The August lunch was attended by 43 members, two guests, and by our Speaker Bob Kermeen who has written four novels; three of which are set against the backdrop of Iraq's missing Weapons of Mass Destruction.

During two previous visits to our Club, Bob has spoken about Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction and about the creation of Iraq from WW1 to Saddam Hussein. This time his topic was “Who killed Dr. David Kelly”.

Dr Kelly was an authority on biological warfare who came to public attention during July 2003 when an unauthorised discussion that he had had off the record with a BBC journalist about the British government's dossier on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq came to light. In particular, Kelly was unhappy with the claim that Iraq was capable of firing battlefield biological and chemical weapons within 45 minutes of an order to use them. PM Blair had used this claim to justify going to war.

Shortly after giving evidence before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, it was reported that Kelly had committed suicide and this was supported by the Hutton inquiry. However, for several sound reasons, Hutton's report was widely regarded as a “whitewash” and speculation arose that Kelly had been assassinated by sinister forces within government seeking to silence him for exposing the lies that led to an illegal invasion of Iraq and a fear of what else he might discuss with journalists or tell in a tell-all book about bio warfare.

Bob went into detail on the evidence pointing to murder. In particular the medical evidence surrounding Kelly's death proved to be very controversial. Medical professionals felt that the injuries to Kelly could not have caused his death.

Bob then gave his views on which of the murder suspects probably did not commit the crime but could not give a definitive answer on who was actually responsible. Probably a mystery that will never be solved.

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