3rd December, 2001

Dear Mr Younger-Ross,

You will share with me great sadness and apprehension about the escalating terror in Palestine. You might now agree that I was right in pleading against the bombing of Afghanistan and instead for the insertion of a peacekeeping force in Palestine, however difficult that might have been. I have been pleased to see that Menzies Campbell has spoken against extending the bombing war to other countries, particularly to Iraq, but it is very regrettable that the Liberal Democrats did not come out against the bombing of Afghanistan because of some ill-placed sense of so-called patriotism.

I approach my analysis of this both as a doctor and an orthopaedic surgeon. I am helped in having been trained at St Mary’s with young people from other countries and having had many young doctors helping me in the beleaguered NHS who came here to train from all parts of the world including the Middle East and Afghanistan. I know the reality of death and torn bodies from dealing at first hand with the casualties of the dominant motor vehicle. My training and mentality help me get to the nub of a problem. Even-handedness drives me to write this piece.

It may be fruitful to treat terrorism as we do a disease process:

06/06/04 "ICH" -- Ms Montague interviewed David Kay on the BBC Today programme yesterday.

He served as IAEA/UNSCOM Chief Nuclear Weapons Inspector in Iraq following the Gulf War. From June 2003 he was appointed by President Bush to head the 1,400 man Iraq Survey Group. He resigned that position in January 2004 having concluded that there had been no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq at the time of the war. He is now Senior Research Fellow at the Potomac Institute of Policy Studies - a major body in the constellation of Washington 'think-tanks'. He is concentrating on counter-terrorism and weapons proliferation in a section which is also working on the enhancement of 'blast weapons'. He has appeared before three senate committees dealing with intelligence failures etc.

Ms M was quizzing him about the resignation of CIA head George Tenet and his deputy. Kay said that the intelligence services had under performed since the end of the cold war and he could see the logic of Bush clearing the decks before the election. And what of the hunt in Iraq for WMD - was it a waste of time? It was not of the highest priority and likely to be any bit of use said Kay. Ms M said that Blair still speaks of unmasking WMDs in Iraq. This is delusional said Kay, 'there is nothing there' but 'there were programmes'.