"She didn't use the word 'depressed,' " Mangold said, "but she said he was very, very stressed and unhappy about what had happened and this was really not the kind of world he wanted to live in." Meanwhile, a friend of Dr. Kelly's is now saying that, contrary to what Dr. Kelly told the committee, he did believe that he was the primary source for Gilligan's articles, though he maintained that he had not spoken of Alastair Campbell nor the British claim that Saddam could have weapons of mass destruction ready to use in 45 minutes after giving the order. If this is the case (which, unless Gilligan decides to reveal his sources, we'll really never know), it would mean that Gilligan had lied in writing his story (by adding that "his source" had told him that Alastair Campbell had insisted on adding the 45-minute claim, and that Dr. Kelly lied before Parliament yesterday when he said he didn't believe he was the primary source.

Mr Mangold said Dr Kelly had maintained that he had not spoken of Alastair Campbell adding the 45-minutes claim.

"He was keen to explain that he felt the JIC [Joint Intelligence Committee] assessment was a little bit hyperbolic for his taste and that it wasn't quite as simple as the assessment appeared to show," Mr Mangold said.

"At the same time he certainly told me he never mentioned 45 minutes and he knew nothing about that."

Asked why Dr Kelly had told the committee that he was not the main source, Mr Mangold said: "I think his famous ... precision let him down there, because what he said to me was that there were parts of the Gilligan transmission that he did not recognise, but that did not mean that he wasn't the main source."

Mr Mangold's statement adds fuel to theories that Mr Gilligan may have "sexed up" his stories. The judicial inquiry may also present further concerns for Mr Gilligan and the BBC if they are asked to reveal his "major source".

Outside of Britain, the coverage gets almost bizarre. The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) in Iran is reporting that the Telegraph and Daily Mail are calling for at least Campbell and Hoon to resign (though I've not been able to find any online articles from either paper to support this), and the Turkish paper Zaman goes even further with a story that called Dr. Kelly's death a "murder" (despite no such finding - either way - having been released yet), says the BBC has confirmed that Dr. Kelly was their source (despite no other paper nor anything on the BBC site that I can find supporting that) and indicates that Britain's Sky media (owned by Fox's Rupert Murdoch) has said that "Campbell has no choice but to resign" and that Hoon is also at risk. It worries me that people will start repeating things from this Turkish story (or others like it), even though by looking at the British coverage, it doesn't appear that any of their claims have much current validity (though if any of them are true, my guess would be that their statement about Campbell and Hoon being at risk of losing their jobs is by far the closest of the three to being supportable at this time, though, of course, until more is known about how Dr. Kelly died and as the row between Campbell and the BBC continues, anything is still possible).