Between the worlds greatest democracy and a murderous dictatorship, it seemed easy to know whom to believe. Within half an hour, the prosecution had decided to drop its case, for reasons that to this day remain mysterious. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Courtroom porn and social media have turned innocent bystanders into a mass of mudslingers. The Case Against Mary Katherine Higdon 43:11. MARTIN BRIGHT: Yeah, so, initially, we were quite nervous. Manage all your favorite fandoms in one place! So, we had a terrible moment where we had seen organizations follow the story up. You know, I thought it was something that people needed to know about, because it was basically exposing what was going on behind the scenes and the fact that, you know, all the flowery words that they used in front of the cameras about doing everything diplomatically was a sham. The person responsible for the jeopardy to face Blair and the coalition in invading Iraq was as well as Bush and Blair themselves a young translator at GCHQ, Katharine Gun. I do not gather intelligence so that the government can lie to the British people.A colleague whispers to her: Intelligence may be being manipulated to take this country to war. These scenes are set before the invasion, before the shattering truth emerged that Saddam did not have weapons of mass destruction and the war had been based on a lie, or more delicately a false prospectus. When Katharine Gun came across a memo while working for the British government in 2003, her whole world changed. Thought-provoking commentary and opinion on politics, books and the arts. Yasar's wife is a British linguist who worked as a translator for the GCHQ, Government Communications Headquarters. We still dont know, to this day, why they did that. She is played (with simmering intensity) by Keira Knightley. ED VULLIAMY: Well, oh, indeed, brilliantly played his subject. It would show that when our politicians break the law they are held accountable. There is no chance of such a war crimes trial. AMY GOODMAN: As the British government says its identified the person who leaked cables that forced out the British ambassador to the United States for calling President Trump inept, we look at the real-life political thriller of a British intelligence specialist who risked everything to blow the whistle on U.S. dirty tricks at the United Nations in the lead-up to the Iraq invasion. When you go to court, you face years in prison. She had leaked a secret email revealing what was called at the time an illegal dirty tricks campaign to fix the UN vote. But the Iraqis were right and the Americans were wrong. KATHARINE GUN: My husband had absolutely nothing to do with this. AMY GOODMAN: So, you call Ed, and you say, Can you track down this guy? Among many other things. Gun also received the Sam Adams Award, which is awarded to intelligence agents who take a stand for ethics and integrity. "Official Secrets," which opened Friday in New York and . Yasars wife is a British linguist who worked as a translator for the GCHQ, Government Communications Headquarters. [1]Katharine Gun arbetade som versttare fr Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). View this post on Instagram. And I hope that it can get people, Americans, to follow their conscience, and do the right thingstand up for what they believe in., With the world at an even more critical inflection point under controversial leadership, Gun hopes that others might find the courage to speak up if they come across as damning evidence as she dideven if it means temporarily sacrificing comfort. She saw a newspaper advert for GCHQ. AMY GOODMAN: I mean, the paper had come out supporting the war. It's taken a long time for Katharine to feel comfortable talking about everything that happened. MARTIN BRIGHT: It was NSA 'dirty tricks' at the U.N. Yeah, yeah. Woman who tried to stop a war. KATHARINE GUN: I translated signals intelligence, and I reported anything I thought might be of interest to my clients. The terror of that period took a toll on Gun, who suffered from PTSD for years. It was an extraordinary moment. Much like the invasion, the plan is considered to have violated international law. And you were what? Nowadays, everyone can invent their own news - and call out stories - on social media, and . LONDON - FEBRUARY 25: 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. Katharine Gun. Keira Knightley is persuasive as Katharine Gun, a British GCHQ employee who in 2003 leaked a sensitive document in the hopes of preventing her country from invading Iraq a decision that did . GUN: Thats right. AMY GOODMAN: And what did you do with it? Yasur is a Turkish Kurd who is married to 47-year-old Katharine. Katharine McPhee was initially hesitant about dating David Foster . Whistleblower Katharine Gun and journalist Martin Bright are interviewed for their new movie Official Secrets for the films LFF screening. She struggled to find work after being sacked by GCHQ but she has no regrets. We speak with Katharine Gun; the British journalists who reported on Guns revelations in The Observer newspaper, Martin Bright and Ed Vulliamy; and Gavin Hood, director of Official Secrets.. Gun, a translator with the British intelligence service known as Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), received a document just before the war from an NSA manager, seeking British intelligence support in spying on . That contact had connections with the antiwar movement. TINTIN: [played by Peter Guinness] Your supervisor speaks highly of your integrity. MARTIN BRIGHT: Yes. As he spoke at the base, a volley of mortars came in. But I watched Blair with his smug smile and his sterile speeches that tell us nothing . He was forced to resign, because it showed that he called President Trump inept, and he said, you know, the singular reason that the Trump administration pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal was because it was signed by President Obama, and other issues. And it was a very collaborativeit was a very collaborative place. KATHARINE GUN: When I saw this email asking GCHQs help to bug the six swing nations to gather a vote for war with Iraq, I was very angry at first and very saddened that it had come to this, and that despite all the talk from both Tony Blair and George Bush about how important it was to get the U.N. on board and to legitimize any kind of aggression, that they were actually going around it in such low-handed manner. Katharine Gun explains how she exposed a plot by U.S. security officials to spy on United Nations members in 2003. Gun leaked the memo to the press, setting off a chain of events that jeopardized her freedom and safety, but also opened the door to putting the entire legality of the Iraq invasion on trial. The Man Who Deleted His Past Before He Was Found Dead. It is based on the whistleblowing investigation by Katharine Gun and Martin Bright. People are traumatizedmilitary personnel are coming back extremely traumatized. And its so relevant to be talking about this today, as the British government is talking about cracking down on the leaker of the memos of the British ambassador to the U.S. that forced him out. It was intended for someone else but had been distributed to everyone in her section. We need another Katharine Gun. Wise man. AMY GOODMAN: Weve got to make this fast; we have three minutes. Because I have processed it now, and Im probably a lot more clear in my thinking, explained Gun, who met with Knightley before filming. I work for the British people. It's just, back then, she didn't realise quite what her employer could be capable of. "It got to the stage where I was certain the email I'd leaked wouldn't be needed, that it would never surface.". Subscribe to the US edition here. In 2003, the girl in her 20s initiated a courageous move to expose the secret plan made by the US government. Her life had been turned upside down, and for what? I was quite nervous. I do not gather intelligence so that the government can lie to the British people. e-mail; 239. shares. KATHARINE GUN: If we do not go public, we would be conceding that no one can ever tell the people when their government is lying. How frustrating it was for Gun to sit in her modest home next to her husband, and see fiction portrayed on the evening news. All I could was this looming war. A union rep got in touch to offer support, and once news broke that an unnamed woman had been arrested for the leak the story caught the attention of the organisation whose offices we're sitting in. What was the headline? Heeding the dictates of conscience and true patriotism, Ms. Yasur Gunnis is the husband of Katharine Gun, a linguist who specializes in translating Mandarin Chinese into English. She believes that her leak probably finished off the second resolution, turning Chile and Mexico against it. Katharine Gun : Yas, I understand why you are angry. The email was a request to tamper with the debate of whether or not to invade Iraq. So, what did it say and what was your decision-making process? AMY GOODMAN: Right, because it said like F-A-V-O-U-R, instead of V-O-R. AMY GOODMAN: And so that proves its a fake memo, they think. Theyre cooking this up. Katharine Gun, a shy and studious 28-year-old who spent her days listening in to obscure Chinese intercepts, decided to tell the world about a secret plan by the US government to spy on the United Nations.. She had received an email in her inbox asking her and . Former British intelligence officer Katharine Gun didn't set out to become a whistle-blower. Yeah, and those are the. http://bit.ly/HeyUGuysYTSubFacebook http://facebook.com/HeyUGuysInstagram http://instagram.com/HeyUGuysOfficial--------------------- The following Monday, she walked out of work, a printed copy of the email folded up and hidden in her handbag. Democracy Now! Soon, Katharine was in touch with John Wadham, then Director of Liberty. And thats where you get through. TINTIN: With respect, Mrs. Official Secrets is a 2019 British drama film based on the case of whistleblower Katharine Gun, who leaked a memo exposing an illegal spying operation by American and British intelligence services to gauge sentiment of and potentially blackmail United Nations diplomats tasked to vote on a resolution regarding the 2003 invasion of Iraq. She wondered if the economic sanctions that were supposed to choke Saddams dictatorship were instead, as the critics maintained, causing a genocide of Iraqis. Our writers hold no party line; their only allegiance is to clarity of thought, elegance of expression and independence of opinion. She remains an intensely private personbut, when director Gavin Hood began the process of adapting 2008s The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War: Katharine Gun and the Secret Plot to Sanction the Iraq Invasion, by Marcia and Thomas Mitchell, Gun felt it necessary to revisit this difficult chapter of her life to help make the film. And the whole process, I think, was just a parallel process that didnt have a. Everyone was a suspect, as one by one colleagues were called into interviews with GCHQ's internal security team. PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Hood's film dramatizes events in 2003 and 2004, beginning with British whistleblower Katharine Gun's decision to leak a memo exposing the criminality of the Iraq War and ending with her . Katharine Gun. TINTIN: [played by Peter Guinness] Katharine Gun? For more on this incredible story and the real-life thriller that is coming out on August 30th in movie theaters around the countryour guest, Katharine Gun, is played by Keira Knightleywere joined by Katharine Gun herself, the whistleblower, former employee of Britains global surveillance center, GCHQ, played by actress Keira Knightley, yes. Nayib Bukele Touts Megaprison with Shocking Images of Shackled Detainees, Reporter Seymour Hersh on How America Took Out the Nord Stream Pipeline: Exclusive TV Interview, Outrage Soars in Occupied West Bank After Israel Kills 11, Injures 500 Palestinians in Nablus Raid. Hilary Duff and husband Matthew Koma enjoy adorable family day out with their . delivered to your inbox every day? TINTIN: You gather information from peoples phones and computers, and you feed that to your clients. GAVIN HOOD: We have to protect the innocent and source, yeah. Yasar Gun : All you do is listen to people talking! That does it for our show. This article was originally published inThe Spectators UK magazine. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images), https://thespectator.com/topic/katharine-gun-spy-iraq-war/, US edition of the world's oldest magazine, Katharine Gun: the spy who tried to stop the Iraq war, How Syria became the worlds most profitable narco state, How the earthquake is strengthening Syrias dictatorship, Why Netanyahu is right about Israels rogue supreme court. Famed U.K. whistleblower Katharine Gun joins Justin on Extension 720 to talk about, "Official Secrets," the new movie based on her real life story.Gun leaked a secret memo exposing an illegal spying operation by the United States of America, looking for information with which to blackmail United Nations diplomats tasked to vote on a resolution regarding the 2003 invasion of Iraq. . And so, we knew that time was short. The British governments own lawyers were afraid that without specific UN authorization, the war might be illegal; British soldiers could even be prosecuted for war crimes. Gun believed that this would be illegal, a breach of the Vienna Convention governing diplomatic relations. Sound familiar? "We just kept waiting in this state of limbo, a constant cloud over my head," she explains. She'd be tried at the High Court; the press and the public would know this whistleblower's name. Its you either go to war based on a U.N. resolutionwere all going togetheror youve got to prove, you know, a genuine threat to youryou know, its a self-defense argument. The Americans had sent GCHQ a request to spy on the UN ambassadors of the six countries with the important, perhaps swing, votes. But its not hard to guess from the, In 2013, Gun spoke with journalist Martin Bright, who published Guns leaked memo and plays a major role in the film, in an interview published by. She couldnt shake the indelible images of the turkey shoot of retreating Iraqis on the Highway of Death during the first Gulf War in 1991, the road out of Kuwait strewn with burnt-out vehicles and charred bodies. Who Is Yasar Gun? The email wasnt even meant for her. KATHARINE GUN: Governments change. These actors are so clever, Amy. Gun was cleared of a charge under the Official Secrets Act after being fired for revealing a secret e-mail. Members of the Security Council were outraged and any chance of a UN resolution in favour of war collapsed. MARTIN BRIGHT: We have towe have to protect the innocent in the [inaudible]. The other was Coleen Rowley, former FBI special agent and counsel at the Minneapolis bureau, who blew the whistle on FBI and other shortcomings before 9/11 and . Gun put her career and her very liberty at risk trying to prevent the launching of an illegal war. She was the real-life translator who photocopied . This is a clip. His wife then took the help of MP Nigel Jones and managed to free him, and gave him the right to stay in the UK. And so, all the header information that you would usually have was not there. Gun, outraged by the USA's actions, printed a copy of the email and took it home. I do not gather intelligence so that the government can lie to the British people. "It was me.". The morning of Friday the 31st of January, 2003 started out just like any other. I mean, its every journalists dream to have these, you know, front-page splash stories that get followed up around the world. MARTIN BRIGHT: Well, but only with a story that you know is true. The next morning, Katharine returned to the office as normal and got on with her work, trying as best as she could to not think about it. Now her story has been adapted into the film Official Secrets starring Keira Knightley. What I object to is being asked to gather intelligence to help fix a vote at the U.N. and deceive the world into going to war. You walk in. "But there are things you have to do not for the result but for the principle, because they are right.". I mean, my first reaction was shock and anger. Tell us the moment. What were you employed to do? It is my fault and I'm sorry. He remains on death row as of July 2021, but there have been zero executions in the state of California since a 2006 court . Katharine Gun, Martin Bright, Ed Vulliamy and Gavin Hood. "Once that initial flurry died down," says Katharine, "I returned to London to meet with the team from Liberty and my lawyer, Ben Emmerson. And I pretty much ran home. Her father is a drafting technician who runs an engineering company, while her mother is the owner of a company that offers IT consulting services. Also with us, the director of Official Secrets, Gavin Hood. . In February 2003, Britain and the US began pushing for a new resolution that would give Saddam a month to disarm or face war. Katharine Gun (Katharine Teresa Harwood) was born on 1974 in United Kingdom, is a Linguist. In 2003, Katharine Gun, a young specialist working for Britains Government Communications Headquarters, exposed a highly confidential memo that revealed the United States collaboration with Britain in collecting sensitive information on United Nations Security Council members in order to pressure them into supporting the Iraq invasion. What? The western leading man, Sam Elliott, first met his famous actress wife, Katharine Ross, on the set of a movie. Were talking about Official Secrets. Just put me through. And, sure enough, Frank Koza. That was a good brain moment. I think of journalists as being bullet-proof in a way. Angola, Cameroon, Bulgaria, Chile, GAVIN HOOD: Pakistan and Mexico. Otherwise we are living in dictatorships. In Official Secrets, Gun is played by Keira Knightley while Matt Smith takes on the role of Martin Bright. Robbie Robertson Reflects on His Legendary Rock Career, Iraq War Whistle Blower Katharine Gun Shares Her Story, Jack Goldsmith Discusses the Limits of Executive Power, + Major support for Amanpour and Company is provided by the Anderson Family Charitable Fund, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim, III, Candace King Weir, Jim Attwood and Leslie Williams, Mark J. Blechner, Seton J. Melvin, Bernard and Denise Schwartz, Koo and Patricia Yuen, the Leila and Mickey Straus Family Charitable Trust, Barbara Hope Zuckerberg, Jeffrey Katz and Beth Rogers, the Filomen M. DAgostino Foundation and. Your viewers will recall them; I hope not, for their sake, but some of them will. On the night of the 19th of March, 2003, the bombs began to fall. And what did you think? Katharine Gun has a much better grasp of the true spirit of democracy than Tony Blair. This month, a new film Official Secrets, in which she's played by Keira Knightly will be released, telling her story. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Gavin, who worked on the screenplay and is the director. Katharine Gun works for British Intelligence, but struggles with the lies governments are telling the public in the run up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Her net worth has been growing . S, Welcome to Love Like This?, a romance column where we, Kathleen Newman-Bremang and Ineye Komonibo, revisit some of the most romantic or not, in hindsig, Whether its the iconic early-aughts film Love Dont Cost a Thing or her 2021 Netflix hit Resort to Love, Christina Milian has solidified herself in th, This story contains spoilers for Netflixs You People. At the time, her actions received very little attention from journalists in the United Statesunless you were watching Democracy Now! That level of pressure, stress and attention took its toll. And whereas usually with a whistleblower, you would work very closely with them directly, Katharine didnt come to me. Koza's email outlined an American plot to conduct surveillance on the United Nations offices in Angola, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea and Pakistan to find out whether they would vote in favour of supporting the American invasion of Iraq. So we at least hadwe at least had a lead. We're looking at the real-life political thriller of a British intelligence specialist, Katharine Gun, who risked everything to blow the whistle on U.S. dirty tricks at the United Nations in the lead-up to the Iraq invasion in 2003. Katherine Louisa Ryan was born on June 30, 1983, to Finbar and Julie McCarthy in the city of Sarnia in southwestern Ontario, Canada. Tweet. KATHARINE GUN: Well, I didnt do anything immediately, but I went home. As a young translator at GCHQ, she leaked a secret email. Principle, because they are right. `` in new York and every dream... 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