Campbell accused over dossier

Scientist David Kelly accused chief spin doctor Alastair Campbell of "sexing up" the Government's dossier on Iraq weapons, a special inquiry was told today.

Dr Kelly named the Downing Street communications director as the man who had transformed the document.

The evidence came from BBC defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan at Lord Hutton's inquiry into Dr Kelly's apparent suicide after being named as the journalist's source. But in a dramatic twist this afternoon the inquiry was told of an email from the reporter's boss at Radio4's Today programme about Gilligan's "flawed reporting".

The email said: "Our biggest millstone has been his loose use of language and lack of judgment in some of his phraseology."

Gilligan, while sticking to his story, admitted to the inquiry: "I did not exactly use the right language. It was not perfect."

Earlier in the hearing Gilligan read out his notes, written up on a personal organiser, of his meeting with Dr Kelly at the Charing Cross Hotel on 22 May. The meeting formed the basis for Gilligan's report on the Today programme in May accusing Downing Street of exaggerating the threat posed by Saddam Hussein in the run-up to war.

Most evidence in the dossier was double-sourced, Dr Kelly told Gilligan, except the claim that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction ready to be fired in 45 minutes.

Gilligan, who gave evidence for more than four hours today, said he had asked Dr Kelly who changed the dossier - and had received the single word reply: "Campbell".

In a series of key exchanges, Lord Hutton asked Gilligan: "You put the question 'Was it to make it sexier?' and Dr Kelly replied 'Yes, to make it sexier.'"

Gilligan replied: "Yes." Lord Hutton said: "Are you clear in your recollection that you asked how was it transformed and that the name Campbell was first spoken by Dr Kelly?"

Gilligan replied: "Yes, absolutely. Gilligan: "Yes it was him." Lord Hutton: "It was not a question said by you - was Campbell involved in this?"

Gilligan: "He raised the subject of the 45 minutes and he raised the subject of Campbell."

Gilligan's notes said: "Transformed a week before publication to make it sexier, a classic was the 45 minutes, most things in the dossier were double-sourced but that was singlesourced."

The note then referred to Alastair Campbell, saying: "Campbell, real information but unreliable included against our wishes ... he asked if anything else could go in." Gilligan told the inquiry that during a meeting with Dr Kelly they had talked about the dossier and that the journalist had reminded Dr Kelly that at their last meeting he had said it was not very exciting.

Gilligan said Dr Kelly told him that was right "until the last week" when changes had been made.

Gilligan said he asked Dr Kelly how that transformation had occurred. Dr Kelly had said the name Campbell.

The journalist said he had asked Dr Kelly if Mr Campbell had made it up.

Gilligan said: "He said no, it was real information but it was unreliable and that it was in the dossier 'against our wishes'."

45-minute claim

The inquiry heard that Gilligan said in his Today programme report on 29 May: "What we've been told, by one of the senior officials in charge of drawing up that dossier, was that actually the Government probably knew that 45-minute figure was wrong, even before it decided to put it in."

James Dingemans, counsel to the inquiry, said: "There is no doubt, is there, that part of the reason that the dispute between No10 and the BBC became so heated was because of the perception of conscious wrongdoing?"

Gilligan said it was not a perception that he had intended to "come across as strongly" as it did in his first broadcast on the subject.

He admitted this afternoon that when he wrote his Iraq dossier story he had no idea of the importance it would assume.

Hotel meetings

Gilligan's claim of when he had first met Dr Kelly and details of their subsequent meetings differed from those of the scientist.

Dr Kelly had told MoD chiefs he had first met the BBC reporter last September at a defence conference. However, Gilligan said he had first met Kelly in the first two months of 2001 and had a subsequent meeting in April last year.

In an email on 18 July this year, Gilligan said he had four face-toface meetings with the scientist, but he told today's hearing it was only three. Gilligan said: "I've checked my diaries and I've checked my notebook and I've checked my recollections and I think it was three." Gilligan said he had written the email at the time of Dr Kelly's death, adding: "I had a good deal on my mind that day, I wasn't very happy".

Even their key meeting in the Charing Cross Hotel in May this year showed stark discrepancies between the two men's versions.

Dr Kelly had claimed it had begun at 5pm and had lasted for 45 minutes while Gilligan told the inquiry it had started at just after 4pm and had lasted for about an hour and a half. The reporter's account was backed up by a bar bill for two drinks - a Coke and an Appletise - which was produced at the inquiry.

He said Dr Kelly had been "extremely suspicious" of Iraqi claims that they had got rid of their chemical and biological weapons. "He did not trust them at all," Gilligan said of Dr Kelly.

Gilligan told the inquiry: "Dr Kelly was in no doubt - and he wants me to say this in my reports - that there was a weapons of mass destruction programme. He didn't believe the level of threat was as great as the dossier said."

The Campbell issue

The inquiry heard that Dr Kelly had claimed, in total contrast to Gilligan, that it was the reporter who had first mentioned Mr Campbell's name.

Dr Kelly had told his superiors in the Ministry of Defence: "He ( Gilligan) raised the issue of Alastair Campbell."

Time and again, Gilligan was asked by Mr Dingemans whether Dr Kelly's version of events, which the scientist gave both to his bosses at the MoD and to MPs on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, was accurate. On almost every occasion Gilligan claimed that it was not. Mr Dingemans said Dr Kelly had agreed to meet the reporter but "definitely not to discuss the dossier". By contrast Gilligan said: "The dossier was bound to come up. He did not say anything like 'I cannot discuss the dossier'."

Dr Kelly's recollection was that he had said changes had been made to the dossier "probably for impact". But Gilligan said he had no recollection of the word "impact" being used.

Dr Kelly had claimed of Gilligan: "He raised the issue of Alastair Campbell and since I was not involved in the process I was not able to contribute to that account."

Gilligan insisted today: "No, it was he who raised Alastair Campbell."

Dossier doubts

Lord Hutton intervened to ask the BBC reporter if he thought Dr Kelly was directly challenging the Government's claims.

"I don't think he set out to challenge the Government. He was just giving his personal opinion of the dossier," he said.

Gilligan told how after meeting the scientist he went away to write up his notes fully and then tried to corroborate the story.

"I went to see a couple of people, I called senior contacts in government," he said. "I said what I had been told and was there any truth in it? "I told them the dossier had been transformed in the week before it had been published at the behest of the Government."

Neither of the two government contacts denied the story and one told him "he should keep digging".

Gilligan added: "Both would have been in a position to know about the dossier," he said.