Gilligan admits making mistakes in Iraq reports

By KIM SENGUPTA

Andrew Gilligan admitted yesterday to making mistakes in his reporting of the '45 Minutes' claim, and apologised for sending MPs an E-mail which named David Kelly, the late weapons scientist, as a source of fellow BBC journalist Susan Watts.

But Mr Gilligan, the defence and diplomatic correspondent of Radio 4's Today programme, told the Hutton inquiry that he stood by his story that Dr Kelly told him that Alastair Campbell, the departing Downing Street director of communications, was the man who "sexed up" last September's Iraq weapons dossier.

The E-mail, to the Intelligence and Security Committee, had emerged in BBC documents submitted to the inquiry since Mr Gilligan's last appearance, and he sought to minimise the damage by making a fulsome apology while being questioned by his own counsel, Heather Rogers before being cross-examined.

" I was quite wrong to send it, quite wrong", he said. " I did not even know Dr Kelly was Susan Watts' source. I was under an enormous amount of pressure at the time and I simply was not thinking straight".

Under questioning from Jonathan Sumption QC, counsel for the Government, Mr Gilligan, said he was wrong to state that the Government had inserted the '45 Minutes' claim into last September's Iraq weapons dossier "probably knowing" that it was untrue.

The journalist said that he had concluded from Dr Kelly's disclosure that members of the intelligence community were unhappy with the story that this dissent must have been passed on to the Government, but that the claim went into the dossier regardless.

The inquiry has heard, subsequently, that dissent in the intelligence community was not passed on to the Joint Intelligence Committee which compiled the dossier.

Mr Gilligan also acknowledged that it was "an error" to call Dr Kelly " an intelligence services source" in one of his broadcasts. The BBC journalist pointed out that the Hutton inquiry had heard how Dr Kelly had security clearance at the highest level, advised the intelligence services on biological and chemical weaponry, and had regular contacts with the intelligence services, without actually being a member of one.

Mr Gilligan told the inquiry that his contentious broadcast at 6.07am on May 29 in which in which he made the '45 Minutes' claim was unscripted, and this contributed to the error being made. He stressed that he had sought to rectify this in subsequent broadcasts, saying the Government knew only that the '45 Minutes' threat was "questionable".

Calling Dr Kelly " an intelligence service source", said Mr Gilligan was "a slip of the tongue". He added that he had made that claim only once in 19 broadcasts.

However, James Dingemans, counsel for the inquiry, presented a letter dated almost a month later, from Richard Sambrook, the BBC's head of news, which said "Andrew Gilligan accurately reported the source telling him the Government 'probably knew the 45 minutes figure was wrong.'"

Mr Dingemans said " That is simply untrue".

Mr Gilligan reported " Yes, that is incorrect. It was clearly wrong to say so."

Questioned by Mr Sumption, Mr Gilligan said that at the end of his meeting with Dr Kelly, at a central London hotel, he had discussed how he would describe the scientist in his report, and offered to use the terms " a senior official involved in preparing the dossier" or one of those "in charge".

Dr Kelly, he maintained, had said "fine", to either, in response. The journalist stated that at the time of this exchange he had stopped taking notes in his electronic personal organiser.

Mr Sumption asked whether this was "a credible version of events". Mr Gilligan insisted it was. Mr Sumption chllenged him " He never said any of these things to you, did he?" Mr Gilligan continued to claim " Yes, he did".

Mr Sumption accused Mr Gilligan of exaggerating Dr Kelly's status as an " intelligence official" so that " people would take your report more seriously." Mr Gilligan responded " No, that was not my intention. The intention was to describe his function in respect of the dossier's accuracy".

Mr Gilligan continued that his main intention was to highlight concern among many in the intelligence community at the way the '45 Minutes' claim had been made in the foreword to the dossier by Tony Blair.

"That is the claim I reported and that is the claim we now know to be correct".

He said that he was not responsible for a headline referring to an "intelligence source" above an article he wrote in the Mail on Sunday.

Mr Sumption accused Mr Gilligan of misleading the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee's inquiry into the Iraq war, when he was asked whether his source was a member of the intelligence services. Mr Gilligan had repeated to the MPs points made by Dr Kelly in his own appearance before the FAC, which tended to disprove that he was Mr Gilligan's source.

Mr Sumption asked "There is a world of difference isn't there, between protecting your source by saying nothing about them and telling lies about them?".

Mr Gilligan said " Yes, but I do not think I did tell lies about Dr Kelly. I was merely telling the MPs what he had told them. My sole aim was to protect my source".

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INDEPENDENT

Hutton inquiry website

British Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee transcript:

Evidence of Dr David Kelly

Key players in the 'sexed-up dossier' affair

Herald Feature: Iraq