"We must deal with Kelly, and the abuse of power," Short

LONDON, July 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A former British minister who resigned over the Iraq invasion, Monday, July 28, launched a new attack against British Prime Minister Tony Blair, describing him as an "emperor" and blaming the government for an "abuse of power" which push a leading arms specialists to resign.  

Blair was "a complete convert to the neo-Conservative view of the world" espoused by the hardliners behind U.S. President George W. Bush, said Claire Short in an interview with The Independent.

She said the death last week of David Kelly, an arms specialist who had been at the center of a row over whether the government "sexed up" evidence on Iraq, had been at least partially caused by the government.

Kelly is presumed to have committed suicide after he was named as a source in a BBC news story, in which it said Blair's government had "sexed up" evidence on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction to make the case for the March invasion.

"We must deal with Kelly, and the abuse of power that helped drive him to his death. But we must also deal with the questions of how we went to war in Iraq and how much half-truth and deceit there was on the way," said Short, who resigned as international development secretary in April, after the start of the attack on Iraq.

She said that the independent inquiry which is being held into Kelly's death should lead to resignations from the government.

"The truth needs to be found and those responsible need to be held to account. Alastair Campbell and Tony Blair work very, very closely together. They are all implicated, it seems to me," she said, referring to Blair's press secretary Alastair Campbell.

Campbell has been accused of being the man responsible for "doctoring" the claim that Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes in the government's dossier.

Earlier this month, Short called on Blair himself to resign.

"I think it would be in the interests of Tony Blair himself and his legacy of the Labor Party, and actually of the country, if he would think of making a voluntary departure and we could have an elegant handover and Labor could renew itself in power," she said in a television interview on July 13.

In the new interview, Short said that the general public no longer trusted the government.

"Public confidence has changed enormously. It has deepened the sense there is something wrong in the way in which No 10 is run. There is more scrutiny of that, so that affects Tony Blair's reputation," she said.

A YouGov survey conducted after Kelly's death had been confirmed, found that 47 percent of the voters felt the government was to blame for the death of Kelly. The poll also found that almost as many voters believe Blair should resign (39 per cent) as think he should stay on as Prime Minister (41 per cent).

Short also accused Blair of lying about the position of Jacques Chirac, the French president, in the run-up to the war.

"Tony said to me, 'The French have said they will veto anything', so I was misled about the French position. We were all misled. Objectively, if things are not true, they are a lie," she told the newspaper.

Integrity 'Under Attack'

In the meanwhile, the war of words between the BBC and the British government intensified, with the chairman of the public broadcaster alleging a plot to undermine its jealously guarded editorial independence.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, Gavyn Davies accused the government of trying to influence the editorial decisions of "Britain's most trusted provider of news and current affairs".

"Threats, veiled and not so veiled, from 'government sources' to take revenge on the BBC by reducing its funding, removing its director-general, and changing its charter have been reported frequently in the media" to revenge its refusal to back down in a two-month-old row over its reporting of a September 2002 dossier on Iraq.

"Our integrity is under attack, and we are chastised for taking a different view on editorial matters from that of the Government and its supporters," he said

Davies warned that because the BCC we have had the temerity to do this, "it is hinted that a system that has protected the BBC for 80 years should be swept away and replaced by an external regulator that will 'bring the BBC to heel'".

He considered Campbell's recent attack on the BBC a full-frontal assault on the motivation, skill and professionalism of the entire news operation.

"The main purpose of what we did in our special governors' meeting on July 6 was to repudiate Campbell's central charge that the entire BBC was running a campaign against him, the Government and the war."

Speculation is rife in London that either Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon or Campbell will either resign or lose their posts as a result of the furore.

 'Unprecedented'

"Our integrity is under attack," Davies

The Sunday Telegraph said it was "unprecedented" for a chairman of the British Broadcasting Corporation to lash out at the government in such stark terms.

Davies' broadside came as Brian Hutton fires up a judicial inquiry into the suicide 10 days ago of David Kelly, a Ministry of Defense consultant on biological weapons and former UN arms inspector in Iraq.

In a statement, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said: "There is no question whatsoever of the dispute with the BBC ... affecting in any shape or form the BBC's license fee or its charter."

"We entirely reject the BBC chairman's attempt to confuse our desire to correct the original story (on the September 2002 dossier) with an attack on the BBC's independence," she said.

Writing in the Independent on Sunday newspaper, cabinet minister Peter Hain alleged that it was the BBC that had "sexed up" its May 29 report on the dossier, which notably has the 45-minutes claim.

"A story, based on one source, and 'sexed up' to make it more interesting -- with the seniority of that source also spun to give the report more credibility -- to ensure the greatest embarrassment, in the best traditions of the tabloids, rather than a public service broadcaster," he said.

News of Kelly's death overshadowed Blair's trip to East Asia last week, but the prime minister was expected to use his monthly press conference Wednesday to say he intends to seek a third term in office.