Tense times for Blair as suicide heightens Iraq weapons debate

LONDON -- The suicide of a Defense Ministry weapons expert and BBC source has raised questions about Tony Blair's media operation -- an issue on which his opponents have already decided the prime minister is vulnerable.

Blair's government had hit a midterm popularity slump even before it went hunting for the source of a critical British Broadcasting Corp. report. Scientist David Kelly's suicide has cast a harsh new light on the months-old debate about whether Blair's government inflated claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to justify war.

President Bush has faced similar questions, but because Britons were initially more skeptical than Americans about the need to attack Iraq, the postwar criticism of Blair has been louder and more persistent.

Bush and Blair presented a united front last week when the prime minister traveled to Washington to address a joint session of Congress.

But then, news of Kelly's disappearance broke, adding new venom to the feud between the government and the BBC over a report in which the broadcaster quoted a source maintaining the government had "sexed up" evidence of the Iraqi threat.

After the piece aired, Kelly told his Ministry of Defense bosses he'd spoken to reporter Andrew Gilligan but did not recognize his comments in the report's central claims and did not believe he was its main source.

The ministry identified him as a possible source for the story and he was called before a parliamentary committee last week. On Friday, he was found dead near his home with his wrist slit. On Sunday, the BBC identified Kelly as the main source of its report.

Gilligan's report had been deeply damaging for the government, which is frequently accused by critics of trying to manipulate the media.

The failure so far to find evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction has led to accusations Blair exaggerated intelligence, which he vigorously denies.

"This is without doubt the hardest test that the Blair government has had, but my belief is that the prime minister will emerge from it relatively unscathed," said Anthony Seldon, a political historian at Brighton College.

Tories who supported the war are making arguments similar to those voiced by dissident members of Blair's Labor Party, who opposed it.

"There are very large numbers of questions which all center on the issue of whether the public can trust what the government tells it," Oliver Letwin, Conservative spokesman on domestic affairs, told BBC radio.

The critics' favorite target is Blair's communications director Alastair Campbell, long derided as a master of media manipulation.

Daily Mail columnist Stephen Glover slammed the prime minister's longtime ally as a man "of limited intellectual gifts and contingent morality who is used to destroying his enemies."

Many speculate Campbell may leave his job soon.

Much of the criticism of the government has focused on the Defense Ministry's release of Kelly's name, which propelled him into the spotlight and before the committee.

The ministry may have been trying to undercut the BBC's accusations against it, but critics say removing Kelly's anonymity helped lead to his death.

The dispute hit as Blair's government, re-elected in 2001, appeared to be hitting a midterm slump.

A June poll found Labor had sunk to its lowest popularity rating since 1993, with backing from 38 percent of those questioned. While the long-ailing Conservatives continued to trail, they gained some ground, with support from 34 percent of respondents.

An ICM telephone survey, taken for the Guardian on Friday and Saturday among 1001 Britons, found Labor's lead over the Conservatives narrowed to two points, down from 12 in the same poll two months ago. Support for Blair's leadership, which has been declining since the end of the Iraq war, dropped four points to 37 percent. No margin of error was given.