Grex Agora46 Conference

Item 97: MoD scientist linked to BBC leak found dead

Entered by twenex on Sat Jul 19 00:04:47 2003:

A scientist employed by the British MoD (Ministry of Defence) was found dead
this weak after having been suspected of leaking information to the BBC which
suggested the claims made by the Government that Iraq could launch WMD within
45 mins. were false:

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1001129,00.html

The Govt. of the UK has promised an "independent judicial inquiry".

This looks very bad.
53 responses total.

#1 of 53 by twenex on Sat Jul 19 03:08:05 2003:

Update: Apparently, preliminary reports indicated that he had committed
suicide. The Govt has in fact moved quickly this time (in marked contrast to
their attitude over suggestions there should be an independent inquiry into
the claims made on Iraq by Tony Blair and his Cabinet) and has already
appointed the judge who will be chairing the inquiry, which is expected to
report in September, as is the Foreign Office Committee of the House of
Commons, which has launched an investigation into the claims over WMD.


#2 of 53 by jmsaul on Sat Jul 19 04:41:54 2003:

According to the BBC, the guy was under a lot of stress, and looked terrible
when he testified before a Parliamentary committee.  He may well have done
himself in.


#3 of 53 by pvn on Sat Jul 19 05:55:39 2003:

Like Vince Foster, uh huh.


#4 of 53 by sabre on Sat Jul 19 11:41:01 2003:

He was killed to silence him. The American goverment does it all the time.


#5 of 53 by jmsaul on Sat Jul 19 18:01:28 2003:

Re #3:  Foster was a long-time clinical depressive, wasn't he?


#6 of 53 by sj2 on Sat Jul 19 18:30:07 2003:

And the WMD saga continues ........ 


#7 of 53 by sj2 on Sat Jul 19 18:31:32 2003:

Ahh!! The latest reports suggest that tha man slit his wrist!! 
C'mon .... I thought guys in the CIA and MI6 were smarter than that. ;)


#8 of 53 by jor on Sun Jul 20 00:14:39 2003:

        They sent Sandbagger 1



#9 of 53 by gull on Sun Jul 20 19:33:16 2003:

That's interesting, if true.  Slitting your wrist isn't a particularly 
quick or effective way to commit suicide, from what I've heard.  Most 
people who try it that way fail.


#10 of 53 by twenex on Sun Jul 20 19:42:06 2003:

Apparently he took co-proxamol (i believe that's the right spelling) - a
highly effective painkiller. must have sat there for ages, poor bastard.


#11 of 53 by sj2 on Sun Jul 20 19:55:13 2003:

Though I still like the way BBC has been handling this. Not to say its 
not biased in its reporting but its still the best around.


#12 of 53 by janc on Mon Jul 21 00:17:22 2003:

If I were the kind of person into conspiracy theories, I'd say that since
slitting one's wrists is probably the number one most stereotypical way to
commit suicide, it would be a good choice if you wanted to commit a murder
that looked like suicide.


#13 of 53 by gull on Mon Jul 21 01:19:45 2003:

I dunno.  It'd be pretty tough to do to someone against their will 
unless you drugged them first, and that would come out in the autopsy.


#14 of 53 by janc on Mon Jul 21 01:50:24 2003:

Yeah, but if you are positing a really nefarious high-level government
conspiracy, you'd expect it to be cleverly done - not an easy kill, but
a cleverly concocted simulation of a suicide.  One shouldn't underestimate
the cleverness of those government spys when it comes to evading detection.
After all, look at Watergate or Contragate.  Hmmm.  On second thought, never
mind.  The average government conspiracy is about as subtle as elephant poop
in a wine glass.

Ah ... but maybe that's what they *want* us to think....


#15 of 53 by dcat on Mon Jul 21 02:03:38 2003:

resp:13 - he'd apparently taken some pretty potent painkillers beforehand.


#16 of 53 by polytarp on Mon Jul 21 03:07:56 2003:

Yes, he was drugged.


#17 of 53 by rcurl on Mon Jul 21 06:42:42 2003:

I just don't see that anything he had done or not done would drive a person
to suicide. I would suspect some other event in his life to be the root
cause. Suppose he did leak information contradicting the government's claims.
A significant fraction of the citizenry would applaud that. He might lose
his job (giving the government a further black eye), but he would get job
offers on the basis of his action. How could any outcome alone be a strong
motivation for suicide? Of course, he may have been mentally ill in some
fashion, which could tip the scales.


#18 of 53 by pvn on Mon Jul 21 07:09:23 2003:

Yep.  He was silenced.  Its all part of the cover-up.  You see, he was
actually killed on account of what he actually knew about the
Inslaw/Promis affair.  What?  You don't know about that one?  THEY are
doing an excellent job of covering that one up.


#19 of 53 by tod on Mon Jul 21 16:45:04 2003:

This response has been erased.



#20 of 53 by rcurl on Mon Jul 21 16:51:38 2003:

But...what stress? There was no need for him to feel any stress, as far
as the information published indicates. Was he being threatened with
anything? Nothing published indicates that. 


#21 of 53 by tod on Mon Jul 21 17:05:06 2003:

This response has been erased.



#22 of 53 by rcurl on Mon Jul 21 17:30:05 2003:

You mean, the Foreign Affairs Committee tortured him? I didn't read about
that. Otherwise, what is a "rough grilling"? You mean he committed suicide
because a committee asked him some questions? All he had to do was answer
their questions truthfully. Seems to me he could only *gain* credibility
as a whistle-blower. There had to be something else..."chercher la femme". 



#23 of 53 by tod on Mon Jul 21 17:43:21 2003:

This response has been erased.



#24 of 53 by rcurl on Tue Jul 22 00:38:05 2003:

That seems pretty far fetched. Do people get into a funk any more because
their family might be embarrassed? I thought that went out with horse
carriages. 


#25 of 53 by scg on Tue Jul 22 03:12:53 2003:

It does seem pretty common for people to get caught doing something career
ending, and commit suicide.


#26 of 53 by twenex on Tue Jul 22 17:30:06 2003:

Re #24. It's a major public service thing over here.


#27 of 53 by tod on Tue Jul 22 19:27:14 2003:

This response has been erased.



#28 of 53 by twenex on Wed Jul 23 01:59:11 2003:

Re 24/26. I meant general stress and embarrassment, not necessarily suicide.


#29 of 53 by gull on Wed Jul 23 15:10:43 2003:

I think it's far more likely that this was a suicide than some kind of
government conspiracy.  Especially since his death has only brought more
attention.


#30 of 53 by twenex on Wed Jul 23 15:33:10 2003:

I think the inquiry has more to do with finding out whether pressure from Dr.
Kelly's superiors at the MoD caused him to commit suicide, rather than a
conspiracy as such. British people are much more likely to believe in
governmental incompetence than in conspiracies.


#31 of 53 by tod on Wed Jul 23 17:26:46 2003:

This response has been erased.



#32 of 53 by sabre on Wed Jul 23 20:17:58 2003:

The fucking liberals killed him because they knew he would vindicate our great
president BUSH.
ALL HAIL THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
on your knees liberal scum.


#33 of 53 by rcurl on Wed Jul 23 23:59:25 2003:

(What a jerk.)


#34 of 53 by spectrum on Thu Jul 24 00:03:45 2003:

 Go jerk off..that's the only way you'll ever get sex.


#35 of 53 by rcurl on Thu Jul 24 00:45:21 2003:

(Another jerk!)


#36 of 53 by pvn on Thu Jul 24 05:35:33 2003:

pot calls kettle black.


#37 of 53 by jep on Thu Jul 24 14:38:59 2003:

We pots are always calling those kettles black, here on Grex.


#38 of 53 by rcurl on Thu Jul 24 16:48:12 2003:

(when they have nothing intelligent to say)


#39 of 53 by klg on Thu Jul 24 16:49:48 2003:

(Define "intelligent")


#40 of 53 by rcurl on Thu Jul 24 18:06:15 2003:

Look it up.


#41 of 53 by gull on Thu Jul 24 19:54:37 2003:

Re #34: And a new study shows jerking off lowers your chances of
prostate cancer!  (Hmm.  This may cause people to rethink whether they
want to advise their enemies to do it.)


#42 of 53 by tod on Thu Jul 24 19:56:07 2003:

This response has been erased.



#43 of 53 by rcurl on Fri Jul 25 00:41:17 2003:

Re #41: really? How does that work?


#44 of 53 by klg on Fri Jul 25 01:44:16 2003:

(I might, but it wouldn't do any good around here.)


#45 of 53 by novomit on Fri Jul 25 11:42:05 2003:

That's gerat news, as I whack off pretty much every night. 


#46 of 53 by gull on Fri Jul 25 13:20:38 2003:

Re #43: Here's the article:
http://www.cbc.ca/storyview/AOL/2003/07/17/masturbate030717
It was a statistical study and the mechanism isn't really known.


#47 of 53 by janc on Fri Jul 25 13:58:37 2003:

"The study suggests ejaculation by means of masturbation provides better
 protection than ejaculation in sexual intercourse because men can pick up
 infections from intercourse that actually increase the risk of getting
 prostate cancer."

Probably there is a correlation between not have intercourse much and
masturbating alot.  In which case it may be the lack of intercourse which
causes reduced chances of prostrate cancer later in life.


#48 of 53 by gull on Fri Jul 25 16:03:18 2003:

You'd think they would have controlled for that by including
non-sexually-active men who didn't masturbate regularly.  But without
seeing detailed information on the study it's hard to be sure.


#49 of 53 by russ on Sat Jul 26 13:19:17 2003:

Let me guess:  prostrate cancer is a disease you take lying down?


#50 of 53 by novomit on Sat Jul 26 14:24:16 2003:

Not me. I whack off lying down, and this prevents prostate cancer. 


#51 of 53 by lynne on Tue Jul 29 02:01:25 2003:

Yeah, me too.  Oh.  Wait.


#52 of 53 by pvn on Sun Aug 17 06:55:49 2003:

re#47: The quote you enter seems to suggest evidence contrary to past
studies.  Past studies have shown that once the population of various
'floura' are quickly generally evenly distributed between hetero
monogamous couples the likelyhood of "picking up" infections is minimal.
I would suspect this would similarly be the case in homo monogamous
couples although I doubt such studies have been done given the rarity of
such.  If the study is suggesting that masturbation is far less likely
to involve future medical problems than going out and paying for a
hooker then I would think that would be obvious as well.


#53 of 53 by gull on Sun Aug 17 21:58:48 2003:

Re #52: The study shows a link between masturbation and lower rates of
prostate cancer.  Right now any comments about the reasons for that are
pretty much just speculation.


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