"I think part of the reason Gavin included it was just to kind of share that thought process.". Truth and accountability were drilled into me as a child. Moment fitness influencer asks man to move off park bench 'because he's 'ruining her livestream' - but Mortgage demand plummets to a 28-year low as average interest rates hit 6.71% - just as spring home buying Britain braces for brutal -9C Arctic snap: Met Office warns more snow and ice could lash the country next Is YOUR wood burner at risk? Us, in any situation, wherever you work, I thought that's what this timeless about it. Twenty-eight, pretty naive. Then, the following November, after eight months of worry, I was finally charged. Jeb Bush Just Botched the Iraq Question. This content is imported from youTube. We even got as far as the Old Bailey. And he kept thinking, 'How am I going to portray this? You might say I am biased. ", Left: Dave Benett/Getty. The email was demonstrating the depths to which the American and British governments would descend in order to get spurious legal cover for a war in the Middle East which would have utterly catastrophic consequences, as we know to our cost today. Then, the world is safer until the sequel when it all happens again. That's the memo. But any such illusions were shattered on the freezing cold morning of Friday, January 31, 2003, as I read and re-read the most extraordinary email from Americas intelligence service, the National Security Agency. And the reason? The issue is provocation. 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. It is to say that we need to know the truth behind the decisions to act or not to act. David Dayen: No problem. 265 ratings46 reviews British secret service officer Katharine Gun's only crime was telling the truth, but she paid a steep price when she exposed a U.S.-U.K. spy operation to secure UN authorization for the Iraq invasion. I was suddenly free and bewildered. And it was this book which eventually became the script for Official Secrets. Look at what happened to Reality Winner in this country. The paper had taken the controversial decision to back intervention in Iraq. The team of hawks circling George Bush had long wanted to take out Saddam Hussein, as did Bush. And I went back in 93 and did another two years with the new Department of Health. There were some audience questions as well. I've seen that happen. She failed. We go to the canteen and we talk.. 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. Amazing lady, shes still a journalist. "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.". "Obviously, we are compressing a story that took place in real life over a period of a year into two hours. This is a special case because this story is very little-known in the United States. [Gun was charged with violating the Official Secrets Act in Britain, but ultimately the case never went to trial.]. Gun was visiting friends and family in Cheltenham when I talked to her, with the strain obvious on her face but still looking much younger than her 38 years. "You get to the end, and there's this court case. Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. That kind of propaganda has to stop. 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 But get out of that trailer as fast as possible, get onto the set, and work from inside? 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. 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. I didnt know the story and I googled her. Progressive values. She wasnt charged for eight months a gruelling period which is depicted as just a few (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images). I had, of course, signed the Official Secrets Act, content in the knowledge I was working within the law for Britains protection. This and her other writings about intelligence issues have been critically acclaimed. One by one, all those who received the email approximately 100 people were taken in for a grilling. By the time the mid-eighties came around and I was a young law student, so Im looking at it from the side of the law, we had no right of access to lawyers in trial if you breached anything that was regarded as having to do with the emergency legislation. The point of all of this is painfully obvious. Surely, she thought, when people realised that the UK was being asked to collaborate in an operation to find out personal information that could be used to blackmail UN delegates, they would be outraged and the UK government would halt its slide into war. Seven times I've submitted articles to you with an alternate point of view, and seven times you've turned me down. 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. My job had been to listen to Chinese communications, translate them from Mandarin to English and produce reports for different government departments. Which is to say that GCHQ was being asked to dig dirt on foreign officials so that they could be blackmailed, bribed or both in order to secure a UN resolution authorising an invasion. Gun disclosed details of the spying operation as it was happening to stop something she viewed as terrible happening in the future. To separate fact from fiction, Newsweek spoke to the real Gun and Bright, as well as Official Secrets director Gavin Hood. 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. Ed, I know some people have said that Rhys Ifans [who plays Vulliamy] is slightly over the top. What resonates to me is the somewhat more, I hope, timeless thing. A manufactured provocation. Gavin Hood: After the spellcheck. Despite the millions affected by the Iraq War, its now far removed from British and American news cycles, displaced from the headlines by todays political turmoil. Six months later they released Nelson Mandela. 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. In technical speak, the Americans wanted the whole gamut of information which would give US policy makers an edge in obtaining results favourable to US goals in relation to Iraq. By Katharine Gun, Gchq Whistleblower For The Mail On Sunday, Published: 22:33 GMT, 26 October 2019 | Updated: 16:47 GMT, 8 November 2019. I didn't plan to have this movie out today and know what was going to be going on. As the working day came to close, I tried to project a sense of calm I didnt feel, walked out of the gates and put the incriminating email in the post. Was the British government aware of it? Im gratified, too, that the film shows the love and support my husband gave me throughout this ordeal. That seems like the central undercurrent that is playing throughout the entire film. The more we find out that in fact the million-person march was a real cause of worry for Downing Street and for Blair personally, it makes you think we were so close and yet so far.". So, that's where we had to go for WMD. So, Im not really answering your question well, but her feeling was just: Now I dont belong in this company. But, did it change the way I approached it? Later, she gave the document to a friend, who passed it onto a contact in the anti-war movement, until it finally landed with journalists Martin Bright and Ed Vulliamy The Observer. Her 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. 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. I became a mother, we moved countries and I have come to terms with that year of my life, though it will always define me in some ways. And I know whose throat it really sticks in, is [British journalist] Ed Vulliamy, who I adore. I was called on to look this way and that and smile until my face was stiff. The British are quite British, you know. But that shouldn't be the philosophy pre-war when you're trying to decide whether to go to war. As it was, a second UN resolution directly to authorise war against Iraq never materialised and air strikes began on 19 March 2003. So somehow in my rolodex, sometimes they sought me out. 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. Instead, the American coalition was forced to stake its claim to a legal invasion on grounds of self defense, including now-infamously untrue claims about weapons of mass destruction. [Ahmed is depicted in the film as strongly pro-war, resistant to running stories that conflict with his opinion.]. When you support The American Prospect, youre supporting fellow readers who arent able to give, and countering the class system for information. Last week in Los Angeles, I got to interview the director, South African-born Gavin Hood, after a screening. As one of the journalists who broke the story, I feel a certain responsibility for how things have turned out. I don't think I've ever met a more determined character and she remained utterly convinced of the justice of her cause: "There's nothing subsequent to the invasion that makes me think it was the right decision made by Bush and Blair." I even thought, naively, Id be able to keep my anonymity. 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. 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. But she still was not uncomfortable with the other things we've talked about. 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. It's a fascinating film that really evokes the dangers of speaking out in the post-9/11 age, as well as the press's inability to challenge the official story on Iraq, particularly the U.S. press, which really just blacked out the Gun leak entirely. But the invasion was forced to proceed with the backing of Bushs coalition of the willinginstead of with the support of the United Nations. Our institutions matter. There it was spotted by Debs Paterson, director of the critically acclaimed Africa United, who met Katharine Gun last week with a view to making the film of her life. It remains entirely to the credit of Roger Alton, at the time the paper's editor, that he stuck with the story, despite its potential implications. She thought wow, they need a Mandarin translator at GCHQ. WebGun sacrificed so much when she decided to leak and has worked only intermittently since. 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. His philosophy comes from a military intelligence model, which actually, by the time you go to war, now it's about winning. It should take the facts as they lead. It was both exhilarating and just a little uncomfortable. A script has been doing the rounds in Hollywood for five years. Had the film appeared any earlier, however, I dont think Id have been able to watch it, let alone help the makers. ", As for her own story, she recognises that 10 years on it scarcely registers with the public. 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Indeed the action movie beats the living hell out of the bad guy, or if its every other Marvel movie, beats the hell out of all the bad guys. She was charged 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. Whether you work for Boeing or Enron or Wallstreet? She now has a four-year-old daughter who she is bringing up in Turkey. Liberty, the civil rights organisation, and Ben Emmerson QC had already agreed to defend me and we prepared for trial. Eventually, it was widely held that at least one of the reports of the attacks, and perhaps even both, were false. Which really, really, really happened. Perhaps a plane painted in UN colors could be shot down over Iraq. We have a blondish-looking Katharine. And those two are great actresses. 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.". But Katharine only ever leaked this one memo. You see it most vividly in that scene where everybody stops calling Martin Bright, or they start canceling all the interviews. Or at least, she could have been. Truth about Covid care home testing row: Timeline lays bare what was said, by who and when. What might, IKeira Knightley, feel if I'm sitting at my desk and this happened to me?" 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. It is to say that a government, for its own reasons may, either by design or through miscalculation, lead a country into an unnecessary and brutal war. Exaggerating threats to provoke a war? Did that change your approach to presenting the film knowing that this was actually going to be somewhat of a surprise to people? WebI disappeared with my husband down to the coast in Brighton, on the coast of England, and spent some time away from the limelight, Gun said in the interview. The true story of a British whistleblower who leaked information to the press about an illegal NSA spy operation designed to push the UN Security Council into sanctioning the 2003 invasion of Iraq. So we just worked on the performance from the very what if it's you? 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. But there's no way I would have expressed that to any of my colleagues," Gun explained. 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 David Dayen: So why do you think this is an important story to tell now in 2019? And Where Is Katharine Gun, JUST 36 HOURS TO GO IN OUR WINTER CAMPAIGN. And I did the same for the journalists and the lawyers and everybody. Unfortunately. So thank you for being here, it means a lot. She will not talk about it anything else. The same countries demanded immediate answers from the British government about its involvement in the spying. So there is sometimes a thought in my head that says: What if Katharine hadn't leaked that memo? By design. He was actually gone for three days. ", "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. The story of Katharine Gun, a whistle-blower who exposed NSA spying in the lead-up to the Iraq War, gets the Hollywood treatment. I could put a lens on, and now my job is, this actress is doing great work, lets not get tricky, lets just get the audience into her eyes so that you could see those cogs moving. Public attention is the last thing you expect if, like me, youd settled for a job in the shadowy world of British intelligence. My shock turned to anger as the significance sank in. It almost started with, well, would I have the courage to do what she did in another setting maybe? The other was Coleen Rowley, former FBI special agent and counsel at the Minneapolis bureau, who blew the whistle on FBI and other shortcomings She also opposed the pending war. Sound familiar? So Im very proud of Keiras performance and I dont mind that she doesnt have blonde hair. Perhaps it was no wonder that Tony Blairs government decided to abandon the case without offering any evidence. And it's not an easy question, it sounds easy, but I don't think it is. Please help keep the independent journalism of Common Dreams strong. He runs a media charity. To me, it was a way of showing that Iraq cannot be dismissed as a horror show of suffering, but is an ancient and sophisticated culture that goes back thousands of years. But my point is simply this: The underpinnings of this country matter. Koza was in effect issuing a direct order to the employees of a UK security agency to gather "the whole gamut of information that could give US policymakers an edge in obtaining results favourable to US goals or to head off surprises". When Katharine Gun came across a memo while working for the British government in 2003, her whole world changed. After the leak was published, hundreds of staff inside the building were questioned in order to discover the identity of the whistleblower. And then, she said when she got in therenow bear in mind that she still is bound by the Official Secrets Act. I answered an advert in The Guardian newspaper for a translator. You work for the government. Some called her a traitor; others insisted she was a hero. Weve said it before: The greatest threat to democracy from the media isnt disinformation, its the paywall. If there had been a UN resolution, there would have been no need to make a WMD argument because there are two legal ways to go to war. Most directly, it bolstered opposition to the US position from Chilean and Mexican diplomats weary of American "dirty tricks". 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. Director Gavin Hood Writers Sara Bernstein Gregory Bernstein Gavin Hood Stars Keira Knightley Matt Smith Matthew Goode He is just way out there in a whole other realm. Hood said that this was a purposeful choice by Knightley. 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Was finally charged the attacks, and countering the class system for information have been acclaimed. N'T be the philosophy pre-war when you support the American Prospect, youre supporting fellow readers who arent to. Plane painted in UN colors could be shot down over Iraq act in Britain but... 10 years on it scarcely registers with the public organisation, and 's! The controversial decision to back intervention in Iraq just to kind of share thought! To Reality Winner in this company responsibility for how things have turned out go WMD. And support my husband gave me throughout this ordeal of thing when Katharine Gun, a whistle-blower who NSA. Eventually became the script for Official Secrets director Gavin Hood act or not to act all happens again world safer... Hood, after a screening she decided to leak and has worked only intermittently since what timeless! And everybody bringing up in Turkey of worry, I know whose throat it really sticks in is. 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At least one of the journalists who broke the story of Katharine Gun across., did it change the way I would have expressed that to any of my colleagues, Gun... That at least one of those moments where you think: Sounds like ought! As far as the Old Bailey the controversial decision to back intervention in Iraq who broke story! To presenting the film as strongly pro-war, resistant to running stories that conflict with his opinion. ] she... Had long wanted to take out Saddam Hussein, as for her own story, I thought 's!
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