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| Dark Actors: The Life and Death of David Kelly, by Robert Lewis – review | Dark Actors: The Life and Death of David Kelly, by Robert Lewis – review |
| (2 months later) | |
| In its advance publicity for Dark Actors, Simon & Schuster announces that Robert Lewis is not a conspiracy theorist. Like the moment when the doomed Tea Party candidate Christine O'Donnell began a US Senate campaign advert with, "I am not a witch", your first thought is: why do you need to tell me that? | In its advance publicity for Dark Actors, Simon & Schuster announces that Robert Lewis is not a conspiracy theorist. Like the moment when the doomed Tea Party candidate Christine O'Donnell began a US Senate campaign advert with, "I am not a witch", your first thought is: why do you need to tell me that? |
| O'Donnell had to break off from her Senate run to discuss her dealings with the occult, because she had incautiously let slip that she had once "dabbled into witchcraft". She wanted viewers to understand that she had never joined an actual coven. She had just gone "to a movie, and then had a little midnight picnic on a satanic altar". Lewis dabbles too. His account of the death of David Kelly picnics on conspiracy theory. Only at the end do you realise he lacks the appetite to wolf it down whole. | O'Donnell had to break off from her Senate run to discuss her dealings with the occult, because she had incautiously let slip that she had once "dabbled into witchcraft". She wanted viewers to understand that she had never joined an actual coven. She had just gone "to a movie, and then had a little midnight picnic on a satanic altar". Lewis dabbles too. His account of the death of David Kelly picnics on conspiracy theory. Only at the end do you realise he lacks the appetite to wolf it down whole. |
| Lewis corrals impressionable readers by ignoring the good old advice that you must take on your opponent's strongest arguments. He dismisses all who disagree with him as establishment lackeys, neo-cons and the tools of the military industrial complex. On many occasions, he cannot even admit that disagreements exist, and writes as if there are no controversies worthy of his notice. | Lewis corrals impressionable readers by ignoring the good old advice that you must take on your opponent's strongest arguments. He dismisses all who disagree with him as establishment lackeys, neo-cons and the tools of the military industrial complex. On many occasions, he cannot even admit that disagreements exist, and writes as if there are no controversies worthy of his notice. |
| Did David Kelly kill himself? Or did the secret state assassinate him for allegedly telling the Today programme that Labour politicians had pulled rank on the intelligence services and lied to make the case for overthrowing Saddam Hussein? Millions of people at the time and since wanted to believe the state had murdered Kelly. They found a perverse thrill in the belief that a government, which could go to war over make-believe weapons of mass destruction, could go on to kill to prevent the public learning more. | Did David Kelly kill himself? Or did the secret state assassinate him for allegedly telling the Today programme that Labour politicians had pulled rank on the intelligence services and lied to make the case for overthrowing Saddam Hussein? Millions of people at the time and since wanted to believe the state had murdered Kelly. They found a perverse thrill in the belief that a government, which could go to war over make-believe weapons of mass destruction, could go on to kill to prevent the public learning more. |
| "This was no ordinary suicide," Lewis explains, as he goes to work. The wound on his slashed wrist was not large enough to kill him. There was not enough blood on the ground beside him. "Wrist-cutting is one of the most unsuccessful ways to attempt suicide… Particularly if, like David Kelly, you only attempted to cut one of your wrists." But Kelly also took 29 tablets of co-proxamol. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency subsequently withdrew the painkiller because it was responsible for 300-400 fatal overdoses. The president of the Forensic Society, Professor Robert Forrest, and many other physicians said that the drugs and cuts to the wrist were enough to kill Dr Kelly. Lewis does not use the opinions of other medical authorities to rebut their conclusions, however. He makes progress by ignoring alternative views completely. | "This was no ordinary suicide," Lewis explains, as he goes to work. The wound on his slashed wrist was not large enough to kill him. There was not enough blood on the ground beside him. "Wrist-cutting is one of the most unsuccessful ways to attempt suicide… Particularly if, like David Kelly, you only attempted to cut one of your wrists." But Kelly also took 29 tablets of co-proxamol. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency subsequently withdrew the painkiller because it was responsible for 300-400 fatal overdoses. The president of the Forensic Society, Professor Robert Forrest, and many other physicians said that the drugs and cuts to the wrist were enough to kill Dr Kelly. Lewis does not use the opinions of other medical authorities to rebut their conclusions, however. He makes progress by ignoring alternative views completely. |
| Like all who hover over Dr Kelly's corpse, Lewis has to attack the weapon inspector's widow. At the Hutton inquiry, Janice Kelly accepted that her husband killed himself. "I just thought he had a broken heart. He had shrunk into himself." She and her children have refused to help the media by saying another word about their loss from that day on. | Like all who hover over Dr Kelly's corpse, Lewis has to attack the weapon inspector's widow. At the Hutton inquiry, Janice Kelly accepted that her husband killed himself. "I just thought he had a broken heart. He had shrunk into himself." She and her children have refused to help the media by saying another word about their loss from that day on. |
| Lewis upbraids her in the singsong voice of counterfeit sympathy. "Perhaps there were people around this tragically and violently bereaved widow who were advising – only advising you understand in an expert and subtle way – that there were trivial details of no vital legal consequence that could ideally be elided for the sake of national security. If so I doubt those people have really left her alone." | Lewis upbraids her in the singsong voice of counterfeit sympathy. "Perhaps there were people around this tragically and violently bereaved widow who were advising – only advising you understand in an expert and subtle way – that there were trivial details of no vital legal consequence that could ideally be elided for the sake of national security. If so I doubt those people have really left her alone." |
| The "perhaps" and "if so" in that insinuating passage tell you all you need to know about how Lewis operates. When he does not have evidence that Mrs Kelly is covering up, he invents it. | The "perhaps" and "if so" in that insinuating passage tell you all you need to know about how Lewis operates. When he does not have evidence that Mrs Kelly is covering up, he invents it. |
| Yet in the end, he cannot bring himself to say that Blair or MI5 ordered Kelly's death. (Somewhat to the surprise of the reader who has struggled through 340 pages implying they had done just that.) Lewis confesses he was "devoted believer" in the Kelly conspiracy theory. He clung to his conspiratorial "faith for years, and I still have respect for its church" and "the sensible, industrious people" who worship in it. But now he thinks that Kelly killed himself for fear of the smears the security services would use to blacken his name. Once again, some evidence would be handy at this point. He offers us none. | Yet in the end, he cannot bring himself to say that Blair or MI5 ordered Kelly's death. (Somewhat to the surprise of the reader who has struggled through 340 pages implying they had done just that.) Lewis confesses he was "devoted believer" in the Kelly conspiracy theory. He clung to his conspiratorial "faith for years, and I still have respect for its church" and "the sensible, industrious people" who worship in it. But now he thinks that Kelly killed himself for fear of the smears the security services would use to blacken his name. Once again, some evidence would be handy at this point. He offers us none. |
| Conspiracy theories led to the calamitous movements of communism and nazism. Democracies are not immune. You can see the Anglo-American belief that Saddam must be plotting to hide chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons as a paranoid strain in western thinking. Few, though, discuss how conspiracy theories can comfort the powerful by diverting attention from real abuses of power. | Conspiracy theories led to the calamitous movements of communism and nazism. Democracies are not immune. You can see the Anglo-American belief that Saddam must be plotting to hide chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons as a paranoid strain in western thinking. Few, though, discuss how conspiracy theories can comfort the powerful by diverting attention from real abuses of power. |
| Lewis discounts the view of Tom Mangold, Kelly's friend and a genuine investigative journalist, that the struggle between the government and the BBC crushed Kelly. New Labour had to discredit the BBC's story that Blair had lied to take Britain into war. It denied it, and blackened Kelly's name. The BBC had to defend the Today programme report. After Kelly denied he had said what the broadcasters said he had said, the BBC broke the one sacred principle of journalism and betrayed its source. Its reporter whispered to MPs that Kelly had spoken to other journalists. The BBC turned Kelly from a civil servant, who had had one unwise conversation his superiors could forget about, into a serial briefer against the government. Kelly knew his career was over. | Lewis discounts the view of Tom Mangold, Kelly's friend and a genuine investigative journalist, that the struggle between the government and the BBC crushed Kelly. New Labour had to discredit the BBC's story that Blair had lied to take Britain into war. It denied it, and blackened Kelly's name. The BBC had to defend the Today programme report. After Kelly denied he had said what the broadcasters said he had said, the BBC broke the one sacred principle of journalism and betrayed its source. Its reporter whispered to MPs that Kelly had spoken to other journalists. The BBC turned Kelly from a civil servant, who had had one unwise conversation his superiors could forget about, into a serial briefer against the government. Kelly knew his career was over. |
| "Suicide is never the result of a single factor," the Samaritans warn – words Mr Lewis could do with heeding. David Kelly's marriage was in trouble. His father had abandoned him when he was a boy. His mother had killed herself. He was a proud man, who had been shamed and ridiculed. | "Suicide is never the result of a single factor," the Samaritans warn – words Mr Lewis could do with heeding. David Kelly's marriage was in trouble. His father had abandoned him when he was a boy. His mother had killed herself. He was a proud man, who had been shamed and ridiculed. |
| When you have made all the cautious caveats, however, is it not worth looking at how hierarchies eat up individuals? How they ignore their obligations and throw their servants and sources away when threatened? That might make a book worth reading. But it would not read like a bad thriller or the Daily Mail on an off day so no publisher would commission it. | When you have made all the cautious caveats, however, is it not worth looking at how hierarchies eat up individuals? How they ignore their obligations and throw their servants and sources away when threatened? That might make a book worth reading. But it would not read like a bad thriller or the Daily Mail on an off day so no publisher would commission it. |
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