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British defense officials have dismissed "misleading" claims that British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon sanctioned the naming of weapons expert David Kelly as the BBC's source for a story on Iraq's weapons capability, local reports said Tuesday.
Hoon was accused by several local newspapers Tuesday of allowing Kelly, who was found dead last Friday after apparently slashing his own wrist, to be named as a "mole."
The defense officials also indicated that Hoon was ready to give evidence in public to the judicial inquiry by senior judge Lord Hutton into the death of Kelly, who was at the center of the row over Iraqi intelligence between the BBC and the government, reports said.
According to a statement released by the Ministry of Defense, reports said, Hoon and his officials would "set out the approach taken by the department after Kelly came forward" and admitted to being the source of a controversial BBC broadcast, which suggested that the government may have exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq in the run-up to the US-led war against Iraq.
The BBC confirmed Sunday that Kelly was the source for their report claiming Downing Street had "sexed up" a dossier on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, a major justification for the US-led war in Iraq.
Kelly's death came after he was questioned by a parliamentary committee over whether he was the source of the BBC report that has led to the rumbling row over the government's intelligence on Iraq.
The government scientist was understood to have been given guarantees from the MOD that his identity would remain secret, reports said.
As speculation is growing as to how Kelly's identity came to the public domain, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, currently on a visit to China as part of a tour of the Far East, denied he authorized Kelly's identity to be made public during the dispute over Iraq's banned weapons.
(Xinhua News Agency July 23, 2003)
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