Talk:David Kelly (weapons expert)

It might be worth mentioning that, as people tend not to realise, Dr Kelly supported military action against Iraq. A few days before the invasion he wrote an article for the Guardian arguing that 'only regime change will avert the threat.' He did not claim that the threat rested on supposed weapon stocks. He believed it came from Saddam's WMD development programme, which was still in place -- that is, the experts and the skills base were still present, so that development could resume once UN sanctions were lifted, and the lifting of sanctions was quite possible given the siding of France, Russia and China with Iraq on the UNSC. In this respect Dr Kelly's views were similar to Tony Blair's. The Guardian reprinted the piece in August 2003 as the inquiry into Dr Kelly's death got underway.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/aug/31/huttonreport.iraq Khamba Tendal (talk) 16:21, 1 November 2018 (UTC)

I intend to undertake a rewrite of this article over the next few months, particularly to bring in additional information and citations to cover the “pre-Gilligan” part of his life, which is a little on the thin side.

I propose to do much of the messy heavy-lifting in my sandbox, and then to transfer over in lumps when appropriate. (This may be as small as a paragraph, or as large as a sub-section, but it will be manageable for any page watchers who wish to keep on top of any developments.) If anyone objects to this, please let me know. - SchroCat (talk) 19:51, 28 December 2019 (UTC)

In the opening paragraph, the article says "Two days later Kelly was found dead near his home, having been murdered." Two paragraphs later it says "Following Kelly's suicide in 2003", and the remainder of the article refers to his suicide. The article shouldn't assert that he was murdered. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.36.66.0 (talk) 10:35, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

I have updated the article to remove the wording "having been murdered". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.36.66.0 (talk) 10:39, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

I am removing the WP:SEEALSO for Hussein Kamel al-Majid but I am happy to discuss it (which is why I am here, right?)

It was added in [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=David_Kelly_%28weapons_expert%29&diff=prev&oldid=306552064 this edit] on 7 August 2009 by User:84.249.57.48, whose [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/84.249.57.48 fairly brief career here] included a number of edits that some would regard as being outside the mainstream. Their also-brief [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:84.249.57.48&action=history Talk page history] is mostly POV concerns and notably mentions the adding of SeeAlsos as a sort of guilt-by association thing. Given that Hussein Kamel al-Majid was a defector who was then killed by his government for treachery, I'm not sure what message it gives if we leave him here as a SeeAlso. But, as I said, I am happy to discuss it (within reason). Best to all, DBaK (talk) 09:11, 15 December 2022 (UTC)

Hi {{U|SchroCat}}, some possible tweaks before it hits MP...

• Tony Blair image caption is a frag ie remove full stop?
• David Chidgey - ditto
• Purported Iraqi mobile weapons - ditto
• Image caption: editor of the BBC's Newsnight programme - add italics
• Sources News Burden / Brady - alpha order
• He appeared more relaxed than he did in front - than he had?
• redlink State Research Centre for Applied Microbiology - State Research Center for Applied Microbiology (Center US spelling)
• she took her young son - their young son?
• to try and find him - try to find him?
• in the :Category:Iraq and weapons of mass destruction the article appears under D as "David Kelly (weapons expert)". I'm guessing that's not what the pipe at (Death of David Kelly) is intended to do? That pipe treatment was there before the article was moved from Death of David Kelly to current name in 2011. Only solution (if one is needed) that I can think of is to add that category on the redirection page Death of David Kelly or remove piping!

Regards, JennyOz (talk) 20:09, 16 July 2023 (UTC)

• Hi JennyOz, thanks for these, as always. I've skipped one as it's a BrEng thing ("to try and find" is acceptable), but the rest are all sorted. Cheers - SchroCat (talk) 21:09, 16 July 2023 (UTC)