Id immediately be transported back to GCHQ and that email the anger I felt and the decisions I made. His most recent book is Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power.. And we keep that system alive. The film also captures my determination to do what I believed was right and reveals how divisive the Iraq War was, particularly highlighting the anger within certain sections of the intelligence services as the sabre-rattling statements of Mr Blair and his spokesman Alastair Campbell were accepted without proper challenge by some in the media. ", 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? Then the most almighty cacophony erupted, a roar so loud we could barely hear to speak. It should take the facts as they lead. She said to me, Gavin, I had no problem doing the work that involved a lot of listening in, in order to give information about trade negotiations, to give our country the advantage of trade negotiations when they go. Happy and carefree, Id recently married my handsome husband and was working at GCHQ as a linguist. As a result, there never was any second UN resolution. What do you think resonates? I didnt know the story and I googled her. British Secret Service Officer Katharine, then a young bride, risked everything to leak details of the Bush-Blair plan to coerce (possibly blackmail) members of the UN Security Council in order to win their votes to legalize invading Iraq. This, remember, was a conflict that caused the deaths of 179 British servicemen, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and caused countless more to suffer serious wounds, both physical and psychological. Exaggerating threats to provoke a war? Not mine or The Observer's finest hour, has to be said. In the matter of a few years. Or at least, she could have been. The other kind of fight could be frightening and politically risky. Some called her a traitor; others 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. He was actually gone for three days. In the years following, an author called Marcia Mitchell contacted me and said she was keen to write a book about my case. That kind of propaganda has to stop. She's based (and born and raised) in Brooklyn, New York. 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. 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. And I didnt have work where I was. Theres not a lot of work for translators; shes a Mandarin translator in England. 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. ", "I think Gavin had a really difficult time telling this story because it doesn't fit into a normal sort of storytelling mode," said Gun. WebHer husband, Yaar Gn, is a Turkish Kurd. What do I do? And that was my way in. Questioner: It was so heartening to hear you talk about that hero's journey because I feel like we so often take compassion, passion, integrity for granted as a call to action. Daniel Ellsberg, the celebrated American whistleblower who leaked the Pentagon Papers about the build-up to the war in Vietnam, described it as "the most important and courageous leak I have ever seen".He added: "No one else including myself has ever done what Katharine Gun did: tell secret truths at personal risk, before an imminent war, in time, possibly, to avert it.". It was written in technical language, but the meaning was clear enough: the Americans were asking around 100 people in GCHQ to gather information from the communications made by diplomats from six nations Angola, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea and Pakistan all which were then sitting on the United Nations Security Council. Gavin Hood: After the spellcheck. 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. Gun was followed, denied legal advice and her Turkish husband faced deportation. Would you risk your job? 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. In one pivotal scene in the film, all of Gun and Bright's work is nearly undone by one mistake, as a member of The Observer team accidentally changed the American spelling of the memo into British spelling, something The Drudge Report then used to discredit the memo. 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. 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. Cheering crowds have never been my sort of thing. She had received an email in her inbox asking her and her colleagues to help in a vast intelligence "surge" designed to secure a UN resolution to send troops into Iraq. Iran has been filmed loading missiles aboard some of its vessels. ", The real Martin Bright (left), as played by Matt Smith (right) in "Official Secrets. Yet I do think Keira perfectly captures the strain I was under, the isolation and fear. Whistleblower and former employee of Britain's global surveillance center GCHQ (Government Communications Head Quarters) Katharine Gun smiles as she speaks to the media during a press conference February 25, 2004 in London, England. Healthy mother-of-two, 32, collapsed and died from brain bleed while she led fitness bounce class. David Dayen: No problem. I never thought Id be choosing a dress for a red carpet appearance at a major film festival. 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 Some called her a traitor; others insisted she was a hero. She had been following that war, as many of us had, for a year. At some point, as you probably know, Bush and Rumsfeld decided to bypass the CIA and take out that Office of Special Plans. So when I sent the script to Keira, and I was very hopeful that she would do it because she does a lot of period dramas, and you dont often see her in a modern drama and I thought shed be great. Gun had, of course, been forced to abandon her career in the civil service In the film, when Gun is sent an email from someone high up in the U.S. government that reveals the U.S. covert plan, she decides to leak it to Bright, who works for the British newspaper The Observer, which then publishes it on their front page. The invasion was a huge blow, says Gun. The decision to leak it was almost instant I felt I had no choice. Who knows whether they would've bent those other nations to vote for a resolution. They failed. I answered an advert in The Guardian newspaper for a translator. We all, in some ways, make these decisions. And that I think was the motivation. Spoilers to follow as well. Gavin Hood: Keira is wonderful and is absolutely professional, arrives perfectly prepared, very calm, no fuss. But the Bush administration went to war anyway, using the pretext of weapons of mass destruction. I was called on to look this way and that and smile until my face was stiff. Twenty-eight, pretty naive. Us, in any situation, wherever you work, I thought that's what this timeless about it. She failed. WebKatharine Gun (ne Harwood), 47, is married to Yasar Gn, a Turkish Kurd, with whom she has a 13-year old daughter. But, did it change the way I approached it? The case and the resulting anxiety never seemed far away. So WMD may not have been as important, had they gotten that resolution. Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire editor. Look at what happened to Reality Winner in this country. And isnt it also time to re-examine the Official Secrets Act? As I walked down the red carpet, I had never in my life experienced the flash of so many cameras. [In real life] I saw the email, I immediately thought, 'Oh, my God, this is shocking.' But get out of that trailer as fast as possible, get onto the set, and work from inside? We need another Katharine Gun. We have a blondish-looking Katharine. Just occasionally I was suddenly free and bewildered. For the Observer too, it was a story full of risks. The risks Gun took in revealing the UN email's existence were huge. For the future, I hope the film will help locate the missing pieces from the story. Quality journalism. Was it because we had demanded the Attorney Generals legal advice as part of my defence? David Dayen: As someone who works on a magazine, it's the ultimate copyediting failure. The memo from Frank Koza, chief of staff at the "regional targets" section of the National Security Agency, GCHQ's sister organisation in the US, remains shocking in its implications for British sovereignty. [Gun was charged with violating the Official Secrets Act in Britain, but ultimately the case never went to trial.]. As of 2020 Gun lives in Turkey and Britain. The legal case against Gun was eventually dropped by the British government in 2004, after her lawyer, Ben Emmerson QC (played in the film with fabulous charisma by Ralph Fiennes), threatened to use disclosure to put the legal basis of the war itself on trial. Times have often been tough, not least because of the itinerant life she has chosen for herself. When Katharine Gun came across a memo while working for the British government in 2003, her whole world changed. He runs a media charity. 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. Did that change your approach to presenting the film knowing that this was actually going to be somewhat of a surprise to people? Interestingly I think we faced a challenge, which some of you may or may not agree with. There's an obvious scene of the immigration deportation. But she still was not uncomfortable with the other things we've talked about. But depicting that climate, people who were not aware or active at that timedidn't realize how difficult this was to talk against the war both from the journalist's perspective and obviously someone who's in the intelligence community. However, when her friends start being interrogated about the leak, Gun confesses to being the whistleblower, leading to her being arrested and taken to court for breaching the Official Secrets Act. They published the scoop in March 2003putting Gun directly in the crosshairs of law enforcement, and sparking a legal fight for her freedom. Warning: The following contains spoilers for Official Secrets. So thats how the scene happened, but she didnt know where he was for three days, he was at Harmonsworth, before she got him out. In fact, I had no idea what was going on. And those two are great actresses. My shock turned to anger as the significance sank in. "Because I think people see thatthe leaders of both the US and the UK conceivably could be considered war criminals, and yet they are walking free.". "You get to the end, and there's this court case. When I was a young law student, we studied the American Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Jeb Bush Just Botched the Iraq Question. 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. ", As for her own story, she recognises that 10 years on it scarcely registers with the public. So, that's where we had to go for WMD. Gavin Hood: Hes not in journalism. These superheroes, and I don't just mean superheroes in the movie sense, but larger-than-life big political figures, or Edward Snowden is almost mythical in his brilliance whether you like what he did or not, he is sort of not me. If it was, who cleared it to be passed to GCHQ? WebHer late husband, Tom, a former special agent of the FBI and one-time head of counter-intelligence in New York, co-authored the Gun story. Eventually, it was widely held that at least one of the reports of the attacks, and perhaps even both, were false. Me, you, not some big picture. Whether you work for Boeing or Enron or Wallstreet? 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. 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. WebWhistleblower Katherine Gun, right, is played by Keira Knightly in the movie Official Secrets View gallery Gun was outraged after she learned - as part of her job with GCHQ - that So we just worked on the performance from the very what if it's you? Not only was the cable the most sensitive ever to be disclosed on either side of the Atlantic, it was also unique in its timing. It left me in an impossible predicament. The concern among many Americans is that claims of an unprovoked, deadly attack by Iran are exaggerated. 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. 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. From nightmares to candy cravings, the seemingly innocuous habits in Man is banned from touching every parking meter in Liverpool for two years after being convicted of theft, Katharine Gun, Gchq Whistleblower For The Mail On Sunday, Do not sell or share my personal information. Again. First, I contacted someone to this day Ive never named them who had the details of a journalist and anti-war activist. A translator for UK intelligence agency GCHQ, Gun read a brief from the US National Security Agency urging its British sister organisation to spy on members of the UN Security Council, to gain influence i n a vote Yet here was a story that had the capacity to derail the war altogether. The story of Katharine Gun, a whistle-blower who exposed NSA spying in the lead-up to the Iraq War, gets the Hollywood treatment. If I was writing this as fiction, I need a much longer court case, right? Is this a matter of threatening to launch a war, or is it a matter of responding to the US positioning itself for war? 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? What might, IKeira Knightley, feel if I'm sitting at my desk and this happened to me?" David Dayen: Just the notion that the paper would say, we're for the war, that was their editorial position. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group, King Charles hosts von der Leyen at Windsor Castle, Police: Urgent search for Constance Marten's missing baby, Shocking video shows machete fight in broad daylight, Gabor Mat: No Jewish state without oppressing local population, Putin spy plane before being 'destroyed by pro-Ukraine Belarus group', Amplified jet stream could lead to 'disruptive snow in places', Pupils take to TikTok as they stage protest at Shenfield High School, Putin orders intelligence service to find 'scum' who oppose him, Moment supermarket cashier is attacked at work in New York, Police search allotment sheds for Constance Marten's missing baby, Huge urgent police search for missing baby of Constance Marten, Dashcam captures moment two cars collide on a roundabout. When you have the initial GCHQ induction course for new arrivals, she said, they tell you not to trust journalists, to be careful to keep everything confidential. Still, she printed off the memo, tucked it into her purse, and took it home. So somehow in my rolodex, sometimes they sought me out. Then, the world is safer until the sequel when it all happens again. Please, become a member, or make a one-time donation, today. David Dayen: And you were dealing with a story that was about a leak that didn't stop a war and leading to a trial that didn't happen. Whistleblower Katherine Gun, right, is played by Keira Knightly in the movie Official Secrets, Gun was outraged after she learned - as part of her job with GCHQ - that the United States wanted Britain to assist in spying on fellow United Nations Security Council members to win a vote in favour of a planned war in Iraq. And in her case, she risked both her job and her freedom and whatever you think of her politically, I think that takes some guts. It almost started with, well, would I have the courage to do what she did in another setting maybe? And I went, Oh, that's how much that superhero myth is in our system. We didn't end up making it with that studio. Surely, after 16 years, we are entitled to have answers. This and her other writings about intelligence issues have been critically acclaimed. Amazing lady, shes still a journalist. Keira said no one knows Katharine, and that's not an insult to Katharine. Supported by Liberty, the prominent British civil-rights campaigning organiza-tion, Gun and her lawyer, Ben Emmerson (Ralph Fiennes), decided to cite grounds of necessity in order to contest the charges laid against her. David Dayen: One thing I think you depict really brilliantly in this story is what the climate was like at the time. Katharine Gun, a British former government employee, faced two years imprisonment in England for the crime of telling the truth. Most directly, it bolstered opposition to the US position from Chilean and Mexican diplomats weary of American "dirty tricks". 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