Who, one must ask, is provoking whom? It is to say that we need to know the truth behind the decisions to act or not to act. 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). Perhaps it was no wonder that Tony Blairs government decided to abandon the case without offering any evidence. And then, she said when she got in therenow bear in mind that she still is bound by the Official Secrets Act. Never mind that invading another country for the purpose of regime change is illegal according to international laws to which the United States is a signatory. I know what it is like to watch the system become completely authoritarian. 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. Iran has been filmed loading missiles aboard some of its vessels. We all, in some ways, make these decisions. And I didnt have work where I was. Theres not a lot of work for translators; shes a Mandarin translator in England. "That really happened," Hood confirmed, though it did not go quite as it is shown in the film. 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? When you support The American Prospect, youre supporting fellow readers who arent able to give, and countering the class system for information. It's a fascinating film that really evokes the dangers of speaking out in the post-9/11 age, as well as the press's inability to challenge the official story on Iraq, particularly the U.S. press, which really just blacked out the Gun leak entirely. If Keira Knightleys remarkable performance in Official Secrets can help change that, the film will truly have been worthwhile. 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 By printing off the memo, putting it in her handbag and taking it home, she was already committing a serious breach of the Official Secrets Act. 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. Not good enough, the trio decided. Look at what happened to Reality Winner in this country. And those two are great actresses. The email, which was sent by an American NSA official, suggested that the US was just as well aware that it couldnt earn UN support through valid arguments alone: The memo outlined a plan to bug diplomats from non-permanent UN Security Council Nations Chile, Pakistan, Bulgaria, Guinea, Angola, and Cameroon in search of intelligence that could be used to cajole and possibly even blackmail them into supporting the invasion. [Ahmed is depicted in the film as strongly pro-war, resistant to running stories that conflict with his opinion.]. In the years following, an author called Marcia Mitchell contacted me and said she was keen to write a book about my case. Throughout her own court case, what only a few knew was that she was also fighting for We go to the canteen and we talk.. 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. Truth and accountability were drilled into me as a child. She now has a four-year-old daughter who she is bringing up in Turkey. I didnt know until I looked really deeply into this that theres really two schools of thought. [In real life] I saw the email, I immediately thought, 'Oh, my God, this is shocking.' We typically, in the movie business, ever since Joseph Campbell wrote The Hero of A Thousand Facesand Im not meaning to be sarcastic because thats a great piece of work, but it spoiled the idea that every development executive is reading these books because the hero we meet and then something upsets their world and the antagonist that must equal the hero, and eventually we go through these loops and the hero triumphs in the end. Chile and Mexico and the other smaller countries were so outraged that they refused to even bring it to a vote. When Katharine Gun came across a memo while working for the British government in 2003, her whole world changed. Direct to your inbox. Quality journalism. Then, we all started watching the invasion and we werent how we got into the war. And they failed, in part, I believe, because Katharine Gun leaked that memo, Official Secrets director Gavin Hood told Democracy Now!. This was her first or second week at the paper. Martin Bright, who is in the movie very briefly I guess, is no longer in journalism as I understand it. 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. And if, 16 years ago, you had told me that one day my life story would be portrayed by Keira Knightley, Id have laughed and changed the subject. This is a special case because this story is very little-known in the United States. Gavin Hood: And that really happened. So thats how the scene happened, but she didnt know where he was for three days, he was at Harmonsworth, before she got him out. Later, she gave the document to a friend, who passed it onto a contact in the anti-war movement, until it finally landed with journalists Martin Bright and Ed Vulliamy The Observer. She wasnt charged for eight months a gruelling period which is depicted as just a few So WMD may not have been as important, had they gotten that resolution. 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. My shock turned to anger as the significance sank in. But I know some folks because of films I made like Eye in the Sky, and before that I made a film called Rendition. The case and the resulting anxiety never seemed far away. And maybe they were right, I don't know. Happy and carefree, Id recently married my handsome husband and was working at GCHQ as a linguist. "Still no regrets," she said. Over the weekend, I got to work. In leaking it to the Observer, she was also doing something unprecedented in the history of espionage. But George W. Bush did something that, thankfully, Trump hasnt pulled off yet: He took us to war. He is wonderfully articulate but super pissed off, and his PTSDbecause hes been in Iraq for yearsmanifests at just disdain for that certain person you mentioned. I sensed a slight flash of anger as she said: "It's not even a footnote in the history of Iraq." 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. She said, I thought that might be quite interesting and exciting. Do you vote, do you analyze who you should vote for or do you just take it for granted? 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. Who knows whether they would've bent those other nations to vote for a resolution. However, her husband and the father of her daughters name is Yasar Gun. Gavin Hood: Thats such an interesting statement, I mean, I just took it at face value that papers take an editorial position, but youre right. 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. I was arrested for a breach of section one of the Official Secrets Act 1989 and held overnight in a cell in the basement of the Cheltenham Police headquarters. The story went around the world and the leak electrified the international debate during the weeks of diplomatic deadlock. After the leak was published, hundreds of staff inside the building were questioned in order to discover the identity of the whistleblower. WebKatharine Guns husbands photo revelations are not made by her yet. When do the clocks change in 2023? Neither my friends nor my family knew what I did all day. Maybe thats rewarding. Surely, after 16 years, we are entitled to have answers. Katharine Gun, a British former government employee, faced two years imprisonment in England for the crime of telling the truth. That means that, in theory, the war could still be classified as an illegal war, Gun says. There's an obvious scene of the immigration deportation. Because it was toughthe guy wouldnt print his stuff. Twenty-eight, pretty naive. But I do want to give her credit that I think I didn't do her justice enough in the moment that she leaked that memo; it changed so quickly to war that we don't really get a moment to absorb the fact that as a result of her leaking that memo, there was no vote at the UN Security Council. 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. She had received an email in her inbox asking her and her colleagues to help in a vast intelligence "surge" designed to secure a UN resolution to send troops into Iraq. Warning: The following contains spoilers for Official Secrets. Perhaps they don't trust him to keep his word. Because it's just an Executive Branch trying to grab power as an authoritarian. She also opposed the pending war. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. But the Bush administration went to war anyway, using the pretext of weapons of mass destruction. Truth about Covid care home testing row: Timeline lays bare what was said, by who and when. She failed. In the film, when Gun is sent an email from someone high up in the U.S. government that reveals the U.S. covert plan, she decides to leak it to Bright, who works for the British newspaper The Observer, which then publishes it on their front page. And when we got to that point in the movie, I had to start montaging it because it was just taking too long to get to the end. Our institutions matter. 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. [Gun's husband Yasar, a Kurd, was nearly deported back to the Middle East at one point, even though he had nothing to do with the leak.]. A thorough investigation began as soon as the staff started arriving at GCHQ on the Monday morning. Last week in Los Angeles, I got to interview the director, South African-born Gavin Hood, after a screening. They published the scoop in March 2003putting Gun directly in the crosshairs of law enforcement, and sparking a legal fight for her freedom. 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. 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. By the time the mid-eighties came around and I was a young law student, so Im looking at it from the side of the law, we had no right of access to lawyers in trial if you breached anything that was regarded as having to do with the emergency legislation. Her husband said its a job, its just a goddamn job, I work at a caf. David Dayen: Just the notion that the paper would say, we're for the war, that was their editorial position. As it was, a second UN resolution directly to authorise war against Iraq never materialised and air strikes began on 19 March 2003. 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. '", "The scene where all of us receive this email and we're discussing the memo, that never happened. So, she began to feel uncomfortable in the work she was doing at that point. David Dayen: How did you think Keira Knightley was an asset in showing that emotional journey throughout the movie? Does your loyalty lie to your own conscious, does your loyalty lie to your marriage, does your loyalty lie to your government, does your loyalty lie to your country? "Financially it's the toughest," she said. As the title of the film script suggests, she was "The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War". An insider with courage. And for her, this was too much. I don't think she thought they would deport her husband, I really don't think she thought that. She went to this interview, the next minute were down this rabbit hole, the next minute my wifes telling the world. She thought wow, they need a Mandarin translator at GCHQ. They live on a smallholding, renting a house, in rural Turkey. After a police interview, at which I repeated my admission, I was released on bail to await the decision of the Crown Prosecution Service. And the reason? We started working on this three years ago and even then it felt relevant in the sense that the challenges we talked about earlier: Where does my loyalty lie? This included a particular focus on the "swing nations" on the security council, Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria and Guinea, "as well as extra focus on Pakistan UN matters". He said: "Very close. When my moment came, I found myself standing alone in the dock facing the judge and surrounded by lawyers, journalists and supporters. Supported by Liberty, the prominent British civil-rights campaigning organiza-tion, Gun and her lawyer, Ben Emmerson (Ralph Fiennes), decided to cite grounds of necessity in order to contest the charges laid against her. Gun had, of course, been forced to abandon her career in the civil service She wasnt planning to get caught and then the dilemma was, My friends are all going to have their lives ruined.. To separate fact from fiction, Newsweek spoke to the real Gun and Bright, as well as Official Secrets director Gavin Hood. To tell too much more of the story would spoil the film, but one part of its ending is clear. Did that change your approach to presenting the film knowing that this was actually going to be somewhat of a surprise to people? She hoped that if people know about the lengths to which theyve gone to legitimize an invasion of Iraq, then it would blow apart, and people will suddenly think, No, this isnt right, and the whole house of cards would come tumbling down.. Again. She had been following that war, as many of us had, for a year. However, Gun was well aware that any attempt to release the memo would find her running afoul of Britains Official Secrets Act, which criminalizes the leaking of intelligence-related information. As I walked down the red carpet, I had never in my life experienced the flash of so many cameras. David Dayen: No problem. According to the Guardian, Hundreds of thousands were killed. His exact words to describe the intelligence method is, The goal of the intelligence is not the truth, but victory. That is a quote from Shulsky. Please, become a member, or make a one-time donation, today. What is this paper? I dont know if theyd have discovered me eventually, but the fact is I couldnt live a lie for ever. Gun disclosed details of the spying operation as it was happening to stop something she viewed as terrible happening in the future. Abandoned blue sleeping bag, tents and several wooden shelters are found in woodland close to where police Don't just stick to the Malbec! The other kind of fight could be frightening and politically risky. It was written in technical language, but the meaning was clear enough: the Americans were asking around 100 people in GCHQ to gather information from the communications made by diplomats from six nations Angola, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea and Pakistan all which were then sitting on the United Nations Security Council. ", Speaking to Gun, and seeing her in archival footage at the end of the film, it is clear that Knightley didn't try to emulate the look or sound of the real-life Gun. The truth was that in April of 2002, the two world leaders secretly had agreed on a plan to take out Saddam, all the while giving speeches insisting that the only motivation for even considering war was that horrific stockpile of deadly weapons. However, when her friends start being interrogated about the leak, Gun confesses to being the whistleblower, leading to her being arrested and taken to court for breaching the Official Secrets Act. In the matter of a few years. And I thought this is going to end in the worst civil war. Right now my priorities are to ensure I am there for my daughter.". Yet here was a story that had the capacity to derail the war altogether. 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 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. Then, the following November, after eight months of worry, I was finally charged. He was actually gone for three days. She said, You mean I dont have to wear a corset? To your point, in some way, she said to me, As a woman, its kind of ironic as an actress that I so often, even though Im in the modern world, that I have to find heroic women in period dramas wearing corsets. Theres something weird about that. I believe that all of this should have been formally acknowledged as part of the history of the second Gulf War. Sixteen years ago, I became headline news after I leaked an internal email from GCHQ, the communications intelligence gathering centre near Cheltenham. [Gun was charged with violating the Official Secrets Act in Britain, but ultimately the case never went to trial.]. And isnt it also time to re-examine the Official Secrets Act? Despite the risk of a harsher sentence, I decided to plead not guilty because I felt strongly that my actions had been intended to prevent the unnecessary loss of life in an illegal war. Which really, really, really happened. David Dayen: The first thing I thought about when looking at this movie is that in most recent historical epics, the audience knows what's happening next. You might say I am biased. ", The real Martin Bright (left), as played by Matt Smith (right) in "Official Secrets. Its Straussian, over the top and pretentious but basically amounts to this. And she said, I dont work for the government. That was my first thoughtwhat do you mean you dont work for the government? However, the Pentagon says the US deployment is "in response to indications of heightened Iranian readiness to conduct offensive operations against US forces and our interests.". But she said she would still be prepared to give evidence to the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war. And people do this in every country; they spy, they listen to what are the Chinese going to do when they get to this conference. And she said, Yep, I have no problem being asked to listen in, in instances where I might help prevent a terror attack. What this memo suggested was neither of those things it was a bridge too far for her. Progressive values. Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire editor. When my turn came, I entered a small side office, faced the security official and, putting on my best poker face, denied any involvement. 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