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.. It is my fault and I'm sorry. It took two hours for the cops from special branch to reach GCHQ in Cheltenham. Gun was cleared of a charge under the Official Secrets Act after being fired for revealing a secret e-mail. It was intended for someone else but had been distributed to everyone in her section. And this was before Isis, which exists, in part, because of events set in train by the war. ED VULLIAMY: Well, I put on an American accent, and I said, Can I have Mr. Kozas office, please? She headed up to Yorkshire and went into hiding, as a media circus descended onto Cheltenham to find her. Members of the Security Council were outraged and any chance of a UN resolution in favour of war collapsed. KATHARINE GUN: [played by Keira Knightley] I translated signals intelligence, and I reported anything of interest to my clients. AMY GOODMAN: Because Chile was one of the six. Gavin, who worked on the screenplay and is the director. People are cheering you. I was quite nervous. AMY GOODMAN: So, that was Katharine Gun back in 2004. She struggled to find work after being sacked by GCHQ but she has no regrets. http://bit.ly/HeyUGuysYTSubFacebook http://facebook.com/HeyUGuysInstagram http://instagram.com/HeyUGuysOfficial--------------------- And so, all the header information that you would usually have was not there. In 2003, Katharine Gun exposed a plot by U.S. security officials to spy on United Nations members as they ramped up pressure to secure a resolution to go to war with Iraq, and she leaked the . It was a crisis meeting because they had failed to get a second UN resolution, to give legal cover for the war. On the phone, she tells me how she came to be there. A Single Conscience V. the State. As the build-up to war continued, Gun felt increasing dismay. Theyre basically cooking it. So, we had a terrible moment where we had seen organizations follow the story up. I was sort of I felt like I was blinkered as a horse. The advice was that, by accepting what she'd done was illegal, the jail time might end up reduced. She has then attributed to being a huge source of information to the medias watch. I mean, its every journalists dream to have these, you know, front-page splash stories that get followed up around the world. That is the only consolation I have A lot of people would welcome that. Jack Goldsmith, former head of the Office of Legal Counsel under President George W. Bush, discusses the limits of executive power with Christiane Amanpour. So, what did it say and what was your decision-making process? She'd been reading up on the preparations being made for a US-led invasion and wasn't convinced by the arguments; images of the first Gulf War she'd seen in her teenage years had forever been seared onto her mind. Her whistleblowing was not enough to change the path of history, of course, and her last-gasp act of courage was all but forgotten in the brutal "shock and awe" of war. ANDY DUMFRIES: [played by Jack Farthing] The Americans want us to help them get a U.N. resolution for war. So, when I met Yvonne Ridley, who is the former journalist who handed me the document, it was immensely infuriating. Let us learn more about the duo and where they are currently. It's taken a long time for Katharine to feel comfortable talking about everything that happened. The whole issue of Iraq has left us with a legacy, which is not good. We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work. Yasur Gunnis is the husband of Katharine Gun, a linguist who specializes in translating Mandarin Chinese into English. 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. Katharine Gun (Katharine Teresa Harwood) was born on 1974 in United Kingdom, is a Linguist. BEN EMMERSON: Your marriage will be interrogated. I asked Mr. Goodman, I asked others, Can you help me find this guy? Because you had to get an extension number. In his memoir of office, Decision Points, George W. Bush writes about going to see Tony Blair in the Azores in the last days before the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Truth has a habit of . TINTIN: [played by Peter Guinness] Katharine Gun? 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 . It wasnt, of course, but hindsight and history may end up judging Guns decisions more kindly than Bushs or Blairs. ; Democrats Reintroduce, Mississippi Enacts Transgender Healthcare Ban for Youth Amid Spate of Anti-Trans Laws in Red States, Tennessee Gov. Keira Knightley plays Katharine Gun in the film Official Secrets (Photo: eOne) Now living quietly in Turkey, Gun has been thrust into the global spotlight once again . After the issue, they moved to Turkey in 2011 with her whole family to avoid the general public eye. But I felt like straightaway it was emblazoned across my forehead: Its me! During that period of purgatory, I ask, did she regret it all? AMY GOODMAN: Rebel Girl by Bikini Kill. KATHARINE GUN: Well, its just serendipitous, fortuitous, whatever it is, but his asylum case was coming to an end at the same time that my case began. It was too dangerous to make the 20-minute drive from the airport to the British base in Basra. JUDGE HYAM: [played by Kenneth Cranham] Katharine Teresa Gun, youre charged with an offense of the Official Secrets Act. I talked to a couple of colleagues about it, about even taking it to the editor, because you dont want to take a half-baked story to your editor, particularly at the time of intense prewar preparation. A year after she walked down the aisle, Ross gave birth to their only child, Cleo Rose, on September 17, 1984, in Malibu, California. Former British intelligence officer Katharine Gun didnt set out to become a whistle-blower. Hundreds of thousands, millions of people have been affected by it, and those effects continue to this day. Acclaimed Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg described Katharine Guns action as the most important and courageous leak I have ever seen. Dan Ellsberg said, No one elseincluding myselfhas ever done what Katharine Gun did: tell secret truths at personal risk, before an imminent war, in time, possibly, to avert it.. This is Democracy Now! ONLINE:YouTube: http://youtube.com/democracynow Facebook: http://facebook.com/democracynow Twitter: https://twitter.com/democracynowInstagram: http://instagram.com/democracynowSoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/democracynow iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/democracy-now!-audio/id73802554 Daily Email Digest: https://democracynow.org/subscribe 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. Whistleblower Katharine Gun and journalist Martin Bright are interviewed for their new movie Official Secrets for the film's LFF screening. KATHARINE GUN: The Foreign Office, the Ministry of Defense. And you were what? The film is directed by Gavin Hood, and Gun is portrayed . And so we had at least that. But the Iraqis were right and the Americans were wrong. Charade or not, the diplomacy was frantic. People are traumatizedmilitary personnel are coming back extremely traumatized. ED VULLIAMY: Yeah, I came upon an extension number. When Elisabeth Finch met Jennifer Beyer in 2019, the two women forged a fiercely loyal friendship, and eventually got married. Don't worry, we'll never share or sell your information. And then, one by one, the American networks pulled out. There's a real potency to Gun's tale of truth-telling in our world of social media and fake news. Martin faced potential charges too. "It felt like the protests were what would stop the war," she says. . But the difficulty was that it was just words typed on a piece of paper. Katharine Gun was a translator at GCHQ, when she received an email in her inbox from Frank Koza, a leading figure in the American National Security Agency. In the movie "Official Secrets," the character called Katharine Gun, who is played by Keira Knightley, actually discusses this memo with colleagues at GCHQ. Katharine Gun is the Most Important Whistleblower You've Never Heard of Gun discusses her attempt to stop the Iraq War, which is the subject of the new movie Official Secrets . 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. In his memoir of office, Decision Points, George W. Bush writes about going to see Tony Blair in the Azores in the last days before the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Katharine Gun in the Liberty office, 2019. The Smash actress, 36, admitted her 35-year age gap with Foster, 71, was a concern for her - but more because of the . Record Coal Prices Help Break Strike. 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." This and her other writings about intelligence issues have been critically acclaimed. Katharine Gun. Jack Bonneau: Young Entrepreneur Net Worth And Age- His Parents Name Explored, Nancy Cimino Cause of Death, Bio, Family and Chris Cimino, Bobby OJay Net Worth, Real Name, Wedding Pictures, Wife Picture, How Much Money Does Martin Milner Make? AMY GOODMAN: Which takes us to Mr. Martin Bright. Katherine Louisa Ryan was born on June 30, 1983, to Finbar and Julie McCarthy in the city of Sarnia in southwestern Ontario, Canada. There was speculation that this was done to keep the governments legal advice on the war a secret, though that has been denied. I mean, my first reaction was shock and anger. In the film, Knightley as Gun declares: I work for the British people. But within days, Bush declared he no longer needed UN backing and invaded anyway. Whistleblowing on wrongdoing is part of that fightback. Its like hes more me than I am. Our obligation is to the truth. After a long weekend of contemplation, Gunwho had been one of about 100 people to receive the memodecided to print out the letter and send it to a journalist via an intermediary. 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. BEN EMMERSON: Do you want to risk it all? Her net worth has been growing . She explained that when she was first arrested, her name wasnt released publicly for eight months. It was only September 2002 but the carrier was about to leave for the Gulf. The drums of war are rolling at that period. How scary was it for you to go ahead and do what you did? It wasn't that she was naive. List of Wanted Pages on Real Life Heroes Wiki. In February, Gun attended a demonstration in opposition to the Iraq War. AMANPOUR: And that spoke was this memo that had , AMANPOUR: been leaked to you and then you leaked it to the press, not leaked but delivered to you . It was as it happened. MARTIN BRIGHT: We have towe have to protect the innocent in the [inaudible]. These worries crystalized when GCHQ sent her to San Diego for a conference and she was invited on to an American aircraft carrier. Yasar Gun is the husband of a British whistleblower, Katharine Gun, who revealed top-secret information. Gun did not seek martyrdom and wasnt searching for evidence to stop the war: the email fell into her lap. "Yeah, I suppose so," she says. e-mail; 239. shares. "Once that initial flurry died down," says Katharine, "I returned to London to meet with the team from Liberty and my lawyer, Ben Emmerson. 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