Why do some people think Dr. Kelly was assassinated?

[rjbcar27]

It makes no sense. No-one had anything to gain by his death, in fact, he was far more valuable alive.

I have not seen nor heard any evidence to suggest his death was anything other than a suicide.

He downed a bunch of painkillers and slit his wrist while sitting at the edge of a wood; one of his favourite places.

Much as I distrust the UK and US govenments, I am at a loss to understand why anyone thinks there's a conspiracy here.

[joeybee12]

1. I believe it's possible

Blair and his minions went along with America's Hitler to invade a country that was absolutely no threat to us, and thousands of people were murdered--and I include the hundreds of US soldiers in that number. What's one more death?

I'm not saying it happened, but that these people would do anything. One strong reason why it probably was a suicide is that nobody in the British press seems to be talking about this, and they're a lot more cycnical and competent than the toadying little worms in the US press, so if they haven't found anything, then there probably isn't anything there.

[trumad]

2. He mentioned it himself

that he might end up dead in the woods because of his revelations.....

[rjbcar27]

4. I believe the context was totally different

From what I can surmise, his decision to commit suicide was taken just a few hours before he went on his walk.

He was under an immense amount of pressure and speculation, his reputation had been tarnished and this intensely private man had his whole life splashed on a canvas for all the world to see. He'd been used by the MOD and by Andrew Gilligan and I can only imagine what was going through his mind at the time.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

8. probably entertained prospects well before then

depression is very complicated.

A potential suicide can easily entertain the dual prospects of continuing to live (and plan trips abroad etc..), and the dichotomous future of "snuffing it". Who knows what the final impetus is to end it all?... The only one who does is now gone.

[radwriter0555]

3. Problem is, no pain killers were found in his system, and he had those

heart monitor patches on his chest.

He knew the TRUTH. That's why he was killed.

[Oggy]

9. Paramedics

Said they left the patches on. His wife's artheritus pills were found in his system.

[madrchsod]

5. he e-mailed a nyt reporter

3 hrs before he died. this was brought out this week in london. but not one word of it here. no one has been named in the american press,come to think of it, the american press isn`t reporting any of this.kelly mentioned in his e-mail that there were "dark actors"...there`s more than one way to kill a man. or maybe i`ve watched to many british spy programs....

[bicentennial_baby]

7. Judith Miller

NYT propaganda minister and friend o' Chalabi:

"The journalists whose contact details were in Dr Kelly's possession also included the BBC's Carolyn Hawley, Lynsey Hilsum of Channel 4 News and Andrew Veitch of ITN.

The British newspaper journalists in the list included Paul Lashmar of the Independent, James Bone of the Times and the Daily Telegraph's Sean O'Neill.

Also mentioned was Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter to whom Dr Kelly sent his mysterious "dark actors" email shortly before his death."

http://media.guardian.co.uk/iraqdossieraffair/story/0,13754,1018083,00.html

[PATRICK]

6. His wife's evidence

seems the strongest support for suicide to date and it was late forthcoming at least in my reading. She would have to be lying in order to strongly support murder instead. I don't think many read her exact words.

[Desertrose]

10. haven't read her exact words but

if someone had something to do with and/or strongly influenced my husband's death-I doubt I'd be screaming foul too loudly til I at least had the players figured out- especially if I had kids.

I mean...if they caused his "suicide'....I would imagine it easy to believe a convenient accident could befall me as well...

just a touch of conspiracy thinking to go with your morning coffee...
:shrug:


Peace
DR

[Devils Advocate NZ]

11. Here is my take...

We have to look at the sequence of events.

First, the BBC reporter claims that a senior official told him that the dossier was "sexed up".

Blair et al deny it and claim the reporter is lying.

The controversy rages, and Blair is forced to find an out. He decides that if he can get the official to admit to being the person who talked to the BBC reporter, but DENY that he had said what the BBC reporter had claimed he had said, the BBC would let it go.

The official however DIDN'T deny that he had said ALL of the things Blair needed him to deny, which only fueled the controversy. Remember, at this time Blair et al were trying to say the BBC was lying about what the official had said - ignoring whether the actual claim was true or not.

So now they have the problem that they (Blair et al) know that Kelly was the source, the BBC know that Kelly was the source, and Kelly was being difficult by not denying the BBC's claim. They knew that eventually Kelly would talk and reveal what had gone on behind the scenes in more detail.

So they tried a different tack - If Kelly were to "commit suicide" then he could be painted as a fantasist who never really had the access he claimed to have and thus could not possibly have known what he was claiming to know. Thus the leak is effectively plugged.

So Kelly "commits suicide". Before the body is even cold, a senior official is calling Kelly a "Walter Mitty", and the new spin is starting to go into effect.

However, the pressure doesn't relent, and Blair et al decide to have an inquiry at which they can gracefully take the blame for causing this man to commit suicide by releasing his name while reinforcing the "he didn't have the access" and he was a "Walter Mitty" type, first by playing down his level in the community, and second by having another reporter come forward and suggest that she had heard the same claims but given in a "flippant" manner, as if he wasn't really serious, he just makes very serious accusations of government malfeasance to reporters for fun.

Blair even gets on the stand and takes full responsibility for releasing Kelly's name to the media and inadvertantly setting in motion the chain of events that led to Kelly's "suicide" - How noble of him! "The buck stops here" and all that.

Even the family managed to make it sound like Kelly was suicidal - unless you think of it in a different way and assume that Kelly had been threatened and was terrified they were going to kill him. Suddenly all of the testimony that he was nervous, upset and agitated takes on a whole new meaning, but that is not mentioned as a possibility and so it just looks like a man (who had faced down armed Iraqi soldiers while a weapons inspector) could not face the pressure of having leaked true information that proved that Blair had lied, and thus killed himself.

So everything was looking good, right up until those two damn intelligence officers admitted that Kelly not only knew what was going on in regards to the dossier, but had suggested and had been approved to make several modifications to it, showing that he was intimately involved with the process, as well as being connected with others involved in the process. Then they went even further and said that they agreed with Kelly - the dossier had been "egged up" and was being politicised by the "spin merchants"!

Suddenly the whole "I take full responsibility" for the release of Kelly's name is gone like the smokescreen it was, and now Hoon is back in the firing line. After all, if this is going to turn to shit, better that Hoon take the blame, eh Tony?

---

Now I am not saying this is what happened, but when it is written out like that, you can see that there is a reasonable suspicion that foul play may have been involved. There is motive, definately means, and opportunity. All of these go towards making a case, but without a WHOLE lot more circumstantial evidence, or just ONE good piece of physical evidence, it only amounts to speculation.

The motive is clear: quash suggestions that Blair lied to the people in order to go to war.

The means: Well, the British have one of the oldest intelligence services around, and they don't mind getting their hands bloody if the need should arise.

The opportunity: It wouldn't be hard to access medical files and the Kelly house for determined agents.

We know that Mrs Kelly was using the kind of medication that was found with Kelly's body, but I don't remember her saying that any was missing, or the Polise saying her name was on the bottle. Maybe they just forgot to say that at the inquiry into his death?

As for the knife? He had had it for years, and it is not impossible that it was lifted or even a clone. I don't remember Mrs Kelly saying that Kelly's knife was missing, but that the one she had been shown looked the same as his one.

But even if these were items from the Kelly house, as I said, it wouldn't have been hard to "acquire" them for determined agents.

I don't know if I believe this version of events, but it is possible, and it does seem strange to me that a man who could handle the stress of being on the ground surrounded by hostile Iraqi soldiers couldn't handle the stress of being exposed as a whistle-blower. Maybe if he had been lying it would make sense, BUT HE WASN'T!

[NewYorkerfromMass]

12. suicide never makes sense and is very difficult to understand

see my post above. As someone who has been at the brink himself I can relate.

[Devils Advocate NZ]

14. So someone who has shown

NO sucidal tendancies in the past, and who has NO real reason to become depressed might suddenly do so at a very convenient time for people he has put into a spot of bother, the kind of people who will invade a sovereign nation, killing tens of thousands, for oil and power.

I can accept that. However, that doesn't mean that the reverse is not true, it just means that BOTH possibilites (murder and suicide) are realistic, and neither should be ruled out based on what we know of the case.

As I said in my other post, I am leaning slightly towards suicide, but if there is much more evidence that I should lean the other way, I am open to it.

[FlaGranny]

13. Well, I can't say I believe he was murdered,

but because of his age and lack of history of problems of depression, if he did commit suicide, he had to be under terrific pressure. What kind of pressure causes a mentally healthy person to kill himself? I could only imagine killing myself to save someone very dear to me. I couldn't do it to save my career or to avoid humiliation or to prevent incarceration. One can only see situations from one's own perspective, so I can only imagine that threats to his family could have caused him to suicide. If not that, he must have been very emotionally fragile and does anything in his history suggest that he was?

[Devils Advocate NZ]

15. The interesting thing is...

intentionally inducing a person to commit suicide is still considered murder - at least it is here in NZ and our laws are based on the UK's.

For instance, if I say "Kill yourself by tomorrow morning, or I will kill your duaghter" if you go ahead and kill yourself then I would be just as guilty of murder as if I had slit your wrists myself.