There seems to be no end to Tony Blair's woes. Even as one nightmare ends, fresh problems are cropping up.
On Tuesday night, the British prime minister faced down a massive backbench rebellion to win a narrow parliamentary victory on the critical Higher Education Bill.
On Wednesday, the Sun newspaper predicted that Lord Hutton's report would exonerate Blair and other senior members of the government in the suicide of arms inspector Dr David Kelly. It did.
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The Guardian newspaper has published their letter.
One of the experts is retired trauma specialist David Halpin (62), who has worked at hospitals in the south of England. "We are not questioning the competence and straightforwardness of Dr Nicholas Hunt, the pathologist. As citizens with some special knowledge, all we are doing is saying we think death through cutting an artery in the wrist is unlikely," he says.
Another signatory Dr Searle Sennett, a retired specialist anaesthesiologist from Coronation Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa. "I have no axe to grind against the government or anybody. My particular interest was not at all political."
The third expert, diagnostic radiologist Stephen Frost, says, "As specialist medical professionals, we do not consider the evidence given at the Hutton inquiry has demonstrated that Dr Kelly committed suicide."
The coroner's inquest into the scientist's death was opened and adjourned last July. Gardiner had in August said that the main cause of death was the number of incisions into Dr Kelly's wrist.
The Hutton Inquiry was intended to replace the inquest, but the coroner has said he may reopen it if the report does not sufficiently cover the circumstances surrounding the weapons expert's death.
