Good for him. Somebody says, Lord Goldsmith, the defense to your charge against Katharine Gun is they want your documents. Case dropped. So, they immediatelywell, first of all, my manager said, What would you like to do? And I said, Well, pfff, what can I do? You know, we have to tell internal security. 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.. Instead, Jake suffered a fatal bicycle accident. I could not get it in. And I didnt want to have a record. Gun had given a copy of the memo, with no supporting verification, to a friend of a friend who eventually brought it to the Observers investigative reporter Martin Bright. Published on May 3, 2021 08:23 PM. Katharine Teresa Gun (ne Harwood;[1] born 1974) is a British linguist who worked as a translator for the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). Later, he stands by her as the many intricacies and dangers of his wifes profession and act of bravery surface. You know, he couldntand it was the first time he had heard about it. 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. KATHARINE GUN: Well, yeah, yeah. Your question about now, this is all terribly relevant. The biggest story was: Who cares why were in the war? AMY GOODMAN: And then what happened? The trials and tribulations of daringly telling the truth and facing its consequences must certainly not be a light burden to bear. "[22], In January, 2019, the film Official Secrets, recounting Gun's actions in 2003, received its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, with Keira Knightley playing Gun. In its absence, Tony Blair won another election in 2005. And I was tasked to set up a website to look into this. You werent particularly worried. [5] Gun heard no more of the email, and had all but forgotten about it until Sunday 2 March, when she saw it reproduced on the front page of The Observer newspaper. Whats the defense? This is, sadly, a story of failure. Whatever you think of Kamala Harris, you can say, Which America do you want? How did she go about rebuilding her life? Protesters against the invasion of Iraq, February 2003. 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.. First day, what did you feel? Just trying to figure out what to do next. That was in this moment, moment by moment, as the story evolves, what would it feel like if you were in her shoes. Katharine Gun is the Most Important Whistleblower You've Never Heard of. ", "US plan to bug Security Council: the text", "Let's free the Official Secrets Act from its cold war freeze | Alex Bailin", "Leaking or briefing? There have been other attempts to make a film over the years. So I really didnt want any of that to be scrutinized because it just felt too vulnerable, stated Gun, on why she chose to retreat from the limelight once the dust had settled. I hadnt realised the extent to which Martin in particular had gone out on a limb for this at the paper. And, he says to me, she explained that Goldsmiths positionif I called for those documents, I would find out that he had been consistently saying that war without a U.N. resolution would be illegal. About five months or something? In a BBC interview with Jeremy Paxman, she said that she had not raised the matter with staff counsellors as she "honestly didn't think that would have had any practical effect". The official editorial line, led by the then editor Roger Alton (now an executive editor at the Daily Mail) and political editor Kamal Ahmed (now editorial director of BBC News) was in close support of the Blair governments position on the invasion. " Gun tails off, as if embarrassed to make too grand a claim for herself. Gavin Hood, the director of Official Secrets, expressed scepticism about Macdonald's statement and called for the declassification of the official documents referred to by Macdonald. Before I knew it, I had spent two hours researching Katharine. I work for the British people. And, of course, I was sitting in the restaurant waiting for her to come in, and I had no idea what to expect. Most people do. In 2003, she leaked top-secret information to The Observer, concerning a request by the United States for compromising intelligence on diplomats from member states of the 2003 Security Council.The diplomats were due to vote on a second United . [10] Her case became a cause clbre among activists, and many people stepped forward to urge the government to drop the case. ED VULLIAMY: But my point is not against Mr. Ahmed. You come home. Given my experience I would want to hear what happened from the horses mouth, I think.. GAVIN HOOD: Yes, strong women. AMY GOODMAN: This is the NSA guy who wrote the memo. I wish I could have written that scene. He says, Wait a minute. I havent watched the films about either of them, she says. AMY GOODMAN: And your feelings at that time, Katharine? So her moral certainty was rooted in those formative experiences? AMY GOODMAN: And, Katharine, describe that moment, when you come into court in this very dramatic waybut this is not just a feature film; this is your lifeand youre facing years in prison, your husband not there because youre concerned he will become the story as a refugee in Britain. You hardly told anybody what you had done. Sometimes you break stories, and networks ring you and say they want to interview you, and then they drop you because of the agenda. Congratulations are in order for Fox News personality Kat Timpf and her beau Cameron Friscia! So I saw people going in and coming out and going in and coming out. Now, that doesnt mean we shouldnt try to hold them to account. I watched you last night at one of the premieres of the film, a kind of secret showing of Official Secrets. Right? It was very difficult initially. You get pulled over. Naturally, people are curious to know more about this courageous linguist who stood her ground even as political heavyweights descended upon her. 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. She said, you know, its ironic that here we are in the age when women now have the vote, and theyre supposed to beand were all supposed to be equal, and yet so many roles are still about women being the sidekick, women being raped, so much violence, use ityou know, a woman whos in jeopardy. The Case Against Mary Katherine Higdon 43:11. I think most people have red lines that they wont cross. A translator for UK intelligence agency GCHQ, Gun read a brief from the US National Security Agency urging its British sister organisation to spy on members of the UN Security Council, to gain influence i n a vote on whether to sanction an invasion of Iraq. I wasno, as soon as he didnt come out, I. The film -- quite plausibly -- depicts the charges being dropped against Gun for the simple reason that the British government feared . The online Drudge Report used the fact that the reproduced NSA memo used English spelling to cast doubt on its veracity. You know, banks of civil servants couldnt do that. Guardian Australia acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of Country throughout Australia and their connections to land, waters and community. I was aware I was doing something I wasnt supposed to be doing. And I did this sort of dive. diamond a ranch new mexico hunting using the weber burger press what does it mean when a willie wagtail follows you. Plead out. Look at those bombs falling on Baghdad. We met in London. There are plenty of opportunities here for other journalists to take up the baton and find out what really happened. 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. And a fireman does that if he bashes your house down to get to you. 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. 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. And they say, Were not even going to vote on this resolution. And the next day, we invade. 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 . Gun owned up to the leak a few days later to save her GCHQ colleagues from a witch-hunt. And we still dont know why the British government dropped the case. Ben Emmerson is. AMY GOODMAN: So, before the time of the trial, Katharine, youthey have clamped down on you. Details at membership.theguardian.com. Were also joined by Martin Bright and Ed Vulliamy, the two journalists who reported Guns revelations in The Observer newspaper, at a time when the paper was editorially openly supporting the Iraq invasion. Gun, too, had expressed relief that the events are now part of a broader discussion due to the film and that she can finally talk about it without stress. That is a tricky question, she says. And all of a sudden the news media is not interested in how we got into the war. 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. Shes beginning to understand the issues, but she hasnt seen it yet, Gun said in 2019 when her daughter was 11-years-old. AMY GOODMAN: They said you could have pled. We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work. Then we see her become this woman who's starting to really know herself and starting to try and identify her own feminine being and trying to find her own place in the boardroom as a woman, as an entity, as a sister and . She continues to reside in Turkey and occasionally visits Britain. Something like. KATHARINE GUN: Yeah, and he had no money in his pocket. Youre terrified. We sat in the bar of a city centre hotel, and talked about the ancient history of 2003. I wonder what she made of the scattershot download methods of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange? He was going in every week to basically prove that he was still resident or that they could pinpoint where he was. However, during one such trip, her husband was detained by the authorities. Never used in the idea of, youve broken the law, breached the Official Secrets Act. "We still do not know all that happened - what GCHQ did, and why things happened," he said. I heard things that stuck. 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. Now, the defense of necessity is usually used in very more simple circumstances. [8] The plan might have contravened Articles 22 and 27 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which regulates global diplomacy. It was like watching a case that was very similar to my own. At first they dont name you, but then they do. But it was, yeah, a moment of great humility, actually. MARTIN BRIGHT: I did, yes. As of 2019[update] she has lived in Turkey with her husband and daughter for several years. [11], The case came to court on 25 February 2004. Sorry, no pun intended, Katharine. 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. Iraq war whistleblower Katharine Gun: Truth always matters. GAVIN HOOD: Well, its interesting you say that, because one of things Keira said to me that drew her to the script was, first of all, that she didnt have to wear a corset, because she does all these period dramas. KATHARINE GUN: Well, OK, I know I was guilty in the facts of the matter. 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. And at the end of the Q&A, I went to try and find him, and hed gone. This is viewer supported news. Gun told Bright in 2013, "There seems to be this blas attitude - the spying goes on . You know, my initial instinct was Ive got to remain anonymous. KATHARINE GUN: It was GCHQ internal security, yeah. And Ben comes up with this idea. It was shown in the Castro Theatre. Koza's email requested aid in a secret operation to bug the United Nations offices of six nations: Angola, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea, and Pakistan. Truth has a habit of . I ask her first if it is gratifying to finally have it out there? 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 think a lot of our current issues go back to that time. Its millions. Certain friends did not want to see me any more, or be seen with me some people get very paranoid. AMY GOODMAN: And so, you decide to go back and revealwho was it that was questioning you? AMY GOODMAN: The people Martin was fighting to get this story out. MARTIN BRIGHT: No, it was the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. I think the number isand forgive me, I should have the figurethree-and-a-half thousand British and American soldiers, 37,000 wounded. We will never know. 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. I mean, I literallyI couldnt eat. Guns leak was perhaps the last example of whistleblowing that involved a red telephone box and a photocopier, rather than downloads. And he says, I need toso, Im interviewing Ben in a pizza shop, right? [14] On the day of the court hearing, Gun said, "I'm just baffled in the 21st century we as human beings are still dropping bombs on each other as a means to resolve issues. KATHARINE GUN: Actually, time-wise, I was bailed for eight months. (In fact, those -our and -ise endings had been introduced by an Observer editorial assistant, innocently following house style guidelines as she copied out the memo into the system.) She has a younger brother who teaches in Taiwan. In the very typical British manner, we just pretended we had never met.. "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. In the film, Official Secrets, she is played by Keira Knightley. We still dont know who Frank Koza is, or hes still not given a public interview about about what went on. It just means that the job is even more difficult than it was before. They were just going to pick him up, and took him out. And at some point, with great respect to Lord Goldsmith, he caves. AMY GOODMAN: Youre watching that on television. Strange concept, but you do. AMY GOODMAN: And so, what did you do when they said, Were going to take each one of you into a room.. The author advocates anonymity. In this episode of Schenck Talks Bonhoeffer, TDBI Founder and President, Rev.
Idols Of The Third Eye By Cesar Legaspi,
Queenwood Golf Charity Auction,
How Does The Environment Affect The Formation Of Fossils?,
Sally Gilligan Salary,
Kobachi Sauce What Is It,
Articles W