At some point, as you probably know, Bush and Rumsfeld decided to bypass the CIA and take out that Office of Special Plans. 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. 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. For the Observer too, it was a story full of risks. Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. The only thing that we altered in that is that I didnt have time to tell it for as long as it went on. So it was a pretty awful thing to happen to her. For the future, I hope the film will help locate the missing pieces from the story. America, Britain, and Spain withdrew their proposed resolution on invading Iraq when it became clear that it would not garner the necessary Security Council votes, in part because of the information Gun brought to light. Maybe thats rewarding. "But that's partly my own fault because I haven't aggressively pursued a career. But ultimately, heres why I thinkthis might sound like a strange statement. So, I guess we all have a threshold. 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. But, did it change the way I approached it? 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. And it's not an easy question, it sounds easy, but I don't think it is. It turned out a copyeditor at The Observer had run the memo through spellcheck before printing it.]. A script has been doing the rounds in Hollywood for five years. It was the first time I had worked with characters who were still alive, and they very much wanted it to be accurate or they wouldn't sign over their life rights. And I went back in 93 and did another two years with the new Department of Health. 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. So here we are in rehearsal, and we're talking one day about the look. She wasnt planning to get caught and then the dilemma was, My friends are all going to have their lives ruined.. Again. Well, you don't have one and get that almost anti-climactic moment that is a punch in the gut," said Hood. When I was a young law student, we studied the American Constitution and the Bill of Rights. But she still was not uncomfortable with the other things we've talked about. The other kind of fight could be frightening and politically risky. However, the Pentagon says the US deployment is "in response to indications of heightened Iranian readiness to conduct offensive operations against US forces and our interests.". That's really the simplest question: When do you speak up? Following the trauma inflicted on Gun, the U.K. Attorney General dropped the case against her with no warning. In a year that the U.S. president is accused of pressuring foreign governments for political gain, the story behind the film Official Secrets seems particularly timely. 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. Gavin Hood: Yes, it really sticks in my throat too. Throughout her own court case, whatonly a few knew wasthat she was also fighting for the right of her husband, who is from Turkey, to remain in the UK. He loves a battle, when it's done with words, boasts, and threats. But this specificinstance is the ugly truth of what goes on.". This whole intelligence didn't match what the politicians were saying. Is this a matter of threatening to launch a war, or is it a matter of responding to the US positioning itself for war? Iran, meanwhile, says it doesn't want war, but will defend itself. This is my second brief moment of fame. As a result, there never was any second UN resolution. 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. Some of those same birds are still flapping wings in the skies above Washington. WebAnd they failed, in part, I believe, because Katharine Gun leaked that memo, Official Secrets director Gavin Hood told Democracy Now!. His work has appeared in The Intercept, The New Republic, HuffPost, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and more. And they failed, in part, I believe, because Katharine Gun leaked that memo, Official Secrets director Gavin Hood told Democracy Now!. She was charged To look at someone who I thought was quite accessible and ordinaryand she doesn't mind me saying this because Katharine is someone who keeps her head below and is quiet, and did something extraordinary. In leaking it to the Observer, she was also doing something unprecedented in the history of espionage. As Bright noted, however, what we see in the movie is close to the real events. The central issues of whistle-blower protection, public interest disclosures, journalistic freedom and the accountability of our elected representatives continue to be just as relevant today. When you support The American Prospect, youre supporting fellow readers who arent able to give, and countering the class system for information. So important was this email, I knew it might even derail the case that Tony Blair was making for joining the Americans in an invasion. 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. Hundreds of thousands were killed. I don't think she thought they would deport her husband, I really don't think she thought that. My job had been to listen to Chinese communications, translate them from Mandarin to English and produce reports for different government departments. 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. And I think thats why you get this very honest, pure, deeply felt performance. "On the one hand, she's free. WebGun, then 28, received an email about a U.S.-led operation enlisting the help of Britain to spy on other countries, in an attempt to blackmail them into supporting the Iraq War. Gavin Hood: I asked her the same questions, and on about my second day interviewing her, I said to her, because I wasnt sure if I should make the movie; I mean, I needed to know whose story I was telling and if she was batshit crazy. This content is imported from youTube. Now, Trump says, he wants to see Iran back at the negotiating table. WebYou 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. However, Gun was well aware that any attempt to release the memo would find her running afoul of Britains Official Secrets Act, which criminalizes the leaking of intelligence-related information. Yet to this day there has been barely a mention of the Bush regimes disgraceful demand in official histories of the period, as if its been deliberately written out. The comments below have been moderated in advance. "Still no regrets," she said. David Dayen: No problem. The invasion was a huge blow, says Gun. She was a spythe communications she translated had been obtained covertly, but she did the work in the interest of protecting Britain. [In real life] I saw the email, I immediately thought, 'Oh, my God, this is shocking.' Which really, really, really happened. By Katharine Gun, Gchq Whistleblower For The Mail On Sunday, Published: 22:33 GMT, 26 October 2019 | Updated: 16:47 GMT, 8 November 2019. 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. Taking Vitamin D each day could cut your chances of getting dementia, study claims. You are sitting in the intelligence services, and Ive spoken to many now because Ive made other films in that world and I have some interesting folks that Ive been able to talk to, and the struggle was were being disloyal if you dont toe a party line, as it were, but we know this isnt right. And Assange is the same. He was actually gone for three days. We need a truth-sayer. Was the British government aware of it? I was suddenly free and bewildered. Cheering crowds have never been my sort of thing. Spoilers to follow as well. This is a special case because this story is very little-known in the United States. The decision to leak it was almost instant I felt I had no choice. The same countries demanded immediate answers from the British government about its involvement in the spying. 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. ", Keira Knightley and Katharine Gun at the London premiere of "Official Secrets. So I said goodbye to my mom and moved to America. We have a blondish-looking Katharine. 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. He said: "Very close. Only later did I appreciate the extent to which the journalists involved Martin Bright, Peter Beaumont and Ed Vulliamy had to go in order to prove that the email was legitimate. There were some audience questions as well. What do I do? And that was my way in. It was both exhilarating and just a little uncomfortable. I know what it is like to watch the system become completely authoritarian. Six months later they released Nelson Mandela. Why did the British authorities wait eight months before charging me and then drop the charges, claiming there was insufficient evi-dence for prosecution when I had confessed to the leak from the start? Was it because we had demanded the Attorney Generals legal advice as part of my defence? They failed. To tell too much more of the story would spoil the film, but one part of its ending is clear. 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. And I know whose throat it really sticks in, is [British journalist] Ed Vulliamy, who I adore. 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. 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. I was only a junior analyst, but I knew the email was outrageous: the American government was asking Britain to spy on United Nations diplomats so they could be blackmailed into supporting an invasion of Iraq. If the email did reach the newspapers, I reasoned, there would be no more than a discreet summary. So we start with hair, and then we start with glasses, and Keira says, "Gavin, what if I just was me?" If we give over, if we start believing the fake news, as you say, we're all doomed, man. Feel free to republish and share widely. But the Bush administration went to war anyway, using the pretext of weapons of mass destruction. Us, in any situation, wherever you work, I thought that's what this timeless about it. And maybe if we went to work for Enron and we liked our job well enough, and its a job. WebIn 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 As one of the journalists who broke the story, I feel a certain responsibility for how things have turned out. As a result of the story the paper published 10 years ago this weekend, she was arrested, lost her job and faced trial under the Official Secrets Act. What resonates to me is the somewhat more, I hope, timeless thing. Warning: The following contains spoilers for Official Secrets. We even got as far as the Old Bailey. Only now, more than a decade and a half later, is this disturbing sequence of events once again receiving the attention it deserves thanks to Official Secrets, a brilliant new movie starring Keira and former Doctor Who, Matt Smith. This and her other writings about intelligence issues have been critically acclaimed. So that's who's running this show. WebFor 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 real-life Gun said: "The attempt at deportation kind of spiked my stress level again for another period of my life." One is kind of what I thought it was, which is the CIA is the Central Intelligence Agency, walled off from politicians and the executive in a perfect world, where all the intelligence comes in, they analyze it and they then present their best intelligence estimates; this is pre-war, youre not at war, to the executive branch. 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. 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. 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, Don't mention the Iraq war, William Hague tells cabinet, Tenyears on, the case for invading Iraq is still valid, Occupying Iraq: a US army veteran's ambivalence, Howthe Bush administration sold the war and we bought it, the story the paper published 10 years ago this weekend, was arrested, lost her job and faced trial under the Official Secrets Act, collapsed after the prosecution withdrew its evidence. As a film of her story is planned, she tells of her anger and frustration but not her regrets, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Katharine Gun back in Cheltenham last week: 'This is the ugly truth of what goes on.' I did feel like, Well, I failed.. Seven times I've submitted articles to you with an alternate point of view, and seven times you've turned me down. 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 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. With the operation blown, the chances of George W Bush and Tony Blair getting the consensus for a direct UN mandate for war were now near zero. As I walked down the red carpet, I had never in my life experienced the flash of so many cameras. 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? The decision to leak it was almost instant I felt I had no choice. What might, IKeira Knightley, feel if I'm sitting at my desk and this happened to me?" Did that change your approach to presenting the film knowing that this was actually going to be somewhat of a surprise to people? On the other hand, she and Ben, to this day, feel they never got their day in court. 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. ", Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters, Keira Knightley's Birthday: Her 15 Best Movies Ranked, 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, Keira Knightley as Katharine Gun in "Official Secrets. WebGun sacrificed so much when she decided to leak and has worked only intermittently since. Some called her a traitor; others insisted she was a hero. Actually, there were two incidents at sea, blamed originally on the North Vietnamese. Perhaps they knew it would come out in the courtroom that the entire conflict was based on lies about Saddams weapons of mass destruction and that key UN officials could have been blackmailed. Gavin Hood: Keira is wonderful and is absolutely professional, arrives perfectly prepared, very calm, no fuss. Naturally, I was discreet. Can dementia be spotted in CHILDHOOD? Following the incident, Gun struggled to find work that she Two hours later after this deep dive, I called Ged back and said, How come we dont know this story? I guess the answer to that is that her story was big news for the day, and then very quickly got crushed by a bigger story, which was the story of the invasion. They live on a smallholding, renting a house, in rural Turkey. 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. During the American-lead 2003 campaign for United Nations support for an invasion of Iraq, Gun, who's played in the film by Keira Knightley, was a 28 year-old Mandarin translator working for the UKs Government Communications Headquarters, the nations equivalent of the American NSA. In real life, "the spellcheck largely happened through a series of phone calls," according to Bright, "because on a Sunday newspaper we don't work on a Sunday, and we don't work on a Monday. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. So thank you for being here, it means a lot. Right now my priorities are to ensure I am there for my daughter.". I grew up in South Africa in the seventies and eighties, when apartheid was really tightening and tightening and tightening. The British are quite British, you know. We started working on this three years ago and even then it felt relevant in the sense that the challenges we talked about earlier: Where does my loyalty lie? Liberty, the civil rights organisation, and Ben Emmerson QC had already agreed to defend me and we prepared for trial. [Gun's husband Yasar, a Kurd, was nearly deported back to the Middle East at one point, even though he had nothing to do with the leak.]. And it's a tough profession in many ways. That's the memo. The issue is provocation. However, Gun added that this was nothing on the anxiety she felt when the memo she had leaked ended up on the front page of The Observer, which she called "the most stressful memo of my life. "That really happened," Hood confirmed, though it did not go quite as it is shown in the film. 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. [In the movie, Gun says I dont work for the government, I work for the people.]. So we just worked on the performance from the very what if it's you? 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.". It should take the facts as they lead. The point of all of this is painfully obvious. I didnt know the story and I googled her. We were in development with a particular studio, and I don't mean to be funny after such a heavy film but sometimes we need a little bit of humor. She thought wow, they need a Mandarin translator at GCHQ. And she said, I dont work for the government. That was my first thoughtwhat do you mean you dont work for the government? "Obviously, we are compressing a story that took place in real life over a period of a year into two hours. 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. 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. Its had far reaching and very negative impacts in all aspects of our institutions and our public life," Gun says. 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. Katharine Gun and Martin Bright could be forgiven for fielding Hollywoods overtures with a degree of skepticism. Hood said that this was a purposeful choice by Knightley. Direct to your inbox. The paper had taken the controversial decision to back intervention in Iraq. It gives me an interesting pause. And isnt it also time to re-examine the Official Secrets Act? Iraq All Over Again? You can look up Nicole Mowbray, she wrote an article in The Guardian a couple weeks ago, about this worst day of her life. Our institutions matter. When my moment came, I found myself standing alone in the dock facing the judge and surrounded by lawyers, journalists and supporters.
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