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[TonyGosling]

Key players in Kelly assassination awarded promotions, pay rises, honours December 13, 2006

http://aftermathnews.wordpress.com/2006/12/13/key-players-in-kelly-assassination-awarded-promotions-pay-rises-honours/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=421572&in_page_id=1770

Promotions, pay rises honours - how the key players in the Kelly scandal were rewarded
By JONATHAN OLIVER

The politicians and officials at the heart of the David Kelly scandal have been showered with honours, promotions or lucrative retirement jobs in the three years since the scientist's death.
While the Kelly family continue to mourn quietly in private, The Mail on Sunday today reveals how the men and women who share the blame for his demise have prospered.
On the eve of the third anniversary of the Hutton Report into the affair, an investigation charts the upward career paths of figures central to the inquiry who were called to give evidence or played a major part from behind the scenes.
The senior officials accused of covering up No10's manipulation of the intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have gone on to be rewarded with some of the most glamorous jobs in the public sector.
Meanwhile, the Labour chairmen of the Commons committees that failed to probe the bogus Government dossiers on Saddam Hussein have been placed in the House of Lords.
And Alastair Campbell, the spin doctor whom critics accuse of tampering with intelligence and whipping up the hysteria that led to the scientist's alleged suicide, now stands to make an estimated £1 million from his memoirs.
Even junior and middle-ranking officials who were caught up in the political tornado have been recognised by the honours system and given significant promotions.
The research was carried out by Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker, who is probing the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr Kelly in July 2003.
Mr Baker said: "Nobody in Government came out of this episode with any credit or integrity. Yet, three years after the Hutton Inquiry, the principal players in the drama of the death of David Kelly - those who backed the Government or cravenly caved in to No10's demands - have prospered handsomely."
Meanwhile, the men who stood up to the Establishment have not fared so well.
In 2003, Kevin Marsh was the editor of Radio 4's Today Programme and defended his reporter Andrew Gilligan's right to report that Campbell had "sexed up" the WMD dossier. Now he is stuck in a relative backwater as head of the BBC's journalist training school.
Greg Dyke, then BBC director general, was forced to quit following the Hutton Report and has struggled to find a new role.
And what of Lord Hutton? The ex-Law Lord, accused of colluding in an Establishment whitewash, has slipped back into obscure retirement in his native Northern Ireland and has said little on the affair. Last month he defended his report in an article for a legal journal.

The Air Marshal
Sir Joe French, 57, was Chief of Defence Intelligence.
Salary: up to £95,000.
Role: Testified before Hutton, defending the notorious - now disproved - claim that Saddam's weapons could be launched within 45 minutes.
Now: Promoted this year to Commander-in-Chief of RAF Strike Command on £154,000 a year.

The MP
Ann Taylor, 59, Labour MP, was chairwoman of Parliament's Intelligence Committee.
Salary: £56,000.
Role: She headed the committee that published a report which exonerated Downing Street over allegations of manipulating the Iraq intelligence.
Now: Ennobled as Baroness Taylor of Bolton. In her first year in the Lords she claimed more than £30,000 in tax-free "subsistence allowances".

The Select Committee Chairman
Donald Anderson, 67, was Labour chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.
Salary: £56,000.
Role: Caved in to Government request not to ask David Kelly awkward questions about Iraq's WMD. Kelly was found dead two days after he appeared before Anderson's committee.
Now: Elevated to Lords as Baron Anderson of Swansea. Claimed £25,000 last year in tax-free attendance allowances in return for attending Lords on a total of 94 days.

The Defence Secretary
Geoff Hoon, 53, was Defence Secretary.
Salary: £129,000.
Role: Accused of neglecting his duty of care towards MoD employee David Kelly by sanctioning the release of his name to the media. Hoon admitted he could have done more to help the scientist.
Now: Demoted to Europe Minister on £99,000 but considered lucky to keep his Government job. Insiders claim Blair decided against sacking him because of the Iraq secrets he could spill.

The PM's mouthpiece
Godric Smith, 41, was one of the Prime Minister's two Official Spokesmen.
Salary: £80,000.
Role: Announced Kelly's death to reporters on the PM's plane as it arrived in Tokyo - responsible for many subsequent briefings.
Now: Honoured with CBE. Sports-mad Smith landed dream job as chief spin doctor for the 2012 London Olympics. Paid £120,000 a year.

The spin doctor
Alastair Campbell, 49, was Blair's Director of Communications and Strategy.
Salary: £130,000.
Role: Allegedly masterminded the "sexing up" of the official report on Iraq's WMD, author of the second so-called "dodgy dossier", and was the man behind the strategy that led to the public naming of David Kelly.
Now: Quit No10 but new work more lucrative. Charged Labour £40,000 plus VAT for a few weeks as a consultant during 2005 Election. Sports writer for Rupert Murdoch's Times newspaper. Stands to make £1 million for his memoirs.

The PM's other spokesman
Tom Kelly, 51, was the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (joint post).
Salary: £80,000.
Role: Briefed reporters that David Kelly was "Walter Mitty" character.
Now: Promoted to chief spokesman on £100,000.

The Whitehall intelligence chief
Sir John Scarlett, 58, was chairman of Whitehall's Joint Intelligence Committee.
Salary: £130,000.
Role: Accused of acting as "human shield" for Alastair Campbell. Scarlett insisted he had "overall charge and responsibility" of the Iraq intelligence report - No 10 had not meddled.
Now: Promoted in 2005 to the most glamorous job in British intelligence: Chief of MI6. Known as "C". Salary up to £200,000.

The deputy intelligence chief
Martin Howard, 52, was Deputy Chief of Defence Intelligence.
Salary: £90,000.
Role: Insisted Downing Street had no knowledge that 45-minute claim was wrong.
Now: Still at MoD as Director General of Operational Policy on a salary of £100,000.

The Chief of Staff
Julian Miller, 51, was Chief of the Intelligence Assessment Staff, Cabinet Office.
Salary: £80,000.
Role: Defended Alastair Campbell, suggested David Kelly was too junior to have had access to crucial intelligence.
Now: Made Companion of the Order of the Bath. Director-General of Resources and Plans in the MoD on £100,000.

The Inquiry Secretary
Lee Hughes, late 40s, was Secretary to the Hutton Inquiry.
Salary: £50,000.
Role: Managed day-to-day logistics of the hearing.
Now: Made CBE. Promoted to senior role in Department of Constitutional Affairs, on £60,000.

The MoD Press Officer
Kate Wilson, late 30s, was chief Press officer at MoD.
Salary: £50,000.
Role: Responsible for strategy that led to Kelly's "outing". Journalists were told in advance that if they gave the correct name, the MoD would confirm it.
Now: Honoured with an OBE "in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in connection with operations in Iraq". Still chief Press officer at MoD. Salary around £60,000.

The PM's top foreign adviser
Sir David Manning, 57, was Tony Blair's chief foreign policy adviser.
Salary: £120,000.
Role: Present at all Downing Street sofa summits leading up to the war.
Now: Promoted to Washington Ambassador, the most sought-after job in the diplomatic service. The post comes with armoured Rolls-Royce and sprawling residence. Basic salary £130,000 plus tax-free allowances of £90,000.

The top civil servant
Sir Kevin Tebbit, 60, was Permanent Under Secretary of State at MoD.
Salary: up to £264,250.
Role: Sir Kevin admitted "responsibility" but not "culpability" for Kelly's death.
Now: Enjoying comfortable semi-retirement as non-executive director of the Smiths Aerospace group on £60,000 a year and is also a visiting professor at Queen Mary College, London.

The MI6 supremo
Sir Richard Dearlove, 61, was Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service - MI6.
Salary: up to £200,000.
Role: Insisted to Hutton he was not aware of any unhappiness within the intelligence community over the 45-minute claim.
Now: Living in genteel retirement as Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, on Civil Service pension of up to £100,000.

[TonyGosling]

Tony Blair lives, David Kelly dies
By Martin Deane
http://www.thisisull.com/politics/martin/blairhutton.html

Lord Hutton was chosen by Blair. Lord Hutton was given his brief by Blair. Lord Hutton has whitewashed the Government and scapegoated the BBC. Blair conned us to go to war and the Hutton Report is a smokescreen.

Hutton was a major event in itself, but the real issue is - and remains - responsibility for war.
Today no blame attaches to Mr Blair, or to Mr Hoon, to Her Majesty's Government or to the Ministry Of Defence. But the British Broadcasting Corporation gets it in the neck. For what? For daring to question a tiny part of a government dossier on another country's weapons. Dr Kelly, inside the MOD, questioned the 45-minute attack claim, and is now a casualty - of war. Of an arrogant Labour government that could not be questioned, nor even appear to be questioned. It is ironic, that weapons inspector David Kelly should be the one British victim of non-existent Iraqi WMD, which he himself believed in.
The result? The BBC is to blame - for 'over-egging' a conservative expert's words! But in the final analysis the words don't matter! What matters is we went to war! In the face of the greatest popular protest in British history.
On Blair's say-so. On presented intelligence that was fantasy. To blame just the BBC makes Hutton an outrage to decent thinking people.
Kelly would no doubt be alive now, had he not dared question this small, yet spinable, part of a government dossier. For many it remains difficult to believe a man as professional, tough-minded and capable as David Kelly, would actually kill himself. Many inconsistencies and other reports suggest agents had a hand in it - even governments can shoot themselves in the foot.
Some wanted to throw the book at him, as well as the BBC. Well they won on both points.
Saturday 17th July was the anniversary of Dr David Kelly's death. Kelly's 'crime' was to break ranks and talk off the record to a reporter. Indeed a man may have died as a result of the government's contempt for one of the cornerstones of democracy - a free and independent press. In the end Kelly died for his attempt to be clear about exactly what he backed in a government dossier, and what he did not. It's called integrity. "In my opinion, David Kelly and his team should have won the Nobel (peace) prize for disarmament", Rolf Ekeus, chief UN weapons inspector, 1990s. (BBC News link)
Blair followed America and chose to go to war. We had Blair's word that Iraq was crawling with WMD. Britain joined in killing 55,000 people - and Blair thinks it's his finest hour. The Truth is: there weren't any WMD! Hussein was disarmed, this was known, this was said, he was no immediate danger. The Americans were saying this in 2001! Kelly and Gilligan made hardly the faintest criticism of the actual falsity of the government's stance, and now one is dead and the other a scapegoat! The Truth is - Blair joined an illegal, immoral, aggressive war - by deceiving us all!

Blair pretends such 'pre-emptive' war can be fought under International Law. Bush and Blair's war of aggression remains a most serious crime under Nuremberg Laws. International Law has been seriously undermined by their chosen action; a dangerous precedent from a dangerous president, that Blair chose to follow, in preference to his own people. Many of us now are surprised that Tony Blair remains. In 1974 America impeached Nixon. Nobody died at Watergate.
Hutton avoided blame for war - as the peacemakers predicted. One British scientist, 55,000 Iraqis and as many as 12,000 allied personnel have paid the price in dead and wounded. The peace movement, and other sections of society, knew Iraq was defenceless, impoverished by murderous sanctions; that Iraq had suffered enough. We knew weapons inspections worked! Yet Blair spends £6 or 7 billion on war and then brow beats us over top-up fees!
It may be hidden whether Blair leaked Kelly's name, but what is clear is that Tony Blair is responsible for mercilessly pushing Britain into war against the wishes of the country, pushing people into believing so-called "expert intelligence" which turns out to be fantasy.

And so we believe it is right to accuse Tony Blair and Her Majesty's Government of being guilty of, and accomplices to, the murder of tens of thousands of Iraqis. They should be held to account for this. Iraq has no WMD now. Iraq was no threat in March 2003. Neither Hutton nor Butler were about to call Tony Blair an international war criminal - but we believe he is. People know it was Bush's war for oil. People know Blair went along with it. They know WMD was a ruse. The British people do not like being lied to, or ordered to pay a blood price; its intelligence services made a mockery of; its army having to follow immoral orders. It is the death knell for a society when we allow Blair's lies, fabrications, and fawning over America, to lead to war.
Martin J Deane

Martin is Secretary of Hull Stop the War
The complete Hull STW newsletter is available on their website in PDF format at:
www.stopthewar.fsnet.co.uk