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Kelly evidence iraq dirty bomb { August 4 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,6859999%255E2703,00.html http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,6859999%255E2703,00.html Kelly's evidence of 'dirty bomb' By Nicholas Rufford, The Sunday Times August 04, 2003 DAVID Kelly, the British weapons expert at the centre of the Iraq dossier row, had amassed evidence to show Saddam Hussein built and tested a "dirty bomb". Designed to cause cancer and birth defects, the radiological weapon could have been used by terrorists to create panic and widespread contamination in a crowded city. Kelly, who committed suicide last month, presented evidence of the bomb to the British Government in 1995 and recommended to Foreign Office officials it feature in the Government's intelligence dossier on Iraq. But despite secret Iraqi documents being produced to prove its existence, it was not included. In an interview with The Sunday Times in June, Kelly said the dirty bomb was built by Hussein for use against Iranian troops during the Iran-Iraq war as an instrument of terror. He said Iraq still "possessed the know-how and the materials to build a radiological weapon". The threat was potentially more serious than some other weapons of mass destruction, he said, because Iraq still retained the main ingredients _ nuclear material and high explosives. Asked why it had not formed part of the Government's case against Iraq, Kelly said he did not know, but said there were people in government who were sceptical about the potency of such a weapon. Following Kelly's death, further questions are likely to be asked about the bomb. One reason it may have been left out of the dossier was that Iraq ended the tests in the late 1980s and there was no evidence they ever restarted. But a defence source suggested an alternative explanation: that in 1987 when Iraq conducted the trials, British military scientists were interested in the results. At that time Britain still had unofficial friendly relations with Hussein. During evidence to the foreign affairs select committee in July, Kelly told John Maples, a former Conservative spokesman on defence and foreign affairs: "On one inspection I led . . . the acknowledgment was made by General Fahi Shaheen, together with Brigadier Hassan (two senior Iraqi weapons specialists), that they had undertaken experiments with radiological weapons in 1987." Maples asked: "Do you think that is true?" Kelly replied: "Undoubtedly it is true." At the weekend Maples said he remained puzzled over why the Government had excluded evidence of the dirty bomb from its dossier. "They were obviously looking for ways of making the dossier as attractive as they could, and as threatening as they could," he said.

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