There are 15 members of that council, and there are these nonpermanent members who could swing the vote in favor of an invasion of Iraq in U.N. resolution. 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. You know, lets say Iyoure a bit of a gambler, arent you? Explain what happened at the Q&A, Martin. But to discover that it was such a young and such a junior employee was extraordinary to us, yeah. Macdonald stated that Gun would not have received a fair trial without the disclosure of information that would have compromised national security. 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.Or at least, she could have been. I felt awful. The second act of the movie is concerned with the internal newspaper politics of that decision. Your question about now, this is all terribly relevant. MARTIN BRIGHT: We didI tell you what, though, we did feel that we had failed. Her upbringing later led her to describe herself as a "third culture kid". No one else including myself has ever done what Gun did: tell secret truths at personal risk, before an imminent war, in time, possibly, to avert it.. And Ben comes up with this idea. I mention those lines about working for the people rather than the government. In its absence, Tony Blair won another election in 2005. And now you go back into work. 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. The online Drudge Report used the fact that the reproduced NSA memo used English spelling to cast doubt on its veracity. We could haveyou know, you always have regrets, dont you? Its all so resonant. But, yes, I did. But this is not the issue. One question that recurs, she says, comes from audience members asking what they should do, how they should behave, in the current mendacious political climate. The original content of this program is licensed under a. I mean, this has been going on for a number of years, and it always sort of ended up kind of petering out, so, GAVIN HOOD: Other people had approached you before. So, no, I mean, I didnt want to say I was guilty when I didnt feel guilty. [3], Katharine Harwood moved to Taiwan in 1977 with her parents, Paul and Jan Harwood. But, I mean, I ended up being a whistleblower myself within that organization. When Brights story originally landed there were concentrated efforts to rubbish it in the gung-ho parts of the media. The film captures well the inspired and stubborn efforts of Bright (Matt Smith in the movie), and colleagues Ed Vulliamy (played with brio by Rhys Ifans) and Peter Beaumont (played by Matthew Goode), to stand the story up, based on the few details it betrayed, and to get it into the paper, despite the strong misgivings of the political desk. I mean, youre talking about the editorial leadership of The Observer, the editor-in-chief. For the past nine years she has been living in Turkey with her Turkish husband and their 11-year-old daughter. In 2003, Gun was working as a translator of Mandarin at the government intelligence agency, GCHQ, in Cheltenham. [5] While at work at GCHQ on 31 January 2003, Gun read an email from Frank Koza, the chief of staff at the "regional targets" division of the American signals intelligence agency, the National Security Agency.[7]. [5] Less than a week after the Observer story, on Wednesday 5 March, Gun confessed to her line manager at GCHQ that she had leaked the email, and was arrested. How often does she go through that fateful weekend, where she wrestled with her conscience after seeing the memo? AMY GOODMAN: And Alton went from The Observer and ultimately made his way, ED VULLIAMY: Via variousvia Rupert Murdochs Times, yes. I had had my own story on the fabrication of the weapons of mass destruction, the existence of a shadow intelligence-cooking agency within the Pentagon, which we at The Observer had for five months before Sy Hersh, with great respect to Sy, published it in The New Yorker. KATHARINE GUN: Yeah, I was very excited to meet Keira in London before they started shooting. I think a lot of our current issues go back to that time. AMY GOODMAN: And when did that come out? Inside the world of ministers' secrets", "Iraq war whistleblower's trial 'was halted due to national security threat', "Official Secrets: A Conversation With Director Gavin Hood", "Official Secrets review Keira Knightley excels in Iraq war whistleblower drama", "15 Years Later: How U.K. Whistleblower Katharine Gun Risked Everything to Leak a Damning Iraq War Memo", "Film on British whistleblower's life to hit Turkish theaters", "Whistleblowerin Katharine Gun - "Ich wrde es wieder tun", "Sundance 2019: Premieres Include Harvey Weinstein Docu, Mindy Kaling, Dr. Ruth, UK Spies, Miles Davis & Ted Bundy", "Daniel Ellsberg speaking about Katharine Gun", In 2003, This U.K. Whistleblower Almost Stopped the Iraq Invasion. They were just going to pick him up, and took him out. And then I went on to interview Martin and Ed and then Ben Emmerson, the lawyer. Plead out. The cop says, you know, Heres your ticket. Youre guilty of breaking the speed, but youre guilty of a crime. Spoiler: After Katharine Gun's identity became known, we at the Institute for Public Accuracy brought on Jeff Cohen, the founder of FAIR, to work with Hollie Ainbinder to get prominent individuals to support Gun. You didnt know what would happen with this memo you leaked to someone, who gave it to someone, but you knew you felt it wasI mean, you werent part of a movement. AMY GOODMAN: What did you think about your own prime minister? Of course he does. AMY GOODMAN: What was it called? So, lots of leads there. Shes not wearing tons of makeup. 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.. She had received an email in her inbox asking her and . I think I found like the missing piece. Anyway, thats why the scene. I heard things that stuck. KATHARINE GUN: Yeah. Indeed, your point about Bush is right. Her father had studied Chinese at Durham University and now teaches at Tunghai University in the city of Taichung, central Taiwan. It is not often that a persons character is revealed in two sentences. And I can remember sitting back and thinking, This guy is not all there. I was teaching Mandarin in the local college in Cheltenham. We knew for sure. . Don't let 'the intelligence and the facts be fixed around the policy' this time. Film 'Official Secrets' is the Tip of a Mammoth Iceberg Gun is not active on social media and occasionally participates in small-scale conferences and discussions pertaining to politics. GAVIN HOOD: She did work for the attorney general, right up until a matter of weeks or so before the war, at which point, when he changed his mind, under massive pressure, having visited Washington and spoken to Gonzales and all the various lawyers who worked for Rumsfeld and Bush and Cheney, and theyd sold him on this idea of using Resolution 678, which authorized the 1991 Gulf War, and said, Really, that war didnt end, and were really still at war with Iraq. And the other way is the good, old-fashioned self-defense. But I felt this information was explosive, it needed to get out. I ended up, bizarrely, teaching a couple of my former colleagues at GCHQ. . A film, Official Secrets, has been made of her story. GAVIN HOOD: Well, for me, what I love about the story is actually, on the one hand, its got this huge global political relevance, and it resonates still today. You have the U.S. in the longest war in U.S. history, in Afghanistan. And that if the perpetrators in these situations get away scot-free, that has a knock-on effect. [13] Speculation was rife in the media that the prosecution service had bowed to political pressure to drop the case so that any such documents would remain secret. But I wasnt thinking about myself really. AMY GOODMAN: And so, you decide to go back and revealwho was it that was questioning you? So I tried to look for work. [20] After the charges against her were dropped in 2004, she found it difficult to find a new job. AMY GOODMAN: The horror of what you did not succeed in preventing, though, which was the deaths of so many in Iraq, and that continues today, but you certainly touched the conscience of not just the nation, but the world, in what you did, talking about what womanwhat one woman could do. I'm Amy Goodman. 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. For the American gamer, see, Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, United Nations Security Council and the Iraq War, "Whistleblowerin Katharine Gun - "Ich frchtete, sie knnten meine Gedanken lesen", "The US spymaster, the whistleblower, and the secret email she exposed", "Profile: Katherine Gun, Iraq war wistleblower", "Katharine Gun: Ten years on what happened to the woman who revealed dirty tricks on the UN Iraq war vote? By Ben Davies BBC News Online political staff at the TUC in Brighton There is something about Katharine Gun that makes her seem an unlikely candidate for whistleblowing. You cannot talk to anyone about your intelligence work. I ask her first if it is gratifying to finally have it out there? I mean, no ones going tono crocodile tears over that. Guns leak was perhaps the last example of whistleblowing that involved a red telephone box and a photocopier, rather than downloads. Be consistent. So I was . AMY GOODMAN: So, before the time of the trial, Katharine, youthey have clamped down on you. Whistleblower Katharine Gun and journalist Martin Bright are interviewed for their new movie Official Secrets for the film's LFF screening. In the very typical British manner, we just pretended we had never met.. And he says, I need toso, Im interviewing Ben in a pizza shop, right? MARTIN BRIGHT: Yeah, I mean, around that time. GAVIN HOOD: This amazing lawyer, with great dignityElizabeth Wilmshurst, whos in the movie, Ralph Fiennes playing Ben Emmersonhas the cup of tea with her. In 2003, This U.K. Whistleblower Almost Stopped the Iraq - Truthout AMY GOODMAN: Ed Vulliamy, you were the U.S. correspondent for The Observer. 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 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. AMY GOODMAN: You succeeded in preventing his deportation. This U.K. Whistleblower Almost Stopped the Iraq Invasion of 2003 Inside the world of ministers secrets, Iraq war whistleblowers trial was halted due to national security threat, Permanent Record by Edward Snowden review the whistleblowers memoir, 'They wanted me gone': Edward Snowden tells of whistleblowing, his AI fears and six years in Russia, I had a moral duty: whistleblowers on why they spoke up, 'You've caused an international incident': how my work mistake came back to haunt me, Fortheir eyes only: the secret stories ministers dont want you to read, Take it from a whistleblower: Chilcot's jigsaw puzzle is missing a few pieces, Hollywood beckons for whistleblower who risked jail over Iraq dirty tricks. KATHARINE GUN: No, I felt a huge sense of relief after I had, you know, confessed. It cost Gun, who now lives in Turkey with her husband and daughter, her job. AMY GOODMAN: Martin, you went on to work with Tony Blair, didnt you? This is viewer supported news. In the movie, her husband (Adam Bakri) is initially portrayed as a civilian, perceiving her job to be mundane. The love between Katharine and her husband, Yasar Gun, is undeniable, and the punishment they must to endure together is heart stopping. AMY GOODMAN: So you just thought this was routine. AMY GOODMAN: Katharine, has your 11-year-old daughter seen the film? Truth has a habit of . 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. I dont have to be in makeup or wardrobe for hours. And she just said what she loved about Katharine isand I hope this isnt said the wrong way, and I keep saying itshes one of us. MARTIN BRIGHT: this was the real deal. There are lots of loose ends here still. Starring Elle Fanning in the title role, the show follows the rise of Catherine as she arrives in Russia as a teenager, naively excited for her arranged wedding night with Peter III (Nicholas . Presumably the events mark a before and after in her life. UPDATED with latest attendees, livestream link: President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, will attend Saturday's . The argument was then subsumed by the war. MARTIN BRIGHT: Well, they didnt even say why. AMY GOODMAN: Shes then arrested. Official Secrets: A Conversation With Director Gavin Hood When he didnt come out, I was panicking, you know, and I ran inside. And he was the barrister who ultimately put the case before the court, as short as that trial was, on behalf of Katharine, and came up with a truly original defense to the Official Secrets Act, which is the defense of necessity. MARTIN BRIGHT: Well, I wasof course, the irony of the situation is that when we heard that a GCHQ employee, a 27-year-old GCHQ employee, Mandarin translator, I think we even said at the time, had been arrested, we were absolutely delighted, because we knew for sure that we had a big story at that point. Youre terrified. I mean, the pack of cards has gone from Afghanistan to Iraq to Syria. Who is Katharine Gun's Husband? Where is Katharine Gun Now? AMY GOODMAN: You only lasted what? And then, on Tuesday, they called me in, and I went in. We thought that maybe it would be a security expert who had got wind of this, or someone, I mean, relatively senior within GCHQ who was worried about what was going on, and, you know. We will never know. Iraq All Over Again? And Where Is Katharine Gun? - LA Progressive You know, the conservative estimates are 125,000 up to a million. How dodo they join the dots? There is a sense of, Did it really happen? Is that really me?. Katharine Gun Husband: Learn Everything About Iraq War Whistleblower [5], Gun graduated with an upper second-class degree, then took a job as an assistant English teacher with the JET program in Hiroshima, Japan. Consider donating here. 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. But, you know, it. Get Democracy Now! Im sure that what Katharine felt when in 2010 we found out that Lord Goldsmith had declared the war, in his advice, illegal, must have been pretty painful for Katharine to hear, as it was for me when Congress said, I think around 2004, '05, we knew, actually, there were no weapons of mass destruction. "I never set out to be a whistleblower": Katharine Gun tells - Salon I ended up, bizarrely, teaching a couple of my former colleagues at GCHQ. Read More: Is Official Secrets a True Story? Theyre going to send him back to Turkey. AMY GOODMAN: That was 2014. The comedown after they dropped the case, and trying to recover from that, was quite stressful.. ED VULLIAMY: Yes, the people who were giving Martin traction to get this story out, and who effectively, according to Mr. Daviess book, censored mine, about the cooking-up of the WMD and the fact that we knew Saddam didnt have any. Few are aware that her husband had also been thrown into troubled waters when Gun blew the lid off the alleged spy efforts in 2003. So, in the film, when the director of public prosecutions says to Ben Emmerson, trying to wiggle out of it, Listen, it wasnt my decision to prosecute. Thats actually true. We can all have a view on Saddam Hussein and whether he should be deposed or not. That is a tricky question, she says. No need for weapons of mass destruction arguments. Megan (Knightley) is having a quarter-life crisis after her boyfriend proposes, so she escapes for a week to her new friend, a 16-year-old named Annika's ( Chlo Grace Moretz) house . Katharine Teresa Gun (ne Harwood;[1] born 1974) is a British linguist who worked as a translator for the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). And I called Jed back, and I said, This is an amazing way into how we got into the Iraq War, thatwhy isnt it better known? And he saidI said, Could I come and meet Katharine? Does she tell her story when she meets new people? You know, I mean, once itsif you plead guilty and you go away for three months, and its, you know, maybe not so bad as going away for two years, but still I would have had a record. So, of course, it was justyou know, he was kind of thinkinghe knew I worked for the intelligence services, but he didnt know what that was. Never mind the number injured. My GCHQ career obviously came to an end. I wonder what she made of the scattershot download methods of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange? 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. Director Gavin Hood resists this for the most part though I cant recall Martin being applauded into the office the morning after the story broke (muttered sarcasm and grudging praise was more likely the tone). Soon after, they moved to Turkey in 2011, and for the most part, the family has stayed away from the public eye. MARTIN BRIGHT: OK, youre making me feel really bad about going to work for him now. I mean, my initial encounter with him at the Faith Foundation was extremely concerning, in fact, because he said that what he wanted me to do was develop a heat map, you know, an interactive map of all the madrassas, you know, Islamic schools, around the world, with my tiny team of two or three interns, showingand he looked me in the eye, and he said, I want you to be ableI want people who are looking on our website to be able to see how radical those madrassas are, by color coding.. Film-makers generally like to glamorise newspaper offices, making them All the Presidents Men hothouses of high-level argument and intrigue. If we found other information, it may have been different, but this information seemed to show us that wed been lied to. Sometimes you break stories, and networks ring you and say they want to interview you, and then they drop you because of the agenda. Truth has a habit of finding a voice, however. And if you are working in government, make sure that you are really clued up about what is going on, and think very hard where your responsibility lies.. Mary Katharine Ham - Smart Women Smart Money Magazine Now, the defense of necessity is usually used in very more simple circumstances. Whats the defense? AMY GOODMAN: And your feelings at that time, Katharine? But on the other hand, its just a deeply personal story aboutand I hope Katharine will forgive me saying thisabout an ordinary person, like one of us, who does something extraordinary. KATHARINE GUN: Actually, time-wise, I was bailed for eight months. When Katharine Gun came across a memo while working for the British government in 2003, her whole world changed. GAVIN HOOD: What she discovers saysis a request from the NSA to GCHQ to hack, bug the private communications and the office communications of U.N. Security Council members, in particular the nonpermanent members, the more junior members. GAVIN HOOD: Chile, Bulgaria, Angola, Cameroon, Pakistan, Mexico. Keira Knightley: Iraq was the first time Id been politically engaged, Leaking or briefing? I mean, obviously, at that point, then felt very sorry that someone had been arrested, but it was a huge relief at the time. You work for the British government, her interrogator said, with a sneer. In an interview with Democracy Now!, Gun explained, After they charged me, thats when they tried to deport my husband. 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 . But my closest friends stuck by me.. So, you are there standing alone in the dock. Katharine Gun is the Most Important Whistleblower You've Never Heard of. Her performance reminds you of the sentiment of Daniel Ellsberg, the man who famously leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times in 1971, revealing the full truth of American involvement in Vietnam. AMY GOODMAN: Youre watching that on television. Iraq war whistleblower Katharine Gun: 'Truth always matters' GAVIN HOOD: Theres an outrage. Please do your part today. What Happened to Katharine McPhee? Find Out Where the - Yahoo AMY GOODMAN: But so, did you have any conversations with the former prime minister at the time, Tony Blair? So, of course, I was a little bit sort of reserved. whistleblower and former specialist for Britains Government Communications Headquarters. KATHARINE GUN: Well, hes Turkish, from a Kurdish background, yeah. We didnt talk about politics much. Youre breaking the speed limit. Katharine Teresa Gun (ne Harwood; born 1974) is a British linguist who worked as a translator for the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). AMY GOODMAN: And these ambassadors are the ambassadors of? Fox News' Kat Timpf Marries Cameron Friscia: See the Photos - People Katharine Gun: The GCHQ whistleblower who tried to stop the Iraq War on Lord Goldsmith must have saidI mean, I imagine. Iraq war whistleblower Katharine Gun: 'Truth always matters' And, with great respect, I think he did. But lets go back to the moment. That accountability is key. Gun was charged for exposing around the time of Colin Powell's infamous testimony to the UN about Iraq's alleged WMDs a top-secret U.S. government memo showing it was mounting an . [5] In 1993 she began studying Japanese and Chinese at Durham University. AMY GOODMAN: You mean period dramas of strong women have to be a hundred years ago. is a 501(c)3 non-profit news organization. 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. And when he didnt come out, I was panicking, you know, and I ran inside. And at the end of the Q&A, I went to try and find him, and hed gone. White bread, white Trump, white, or this America, the one of every color, creed? You know, we dont have that.