Democracy Now! Certain friends did not want to see me any more, or be seen with me some people get very paranoid. I mean, we certainly did meet in the courthouse. MARTIN BRIGHT: Yeah, who wrote the memo. And Ben comes up with this idea. Which agency was it? Following the incident, Gun struggled to find work that she loved, and her husband had grown disillusioned with Britain. ED VULLIAMY: Thank you. Instead, Jake suffered a fatal bicycle accident. So, of course, I was a little bit sort of reserved. So, GCHQ had been aware of this for over 24 hours, and they were waiting for everybody to come back into work on Monday, and they were prepared. It cost Gun, who now lives in Turkey with her husband and daughter, her job. Katharine Gun: Ten years on what happened to the woman who revealed Katharine Gun was a young specialist working for Britains Government Communications Headquarters when she exposed a highly confidential memo that revealed the United States was working with the United Kingdom to collect sensitive information on United Nations Security Council members in order to pressure them into supporting the Iraq invasion. And so, I immediately went home, and Iand at the time, actually, well, my dad was staying with me, because it was Chinese New Year, and he was back from Taiwan, and he was supporting me, so he was at home. I grew up in Taiwan, which was a military dictatorship. Theyre going to send him back to Turkey. In 2003, Gun was working as a translator of Mandarin at the government intelligence agency, GCHQ, in Cheltenham. We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work. Ed Vulliamys character, played by Rhys Ifans in the film, says, you know, he effing caved at the time when his country needed him most. ED VULLIAMY: Its a story of endeavor, to no avail. And Jed called me up and said, Have you heard of Katharine Gun? And you get this moment where you feel like you should have, because of the way hes saying it. I thought you said youre sick. And I said, I need to talk to you. And so we went into a small room, and I just said, I did it. And then she put her arm around me and went, Oh, Katharine. And then I burst out crying. At first they dont name you, but then they do. But yeah, I mean, I was hugely impressed. Is Official Secrets Based on a True Story? - The Cinemaholic I call them the Usual Suspects., She thinks, given the current state of politics, that she might start to speak out more. You know, the conservative estimates are 125,000 up to a million. Iraq now, nightmare. is a 501(c)3 non-profit news organization. I was teaching Mandarin in the local college in Cheltenham. I'm Amy Goodman. The Case Against Mary Katherine Higdon 43:11. delivered to your inbox every day! Many wonder whether Guns young daughter has seen the film or been told of the importance of her mothers extraordinary actions. Much of the news desk was opposed. AMY GOODMAN: So then you have Scotland Yard taking over. Its so great to have you all with us. Katharine Gun at Bow Street magistrates court in 2003 after being charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act. She urged "those in a position to do so to disclose information which relates to this planned aggression; legal advice, meetings between the White House and other intelligence agencies, assessments of Iran's threat level (or better yet, evidence that assessments have been altered), troop deployments and army notifications. The Observers front page story on 2 March 2003. MARTIN BRIGHT: Well, I mean, I think at that time, you knowwe knew, I suppose, by that point, that our paths were destined to cross. 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 . ED VULLIAMY: Mr. Alton, screechy, ultra-right-wing. And he didnt come back out again. Well, extremely. Macdonald stated that Gun would not have received a fair trial without the disclosure of information that would have compromised national security. Starring Kiera Knightley, Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, and Ralph Fiennes in pivotal roles, the film is one of the more accurate cinematic explorations of real-life instances. AMY GOODMAN: And a story that could have saved so many lives, except. The author advocates anonymity. The diplomats were due to vote on a second United Nations resolution on the prospective 2003 invasion of Iraq. Among them were Reverend Jesse Jackson, Daniel Ellsberg (the US government official who leaked the Pentagon Papers), and Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Its the intelligence agency, like the NSA, the National Security Agency, in the U.S. She leaked a memo revealing that the United States was collaborating with Britain in collecting sensitive information on United Nations Security Council members, countries, in order to pressure the members, the ambassadors, into supporting the Iraq invasion of March 2003. How am I possibly going to do that? AMY GOODMAN: And then what happened? Dr. Katharine Gun leaked that memo to the Observer, in the belief that the revelation of the proposed bugging and blackmail tactics might be enough to stop the war. And we had to sit and wait for two hours while they winged it down from London. He left the Observer not long after the events it describes and now runs the Creative Society, a charity that helps widen access to jobs in the media and the arts to candidates with non-traditional backgrounds. Film-makers generally like to glamorise newspaper offices, making them All the Presidents Men hothouses of high-level argument and intrigue. 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Mr. Davies, in his book, has done more recently, AMY GOODMAN: And he said to you, Martin, at least in the film, This will jeopardize our access.. And I can remember sitting back and thinking, This guy is not all there. Did everything change? Please do your part today. This U.K. Whistleblower Almost Stopped the Iraq Invasion of 2003 Im going to start with you, Gavin. Ellsberg has called Katharine Guns action the most important and courageous leak I have ever seen. to your inbox each morning. And Mr.. She is also well known as a GCHQ spy. [6] She left teaching in 1999, and after some temporary jobs, finding it difficult to find work as a linguist, Gun applied to GCHQ in 2001, after reading a newspaper advertisement for the organisation. When Gun was approached with the idea for a script by Gavin Hood (who had recently made Eye in the Sky, the film about drone warfare, with Helen Mirren), the pair of them first talked for five days in London, getting the story straight. KATHARINE GUN: And yeah, becauseanyway, he was going in every week to basically prove that he was still resident or that they could pinpoint where he was. Protesters against the invasion of Iraq, February 2003. "I never set out to be a whistleblower": Katharine Gun tells - Salon We still dont know who within the American administration ordered the operation. And when he didnt come out, I was panicking, you know, and I ran inside. Shes just wearing her jeans and jumpers, you know, to work. My childhood friend, for example, I remember hearing her father was on a blacklist because he had been agitating for the opposition. Youre a bit, AMY GOODMAN: So, there is an uproar. AMY GOODMAN: Were you actually in the car with him, waiting for him to go in for his check-in? But as we said last night, this is the purpose of Albert Camuss great story La Peste, when Dr. Rieux is given the child dying of plague. MARTIN BRIGHT: Yeah, I mean, the story doesnt end. They may have chosen to push those boundaries, but they did know the difference, and they knew that it mattered if they were caught. And yeah, it was absolutely terrifying. KATHARINE GUN: Devastation. I think of journalists as being bullet-proof in a way, she says, but obviously not., She and Bright have done several question and answer sessions in the US after the film has been screened at various festivals. So, I just lay that out, really. Shes out. Her life story is depicted in the new film Official Secrets. In Part 2 of our discussion, 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.. Published on May 3, 2021 08:23 PM. The classified email Gun got leaked to The Observer was evidence of the clandestine attempt of the American intelligence to reportedly seek help from the UK in wiretapping the members of the UN Security Council to motivate them to vote in favor of the invasion of Iraq. But as it happened, I wasnt called up on Monday. ED VULLIAMY: But my point is not against Mr. Ahmed. I mean, couldnt have been happier with the casting choice, because Ben Emmerson is a force of nature, absolute force of nature, and a great international lawyer. I was called up on Tuesday. AMY GOODMAN: Youre watching that on television. KATHARINE GUN: No, she hasnt. She worked at the time at GCHQ, the British equivalent of the NSA." AMY GOODMAN: And you actually said you hadnt heard of Katharine Gun at the time, which is interesting in itself, because the story, in a sense, was almost killed for a bit. GAVIN HOOD: Theres an outrage. The cop says, you know, Heres your ticket. Youre guilty of breaking the speed, but youre guilty of a crime. Thats [inaudible]. And the potential chink in the Official Secrets Act we had found, which could have become a defence for others, the defence of necessity [of speaking up to save imminent danger to life], it wasnt tested in court.. And I had to thank her forI mean, you know, in totally selfish terms, helping me break the biggest story of my life. When Katharine Gun came across a memo while working for the British government in 2003, her whole world changed. We can all have a view on Saddam Hussein and whether he should be deposed or not. Soon after, they moved to Turkey in 2011, and for the most part, the family has stayed away from the public . Theres no doubt. You know, he couldntand it was the first time he had heard about it. The side of that history that Gun didnt really know in its fullest detail until she worked on the film was the drama of how the story made it into the pages of the Observer. And so, but theres another irony about the position of the attorney general, which is, the director of public prosecutions in Britain generally has real autonomy in deciding what cases to prosecute, except in cases of the Official Secrets Act, when he or she must get the authorization of the attorney general to prosecute. "The U.S. government, through the NSA, was spying in violation of international law on other UN Security Council members in order to better coerce them to back the invasion of Iraq. Official Secrets is based on the actions of Brit Katharine Gun, who revealed that America had been eavesdropping on diplomats from other countries. You dont know who the GCHQ person is. Before I was charged, before my name came out, my biggest worry was that I would become a known person. The film stars Ma. Gavin Hoods 2019 film Official Secrets is the thrilling political drama that explores the events that followed British linguist Guns 2003 media leak. The spy who wouldn't keep a secret - The Guardian as Katharine knows, it can be tougher to be right than to be wrong sometimes, if on those lucky occasions that one is right. I mean, thisI dont want this to sound sanctimonious. Katharine Gun: The GCHQ whistleblower who tried to stop the Iraq War on Before I knew it, I had spent two hours researching Katharine. We knew for sure. After competing in the singing competition, she launched an acting career and was . Film 'Official Secrets' is the Tip of a Mammoth Iceberg Following the incident, Gun struggled to find work that she loved, and her husband had grown disillusioned with Britain. And she hadnt said why she had resigned. Whistleblower Katharine Gun and journalist Martin Bright are interviewed for their new movie Official Secrets for the film's LFF screening. Whistleblower Katherine Gun, right, is played by Keira Knightly in the movie Official Secrets. Gun owned up to the leak a few days later to save her GCHQ colleagues from a witch-hunt. Ralph Fiennes, fantastic, wonderful actor. The Tony Blair Conscience Fund or something? Whatever you think of Kamala Harris, you can say, Which America do you want? Ten years ago, a young Mandarin specialist at GCHQ, the government's surveillance centre in Cheltenham, did something extraordinary. KATHARINE GUN: Well, I mean, its terrifying. Katharine Teresa Gun (ne Harwood;[1] born 1974) is a British linguist who worked as a translator for the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). Initially, Gun decided to teach Mandarin Chinese in 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. It was in character, I think. We continue our conversation now with Katharine Gun, the whistleblower and former employee of GCHQ. But it was, yeah, a moment of great humility, actually. MARTIN BRIGHT: Yeah, I must say, when I found out how young she was, it did take me by surprise, and the fact that she was a translator. delivered to your inbox every day! That is a tricky question, she says. Her act of whistleblowing cost her a career as a translator at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), made her stand in a highly publicized trial for violating the Official Secrets Act, and reduced her chances of getting another job due to being an internationally recognized whistleblower.
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