fantasy and self-mutilation. the police
have no motive as to why they would have wanted to
kill schwartz, who was a single parent and said to
be very close to his children. schwartz worked at
virginia's center for innovative technology on dna
sequencing and pathogenic microorganisms. he was
"a brilliant scientist who had a gift for
explaining complex scientific subjects in simple
language." [washington post,
12/12/01]

december 13, 2001: the us
army responds to a journalistic investigation and
confirms that it has been making weapons grade
anthrax in recent years, in violation of an
international treaty. the us offensive biological
weapons program was supposedly closed in 1969 when
the us signed a biological weapons treaty. in 1998
scientists at the army's dugway proving ground in
utah turned small quantities of wet anthrax into
powder. this weaponized anthrax appears to be very
similar or identical to the anthrax used in the
recent attacks. [baltimore sun, 12/13/01, new york
times, 12/13/01]

december 14, 2001:
dead microbiologist: nguyen van set, 44, dies in
an airlock filled with nitrogen in his lab in
geelong, australia. the lab had just been written
up in the journal nature for its work in genetic
manipulation and dna sequencing. scientists there
had created a virulent form of mousepox. "they
realized that if similar genetic manipulation was
carried out on smallpox, an unstoppable killer
could be unleashed," according to nature. [sydney
morning herald, 12/12/01, globe and mail,
5/4/02]

january 2002: two dead
microbiologists: ivan glebov and alexi
brushlinski. pravda reports that glebov died as
the result of a bandit attack and reports without
explanation that brushlinski was killed in moscow.
both were "well known around the world" and
members of the russian academy of science.
[pravda, 2/9/02, globe and mail,
5/4/02]

february 9, 2002 (b):
dead microbiologist: victor korshunov, 56, is
bashed over the head and killed at the entrance of
his home in moscow, russia. he was the head of the
microbiology sub-faculty at the russian state
medical university and an expert in intestinal
bacteria. [pravda, 2/9/02, globe and mail, 5/4/02]

february 10, 2002:�katherine smith is
killed a day before appearing in court on charges
she helped five muslim terrorists get illegal
drivers licenses.�her car supposedly hit a tree
and then caught on fire.�the fbi later determined
that gasoline was poured on her clothing before
she died in an arson fire. a suicide note was
found, but prosecutors say they are looking for
murder suspects. one of the five muslims, sakhera
hammad, was found with a visitor's p-ss for the
wtc, dated september 5, 2001, in his wallet.
hammad claims he was a plumber and worked on the
wtc's sprinkler system. smith was being
investigated by the fbi; the five later plead
guilty of fraud.�[ap, 2/13/02, reuters, 2/15/02,
go memphis, 2/12/02, memphis commercial appeal,
2/21/02]

february 11, 2002: dead
microbiologist: dr. ian langford, 40, is found
dead, partially naked and wedged under a chair in
his home in norwich, england. when found, his
house was described as "blood-spattered and
apparently ransacked." he was an expert in
environmental risks and disease and a senior
fellow at the university of east anglia's centre
for social and economic research on the global
environment. one of his colleagues states: "ian
was without doubt one of europe's leading experts
on environmental risk, specializing in links
between human health and environmental risk... he
was one of the most brilliant colleagues i have
ever had."
[london times, 2/13/02, globe and
mail, 5/4/02]

february 28, 2002 (b):
two dead microbiologists in san francisco: while
taking delivery of a pizza, tanya holzmayer, 46,
is shot and killed by a colleague, guyang huang,
38, who then apparently shot himself. holzmayer
moved to the us from russia in 1989. her research
focused on the part of the human molecular
structure that could be affected best by medicine.
holzmayer was focusing on helping create new drugs
that interfere with replication of the virus that
causes aids. one year earlier, holzmayer obeyed
senior management orders to fire huang. [san jose
mercury news, 2/28/02, globe and mail, 5/4/02]

march 13, 2002: a bomb and two
smaller explosive-type devices are found and
defused in the stairwell outside of the shelby
county regional forensic center, memphis,
tennessee, where county medical examiner dr. o. c.
smith works. smith states, "we have done several
high-profile cases from (missing harvard
researcher) dr. (don) wiley to katherine smith but
there has been no indication that we offended
anyone... we just don't know if we were the
intended target or
not.'' the police state,
"it potentially could have been a large blast if
exploded." in june, dr. smith is attacked, bound
with barbed wire and left with a bomb tied to his
body (see june 1, 2002). [memphis commercial
appeal, 3/14/02]

march 24, 2002 (c):
dead microbiologist: david wynn-williams, 55, is
hit by a car while jogging near his home in
cambridge, england. he was an astrobiologist with
the antarctic astrobiology project and the nasa
ames research center. he was studying the
capability of microbes to adapt to environmental
extremes, including the bombardment of ultraviolet
rays and global warming. [london times, 3/27/02,
globe and mail, 5/4/02]

march 25,
2002: dead microbiologist: steven mostow, 63, dies
when the airplane he was piloting crashes near
denver, colorado. he worked at the colorado health
sciences centre and was known as "dr. flu" for his
expertise in treating influenza, and expertise on
bioterrorism. mostow was "one of the country's
leading infectious disease experts" and was
-ssociate dean at the university of colorado
health sciences center. three others died in the
crash. mostow's death bring the total number of
leading microbiologists killed in a six-month
period to at least 15. [kusa tv, 3/26/02, globe
and mail, 5/4/02]

june 1, 2002:
memphis, tennessee, medical examiner o.c. smith is
attacked with chemical spray, bound with barbed
wire, and left lying in a nearby parking lot with
a bomb tied to his body. he is rescued several
hours later. in recent months, smith has been
working on two interesting cases. one is the death
of harvard university microbiologist don wiley,
who supposedly fell from a memphis bridge in
december (see november 16, 2001). he also helped
identify the body of katherine smith, a state
driver's license examiner who was found burned
beyond recognition in february 2002, a day before
a hearing on federal charges of helping five
middle eastern men obtain fake driver's licenses
(see february 10, 2002). smith had received a
series of death threat letters early in 2001. [ap,
6/4/02]
----
also add leland rickman of
university of california, san diego who was number
twelve.

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