", Left: Dave Benett/Getty. Even though she didn't stop the war and some people are like what's the point if she didn't stop the warwell, the point is how do you sleep at night? What happened to Gun afterwards forms the basis of the film Official Secrets, which opened in New York and Los Angeles earlier this month and goes into wider release today. This included a particular focus on the "swing nations" on the security council, Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria and Guinea, "as well as extra focus on Pakistan UN matters". For example, a scene where Gun tries to get her husband out of an immigration detention center actually played out over three days during which she did not know where he was. But she still was not uncomfortable with the other things we've talked about. She leaked a memo, she thought she'd get away with it, and she faced another one of these little moral dilemmas which was a few days later all her friends were being interrogated. The truth was that in April of 2002, the two world leaders secretly had agreed on a plan to take out Saddam, all the while giving speeches insisting that the only motivation for even considering war was that horrific stockpile of deadly weapons. Last week in Los Angeles, I got to interview the director, South African-born Gavin Hood, after a screening. Questioner: The only thing that I've wondered while watching the film, since it's a true story, is how could Ms. Gunn, who was a spy, who was a member of an intelligence agency, be surprised when her husband got deportedor when the government came after her husband, how could she be surprised when all of the different reactions she got came forward? Healthy mother-of-two, 32, collapsed and died from brain bleed while she led fitness bounce class. The truth is that I didnt know who Katharine Gun was until my producer Ged Doherty called me up one day, we made Eye In The Sky together, and said, Have you ever heard of Katharine Gun? Thats one of those moments where you think: Sounds like I ought to have, but I hadnt. It sounds big with Katharine but that's what inspired me. "On the one hand, she's free. Not the truth, but the war. And I thought: this is good. Gabrielle Bruney is a writer and editor for Esquire, where she focuses on politics and culture. As of 2020 Gun lives in Turkey and Britain. President Bush visits the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Maryland, January 25, 2006. Gavin Hood: Yes, it really sticks in my throat too. The movie tells the story of Katharine Gun (played by Keira Knightley), a translator with the U.K.'s GCHQ who, in 2003, leaked top secret documents to journalist Martin Bright (Matt Smith) that revealed that the American government's plans to apply pressure on members of the U.N. Security Counsel to pass its war resolution. I was only a junior analyst, but I knew the email was outrageous: the American government was asking Britain to spy on United Nations diplomats so they could be blackmailed into supporting an invasion of Iraq. Photograph: Andy Hall for the Observer, en years ago, a young Mandarin specialist at GCHQ, the government's surveillance centre in Cheltenham, did something extraordinary. So somehow in my rolodex, sometimes they sought me out. Marcia Mitchell is a writer, researcher, and the author of "The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War: Katharine Gun and the Secret Plot to Sanction the Iraq Invasion." To look at someone who I thought was quite accessible and ordinaryand she doesn't mind me saying this because Katharine is someone who keeps her head below and is quiet, and did something extraordinary. She wasnt charged for eight months a gruelling period which is depicted as just a few Although the story made headlines around the world at the time of the leak and later at the time of her trial, which collapsed after the prosecution withdrew its evidence, it remains largely missing from the official narratives of the build-up to the Iraq war. The other kind of fight could be frightening and politically risky. It was an interesting experience because you couldn't really go bending things the way you thought would be more dramatic, you just have to make the story itself and hope there was enough drama there. He runs a media charity. "But the more I think about what happened, the more angry and frustrated I get about the fact that nobody acted on intelligence. So, to find that it would be dramatised on the big screen was as wonderfully welcome as it was astonishing. Had the film appeared any earlier, however, I dont think Id have been able to watch it, let alone help the makers. Please help keep the independent journalism of Common Dreams strong. WebWhen the film opens, Gun (Keira Knightley) is happily married to Yasar (Adam Bakri), a Turkish national living in the UK on a temporary visa, and passionately invested in Again. She talks about having read all these books [about the war]. What we have in this country is very precious, and in a sense, when I make these kind of films I don't know if I consciously do it, it's actually reminding about us that authoritarianism and governments gone awry are not okay, and what makes us strongoh, that sounds terribly pretentious, but I think you see where I'm coming from. I know what it is like to watch the system become completely authoritarian. He is just way out there in a whole other realm. The British are quite British, you know. The concern among many Americans is that claims of an unprovoked, deadly attack by Iran are exaggerated. When you support The American Prospect, youre supporting fellow readers who arent able to give, and countering the class system for information. You dont have to agree with what she did, Im just telling you what she did. Before 1989, there had been a Public Interest Defence to protect whistleblowers, but that was altered amid the furore surrounding the sinking of the Argentinian Navy cruiser, the General Belgrano, in the course of the Falklands War. Gun disclosed details of the spying operation as it was happening to stop something she viewed as terrible happening in the future. His exact words to describe the intelligence method is, The goal of the intelligence is not the truth, but victory. That is a quote from Shulsky. I sensed a slight flash of anger as she said: "It's not even a footnote in the history of Iraq." Guided by her conscience, Katharine Gun defied her government and leaked the memo to the press, setting off a chain of events that jeopardized her freedom, her safety, but also opened the door to putting the entire Iraq invasion on trial. And maybe they were right, I don't know. Whatever, she blew the whistle ultimately revealing the truth behind the build-up to the Iraq War--regime change, disguised as terrifying threats of weapons of mass destruction. Ms Gun worked as a translator at the GCHQ building in Cheltenham, pictured. I had, of course, signed the Official Secrets Act, content in the knowledge I was working within the law for Britains protection. There were some audience questions as well. One is reminded of the January 31, 2003 Oval Office meeting with George Bush, Tony Blair, and Condoleeza Rice, in which the topic of provoking Iraq to start a war was particularly revealing. I don't think she thought they would deport her husband, I really don't think she thought that. So I said goodbye to my mom and moved to America. After the leak was published, hundreds of staff inside the building were questioned in order to discover the identity of the whistleblower. The same countries demanded immediate answers from the British government about its involvement in the spying. "And she then said: 'My way into this is what would I as the unadorned, no-makeup, no-fancy-edges Keira Knightley what would I feel like if this memo landed on my desk?'". WebThe Katharine Gun Case. She could easily have been me or you at your place of work, where something comes across your desk and you go, This doesn't smell right. But when Gun's lawyers threaten to question the U.K. Attorney General Lord Goldsmith about Britain's involvement in the Iraq war, the government drops their case against Gun. As the Trump administration shreds norms of American governance like a Shih Tzu going to town on a roll of toilet paper, the last worst president is largely silent, busied with .css-umdwtv{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:.0625rem;text-decoration-color:#FF3A30;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:inherit;-webkit-transition:background 0.4s;transition:background 0.4s;background:linear-gradient(#ffffff, #ffffff 50%, #d5dbe3 50%, #d5dbe3);-webkit-background-size:100% 200%;background-size:100% 200%;}.css-umdwtv:hover{color:#000000;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;-webkit-background-position:100% 100%;background-position:100% 100%;}canine portraiture and now the subject of nearly fond nostalgia. WebKatharine Gun was a young specialist working for Britains Government Communications Headquarters when she exposed a highly confidential memo that revealed the United Abandoned blue sleeping bag, tents and several wooden shelters are found in woodland close to where police Don't just stick to the Malbec! WebWe speak with a British whistleblower whose attempts to expose lies about the Iraq invasion was called "the most important and courageous leak" in history by acclaimed the waning support for public institutions today. Right now my priorities are to ensure I am there for my daughter.". Unfortunately, perhaps, I have a conscience and my dishonesty gnawed at me persistently until the next day, when I confessed. His work has appeared in The Intercept, The New Republic, HuffPost, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and more. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. It was only later in the green room that I asked what all the fuss had been about, wondering aloud if it had been the environmental protest group Extinction Rebellion. The central issues of whistle-blower protection, public interest disclosures, journalistic freedom and the accountability of our elected representatives continue to be just as relevant today. Our institutions matter. WebYou may not know the name Katharine Gun unless you live in the United Kingdom, but she was a pivotal figure in the run-up to the Iraq War. When Katharine Gun came across a memo while working for the British government in 2003, her whole world changed. They're more polite to their suspects. You have the UN resolution, we're all doing this together to stop the genocide or something, or it's self-defense, we're going to be attacked, it's so clear we're going to be attacked that we have to take pre-emptive action. WebKatharine Guns husbands photo revelations are not made by her yet. A decade on, sitting in a cafe in Cheltenham, not far from GCHQ, I asked her if she still stood by what she had done. She went to this interview, the next minute were down this rabbit hole, the next minute my wifes telling the world. Does your loyalty lie to your own conscious, does your loyalty lie to your marriage, does your loyalty lie to your government, does your loyalty lie to your country? You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. I believe that all of this should have been formally acknowledged as part of the history of the second Gulf War. Hood said that this was a purposeful choice by Knightley. Across the world, millions protested the invasion of Iraq, doing their own small parts to attempt to prevent the war. Neither my friends nor my family knew what I did all day. Before 1989, there had been a Public Interest Defence to protect whistleblowers, but that was altered amid the furore surrounding the sinking of the Argentinian Navy cruiser, the General Belgrano, in the course of the Falklands War. You may not know the name Katharine Gun unless you live in the United Kingdom, but she was a pivotal figure in the run-up to the Iraq War. I admitted the leak and my life was turned upside down. They live on a smallholding, renting a house, in rural Turkey. Most whistleblowers leak after the event to expose perceived wrongdoing. She got into a plea bargain, they still gave her five years. We need a truth-sayer. The increasing presence of US Navy ships and a B-52 bomber task force in their neighborhood might provoke the Iranians to load up their missiles. The invasion was a huge blow, says Gun. Over the weekend, I got to work. WebKatharine Gun (ne Harwood), 47, is married to Yasar Gn, a Turkish Kurd, with whom she has a 13-year old daughter. What do you think resonates? US firms waiting in the wings read to pump 'billions Parents' fury as schools STILL won't tell them if they are closed tomorrow as teacher strikes continue. Gavin Hood: Its a question of how conditioned are we to the conventional Hollywood structure. Only later did I appreciate the extent to which the journalists involved Martin Bright, Peter Beaumont and Ed Vulliamy had to go in order to prove that the email was legitimate. Ive been impressed by the film-makers determination to stick to the facts Gavin Hood, the director, interviewed me at length over five days and I was consulted throughout the process. Following the incident, Gun struggled to find work that she We all, in some ways, make these decisions. For me as a journalist who was really getting started around that time, this climate of fear that was in place in the United States and also in the UK. After the charges against her were dropped in 2004, she found it difficult to find a new This is not to say that Iran does not have a trick up its sleeve, or that wild-eyed Iranian hawks aren't circling its leaders. Two hours later after this deep dive, I called Ged back and said, How come we dont know this story? I guess the answer to that is that her story was big news for the day, and then very quickly got crushed by a bigger story, which was the story of the invasion. It turned out a copyeditor at The Observer had run the memo through spellcheck before printing it.]. We had planned to demand that the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith disclose the advice he had given on the legality of the war and so put the war itself on trial. Me, you, not some big picture. Then the story went It was the first time I had worked with characters who were still alive, and they very much wanted it to be accurate or they wouldn't sign over their life rights. Gun discusses her attempt to stop the Iraq War, which is the subject of the new movie Official Secrets. David Dayen: Just the notion that the paper would say, we're for the war, that was their editorial position. Look at what happened to Reality Winner in this country. Sixteen years ago, I became headline news after I leaked an internal email from GCHQ, the communications intelligence gathering centre near Cheltenham. ", Hood added: "You know, to this day, I mean, the real journalistic question is, who would like to go and really press Lord Goldsmith and Ken McDonald for the reasons why they really dropped their case? It wasone of the reasons I came to this country in 89 was because we were getting drafted, and I thought I cant do this. I was 27 when it all began. Gavin Hood: After the spellcheck. And it was there that, to our amazement and totally without warning, the CPS dropped the charges before the trial had even started. Gun was followed, denied legal advice and her Turkish husband faced deportation. The difficulties of translating Gun's story also made writing the climax of the film tricky. First, I contacted someone to this day Ive never named them who had the details of a journalist and anti-war activist.
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