Dead UK Scientist Had No History of Depression

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030902/wl_nm/iraq_britain_scientist_dc&cid=574&ncid=1480

LONDON (Reuters) - Dead British weapons expert David Kelly was found slumped against a tree, his arm covered in blood and a knife nearby, an inquiry into his suicide heard Tuesday.

But Kelly's family doctor said the scientist had never shown any signs of depression and a health check by his government employers, conducted less than two weeks before he took his life, showed up nothing worrying, suggesting the harrowing ordeal he was put through in his final days may have had a crucial bearing on his fate.

Kelly's death has plunged Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites)'s government into crisis. He killed himself after being exposed as the source for a BBC report which claimed the government exaggerated the case for war against Iraq.

Blair's team has been battling ever since to make the public broadcaster back down. Critics say the mild-mannered weapons expert, 59, became a political football in their stand-off.

more

[sybylla]

1. You don't have to be depressed to commit suicide

I learned this from first-hand experience. A family member committed suicide when things in his life suddenly took a turn for the worse, at least the worse in his eyes. The rest of us thought it wasn't a big enough deal to kill yourself over, but for him it was too much to cope with.

It happens. And it is exceedingly unfortunate. I can buy that Kelly took his own life in such a confused and difficult time for him. But I can still also buy the fact that there are many in the UK who would have benefited by his death and the lack of answers he would be able to give to very harmful questions.

The answer is that we need more than innuendo and circumstancial evidence to suggest that either possibility or both possibilities are true.

[NNN0LHI]

2. Ask any EMT how many people they have found dead from a slit wrist

I already have asked over a dozen. None had ever heard of such a thing.

Don

[sybylla]

4. I'm not taking sides

I'm just saying that depression isn't a necessary precursor to committing suicide. You can take a look at suicide websites and they will tell you that a small percentage of suicides are the result of sudden distress, not depression.

I agree that the slashed wrists are odd. Men tend to use much more certain means to that end, like guns. Slashed wrists are used more often in this country by depressed women to get attention, not to actually commit suicide. OTOH, the UK is gunless so where does that leave you if you want to kill yourself and you don't want to leave a horrible scene for your family to face?

A story in this thread says that he took pain killers first.
http://democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=93221

A quiet wooded area where he wasn't likely to be found in any short period of time, a sharp knife, the calming effects of pain medication which may have depressed his system and aided in his death was quite plausibly the plan of a man in sudden distress, suddenly looking for a way out with few options at his disposal and little time to plan.

To me, with these facts at my disposal, both suicide and murder seem plausible. I stick by my words: I'll need more evidence.


edited for clarity

[Turbulence]

5. yes

However, I was under the impression that Blair declared it a suicide even before any real forensics came in. Now that I mention it I am not sure I ever heard any official declarations stated regard kelly's death. I did read something a week or more after Blair had called it suicide, wherein it seemed that the experts had not yet declared cause of death.

Have the experts still not conclusively declared cause of death yet?

[newyawker99]

7. Hi Turbulence!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[hang a left]

9. they were spinning suicide before they

even found his body. liars liars liars

[emad]

3. Looks like they picked a man with 'a past' or 'a connection'

that hasn't yet made headline news................................ When the media picked up this story in early May after Gilligan's initial 'Campbell sexed it up' story, there was also a furious row going on in the press about the outing of 'an IRA mole' - Freddie Scappatticci - who allegedly grassed up the terrorists as well as colluding security service stooges. This story was part of a long-running enquiry into collusion between armed services and terrorists to commit murder etc (The Savile Enquiry)
The story kept on running as 'the disputed mole' - sizzling stuff given that Blair had recently suspended the Northern Ireland Assembly because an alleged IRA member had infiltrated it. Scapatticci went to court and threatened to sue the press.
Then, the Gilligan business upped the tempo in the headlines about 'a mole in the MOD' and resulted in the outing of Kelly. A man who is today diagnosed of having no known pre-existing medical condition that predisposed a possibility of suicide.
For those who prefer conspiracy facts, as opposed to theories, it seems we may have to wait until the end of a lengthy investigation by the Thames Valley police into Kelly's finances, phone and email records, personal contacts, private travel etc - stuff not necessarily updated since the formalities of a MOD positive vetting procedure that he underwent way back during the time of Gulf War 1 when George Bush 1 was pres and John Major UK premier.
Meanwhile, it seems obvious he was thrown to the wolves by the MOD at a time when something extremely grave was going on in his life that his family either can't or won't discuss.

[Keithpotkin]

6. But he did have a history of pissing off 'the Man'

and we all know what that means...

[0007]

10. Such as?

I'd like to hear more about that statement with a linik or two, 'eh?

[AP]

8. Where were you all yesterday when Kelly's family was saying this:

(1000+ posts)
Tue Sep-02-03 12:28 AM
Original message
Guardian's Paula Toynbee's comments about Hutton Inquiry in the UK

Edited on Tue Sep-02-03 12:31 AM by AP

I heard this on the BBC World Service and thought it was kind of interesting.

Toynbee commented on the testimony of Kelly's wife, sister and daughter. They all thought
there was no doubt that Kelly took his own life. He had used his wife's prescription painkillers
(for her arthritis) and he cut himself with a scout's knife which he had had since he was a child.
The day he killed himself, his wife said that he couldn't put two sentences together.

His wife said that he was most distraught about being portrayed in the media as a lower-level
diplomat who had no input in the overall drafting of the dossier (which implies that he wouldn't
have known who made decisions about how it was edited). This is important to note: Kelly was
upset about his, even though it was true. That is a fascinating commentary on the British
obsession with status.

His daughter said that Kelly couldn't believe that Gilligan had used his information to make such
confident assertions about what happened. Gilligan took Kelly's suppositions and turned them
into facts. (His daughter actually said that Kelly seemed confused about what he could have
said.)

Toynbee said that Kelly was also upset because the MoD made promises to him that that his
identity would be kept secret. Toynbee noted that this is interesting however, because it is
strange (and I'm paraphrasing Toynbee) that a man who would leak to the press wild
suppositions about a whole range of things about which he didn't have first hand knowledge
shouldn't exactly feel like he's entitled to any sort of confidentiality in relation to those
statements.

[FormerOstrich]

11. Wasn't it reported that Kelly

had been in a safe house immediatly before his death? Has there been any more information about that? What safe house? Safe from who? Why he needed to be safe?

[SharonAnn]

12. And what did they do to him in that "safe house"?

Any medications, injections, drugs?

Just sounds awfully funny. Perhaps the family just couldn't imagine that "their" government would do such a thing, but who knows?