BBC claims the British government "sexed up" a dossier on Iraq's weapons capabilities were "unfounded", according to Britain's Lord Hutton who published his long-awited report on the death of Dr David Kelly today.
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The findings of the report have propted the chairman of the BBC board of governors, Mr Gavyn Davies, to resign this evening.
BBC Director General Greg Dyke said in an earlier statement that they accepted that "certain key allegations reported by Andrew Gilligan on the Today programme on May 29th last year were wrong and we apologise for them."
Lord Hutton said the British Prime Minister Tony Blair was involved in discussions over whether or not to name Dr Kelly as the source of the BBC's report.
But Lord Hutton absolved the prime minister of "dishonorable or underhanded or duplicitous strategy on the part of the prime minister" to name the weapons scientist.
Lord Hutton said the then Downing Street director of communications Mr Alastair Campbell made clear intelligence services 10 Downing Street wanted the dossier worded "to make as strong a case as possible on the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's WMD" but nothing be included that intelligence services were not "entirely happy" with.
In contrast he criticised as "defective" the BBC's editorial control system which allowed reporter Mr Andrew Gilligan to report his original story
According to Lord Hutton, the "governors themselves should have made more detailed investigations into the extent to which Mr Gilligan's notes supported his report.
"If they had done this they would probably have discovered that the notes did not support the allegation that the government probably knew that the 45 minutes claim was probably wrong."
The central claim contained within Mr Gilligan's report on the morning of May 24th, 2003 said the government included a claim that Iraq could launch WMD within 45 minutes in a dossier even though it knew it was false or unreliable.
"I consider these allegations to be unfounded as it would be understood by those who had heard the broadcast it to mean that the intelligence set out in the dossier was unfounded."
Lord Hutton added he did not believe Dr Kelly said to Mr Gilligan during their conversation in May 2003 the government's 45 minute claim was wrong. Lord Hutton also said that Mr Gilligan's notes from this interview were unclear and contradictory.
There was criticism too of how the Ministry of Defence (MoD) handled the naming of Dr Kelly as the source for Mr Gilligan's story. According to Lord Hutton it would have been a "a great shock and very upsetting" for Dr Kelly to learn in a brief telephone call that his name had been revealed. This "must have given rise to a feeling that he had been badly let down by his employer", suggested Lord Hutton.
Lord Hutton said he was satisfied Dr Kelly had killed himself due to loss of self-esteem following his naming as the source of the BBC story.
He said the death of devoted husband and father Dr Kelly was a "great tragedy".
In closing his statement Lord Hutton described as "deplorable" the leaking and publication of details from the report in the Sun newspaper. He said he was urgently considering what investigation and legal action he could take over the newspaper and its source.
Responding to the report in the House of Commons Mr Blair said it showed "the allegation that I or anyone else lied to this House or deliberately misled the country by falsifying intelligence on weapons of mass destruction is itself the real lie."
"I simply ask that those that have made it and repeated it over all these months now withdraw it fully, openly and clearly," he said.