She wasnt charged for eight months a gruelling period which is depicted as just a few Iran, meanwhile, says it doesn't want war, but will defend itself. She could easily have been me or you at your place of work, where something comes across your desk and you go, This doesn't smell right. And it was this book which eventually became the script for Official Secrets. Quality journalism. America, Britain, and Spain withdrew their proposed resolution on invading Iraq when it became clear that it would not garner the necessary Security Council votes, in part because of the information Gun brought to light. 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. Throughout her own court case, whatonly a few knew wasthat she was also fighting for the right of her husband, who is from Turkey, to remain in the UK. That would be awkward. WebAttempts were made by the authorities to deport her husband, who grew disillusioned with Britain. 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. So we just worked on the performance from the very what if it's you? My job had been to listen to Chinese communications, translate them from Mandarin to English and produce reports for different government departments. Taking Vitamin D each day could cut your chances of getting dementia, study claims. Copyright 2023 | The American Prospect, Inc. | All Rights Reserved, The Alt-Labor Chronicles: Americas Worker Centers, Official Secrets: A Conversation With Director Gavin Hood. Then the story went And those two are great actresses. And she thought she wouldnt get caught. With the operation blown, the chances of George W Bush and Tony Blair getting the consensus for a direct UN mandate for war were now near zero. Can dementia be spotted in CHILDHOOD? She failed. It is to say that a government, for its own reasons may, either by design or through miscalculation, lead a country into an unnecessary and brutal war. WebGun, then 28, received an email about a U.S.-led operation enlisting the help of Britain to spy on other countries, in an attempt to blackmail them into supporting the Iraq War. "That really happened," Hood confirmed, though it did not go quite as it is shown in the film. Only later did I appreciate the extent to which the journalists involved Martin Bright, Peter Beaumont and Ed Vulliamy had to go in order to prove that the email was legitimate. And that I think was the motivation. Moment fitness influencer asks man to move off park bench 'because he's 'ruining her livestream' - but Mortgage demand plummets to a 28-year low as average interest rates hit 6.71% - just as spring home buying Britain braces for brutal -9C Arctic snap: Met Office warns more snow and ice could lash the country next Is YOUR wood burner at risk? 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 revealed that the American government's plans to apply pressure on members of the U.N. Security Counsel to pass its war resolution. It is probably still too early to tell. Gun had hoped the leak would prick the conscience of the British public, large sections of which were already taking to the streets in opposition to the war. Right now my priorities are to ensure I am there for my daughter.". Eventually, it was widely held that at least one of the reports of the attacks, and perhaps even both, were false. Its Straussian, over the top and pretentious but basically amounts to this. The decision to leak it was almost instant I felt I had no choice. What is this paper? As of 2020 Gun lives in Turkey and Britain. So here we are in rehearsal, and we're talking one day about the look. And it was there that, to our amazement and totally without warning, the CPS dropped the charges before the trial had even started. Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. Director Gavin Hood Writers Sara Bernstein Gregory Bernstein Gavin Hood Stars Keira Knightley Matt Smith Matthew Goode Even though she didn't stop the war and some people are like what's the point if she didn't stop the warwell, the point is how do you sleep at night? She thought wow, they need a Mandarin translator at GCHQ. So Im very proud of Keiras performance and I dont mind that she doesnt have blonde hair. WebAnd they failed, in part, I believe, because Katharine Gun leaked that memo, Official Secrets director Gavin Hood told Democracy Now!. This is a special case because this story is very little-known in the United States. Gavin Hood: There is a kind of cognitive dissonance. Gun sacrificed so much when she decided to leak and has worked only intermittently since. They had published not some coded version of events, but the email itself in full. I was only a junior analyst, but I knew the email was outrageous: the American government was asking Britain to spy on United Nations diplomats so they could be blackmailed into supporting an invasion of Iraq. Was it because we had demanded the Attorney Generals legal advice as part of my defence? For 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. She will not talk about it anything else. David Dayen: But he is not a headline journalist at a newspaper. WebGun was followed, denied legal advice and her Turkish husband faced deportation. But again, I cant help but make some small jokes about these things. "Financially it's the toughest," she said. Then, the following Monday, I printed out a copy of the email, folded it up, and tucked it carefully in my bag. Iran has been filmed loading missiles aboard some of its vessels. Then the most almighty cacophony erupted, a roar so loud we could barely hear to speak. Healthy mother-of-two, 32, collapsed and died from brain bleed while she led fitness bounce class. When Official Secrets received its British premiere at Londons BFI Film Festival earlier this month, I was determined to wear something that held a special meaning and settled on a dress by an Iraqi designer. However, Gun added that this was nothing on the anxiety she felt when the memo she had leaked ended up on the front page of The Observer, which she called "the most stressful memo of my life. As one of the journalists who broke the story, I feel a certain responsibility for how things have turned out. In technical speak, the Americans wanted the whole gamut of information which would give US policy makers an edge in obtaining results favourable to US goals in relation to Iraq. WebHer late husband, Tom, a former special agent of the FBI and one-time head of counter-intelligence in New York, co-authored the Gun story. 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. This meant that a lot of the things that we see Gun go through in the film actually took far longer in real life. The case and the resulting anxiety never seemed far away. As the title of the film script suggests, she was "The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War". As the Trump administration shreds norms of American governance like a Shih Tzu going to town on a roll of toilet paper, the last worst president is largely silent, busied with .css-umdwtv{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:.0625rem;text-decoration-color:#FF3A30;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:inherit;-webkit-transition:background 0.4s;transition:background 0.4s;background:linear-gradient(#ffffff, #ffffff 50%, #d5dbe3 50%, #d5dbe3);-webkit-background-size:100% 200%;background-size:100% 200%;}.css-umdwtv:hover{color:#000000;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;-webkit-background-position:100% 100%;background-position:100% 100%;}canine portraiture and now the subject of nearly fond nostalgia. When my moment came, I found myself standing alone in the dock facing the judge and surrounded by lawyers, journalists and supporters. Public attention is the last thing you expect if, like me, youd settled for a job in the shadowy world of British intelligence. Jeb Bush Just Botched the Iraq Question. 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.' When you support The American Prospect, youre supporting fellow readers who arent able to give, and countering the class system for information. [Gun was charged with violating the Official Secrets Act in Britain, but ultimately the case never went to trial.]. If Keira Knightleys remarkable performance in Official Secrets can help change that, the film will truly have been worthwhile. Provocation? She was horrified and leaked the email to the Observer. It turned out a copyeditor at The Observer had run the memo through spellcheck before printing it.]. The issue is provocation. The contents were explosive, implicating America in a blackmail plot to swing UN votes in favor of an invasion. If we give over, if we start believing the fake news, as you say, we're all doomed, man. I don't think she thought they would deport her husband, I really don't think she thought that. First, I contacted someone to this day Ive never named them who had the details of a journalist and anti-war activist. Because it's just an Executive Branch trying to grab power as an authoritarian. So it was a pretty awful thing to happen to her. 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. Those are compelling and important qualities to see in characters that move through a story, and I feel like especially for women it's an under-valued active engine. For all the relief, there was a weird sense of anti-climax that we would now be unable to give our side of the story to the public. Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire editor. One by one, all those who received the email approximately 100 people were taken in for a grilling. Then, the following November, after eight months of worry, I was finally charged. Some called her a traitor; others She got into a plea bargain, they still gave her five years. It was what I was thinking, what I was feeling. 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. Most whistleblowers leak after the event to expose perceived wrongdoing. Well, you don't have one and get that almost anti-climactic moment that is a punch in the gut," said Hood. She was charged Happy and carefree, Id recently married my handsome husband and was working at GCHQ as a linguist. Actually, there were two incidents at sea, blamed originally on the North Vietnamese. And it's also true that we were then attacked by the Drudge Report for what would now be called 'fake news. Gun discusses her attempt to stop the Iraq War, which is the subject of the new movie Official Secrets. And I went back in 93 and did another two years with the new Department of Health. And then, she said when she got in therenow bear in mind that she still is bound by the Official Secrets Act. It is written by Sara and Gregory Bernstein, a California-based husband-and-wife writing partnership who have worked with British director Jonathan Lynn. The other kind of fight could be frightening and politically risky. Instead, the American coalition was "There seems to be this blas attitude the spying goes on, everyone does it and so it's nothing to get all hot under the collar about. 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. Instead, the American coalition was forced to stake its claim to a legal invasion on grounds of self defense, including now-infamously untrue claims about weapons of mass destruction. Amazing lady, shes still a journalist. Whatever, she blew the whistle ultimately revealing the truth behind the build-up to the Iraq War--regime change, disguised as terrifying threats of weapons of mass destruction. So I said to her at one point, and its in the movie because her interrogator said it too and you would ask her the same question, which is Katharine I hear all this, but it was a little muddy, you worked as a spy, you hacked peoples phones and computers, you do dirty tricks. She now has a four-year-old daughter who she is bringing up in Turkey. Last week in Los Angeles, I got to interview the director, South African-born Gavin Hood, after a screening. Webdeport Guns husband, Yasar (Adam Bakri), a Muslim Kurdish Turk who was awaiting permanent leave to remain in the U.K. But, did it change the way I approached it? 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 This is not to say that Iran does not have a trick up its sleeve, or that wild-eyed Iranian hawks aren't circling its leaders. And Where Is Katharine Gun, JUST 36 HOURS TO GO IN OUR WINTER CAMPAIGN. The difficulties of translating Gun's story also made writing the climax of the film tricky. Spoilers to follow as well. She was a spythe communications she translated had been obtained covertly, but she did the work in the interest of protecting Britain. Truth and accountability were drilled into me as a child. But any such illusions were shattered on the freezing cold morning of Friday, January 31, 2003, as I read and re-read the most extraordinary email from Americas intelligence service, the National Security Agency. If there had been a UN resolution, there would have been no need to make a WMD argument because there are two legal ways to go to war. EXCLUSIVE: Lanzarote sticks to its guns and insists it WILL limit tourists and move away from relying on Jeremy Clarkson is axed as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? His philosophy comes from a military intelligence model, which actually, by the time you go to war, now it's about winning. The comments below have been moderated in advance. Why did the British authorities wait eight months before charging me and then drop the charges, claiming there was insufficient evi-dence for prosecution when I had confessed to the leak from the start? This content is imported from youTube. What It Feels Liketo Survive a Chemical Attack. A thorough investigation began as soon as the staff started arriving at GCHQ on the Monday morning. That's really the simplest question: When do you speak up? Perhaps a plane painted in UN colors could be shot down over Iraq. Had the film appeared any earlier, however, I dont think Id have been able to watch it, let alone help the makers. Powerful Commons committee could look at case for banning stoves in towns and Love Island hit by hundreds of Ofcom complaints from furious viewers over 'toxic femininity' row and Movie As easy as buying a loaf of bread: Undercover footage reveals how laughing gas is being sold from local Could Northern Ireland become the UK's Silicon Valley? Every day we worked together for about five to six hours and then I referred back to her many times, subsequently, but I had literally just said, let's start at the beginning and let me hear first-hand from you your story and then I'll tell that story. US firms waiting in the wings read to pump 'billions Parents' fury as schools STILL won't tell them if they are closed tomorrow as teacher strikes continue. I know what it is like to watch the system become completely authoritarian. So we're in this development meeting, and the executive looks at me and goes, Gavin, I mean we need her running down alleys more, someone needs to throw a brick through her damn window, and when does she don her cape? It was literally the line. He runs a media charity. Ed, I know some people have said that Rhys Ifans [who plays Vulliamy] is slightly over the top. But there's no way I would have expressed that to any of my colleagues," Gun explained. But my point is simply this: The underpinnings of this country matter. Ive been impressed by the film-makers determination to stick to the facts Gavin Hood, the director, interviewed me at length over five days and I was consulted throughout the process. Exaggerating threats to provoke a war? So important was this email, I knew it might even derail the case that Tony Blair was making for joining the Americans in an invasion. We had planned to demand that the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith disclose the advice he had given on the legality of the war and so put the war itself on trial. You might say I am biased. When I got to the interview thats when they told me that its for GCHQ, I didnt know what GCHQ did. So, I think she entered the world out of a sort of strange curiosity. I grew up in South Africa in the seventies and eighties, when apartheid was really tightening and tightening and tightening. We need another Katharine Gun. Gavin Hood: Yes, it really sticks in my throat too. She wasnt planning to get caught and then the dilemma was, My friends are all going to have their lives ruined.. WebWhen the film opens, Gun (Keira Knightley) is happily married to Yasar (Adam Bakri), a Turkish national living in the UK on a temporary visa, and passionately invested in [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. By design. 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. WebWe 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 acclaimed [In real life] I saw the email, I immediately thought, 'Oh, my God, this is shocking.' What happened to Gun afterwards forms the basis of the film Official Secrets, which opened in New York and Los Angeles earlier this month and goes into wider release today. The paper had taken the controversial decision to back intervention in Iraq. I was called on to look this way and that and smile until my face was stiff. We have a blondish-looking Katharine. The story of Katharine Gun, a whistle-blower who exposed NSA spying in the lead-up to the Iraq War, gets the Hollywood treatment. David Dayen: How did you think Keira Knightley was an asset in showing that emotional journey throughout the movie? At first, I heard nothing. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group, King Charles hosts von der Leyen at Windsor Castle, Police: Urgent search for Constance Marten's missing baby, Shocking video shows machete fight in broad daylight, Gabor Mat: No Jewish state without oppressing local population, Putin spy plane before being 'destroyed by pro-Ukraine Belarus group', Amplified jet stream could lead to 'disruptive snow in places', Pupils take to TikTok as they stage protest at Shenfield High School, Putin orders intelligence service to find 'scum' who oppose him, Moment supermarket cashier is attacked at work in New York, Police search allotment sheds for Constance Marten's missing baby, Huge urgent police search for missing baby of Constance Marten, Dashcam captures moment two cars collide on a roundabout. So, that's where we had to go for WMD. It was almost as if that request was asking for someone within their own nation to do this work; it wasn't asking another completely independent state for co-operation.". That means that, in theory, the war could still be classified as an illegal war, Gun says. 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. Gavin Hood: Its a question of how conditioned are we to the conventional Hollywood structure. Look at what happened to Reality Winner in this country. 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 point of all of this is painfully obvious. Theyre talking about diplomatic negotiations, and having all the cards on the table, but behind that what theyre doing is trying to bribe UN diplomatic members to vote for a war which has no legal justifications, Gun says. After the initial flurry of media interest, I was left to figure out how to move on with my life and that proved hard. ", As for her own story, she recognises that 10 years on it scarcely registers with the public. As a result of the story the paper published 10 years ago this weekend, she was arrested, lost her job and faced trial under the Official Secrets Act. '", "The scene where all of us receive this email and we're discussing the memo, that never happened. To this day, however, there has been barely a mention of the year I spent living under a cloud. It was only later in the green room that I asked what all the fuss had been about, wondering aloud if it had been the environmental protest group Extinction Rebellion. Her story, which reveals what a country will do when it wants war and claims it does not, is told in an updated book and a major motion picture soon to be released--Official Secrets (Keira Knightly is Katharine). After the charges against her were dropped in 2004, she found it difficult to find a new WebIn 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 It was like a neon sign that was flashing at me, Gun says. A manufactured provocation. Naturally, I was discreet. Ten years ago, a young Mandarin specialist at GCHQ, the government's surveillance centre in Cheltenham, did something extraordinary. Rishi Sunak is urgently reviewing his private exchanges with Matt Hancock after bombshell leak of ex-Health 'Drinks cold in fridge at DH!' Us, in any situation, wherever you work, I thought that's what this timeless about it. Me, you, not some big picture. 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. He is just way out there in a whole other realm. Which is to say that GCHQ was being asked to dig dirt on foreign officials so that they could be blackmailed, bribed or both in order to secure a UN resolution authorising an invasion. What we have in this country is very precious, and in a sense, when I make these kind of films I don't know if I consciously do it, it's actually reminding about us that authoritarianism and governments gone awry are not okay, and what makes us strongoh, that sounds terribly pretentious, but I think you see where I'm coming from. Gabrielle Bruney is a writer and editor for Esquire, where she focuses on politics and culture. And maybe they were right, I don't know. What resonates to me is the somewhat more, I hope, timeless thing. Id never seen anything like it. Who authorised the NSA email, for example? Meanwhile, Kamal Ahmed, who is the guy at The Observer, is now the editorial director of the BBC. Everyone involved assumed the project had run into the dust, but then it appeared on the Black List, a Hollywood website for unmade film scripts, which has featured Slumdog Millionaire and The King's Speech in the past. And then there is the Gulf of Tonkin incident that led America deeply into war against North Vietnam. Over the weekend, I got to work. [In the movie, Gun says I dont work for the government, I work for the people.]. In one pivotal scene in the film, all of Gun and Bright's work is nearly undone by one mistake, as a member of The Observer team accidentally changed the American spelling of the memo into British spelling, something The Drudge Report then used to discredit the memo. Point is simply this: the underpinnings of this is painfully obvious: did. 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