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. Just for a moment, some imagined that this might be enough to stop the Iraq war before it had begun. You wanted to stop the Iraq war. Yasar Gun is the husband of a British whistleblower, Katharine Gun, who revealed top-secret information. And tell the final results of what happened. UNIDENTIFIED: This proposed war is historically unpopular. After this, the authorities again started plotting to deport Yasar back to the Middle East. I was trembling like a leaf. She had never planned a career in intelligence and was slightly surprised to find herself working at GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters), Britains electronic spying agency in Cheltenham. And I said, you know, So, what is this? More than that, Koza wasnt just asking for information on what these ambassadors and their governments were planning, he seemed to want dirt. AMY GOODMAN: And what did you do with it? Our Daily Digest brings Democracy Now! Members of the Security Council were outraged and any chance of a UN resolution in favour of war collapsed. KATHARINE GUN: Yeah, Mandarin Chinese, linguist. Thats the critical point. The 1967 film Guess Whos Coming to Dinner starred Sidney Poitier and Katharine Houghton as a ne, As the open-hearted matriarch Hattie Mae in Tyler Perrys 2022 film A Jazzmans Blues, Amirah Vann demonstrates a great tenderness and fierce love to b, This story includes spoilers for Saint Omer. Soon, Katharine was in touch with John Wadham, then Director of Liberty. TINTIN: [played by Peter Guinness] Your supervisor speaks highly of your integrity. Katharine read the content carefully, and immediately felt sick to her stomach: it was a classified directive from the American authorities asking the British to spy on six UN Security Council members. And they attempt to deport your husband, who is a? AMY GOODMAN: So, you go to your top editors, and you say, Ive got this piece of paper. In fact, Katharine had ripped off the top. We were getting calls from all over the world. AMY GOODMAN: So, that was Katharine Gun back in 2004. Our writers hold no party line; their only allegiance is to clarity of thought, elegance of expression and independence of opinion. In Official Secrets, Gun is played by Keira Knightley while Matt Smith takes on the role of Martin Bright. We still dont know, to this day, why they did that. Gun, the consciencestricken spy, will almost certainly remain the only British official charged with anything to do with the war in Iraq. http://bit.ly/HeyUGuysYTSubFacebook http://facebook.com/HeyUGuysInstagram http://instagram.com/HeyUGuysOfficial--------------------- Theyre basically cooking it. Gun was cleared of a charge under the Official Secrets Act after being . Hundreds of thousands, millions of people have been affected by it, and those effects continue to this day. The film stars Matthew Goode, Katherine Kelly, Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes. MARTIN BRIGHT: It was one of those huge, huge, huge stories. 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 . I mean, its every journalists dream to have these, you know, front-page splash stories that get followed up around the world. Katharine's house was searched before she was sat down to be interviewed the following morning. . From there, it made its way into the hands of Yvonne Ridley, a well-known anti-war activist. TINTIN: [played by Peter Guinness] Katharine Gun? Gun sits down with Christiane to share her story. Please do your part today. GUN: Thats right. Gun, a translator with the British intelligence service known as Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), received a document just before the war from an NSA manager, seeking British intelligence support in spying on . GAVIN HOOD: So, yes, tremendous amount of pressure coming down on these countries, because if Blair and Bush had been able to get that U.N. resolution for the invasion, the weapons of mass destruction issue would have been almost pretty much irrelevant, because theres two legal ways to go to war. Finally, she called someone (she has never named) who had connections to the media, telling them: I have something explosive, I think it has the potential to avert a war with Iraq. She went back into work on Monday, printed the email, folded it neatly and put it in her bag. ANDY DUMFRIES: [played by Jack Farthing] The Americans want us to help them get a U.N. resolution for war. MARTIN BRIGHT: Yeah, so, initially, we were quite nervous. But we werewithin The Observer, AMY GOODMAN: Of course, thats the time you should run the fastest to the editor, but. He was forced to resign, because it showed that he called President Trump inept, and he said, you know, the singular reason that the Trump administration pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal was because it was signed by President Obama, and other issues. Former British intelligence officer Katharine Gun didnt set out to become a whistle-blower. The moment she walked out of GCHQ, she was breaking the Official Secrets Act, perhaps committing an act of treason. KATHARINE GUN: The Foreign Office, the Ministry of Defense. I was quite nervous. The plan was to persuade them simply to abstain by piling up enough votes from other countries. The Crown Prosecution Service was about to charge her. I was very much aware of what the leaders of our countries, Tony Blair and George W. Bush, were saying at the time. I had bought a couple of books which had been rushed into print at that pointone called War Plan Iraq and the other was called Target Iraq. I was convinced that there was nothing Iraq had done [to warrant the invasion]. Now, I asked around. 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. Two weeks later, on the 15th of February, 2003, a million people took to the streets of London to protest the prospect of Britain joining the war in Iraq. But it seemed inevitable. In 2003, Katharine Gun, a young specialist working for Britains Government Communications Headquarters, exposed a highly confidential memo that revealed the United States collaboration with Britain in collecting sensitive information on United Nations Security Council members in order to pressure them into supporting the Iraq invasion. Almost a decade ago, the world was gripped with anxiety as it watched the legal proceedings against a young Se. Theyd already escorted him down to the custody suite and begun the process. And also, the memo itself contained language that was consistent with intelligence service language, so we had experts look at that, as well. Where Are Katharine Gun and Husband Now? Her whistleblowing was not enough to change the path of history, of course, and her last-gasp act of courage was all but forgotten in the brutal "shock and awe" of war. The CIA knows it. Whistleblowing on wrongdoing is part of that fightback. She headed up to Yorkshire and went into hiding, as a media circus descended onto Cheltenham to find her. But, in 2003, when she came across an email suggesting that the United States and the U.K. governments were intending to blackmail members of the United Nations to authorize an invasion of Iraq, Gunthen just 28felt morally obligated to leak the letter. I do not gather intelligence so the government can lie to the British people. The Americans had sent GCHQ a request to spy on the UN ambassadors of the six countries with the important, perhaps swing, votes. What? I went with Blair on his last visit to Iraq as prime minister, in 2007. "But there are things you have to do not for the result but for the principle, because they are right.". This Shouldnt Happen: Inside the Virus-Hunting Nonprofit at the Center of the Lab-Leak Controversy, Chasing scientific renown, grant dollars, and approval from Dr. Anthony Fauci, Peter Daszak transformed the environmental nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance into a government-funded sponsor of risky, cutting-edge virus research in both the U.S. and Wuhan, China. But as Beyer would soon realize, Finchs past wasnt what she claimedand Beyers own difficult history was up for the taking. It is based on the whistleblowing investigation by Katharine Gun and Martin Bright. Everyone was a suspect, as one by one colleagues were called into interviews with GCHQ's internal security team. 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 . Manage all your favorite fandoms in one place! Yeah, and those are the. Katharine Gun explains how she exposed a plot by U.S. security officials to spy on United Nations members in 2003. AMY GOODMAN: So, bugging these six countries. Real-Time Crime & Safety Alerts . KATHARINE GUN: The idea was to gather information that they could use to bribe them or, you know, threaten them into voting yes for the resolution. The film stars Ma. ED VULLIAMY: Well, I put on an American accent, and I said, Can I have Mr. Kozas office, please? Gun also received the Sam Adams Award, which is awarded to intelligence agents who take a stand for ethics and integrity. I work for the British people. But, so you have to track down Frank Koza. Powell span a story of mobile biological weapons factories in trucks and intercepted radio messages about chemical weapons already deployed in the field. 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. She was angered by how nonchalant the email was in asking GCHQ to carry out an illegal operation but she didnt know what to do. When asked by Salon how it felt to see a famous actress act out her life for an audience . So, when I met Yvonne Ridley, who is the former journalist who handed me the document, it was immensely infuriating. Mary Katherine Higdon of Griffin, Georgia, was arrested for the murder of her live-in boyfriend, Steven Freeman. It was only September 2002 but the carrier was about to leave for the Gulf. AMY GOODMAN: You said, May I please speak to Mr. Koza?, MARTIN BRIGHT: May I please speak to Mr. Koza? And they said, We dont give out names. And he says, Excuse me, Mr. Bright.. Katharine Gun is a for mer linguist and analyst at Britain's GCHQ intelligence agency and an Iraq war whistle-blower. And then, finally, it came to me. Official Secrets is released in cinemas on the 18th of October, 2019. Some of it was to do with complications over an unfortunate spell check within the memo. 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. The film is coming out August 30th in theaters around the country. She'd been reading up on the preparations being made for a US-led invasion and wasn't convinced by the arguments; images of the first Gulf War she'd seen in her teenage years had forever been seared onto her mind. And my husband Yasar was still in bed. He had no regrets whatsoever about removing Saddam. KATHARINE GUN: [played by Keira Knightley] I translated signals intelligence, and I reported anything of interest to my clients. 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. Gun put her career and her very liberty at risk trying to prevent the launching of an illegal war. It didnt just end when George Bush said, Mission accomplished. Its heartbreaking that its affecting so many lives, and for what? AMANPOUR: by somebody within your organization. Yes, its a new Hollywood movie thats coming out, but it is the real-life story of Katharine Gun. It seemed inevitable. You worked for GCHQ in Britain. On the night of the 19th of March, 2003, the bombs began to fall. Yes. A Chinese translator? If people knew about this, nobody would support this invasion.. Katharine leaked top-secret information to The Observer about a request by the United States for compromising intelligence on diplomats. Yeah. But the difficulty was that it was just words typed on a piece of paper. Katherine Louisa Ryan was born on June 30, 1983, to Finbar and Julie McCarthy in the city of Sarnia in southwestern Ontario, Canada. I could tell this email was pretty explosive.". Katharine Gun was a translator at GCHQ, when she received an email in her inbox from Frank Koza, a leading figure in the American National Security Agency. It later emerged that the newspaper was collaborating very, very closely with Tony Blair and his sort of enforcers to keep this kind of thing out of the paper. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. They question you. So, what did it say and what was your decision-making process? Katharine Gun, Martin Bright, Ed Vulliamy and Gavin Hood. Her act of whistle-blowing is portrayed in the recent film Official Secrets . In the film, Knightley as Gun declares: I work for the British people. Your viewers will recall them; I hope not, for their sake, but some of them will. AMY GOODMAN: But this was how long after you were picked up? I think that speaks rather highly of you. Katharine Gun : Yas, I understand why you are angry. I had found a source called Mel Goodman, namesake of yours, who was the ex-head of the Soviet desk at the CIA, had kept his clearance. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. KATHARINE GUN: Youre putting me on the spot now. Martin Bright, youre able to move forward with this story. Gun, realizing how unfair it was to subject her colleagues to the consequences of her own actions, confessed and was arrested shortly thereafter. Amirah Vann Brings Heart & Depth to Black Womens Stories i British whistleblower named Katharine Gun, Gun how she felt looking back on her decision, Blair has been given the opportunity to speak about Brexit. It wasn't that she was naive. These Romantic Movies Are Guaranteed To Make You Cry, The Greatest Romantic Comedies That Youll Watch On Repeat, 26 Movies Every Woman Should See At Least Once. Bush had agreed to this to help Blair. Both screenings feature discussions with the real Katharine Gun, South African director Gavin Hood (of 2015's "Eye in the Sky" fame), and the British journalist who helped break the story, The Guardian's Martin Bright (he worked at the sister paper The Observer at the time). AMY GOODMAN: But the spelling of it is British spelling. MARTIN BRIGHT: So, the header information included the name Frank Koza, who was the NSAs head of regional targets at the time. Watch our livestream 8-9AM ET: https://democracynow.orgPlease consider supporting independent media by making a donation to Democracy Now! JASMINE: [played by MyAnna Buring] Youre asking me to collude in a breach of the Official Secrets Act. . The former British intelligence officer leaked a document to the press that announced an illegal NSA spy operation created to convince the UN Security Council to approve the 2003 invasion of Iraq. KATHARINE GUN: No. Were talking about Official Secrets. Now, she was being asked to help get a new war authorised by finding material for the Americans to blackmail and bribe the international community. The next morning, Katharine returned to the office as normal and got on with her work, trying as best as she could to not think about it. Guided by her conscience, Katharine Gun defied her government and leaked the memo to the press, setting off a chain of events that jeopardized her freedom, her safety, but also opened the door to putting the entire Iraq invasion on trial. AMANPOUR: OK. Jack Bonneau: Young Entrepreneur Net Worth And Age- His Parents Name Explored, Nancy Cimino Cause of Death, Bio, Family and Chris Cimino, Bobby OJay Net Worth, Real Name, Wedding Pictures, Wife Picture, How Much Money Does Martin Milner Make? That contact had connections with the antiwar movement. "This was crossing a red line for me," she says. It looked like a very exciting story. Real Housewives Of New Jersey star Melissa . And so, I was going crazy. It seemed as if the decision to go to war had already been made, that all the diplomacy then taking place was a charade. That night, Katharine posted the letter to a contact whose identity she continues to withhold. Gun said that remarkably and very depressingly, Although technically a period piece, moviegoers will be able to make connections to more recent whistleblowing scandals when watching, Knightley said when she asked Gun if she would do it again, Gun simply replied, Yes, absolutely., The Bold True Story Of Official Secrets Katharine Gun, Over the decades, popular culture has created dominant narratives of the Dominican Republic that are most often synonymous with poverty, crime, or state vi, This story contains spoilers for Ant-Man: Quantumania. Did you know that you can get Democracy Now! After the issue, they moved to Turkey in 2011 with her whole family to avoid the general public eye. When you go to court, you face years in prison. At great personal and professional risk, journalist Martin Bright published the leaked document in The Observer newspaper in London, and the story made headlines around the world. MARTIN BRIGHT: Yes. 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