khaosworks | David Kelly Update (Reply)

Blair says expert's death a 'tragedy'

The apparent death of Iraq weapons expert Dr David Kelly is an "absolutely terrible tragedy", Prime Minister Tony Blair has said.

Police are expected to confirm on Saturday that a body found at an Oxfordshire beauty spot is that of Dr Kelly.

The government has said that if this confirmation is given, an independent judicial inquiry will be held into the circumstances of the Ministry of Defence adviser's death.

Mr Blair, making his first public comments since the body was discovered on Friday morning, said "This is an absolutely terrible tragedy. I'm profoundly saddened for David Kelly and for his family.

"He was a fine public servant who did an immense amount of good for his country in the past and I'm sure would have done so again in the future."

Dr Kelly, 59, had been caught up in a row between the BBC and the government about the use of intelligence reports in the run-up to the war with Iraq.

A body matching his description was found at 0920 BST in a wooded area at Harrowdown Hill, near Faringdon, after his family had reported him missing on Thursday night.

A post mortem examination was carried out overnight on Friday at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

The prime minister said on Saturday that the planned independent inquiry "should be allowed to establish the facts" surrounding the death.

"I hope we can set aside the speculation and the claims and the counter-claims and allow that due process to take its proper course," he added.

"And in the meantime all of us, the politicians and the media alike, should show some respect and restraint. That's all I intend to say."

The prime minister was speaking in Tokyo, where he was meeting his Japanese counterpart on the first leg of a tour of the Far East.

He was told of the death while en route from Washington to the Japanese capital.

Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said Mr Blair should consider cutting short his trip.

Officials stressed the inquiry would not be the wide-ranging investigation into the run-up to the war urged by opposition MPs.

It will be headed by a law lord - Lord Hutton - and is expected to take a matter of weeks not months.

The more you think about it, the more the timing couldn't be worse for Blair - he was hoping for a break by fleeing to Asia after all but giving Dubya a blowjob on the floor of the House of Representatives, and then Kelly's death happens and everyone's screaming "conspiracy theory". Well, you know what? It's too loud to be a spook job unless something went horribly wrong. I'll withhold any theories until we find out the post-mortem results, but it could very well be that his death was accidental, or at the very worst unintended.

Still, despite muttering, "Horrible tragedy for the family," I can't help but still feel the satisfying shudder of schadenfreude when faced with the combined squirming of Blair and Bush. Maybe there's hope for me being a sadist after all.