The results from the judicial inquiry into the suicide of UK WMD expert David Kelly were released today.

The Hutton report, on first glance, looks like an indictment of the BBC and a near-total exoneration of the Blair government's claims about Iraq's WMD.

Here are some highlights:

Andrew Gilligan's report that Downing Street "probably knew" the 45-minute claim in its Iraq dossier was wrong was a grave allegation and attacked the integrity of the government and the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC).

The 45-minute claim in the Iraq dossier was based on a report received by the intelligence services that they believed to be reliable.

The dossier could be said to be "sexed up" if this term is taken to mean it was drafted to make the case against Saddam as strong as intelligence permitted.

But in the context of Mr Gilligan's report, "sexed up" would be understood to mean the dossier was embellished with items of intelligence known or believed to be false or unreliable. This allegation is unfounded.

The chairman of the BBC has resigned. Blair wants an apology from the BBC.

This one event may have saved Blair politically.

It should be noted that the claims Bush is often criticized for (yellowcake, tubes, nukular program, imminent threat, etc.) are substantively different than those examined by Hutton. I've also seen no real response to Sy Hersh's allegations of stovepiping of intelligence by Cheney and the hardlineniks.