"People call me an Istanbul photographer but I am a citizen of the world. I am a world photographer," said Ara Guler, nicknamed 'The Eye of Istanbul,' who chronicled his city and the world over his decades-long career as a photojournalist. https://t.co/VMRx5ofje6
22 YEARS LATER AND NOBODY HAS ANSWERED FOR WHAT HAPPENED TO DR DAVID KELLY
His name was Dr David Kelly. Most people have forgotten him. They shouldn't.
He was a quiet, mild-mannered scientist who spent his career inspecting weapons facilities around the world.
He knew more about Iraq's arsenal than almost anyone alive.
In 2003, Tony Blair's @InstituteGC government published a dossier claiming Saddam Hussein could deploy chemical weapons within 45 minutes. That claim was used to justify a war.
Kelly knew the intelligence behind it was being exaggerated. He said so, privately, to a @BBCNews journalist.
That one conversation destroyed his life.
The government found out he was the source. Instead of protecting a man who had served his country for decades, they quietly let his name reach the press. He was publicly identified, dragged before two parliamentary committees, and grilled by his own employer.
His wife said he came home a broken man.
On the afternoon of 17 July 2003, he left his house for a walk in the Oxfordshire countryside. He was 59 years old. He never came back.
His body was found the next morning in woodland. A knife beside him. A blister pack of painkillers nearby.
Here is where it gets worse.
Tony Blair personally intervened to replace the normal coroner's inquest with a private inquiry run by Lord Hutton.
The original inquest was suspended before it even properly began. It was never resumed. To this day,
Dr David Kelly is the only person in England and Wales in living memory to have died in unexplained circumstances without receiving a full coroner's inquest.
Lord Hutton concluded suicide. Case closed.
Except eight senior doctors and a former coroner wrote to @thetimes saying the verdict was medically unsafe.
The wound found on Kelly's wrist, a severed ulnar artery, would not cause fatal blood loss in a healthy person.
There were no fingerprints on the knife. The painkillers found were not in a quantity that experts considered lethal.
The government's response, delivered by Attorney General Dominic Grieve in 2011, was essentially: the Hutton Inquiry was good enough, stop asking questions.
Think about that. A man quietly raised concerns about the biggest political deception in modern British history, a war that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. He was publicly exposed, professionally destroyed, and found dead days later and the government personally made sure there would never be a proper independent investigation into how he died.
Tony Blair went on to become a Middle East Peace Envoy. He has a knighthood.
Dr David Kelly got a private inquiry, a rushed verdict, and a sealed post-mortem report that was not released to the public for years.
Nobody was ever held accountable. Not for any of it.
This story should be on the front page every single year. Share it if you think it matters.
Sources: @BBCNews@guardian@thetimes@PrivateEyeNews
#BREAKINGNEWS
Singer Tina Turner, one of rock’s most famous voices who had hits including Proud Mary and The Best, has died at the age of 83 after a long illness.
LONDON MARATHON | 2023
MO FARAH
Absolutely chuffed to be able to photograph @Mo_Farah at mile 25 as he ran his last ever London Marathon 🙌
Huge congratulations to everyone who took part in the @londonmarathon you were all amazing ❤️
@NickCorbishley A CBDC must be our line in the sand if we wish our children to have any semblance of freedom. The power wielded by the issuers of a CBDC is nearly unlimited and never seen before in history.
At the click of a button any undesirables can be excluded from all of society.
My daughter’s short story “The Grimm” available to read online 👇👇👇
Orion Celebrates the winner of the Big Writing Challenge | Orion - Bringing You News From Our World To Yours https://t.co/5CwnKmHEdr
P R I D E 🌈
One of my favourites to photograph. Have been looking forward to this event for so long and absolutely gutted that I can’t make it this year.
Badly sprained ankle 😂
Take care and enjoy 💚
#PrideInLondon#pride#londonpride#Pride#prideinlondon#50yearspride