British Weapons Adviser Found Dead

July 18, 2003

LONDON (AP) — A body found in central England matches the description of a missing Ministry of Defense adviser who had become embroiled in a controversy over the government's intelligence dossiers on Iraqi arms, police said Friday.

"The body found matches the description of David Kelly, but the body has not yet been formally identified," a spokeswoman for Thames Valley Police said.

Kelly, a 58-year-old former weapons inspector, was one of the figures at the center of a political storm over allegations that Prime Minister Tony Blair's office doctored intelligence on Iraqi weapons to strengthen the case for war, a claim denied by the government.

The Ministry of Defense said he may have been the source for a British Broadcasting Corp. report that Blair aides gave undue prominence to a claim that Iraq could launch chemical or biological weapons on 45 minutes' notice.

Kelly's family reported him missing late Thursday after he failed to return to home from an afternoon walk.

"This is clearly a sensitive inquiry," David Purnell of Thames Valley Police spokesman told a press conference. "At the moment ... a body has been found. There is no more further information as to the identity of that person, those inquiries are ongoing."

Purnell said police were trying to find out whether anyone else was missing from the area.

The controversy centers over the BBC report citing an unidentified official saying the 45-minute claim was inserted to build up an intelligence dossier published last September.

Kelly, a former U.N. weapons inspector, told a Parliament committee earlier this week he had spoken to the BBC. But he said he didn't make the claims in the report and didn't believe he was the source cited. The BBC has refused government requests to reveal who the source was.

The BBC report prompted two Parliamentary probes into the issue and fueled a wider controversy that has left Blair facing a barrage of questions over pre-war intelligence. The Foreign Affairs Committee cleared Blair's communications chief, Alastair Campbell, of allegations he tried to build up the September dossier by inserting the claim.

The Defense Ministry said Friday, "We are aware that Dr. David Kelly has gone missing and we are obviously concerned."

A spokesman for Blair's office also expressed concern for Kelly's welfare. "Our thoughts are with his family and friends," the spokesman said.

Officers said Kelly's failure to make contact with anyone was described by his family as "out of character."

Initial searches of his house and its outbuildings and grounds were completed early Friday.

Donald Anderson, who chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee where Kelly testified on Tuesday, said the committee "felt pretty confident that he (Kelly) was not in fact the source."

Anderson, a Labor Party lawmaker, told BBC television that Kelly had appeared "rather relaxed" during his testimony and seemed to be "on top of things."

Conservative committee member Richard Ottaway said Kelly had suggested he was under great strain.

"At the meeting last week he did hint at the sort of pressure he was under," Ottaway said. "He was asked to provide some evidence and he replied that he would do so but he could not get into his house because of the media pressure."

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