So, I guess we all have a threshold. The true story of a British whistleblower who leaked information to the press about an illegal NSA spy operation designed to push the UN Security Council into sanctioning the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The decision to leak it was almost instant I felt I had no choice. The decision to leak it was almost instant I felt I had no choice. Me, you, not some big picture. The truth is when she speaks to me, and she says, Gavin, we also go to lunch like everybody else in any other office. His most recent book is Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power.. Perhaps they knew it would come out in the courtroom that the entire conflict was based on lies about Saddams weapons of mass destruction and that key UN officials could have been blackmailed. 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, Don't mention the Iraq war, William Hague tells cabinet, Tenyears on, the case for invading Iraq is still valid, Occupying Iraq: a US army veteran's ambivalence, Howthe Bush administration sold the war and we bought it, the story the paper published 10 years ago this weekend, was arrested, lost her job and faced trial under the Official Secrets Act, collapsed after the prosecution withdrew its evidence. 265 ratings46 reviews British secret service officer Katharine Gun's only crime was telling the truth, but she paid a steep price when she exposed a U.S.-U.K. spy operation to secure UN authorization for the Iraq invasion. Enter Katharine 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. Do you vote, do you analyze who you should vote for or do you just take it for granted? It wasone of the reasons I came to this country in 89 was because we were getting drafted, and I thought I cant do this. So that's who's running this show. And then there is the Gulf of Tonkin incident that led America deeply into war against North Vietnam. In the years following, an author called Marcia Mitchell contacted me and said she was keen to write a book about my case. And in her case, she risked both her job and her freedom and whatever you think of her politically, I think that takes some guts. Cheering crowds have never been my sort of thing. She was a spythe communications she translated had been obtained covertly, but she did the work in the interest of protecting Britain. This meant that a lot of the things that we see Gun go through in the film actually took far longer in real life. That's really the simplest question: When do you speak up? But ultimately, heres why I thinkthis might sound like a strange statement. WebFor example, a scene where Gun tries to get her husband out of an immigration detention center actually played out over three days during which she did not know where he was. So right there, you are pulling out the highlights," said Hood of the key issue with making Official Secrets. Anyway, the Office of Special Plans and Abram Shulsky make an interesting Wikipedia read, it won't take you very long. Since 2003, my life and Gun's have continued to cross from time to time. The same countries demanded immediate answers from the British government about its involvement in the spying. David Dayen is the Prospects executive editor. "And she then said: 'My way into this is what would I as the unadorned, no-makeup, no-fancy-edges Keira Knightley what would I feel like if this memo landed on my desk?'". Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. He is just way out there in a whole other realm. As a film of her story is planned, she tells of her anger and frustration but not her regrets, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Katharine Gun back in Cheltenham last week: 'This is the ugly truth of what goes on.' In fact, I had no idea what was going on. Public attention is the last thing you expect if, like me, youd settled for a job in the shadowy world of British intelligence. Iraq All Over Again? This is a special case because this story is very little-known in the United States. I was glad to get back to what I hoped would be normality, but the effect on me had been traumatising. But the invasion was forced to proceed with the backing of Bushs coalition of the willinginstead of with the support of the United Nations. I became a mother, we moved countries and I have come to terms with that year of my life, though it will always define me in some ways. Keira said no one knows Katharine, and that's not an insult to Katharine. But get out of that trailer as fast as possible, get onto the set, and work from inside? Questioner: It was so heartening to hear you talk about that hero's journey because I feel like we so often take compassion, passion, integrity for granted as a call to action. Whistleblower Katherine Gun, right, is played by Keira Knightly in the movie Official Secrets, Gun was outraged after she learned - as part of her job with GCHQ - that the United States wanted Britain to assist in spying on fellow United Nations Security Council members to win a vote in favour of a planned war in Iraq. The days and weeks dragged agonisingly by. I know what it is like to watch the system become completely authoritarian. 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. [U.S. media dropped the story because the Drudge Report noted that the NSA memo in The Observer had British spellings for words like favourable, which nobody in the U.S. would write. And she and many in her world knew, and many in the CIA knew, as Mel Goodman who's the man in the boathouse in Washington knew, that this was B.S. [Gun was charged with violating the Official Secrets Act in Britain, but ultimately the case never went to trial.]. In real life, "the spellcheck largely happened through a series of phone calls," according to Bright, "because on a Sunday newspaper we don't work on a Sunday, and we don't work on a Monday. Who authorised the NSA email, for example? It should take the facts as they lead. To separate fact from fiction, Newsweek spoke to the real Gun and Bright, as well as Official Secrets director Gavin Hood. The paper had taken the controversial decision to back intervention in Iraq. Please, become a member, or make a one-time donation, today. Actually, there were two incidents at sea, blamed originally on the North Vietnamese. After the charges against her were dropped in 2004, she found it difficult to find a new As I walked down the red carpet, I had never in my life experienced the flash of so many cameras. Id immediately be transported back to GCHQ and that email the anger I felt and the decisions I made. Spoilers to follow as well. Was it because we had demanded the Attorney Generals legal advice as part of my defence? So she went along to this interview, and she was 28. Later, it turned out that the Attorney General had indeed judged the war to be illegal in his initial advice, but that fact was not revealed until six years later in 2010. The truth is that I didnt know who Katharine Gun was until my producer Ged Doherty called me up one day, we made Eye In The Sky together, and said, Have you ever heard of Katharine Gun? Thats one of those moments where you think: Sounds like I ought to have, but I hadnt. 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. Whistleblower and former employee of Britain's global surveillance center GCHQ (Government Communications Head Quarters) Katharine Gun smiles as she speaks to the media during a press conference February 25, 2004 in London, England. Is this a matter of threatening to launch a war, or is it a matter of responding to the US positioning itself for war? Us, in any situation, wherever you work, I thought that's what this timeless about it. It was an interesting experience because you couldn't really go bending things the way you thought would be more dramatic, you just have to make the story itself and hope there was enough drama there. Gabrielle Bruney is a writer and editor for Esquire, where she focuses on politics and culture. '", "The scene where all of us receive this email and we're discussing the memo, that never happened. So, Im not really answering your question well, but her feeling was just: Now I dont belong in this company. Unfortunately, perhaps, I have a conscience and my dishonesty gnawed at me persistently until the next day, when I confessed. And it's not an easy question, it sounds easy, but I don't think it is. "On the one hand, she's free. Seven times I've submitted articles to you with an alternate point of view, and seven times you've turned me down. He said she didnt even know what the job was. It was both exhilarating and just a little uncomfortable. And those two are great actresses. Taking Vitamin D each day could cut your chances of getting dementia, study claims. Gun sacrificed so much when she decided to leak and has worked only intermittently since. Gun made the choice to leak the document, which Martin Bright of The Observer in Britain published in a story on March 2, 2003. So when I sent the script to Keira, and I was very hopeful that she would do it because she does a lot of period dramas, and you dont often see her in a modern drama and I thought shed be great. She didnt know where he was for three days and she took the train down from Charlton to London to see the MP, Nigel Jones, who said exactly what he says in the movie. If if wasnt, what does that mean for the rule of law? What resonates to me is the somewhat more, I hope, timeless thing. Had the film appeared any earlier, however, I dont think Id have been able to watch it, let alone help the makers. She failed. And that's quite a depressing place to find yourself in when you feel so strongly and passionately about something. David Dayen: No problem. And she thought she wouldnt get caught. Although the story made headlines around the world at the time of the leak and later at the time of her trial, which collapsed after the prosecution withdrew its evidence, it remains largely missing from the official narratives of the build-up to the Iraq war. Sound familiar? This, remember, was a conflict that caused the deaths of 179 British servicemen, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and caused countless more to suffer serious wounds, both physical and psychological. Gun said that the UK government still had some explaining to do: "I thinkthere need to be more questions asked about whether they responded to that request, why they felt it was within their scope of work to respond to that sort of request, and what is the manner of the relationship between UK politics and US politics. 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