Sunday, 8 May 2011

The Victoria Roddam emails

A subject that has received surprisingly little comment is that of Dr Kelly's contacts with Victoria Roddam, a lady who in 2003 was Commissioning Editor for a small publishing house called "Oneworld Publications", their offices being in Oxford.

The interchange of emails between Dr Kelly and Ms Roddam form part of the Thames Valley Police evidence on the Hutton website http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/tvp/tvp_3_0245to0250.pdf.  Unfortunately the last email is at the top and first at the bottom so they don't read comfortably.

As I understand things the publisher was interested in publishing a book or a series of books which would have involved Dr Kelly's input to a greater or lesser degree.  One email confirms that a meeting had taken place between David Kelly and Victoria Roddam and Novin Doostdar, one of Oneword's co-founders.  As with Dr Kelly Mr Doostdar was a Baha'i follower.

Norman Baker writes of this proposed project of Oneworld and there is more to be read here for instance - an article by Jim Rarey.

The first formal email is on 2 April 2003 from Dr Kelly in response to a phone call from Ms Roddam.  An email to Dr Kelly dated 10 July, when the Kellys are on the way to Cornwall, includes the sentence  'In light of recent events I think that the time is ripe more than ever for a title which addresses the relationship between government, policy and war - I'm sure you would agree'

I believe that the contact between Dr Kelly and Oneworld Publications, if known to the security services, might have set alarm bells ringing at the very least.  Also in the TVP evidence list is Ms Roddam's notes of her discussion with Dr Kelly http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/tvp/tvp_3_0251to0254.pdf

6 comments:

  1. I wonder if the Kelly family ever got Dr Kelly's manuscripts back, they appear to be important historical documents; ones even that Chilcot may wish to refer

    "Q. And anything else that you recovered from the coffeetable?
    A. A number of booklets, one entitled "Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction", "The Decision To Go To War In Iraq, Volumes 1 and 2" and another booklet entitled "Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction".
    Q. And you retrieved all those documents?
    A. I took possession of all those items, yes.
    Q. What did you do with those items?
    A. I subsequently placed them in the property holding store at Abingdon police station and then subsequently got them back and handed them on to Detective Constable Boshell who was acting as exhibit officer for the investigation into Dr Kelly's unexplained death at that time."

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  2. Brian


    One of the contacts David Kelly gives Victoria Roddam is Jonathan Tucker at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.(Mai Pederson was attached to the Defense Language Institute in the same town)

    Jonathan Tucker gives an interesting interview with CNN on 21 July 2003.
    He has recently written on gene synthesis regulation

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  3. Funny coincidence - Jonathan Tucker has suddenly turned up dead as well...

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  4. Thanks, Anonymous.

    Tucker was also interviewed just after the dossier was pubished in 2002 by ABC Australia here on 1 October 2002, averring that the bio weapons which were held by Saddam Hussein were probably supplied by the US.
    More recently, and rather more ominously, in 2008 Bio-weapons expert Jonathon Tucker cast doubt on the FBI's "shut case" that Bruce Ivins was the perpetrator of the 2001 Anthrax attacks.
    "...Jonathan B. Tucker, a biological warfare expert on the staff of a federal commission for the prevention of terrorism with unconventional weapons, said the documents contained "a number of gaps and inferences."

    The F.B.I. made no mention of handwriting analysis, for example, that might tie Dr. Ivins to the attack letters, Dr. Tucker said.

    "It's not an open-and-shut case," he said. "There are some pieces of evidence that are much more compelling than others, and a number of loose ends that haven't been tied."



    Another early Anthrax attack suspect, Perry Mikesell who had worked on bio-weapons research at Battelle Ohio, formerly of Fort Detrick , was found dead aged 54 in October 2002 having suddenly become an alcoholic after being placed under suspicion. He had pubished research with Bruce Ivins.

    Obituary here
    "At his death, he was awaiting a security clearance for a new job at the Department of Homeland Security.
    "

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  5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ircl4XSoPhs&feature=g-upl

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