âKilling Kellyâ: A Review of George Gallowayâs Latest Documentary
By Fra Hughes Belfast – Jul 21, 2021
The strange death of Dr. David Kelly was exposed on celluloid at the premiere of the Killing Kelly documentary screened at the everyman theatre Muswell Hill North London on Saturday, July 17, 2021 at 9 pm.
I was invited to attend.
This is the second in what could well turn out to be a series of documentaries as collaborative works between Mr. Galloway and film documentary director Mr. Sean Murray from Belfast.
Mr. Murray has won some very impressive accolades for his investigative documentary film screenings, including Unquiet Graves, in which he investigates the role played by the British governmentâs involvement in the murder of 120 civilians in counties Armagh and Tyrone in the North of Ireland between July 1972 and 1978, involving the infamous Glenanne murder gang with ties to loyalist paramilitaries, British intelligence, locally recruited soldiers, and police.
The role of British intelligence, its assets, and associated terror gangs has always been a part of the dirty war in Ireland, but what we see one day as commonplace in Ireland, the counter-revolutionary strategy by successive British governments has seen parallels all over the world and perhaps with the sudden unexpected death of David Kelly, we are witnessing that policy in action on the British mainland on its own people?
The film was a project initiated by Mr. George Galloway, a former Member of the British Parliament and now media presenter for a host of radio and television shows, including the Mother of all Talk Shows on Sputnik Radio International and Kalima Horra on Lebanese Al Mayadeen television.
The film may have been inspired by the book, The Strange Death of David Kelly by Norman Baker. Mr. Baker, Mr. Galloway, and Mr. Murray all made themselves available for questions and answers after the documentary presentation.
The film was crowdfunded with sponsors and donors financing the costs of production through online donations.
Following the critically acclaimed The Killings of Tony Blair released in July 2016 by Mr.Galloway, this sequel, dealing with the same topic, is a perfect and timely addition to the true story of how Britain came to be involved in an illegal, unsanctioned war against Iraqâs Saddam Hussein. The infamous Weapons of Mass destructionâs sexed-up dossier was used by Blair to inform the British people and the British Parliament, that Iraq had the capability of targeting the United Kingdom with chemical weapons in just 45 minutes, and as such Iraq and Saddam Hussein could not be allowed to continue to both engineer and deploy these armaments, which were a direct threat to world peace. Blair was beating the drums of war.
Once the darling of America, the UK, Israel, and NATO, Saddam had outworn his usefulness. Even though he shed 800,000 Iraqi and Iranian lives in the Iraq-Iran conflict, a proxy war fought on behalf of the west following the successful Iranian revolution of 1979, it was time for Saddam to go.
Having committed no act of aggression against the west and following his humiliating retreat from Kuwait, a plan was hatched to destroy Iraq.
It is claimed in the film that Tony Blair and George W. Bush conspired to create the conditions for war and to influence the public narrative in preparation for such a war during Blairâs trip to meet President Bush in America. It was decided a pretext would be found to support military action.
The dossier became the smoking gun used to frighten the public into accepting yet another war in the region.
This film documentary is a testament to vigilant investigative journalism.
It is a professional high-quality product that interviews some of the major players involved at the time. While the Kelly family, senior politicians, and military personnel declined to be interviewed, the facts speak for themselves.
Mr. Kelly headed off on one of his many daily walks, chatting to a neighbor he met on his way.
His wife was at home having a nap.
He had arranged to meet his daughter later that evening.
A former head of Britainâs Porton Down chemical weapons research facility, he was also one of UNSCOMâS chief weapons inspectors in Iraq from 1991 to 1998.
In an interview with Andrew Gilligan aired on BBC Radio 4, the claim that Iraq could launch weapons of mass destruction on the United Kingdom within 45 minutes was inserted into the dossier on Iraq weapons capability at the insistence of Alastair Campbell, chief advisor to Tony Blair.
These allegations became part of an investigation by the Intelligence and Security Foreign Affairs Select committee. After giving evidence on July 15, Dr. David Kelly was found dead two days later.
David Kelly may have been the unwitting fall guy for the political spin doctors of Tony Blair. Whatever else he could have exposed was taken with him to the grave.
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The official death certificate records âdeath by suicideâ.
These facts remain outstanding.
When he was found, his knife was found beside him.
It was claimed he had severed the ulnar artery.
A bottle of tablets was found beside the body.
The following timeline was in place:
As reported by the Guardian newspaper at 3 p.m. Dr. David Kelly received a phone call from the Ministry of Defense. He then left his home at 3.20 pm on July 17. Having not returned from his walk the Kelly family contacted the police at 11:40 p.m.
Within 15 minutes three officers had arrived at the family home.
A search operation started immediately, a helicopter and search teams were called in.
The helicopter with body-sensing imaging equipment did not locate the body.
He was found by a volunteer search party the following morning.
His body lay undiscovered not far from his home for over nine hours?
His home was searched not once but twice by police and other investigating officers during that night. They took away with them many items including, by some reports, the very wallpaper from off the walls?
The police were searching his home while he evidently was not there. They made the family leave the home during these searches, preventing them from knowing exactly what the police and others were doing inside the house and what they were taking.
At the scene where the body was found, there was very limited blood loss discounting the idea he bled to death.
The medication he had ingested found in his stomach was a total of two tablets.
The knife beside the body had no fingerprints nor had the bottle of tablets. Dr. Kelly was not wearing gloves.
What happened in the time between Dr. David Kelly disappeared, two days after giving evidence to a Parliamentary Inquiry, and when his body was discovered, may never be known.
The facts do not match the official theory that he committed suicide, nor even that he died where his body was found.
It does however lead to the conclusion that state involvement in his death cannot be ruled out.
No one may ever be held accountable for his death. Official papers remain a secret not to be discoed to the public for the next several decades. The parallels between the suspension of inquests, and prosecutions relating to British state involvement in murders in Northern Ireland, in Iraq, and in Afghanistan, now under a statute of limitations-proposed legislation process, proves one thing for certain. If the government wants to create the conditions for war such as the Iraqi dossier on Weapons of Mass destruction, then lead the country to war, possibly collude in the murder of one of its leading scientists and cover it up, then indeed we the public who have elected these politicians to the government have indeed given them a license to kill.
A license they have used in Ireland, Iraq, and Afghanistan, while their pawns in the intelligence community and the cannon fodder on the ground, the soldiersâ airmen and naval personnel, can now murder with impunity.
Unusually after Davidâs body was found, Tony Blair initiated a public Inquiry under Lord Hutton. A full Coroner’s inquest, as would be normal under the circumstances would quite possibly have elicited more information.
Oh oh oh what a lovely war!
My only question is: who is next?
Featured image: The Killing Kelly documentary
Fra Hughes
Fra Hughes is an Irish political activist, commentator, and author. His most recent books are My Walk with Palestine: an Activist's Taleand Voices from Donbass.
