Wow. Amazing and terribly tragic. Dr. David Kelly was a British government Iraq expert — and former weapons inspector — who seemed to be the source for BBC reports that Prime Minsiter Tony Blair’s office had “sexed up” its report about Iraqi WMD. He had denied it. But the Ministry of Defense fingered him as someone who had met with the BBC reporter in question.
He disappeared yesterday (yesterday UK time) and a body which seems to be his was found in the woods not far from his home this morning (again, UK time). Every sign here looks like this is someone who was unaccustomed to and overwhelmed by the media spotlight this was generating and took his own life. One MP told the BBC: “He is not used to the media glare, he is not used to the intense spotlight he has been put under.”
Even if that’s what happened here though, when people at the center of scandals like this turn up dead it raises the drama level, the media fascination and ‘heat’ of the story almost immeasurably.
