Furor over British expert's death

A row between the British government and the BBC over the motive for the Iraq war has turned toxic following the apparent suicide of a government "mole" at the heart of the affair, with the fallout spreading deep into the cabinet and up to Prime Minister Tony Blair himself.

The death of government scientist and Iraq weapons expert David Kelly, who was found Friday in a wooded area with one wrist slashed in what police described as a suicide, marks a macabre turn after months of angry accusations that Mr. Blair misused intelligence to build the case for war against Saddam Hussein.

Dr. Kelly's death has prompted angry calls for heads to roll both at the top of the government and the top of the BBC. The controversy is even starting to affect financial markets, with the pound starting to suffer.

The upshot is likely to be negative not just for the government and the BBC but for the quest to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Kelly's death deprives the government of a key weapons scout precisely at a time when it urgently needs to find WMD in Iraq to justify its war motives.

Mr. Blair has shaken off calls for his own resignation, but the spectacle of a reporter asking him if he had "blood on his hands" at the weekend has hurt him in opinion polls.

The latest survey, a YouGov poll published in the Daily Telegraph Monday, showed that 59 percent of Britons think less of Blair now than they did before Kelly died, and that 39 percent believe he should quit. Just 18 percent trust the government in its stand-off with the BBC. Two of Blair's senior advisers, press chief Alastair Campbell and defense minister Geoff Hoon, are considered vulnerable.

Controversy surrounding the weapons inspector "has inflicted immense damage on the reputation of a government," said Anthony King, professor of politics at Essex University, in a newspaper commentary on the latest poll.

Blair has struggled on with a three-nation visit to Asia that has been eclipsed by his domestic woes. He has called for a judicial inquiry to shed light on Kelly's suicide, promising to give evidence himself to the probe. "This is a time for respect and restraint, not for recrimination of any sort," Blair said, calling Kelly's death "a terrible, terrible tragedy."

The BBC too has suffered a severe blow to its reputation, accused of playing fast and loose with facts and sources.

"The pressure on the BBC has certainly increased," says Wyn Grant, professor of politics at Warwick University. "Heads must roll eventually. This has not been well handled. The BBC hasn't come out of this particularly well."

The controversy centers on a BBC report that cast grave doubts on intelligence used by the government to justify the Iraq war.

Specifically, the correspondent, Andrew Gilligan, cited a "senior intelligence official" as saying that Downing Street "sexed up" intelligence to make the case for war more compelling. Some of the government's intelligence has since been called into question, particularly a claim that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium from Niger and could activate chemical warheads in 45 minutes.

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