I mean, my first reaction was shock and anger. A New Film Tells Her Story, Part 2: 15 Years Later: How U.K. Whistleblower Katharine Gun Risked Everything to Leak a Damning Iraq War Memo, Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License, Senate Holds Equal Rights Amendment Hearing as U.S. Court Denies Attempt to Include in Constitution, Bola Tinubu of Ruling Party Wins Nigeria Election Amid Low Turnout, Rigging Charges, Hundreds of Iranian Schoolgirls Suffered Toxic Poisonings in Last Four Months, Biden Names Labor Advocate Julie Su to Lead Labor Dept. I gather intelligence so that the government can protect the British people. And explain what the header said, who you had to verify this with. On the 25th of February, 2004, Katharine arrived at the Old Bailey for her trial. It seemed inevitable. I think of journalists as being bullet-proof in a way. "The world is moving in a completely fascist, corporate direction," she tells me, when I ask if thinking back she'd do it all again. And what happened? Latest Martin Milner Net Worth Income Salary, Andrew Witty Biography , Wife Age, Family Salary & Net Worth: UnitedHealth Group CEO, Blaize Pearman Wikipedia, Net Worth, Age, Bio, Mother Lydia Gaulden. And yeah, it was just a request from the NSA tofor GCHQ to assist them in bugging the domestic and office communications of the six U.N. Security Council delegates. Im Amy Goodman. Record Coal Prices Help Break Strike. AMY GOODMAN: GCHQ leads an investigation. And also, the memo itself contained language that was consistent with intelligence service language, so we had experts look at that, as well. That does it for our show. I didnt know why, but I was going nuts. In April 2020, Katharine was supposed to appear at the 14th edition of the International Journalism Festival as a speaker. GAVIN HOOD: We have to protect the innocent and source, yeah. We welcome you all to Democracy Now! The film is coming out August 30th in theaters around the country. I think that speaks rather highly of you. He had no regrets whatsoever about removing Saddam. And it was. TINTIN: You eavesdrop on private conversations. Gun believed that this would be illegal, a breach of the Vienna Convention governing diplomatic relations. TINTIN: You gather information from peoples phones and computers, and you feed that to your clients. Watch our livestream 8-9AM ET: https://democracynow.orgPlease consider supporting independent media by making a donation to Democracy Now! But you see this memo that went out to everyone in your area. "Yeah, I suppose so," she says. It stunned Katharine Gun at the time she discovered this duplicity during her work at GCHQ, and it still stuns to see it displayed on the screen, especially actual news reports from the period. "We just kept waiting in this state of limbo, a constant cloud over my head," she explains. It has been suggested that the government was desperate to ensure that documents containing advice about the legality of the war which the defence had requested would not be made public. MARTIN BRIGHT: So, the header information included the name Frank Koza, who was the NSAs head of regional targets at the time. "The problem was that I just didn't feel guilty," she tells me. For more on this incredible story and the real-life thriller that is coming out on August 30th in movie theaters around the countryour guest, Katharine Gun, is played by Keira Knightleywere joined by Katharine Gun herself, the whistleblower, former employee of Britains global surveillance center, GCHQ, played by actress Keira Knightley, yes. Gun received bail each month, so she was able to make it seem like she still worked for GCHQ and had a normal life. What do you do? As noted in online sources, the former spy's birth year is recorded to be 1974. We're sitting together in a quiet room at the headquarters of human rights organisation Liberty, just around the corner from the streets through which she'd been marching. Its you either go to war based on a U.N. resolutionwere all going togetheror youve got to prove, you know, a genuine threat to youryou know, its a self-defense argument. They were going use information gathered from the intelligence to either bribe or blackmail them into voting for this war. AMY GOODMAN: And who were these six countries? "Even thinking about it all would cause me anxiety," she says, "but now I am ready." Katharine Gun. No. That meant winning over temporary members of the Council, countries such as Angola, Bulgaria, Chile and Mexico. In Official Secrets, Gun is played by Keira Knightley while Matt Smith takes on the role of Martin Bright. KNIGHTLEY: Governments change. Angola, Cameroon, Bulgaria, Chile, GAVIN HOOD: Pakistan and Mexico. It wasn't that she was naive. Never heard of Gun? Back in 30 seconds. There was also the question of the plea: would she admit to being guilty or argue her innocence? That contact had connections with the antiwar movement. Katharine had assumed a journalist would use the letter as a springboard for their own wider investigation. It was a crisis meeting because they had failed to get a second UN resolution, to give legal cover for the war. And those six swing nations, their delegates, they wanted , AMANPOUR: When you say swing nations, they were once at that the U.S. and the U.K. were trying to get on side . TINTIN: [played by Peter Guinness] Your supervisor speaks highly of your integrity. Were talking about Official Secrets. In bugging, in spying on, in eavesdropping, wiretapping, whatever? Our obligation is to the truth. Following the incident, Gun struggled to find work that she loved, and her husband had grown disillusioned with Britain. Katharine Gun explains how she exposed a plot by U.S. security officials to spy on United Nations members in 2003. We 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. Gun was cleared of a charge under the Official Secrets Act after being . Katharine Gun in the Liberty office, 2019. KATHARINE GUN: Well, I didnt do anything immediately, but I went home. Katharine Gun. Chicago Mayor Lightfoot Loses Election; Candidates Backed by Police & Teacher Unions Head to Runoff, Death Toll from Migrant Shipwreck Reaches 67 While Italy Cracks Down on, Student Debt Relief in Jeopardy as Conservative Supreme Court Justices Question Bidens Plan, Longest Alabama Strike Ends as Warrior Met Coal Miners Return. With no plan and no contacts, a duty solicitor who was well out of her depth was called. 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 . She is known for having exposed a plan by the US government to spy on the United Nations shortly before a vote concerning America's illegal invasion of Iraq. AMY GOODMAN: That was a clip from Official Secrets. All this was a measure of the bloody chaos that was Iraq after the invasion: eventually there were 179 British dead,4,500 Americans, and maybe half a million Iraqis, most of them killed in a sectarian civil war. In 2019, she finally returned to the general public eye for the promotional press occasions for Official Secrets. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. MARTIN BRIGHT: Was one of the six nations. And I felt it was explosive information. Youre sitting at the equivalent of the NSA. MARTIN BRIGHT: Well, but only with a story that you know is true. A year after she walked down the aisle, Ross gave birth to their only child, Cleo Rose, on September 17, 1984, in Malibu, California. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. The advice was that, by accepting what she'd done was illegal, the jail time might end up reduced. It was a Friday when I saw the email. No, you just do not do stuff like that. MARTIN BRIGHT: No, it was a very unusual situation. 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 In January 2003, British intelligence analyst Katharine Gun read an email from U.S. officials who were trying to enlist their British counterparts in a public relations campaign to support . This is Democracy Now! 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. You see this headline splashed across the front page. I do not gather intelligence so that the government can lie to the British people.A colleague whispers to her: Intelligence may be being manipulated to take this country to war. These scenes are set before the invasion, before the shattering truth emerged that Saddam did not have weapons of mass destruction and the war had been based on a lie, or more delicately a false prospectus. Theyre one of Hollywoods brightest starsand most troubled actors. . Just for a moment, some imagined that this might be enough to stop the Iraq war before it had begun. It was an extraordinary moment. A union rep got in touch to offer support, and once news broke that an unnamed woman had been arrested for the leak the story caught the attention of the organisation whose offices we're sitting in. It's just, back then, she didn't realise quite what her employer could be capable of. Yasar's wife is a British linguist who worked as a translator for the GCHQ, Government Communications Headquarters. You wanted to stop the Iraq war. When Elisabeth Finch met Jennifer Beyer in 2019, the two women forged a fiercely loyal friendship, and eventually got married. Katharine Gun worked as an analyst for Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the British equivalent of the secretive U.S. National Security Agency. So, naturally, it's Katharine Gun who's being punished. http://bit.ly/HeyUGuysYTSubFacebook http://facebook.com/HeyUGuysInstagram http://instagram.com/HeyUGuysOfficial--------------------- And the whole process, I think, was just a parallel process that didnt have a. We were going to bring all of this out and it was all going to be in the public. Instead, the case was droppeda temporary relief for her, but a troubling outcome on a greater scale, since it essentially meant they slammed the door shut on that discussion.. Our Daily Digest brings Democracy Now! When Katharine Gun came across a memo while working for the British government in 2003, her whole world changed. But as Beyer would soon realize, Finchs past wasnt what she claimedand Beyers own difficult history was up for the taking. Several weeks later she was surprised to see the email she had printed out on the front page of a newspaper. "My boys," the "Waitress" actress captioned the snap . Katharine McPhee was initially hesitant about dating David Foster . But within days, Bush declared he no longer needed UN backing and invaded anyway. Its not true. It was particularly explosive in Chile, which has obviously been used to American intelligence. Theyd already escorted him down to the custody suite and begun the process. Powell span a story of mobile biological weapons factories in trucks and intercepted radio messages about chemical weapons already deployed in the field. KATHARINE GUN: I work for the British people. AMY GOODMAN: Which takes us to Mr. Martin Bright. January of 2003. Real Housewives Of New Jersey star Melissa . Gun, her husband, and their four-year-old daughter shed their coveted privacy long enough to allow Katharine to be one of two former Sam Adams Award winners to present this year's award. It was a crisis meeting because they had failed to get a second UN resolution, to give legal cover for the war. A Chinese translator? The Man Who Deleted His Past Before He Was Found Dead. Official Secrets recounts Gun's story, from her fateful decision (which of course accomplished nothing in the end, even though the leak quickly went public) to her bizarre criminal trial. Could you put me through? Whos talking, sir? I cant say. The daughter of Maurizio Gucci and Patrizia Reggiani was overwhelmed as a child by a wave of tragedy and looked for a gasp of air to breathe, even as sharks circled all around. Now, she tells, Monica Lewinskys Verdict on the Johnny DeppAmber Heard Trial: We Are All Guilty. Ten years ago, a young Mandarin specialist at GCHQ, the government's surveillance centre in Cheltenham, did something extraordinary. KATHARINE GUN, WHISTLEBLOWER: Its you know, its very hard to explain the point of view I had or the mental state I was in at the time. Two days later, she gave the email to a friend who had several contacts in the press. But they not only are saying they are going to crack down hard on the leaker, but theyre also saying they will crack down on the press, any press that reports this in Britain. But its not hard to guess from the, In 2013, Gun spoke with journalist Martin Bright, who published Guns leaked memo and plays a major role in the film, in an interview published by. As of 2019, she lived in Turkey with her husband and daughter for several years. She had a leading role in the 1969 film, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and Elliott had a small, untitled role. "Once that initial flurry died down," says Katharine, "I returned to London to meet with the team from Liberty and my lawyer, Ben Emmerson. Bush had agreed to this to help Blair. Katharine McPhee shared a sweet snap of her 6-month-old son, Rennie, playing with husband David Foster in the cabin of a private jet. I mean, what are you doing here? The terror of that period took a toll on Gun, who suffered from PTSD for years. Again, this is before the Iraq War. You know, I thought it was something that people needed to know about, because it was basically exposing what was going on behind the scenes and the fact that, you know, all the flowery words that they used in front of the cameras about doing everything diplomatically was a sham. He was going in every week to the authorities to prove that he was still a resident and kept an eye on his location to pinpoint where he was. Also with us, the director of Official Secrets, Gavin Hood. In February, Gun attended a demonstration in opposition to the Iraq War. And then, finally, it came to me. S, Welcome to Love Like This?, a romance column where we, Kathleen Newman-Bremang and Ineye Komonibo, revisit some of the most romantic or not, in hindsig, Whether its the iconic early-aughts film Love Dont Cost a Thing or her 2021 Netflix hit Resort to Love, Christina Milian has solidified herself in th, This story contains spoilers for Netflixs You People. Katharine Gun, former intelligence specialist turned whistleblower, discusses the new film "Official Secrets" which details why she leaked a classified memo. How scary was it for you to go ahead and do what you did? . Official Secrets is based on the actions of Brit Katharine Gun, who revealed that America had been eavesdropping on diplomats from other countries. To this day, she has no idea how convincing she was during her interrogation but really, it doesn't matter: on the Wednesday, she marched right up to her manager. Former British intelligence officer Katharine Gun didn't set out to become a whistle-blower. Plus a change The warI mean, our obligation is not whether we support or are against the war. With the emotional adventure of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever closing out the controversial fourth, Minor spoilers ahead. 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. Were looking at the real-life political thriller of a British intelligence specialist, Katharine Gun, who risked everything to blow the whistle on U.S. dirty tricks at the United Nations in the lead-up to the Iraq invasion in 2003. What Really Happened During the Making of. 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