Or at least, she could have been. 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. Jack Straw, then the foreign secretary, has not been challenged on whether he authorised the operation to go ahead, although it is almost certain that he did. Maybe thats rewarding. 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. Our institutions matter. What do you think resonates? It gives me an interesting pause. Official Secrets Trailer #1 (2019) | Movieclips Trailers, Imagine Donald Trump Running an Actual War. But that shouldn't be the philosophy pre-war when you're trying to decide whether to go to war. Thankfully, time passes and the intensity of feelings fades. [Ahmed is depicted in the film as strongly pro-war, resistant to running stories that conflict with his opinion.]. "But the more I think about what happened, the more angry and frustrated I get about the fact that nobody acted on intelligence. Quality journalism. After the initial flurry of media interest, I was left to figure out how to move on with my life and that proved hard. By Katharine Gun, Gchq Whistleblower For The Mail On Sunday, Published: 22:33 GMT, 26 October 2019 | Updated: 16:47 GMT, 8 November 2019. When you have the initial GCHQ induction course for new arrivals, she said, they tell you not to trust journalists, to be careful to keep everything confidential. Still, she printed off the memo, tucked it into her purse, and took it home. Please help keep the independent journalism of Common Dreams strong. 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. Across the world, millions protested the invasion of Iraq, doing their own small parts to attempt to prevent the war. So somehow in my rolodex, sometimes they sought me out. This is my second brief moment of fame. She hoped that if people know about the lengths to which theyve gone to legitimize an invasion of Iraq, then it would blow apart, and people will suddenly think, No, this isnt right, and the whole house of cards would come tumbling down.. 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 The Observer, which then publishes it on their front page. Iran has been filmed loading missiles aboard some of its vessels. Questioner: The only thing that I've wondered while watching the film, since it's a true story, is how could Ms. Gunn, who was a spy, who was a member of an intelligence agency, be surprised when her husband got deportedor when the government came after her husband, how could she be surprised when all of the different reactions she got came forward? So it was a pretty awful thing to happen to her. Gun was followed, denied legal advice and her Turkish husband faced deportation. 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. In the runup to the critical vote on war in Iraq, Katharine Gun exposed a US plot to spy on the UN. The concern among many Americans is that claims of an unprovoked, deadly attack by Iran are exaggerated. Not only was the cable the most sensitive ever to be disclosed on either side of the Atlantic, it was also unique in its timing. Jeb Bush Just Botched the Iraq Question. The contents were explosive, implicating America in a blackmail plot to swing UN votes in favor of an invasion. It sounds big with Katharine but that's what inspired me. But when Gun's lawyers threaten to question the U.K. Attorney General Lord Goldsmith about Britain's involvement in the Iraq war, the government drops their case against Gun. And we keep that system alive. But my point is simply this: The underpinnings of this country matter. ", Bright noted that apart from some small flourishes to heighten the drama, he didn't think Official Secrets had "any genuine liberties taken with the truth. Keira said no one knows Katharine, and that's not an insult to Katharine. When I got to the interview thats when they told me that its for GCHQ, I didnt know what GCHQ did. So, I think she entered the world out of a sort of strange curiosity. David Dayen: No problem. Every day we worked together for about five to six hours and then I referred back to her many times, subsequently, but I had literally just said, let's start at the beginning and let me hear first-hand from you your story and then I'll tell that story. She had received an email in her inbox asking her and her colleagues to help in a vast intelligence "surge" designed to secure a UN resolution to send troops into Iraq. Then, the world is safer until the sequel when it all happens again. Gavin Hood: There is a kind of cognitive dissonance. They had published not some coded version of events, but the email itself in full. Liberty, the civil rights organisation, and Ben Emmerson QC had already agreed to defend me and we prepared for trial. 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. Now the goal is not truth, it is victory. This content is imported from youTube. After a police interview, at which I repeated my admission, I was released on bail to await the decision of the Crown Prosecution Service. 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. 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. "That really happened," Hood confirmed, though it did not go quite as it is shown in the film. 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. So I said goodbye to my mom and moved to America. Official Secrets is, for the most part, a historical account of these events in 2003, but as with nearly all films based on a true story, some things have been changed to aid the drama of the narrative. 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. But George W. Bush did something that, thankfully, Trump hasnt pulled off yet: He took us to war. I didn't plan to have this movie out today and know what was going to be going on. The other was Coleen Rowley, former FBI special agent and counsel at the Minneapolis bureau, who blew the whistle on FBI and other shortcomings I dont know if theyd have discovered me eventually, but the fact is I couldnt live a lie for ever. Provocation? He was actually gone for three days. You see it most vividly in that scene where everybody stops calling Martin Bright, or they start canceling all the interviews. 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. 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.". [In the movie, Gun says I dont work for the government, I work for the people.]. It is probably still too early to tell. She was charged Warning: The following contains spoilers for Official Secrets. What It Feels Liketo Survive a Chemical Attack. 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. But get out of that trailer as fast as possible, get onto the set, and work from inside? 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? 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. Seven times I've submitted articles to you with an alternate point of view, and seven times you've turned me down. 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. Neither my friends nor my family knew what I did all day. And then, she said when she got in therenow bear in mind that she still is bound by the Official Secrets Act. The team of hawks circling George Bush had long wanted to take out Saddam Hussein, as did Bush. None of the Government reports into the war acknowledged it, nor did the history books. Much to the distress of our former partners in the Iran nuclear deal, Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement and announced tougher sanctions. WebIts the tale of whistleblower Katharine Gun, a former translator for the UKs Government Communications HQ, who leaked a top-secret memo in 2003 on the eve of a divisive US-led war. One by one, all those who received the email approximately 100 people were taken in for a grilling. The case and the resulting anxiety never seemed far away. 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. The movie tells the story of Katharine Gun (played by Keira Knightley), a translator with the U.K.'s GCHQ who, in 2003, leaked top secret documents to journalist Martin Bright (Matt Smith) that revealed that the American government's plans to apply pressure on members of the U.N. Security Counsel to pass its war resolution. Gun discusses her attempt to stop the Iraq War, which is the subject of the new movie Official Secrets. To tell too much more of the story would spoil the film, but one part of its ending is clear. What is this paper? Cheering crowds have never been my sort of thing. I sensed a slight flash of anger as she said: "It's not even a footnote in the history of Iraq." [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.]. I was glad to get back to what I hoped would be normality, but the effect on me had been traumatising. Who authorised the NSA email, for example? By printing off the memo, putting it in her handbag and taking it home, she was already committing a serious breach of the Official Secrets Act. 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. What resonates to me is the somewhat more, I hope, timeless thing. Such a law is not compatible with openness, transparency, accountability and justice. Healthy mother-of-two, 32, collapsed and died from brain bleed while she led fitness bounce class. Progressive values. 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. Was the British government aware of it? Gun disclosed details of the spying operation as it was happening to stop something she viewed as terrible happening in the future. She said, I thought that might be quite interesting and exciting. Director Gavin Hood Writers Sara Bernstein Gregory Bernstein Gavin Hood Stars Keira Knightley Matt Smith Matthew Goode So, she began to feel uncomfortable in the work she was doing at that point. Then, we all started watching the invasion and we werent how we got into the war. Not mine or The Observer's finest hour, has to be said. One is reminded of the January 31, 2003 Oval Office meeting with George Bush, Tony Blair, and Condoleeza Rice, in which the topic of provoking Iraq to start a war was particularly revealing. When Katharine Gun came across a memo while working for the British government in 2003, her whole world changed. It's tough, the laws here are even stricter than in the UK. Sometimes movies can be an effective way to make forgotten stories part of our national narrative, and in that sense, Official Secrets comes not a moment too soon. 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. Its had far reaching and very negative impacts in all aspects of our institutions and our public life," Gun says. 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. "Obviously, we are compressing a story that took place in real life over a period of a year into two hours. I am an American citizen; I have a strange accent but Ive been here 25 years; my kids were born here. She made the point that if you have Helen Mirren playing the Queen or Meryl Streep playing Maggie Thatcher, everybody knows those people and your judged on how well you impersonate, if you will, those people. Abandoned blue sleeping bag, tents and several wooden shelters are found in woodland close to where police Don't just stick to the Malbec! "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.". But, maybe if I didn't know and maybe if I went into that job and discovered oh my God, maybe I really can stop a terrorist attack today. I grew up in South Africa in the seventies and eighties, when apartheid was really tightening and tightening and tightening. She now has a four-year-old daughter who she is bringing up in Turkey. She got into a plea bargain, they still gave her five years. I don't think she thought they would deport her husband, I really don't think she thought that. Twenty-eight, pretty naive. "I think part of the reason Gavin included it was just to kind of share that thought process.". The issue is provocation. 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. 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. Hundreds of thousands were killed. However, her husband and the father of her daughters name is Yasar Gun. 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. Never mind that invading another country for the purpose of regime change is illegal according to international laws to which the United States is a signatory. 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