Honesty Killed David Kelly
By
Tam Dalyell
Globe
and Mail/Canada
23 July, 2003
There are whistle blowers and then there
are Whistle Blowers. Many who reveal secrets about government probably
act out of self-interest and I am not concerned with such persons. The
24-karat gold Whistle Blower, however, is the man or woman who acts
against his own self-interest, but in the best interests of his country.
Such a man was Clive
Ponting, the former adviser in the Ministry of Defense who was accused
of breaching Britain's Official Secrets Act in 1985 when he passed to
me information about the true circumstances surrounding the sinking
of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano during the 1982 Falklands
War. The latest such man was scientist David Kelly, the government weapons
inspector found dead with his wrist slit near his Oxfordshire home on
Friday. The British Broadcasting Corp. has confirmed that Mr. Kelly
was the principal source for its report that Prime Minister Tony Blair's
office had exaggerated intelligence reports of weapons of mass destruction
in Iraq.
The motive behind
such acts of whistle-blowing is most often rage against politicians
and government hierarchies that have failed to tell the public what
they know to be unpalatable truths.
This was certainly
the case with Clive Ponting, who acted out of professional conscience
in coming forward to expose unethical government secrecy regarding the
Falklands War. In the aftermath of that war, I, for one, had become
concerned about the circumstances surrounding the Belgrano. A total
of 368 lives were lost in the sinking of the cruiser in May, 1982. The
Parliament, press, and people of Britain were led to believe that the
Belgrano had been sailing into battle against the British fleet. I believed,
however, that it had been sailing home to Argentina when it was attacked;
in other words, sailing away from our fleet.
It was against this
background that I received a postcard that could only have come from
someone with inside knowledge. The source was eventually revealed to
be Mr. Ponting, then an assistant secretary in the Ministry of Defense
His message confirmed that then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher herself
knew that the Belgrano was sailing towards Argentina and presented no
threat to the British fleet.
It later became
clear that the sinking of the Belgrano had been carried out because
Mrs. Thatcher and ministers in her government wanted a military victory
for domestic political reasons.
Mercifully, I had
the sense to keep the postcard away from the press and sent it to the
chair of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, Sir Anthony Kershaw,
a former Conservative minister. Instead of being outraged, as I thought
he would be, he forwarded the information to the Secretary of State
for Defense Instead of an investigation into the government's deception,
enormous pressure was applied throughout the ministry to determine the
identity of the whistle blower.
Though Mr. Ponting
first denied his involvement, he eventually owned up, on the understandable
human grounds that he didn't want the blanket of suspicion to be thrown
over his colleagues.
Mr. Ponting was
charged with breach of our Official Secrets Act, a most serious offence.
At this point, no
one except me outside the government knew the contents of Mr. Ponting's
revelations. Soon after he was charged, however, the documents found
their way into the press.
I spent 11 days
at the Old Bailey, the central criminal court in London and saw the
agony that this brave man went through. Despite the direction of the
judge -- a person handpicked by the government, I believe -- the jury
handed down a surprise verdict of not guilty. In a statement outside
court, Mr. Ponting said, "I did what I thought was right in leaking
the documents . . . a civil servant is not, in the final analysis, at
the beck and call of ministers only. We also serve the wider national
interest."
Mr. Ponting told
me some months after the trial that one of the great difficulties he
faced was deciding whether to reveal the whole truth.
Now, once again,
a government has been accused of misleading Parliament and the public
at a time of war. Once again, a brave soul stepped forward. In David
Kelly's case, I believe that he genuinely was not sure as to whether
he was the main whistle blower or whether others had also come forward
with weapons information. The sheer honesty of the man had caused him
to admit to his manager his role in revealing information to the BBC.
Whistle blowers
must realize that their organizations will do little or nothing to protect
them in times of adversity. It is a great tragedy that Mr. Kelly took
the action he appears to have taken. As in the case of Clive Ponting,
I believe he would have been protected by public opinion. The British
people are day-by-day becoming more horrified at what is happening in
Iraq.
Clive Ponting has
moved on to another life as an academic and author on world history
and green issues. His whistle-blowing days are far in his past -- though
Mr. Kelly's case must revive memories of the costs of telling the truth.
Some reports here
have indicated that Mr. Kelly may have been in despair over possible
threats about whether he would get a pension after 40 years of service
to the British state. We'll never know for sure why he took the fateful
decision to go for that awful walk into the woods.
What we can be sure
of is that this man died because of his honest belief in service to
his country.
Tam Dalyell, Labour
MP for Linlithgow since 1962, is the longest continuously serving member
of the British House of Commons.
© 2003 Bell
Globemedia Interactive Inc.