Prime Minister Blair, who is traveling in Asia as the story broke, was questioned about Dr. Kelly and whether or not Hoon and Campbell should resign.

He was also asked if defence secretary Geoff Hoon or his communications chief Alastair Campbell would resign over the affair, but refused to be drawn.

"I don't think it is right for anyone, ourselves or anybody else, to make a judgment until we have the facts," he said.

"The person who can conduct this inquiry is someone who is highly respected and will get to the truth of what has happened."

Blair has said that there will be an independent judicial inquiry into the death of Dr. Kelly.

This is a story that will likely take some time to unfold, and has the potential to have an impact on both sides of the Atlantic. Obviously, the effect will be greater in Britain than here, but since the testimony Dr. Kelly was called to give related to the September "dodgy dossier" that the British had published, and given that the dossier is what Bush is now relying on to help back up his "uranium from Africa" claim, if the investigation into Dr. Kelly's death turns up anything that discredits the September dossier further than it already has been - and in particular if anything is turned up that would refute the uranium claim, it would certainly have an effect here as well.

In the meantime, my heart goes out to Dr. Kelly's family. These last weeks have likely been hard on all of them, and for him to have died - and under circumstances like this - will only compound that a thousand-fold.