And after about three weeks of this meeting these extraordinary people, I said to Jed, I think I think I would like to do this. And thats where the story came from. Katharine Gun - who's played by Keira Knightley in a forthcoming film - blew the whistle on a dodgy scheme by the American government. I hadnt realised the extent to which Martin in particular had gone out on a limb for this at the paper. The Case Against Mary Katherine Higdon 43:11. And they had already taken him down into the custody suite, which is, by the way, where I had been before, Gun revealed. There are almost no defenses to this act. She grew up in Taiwan, where her father had gone to teach, and her accent is hard to place. Get Democracy Now! The day before the trial, Gun's defence team had asked the government for any records of legal advice about the lawfulness of the war that it had received during the run-up to the war. Attempts were made by the authorities to deport her husband, who grew disillusioned with Britain. Now, the defense of necessity is usually used in very more simple circumstances. 101 years old Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson was an American mathematician whose orbital mechanics calculations as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent crewed spaceflights in the United States. Details at membership.theguardian.com. You want to know where he is? he said. And that if the perpetrators in these situations get away scot-free, that has a knock-on effect. And nor did the story end. And at the end of the Q&A, I went to try and find him, and hed gone. For the American gamer, see, Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, United Nations Security Council and the Iraq War, "Whistleblowerin Katharine Gun - "Ich frchtete, sie knnten meine Gedanken lesen", "The US spymaster, the whistleblower, and the secret email she exposed", "Profile: Katherine Gun, Iraq war wistleblower", "Katharine Gun: Ten years on what happened to the woman who revealed dirty tricks on the UN Iraq war vote? The film stars Ma. Guns story is not only an inspiration to her own daughter, but also to people around the world trying to be honest and brave citizens. Copy may not be in its final form. I felt awful. 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. So, from a dramatic point of view, you have someone whos just going to their job every day, as most of us do, happens to be a spy working for GCHQ, but could have been a person working for an accounting firm or Enron or Boeing or any other organization, who sees something that is simply wrong, sees, you know, and says, GAVIN HOOD: and says, Im going to speak up.. The argument was then subsumed by the war. KATHARINE GUN: It was GCHQ internal security, yeah. MARTIN BRIGHT: Yeah, I mean, the story doesnt end. You're KATHARINE GUN: . I mean, the pack of cards has gone from Afghanistan to Iraq to Syria. But I wasnt thinking about myself really. AMY GOODMAN: Whatever you tried to do didnt succeed. My childhood friend, for example, I remember hearing her father was on a blacklist because he had been agitating for the opposition. And he was the barrister who ultimately put the case before the court, as short as that trial was, on behalf of Katharine, and came up with a truly original defense to the Official Secrets Act, which is the defense of necessity. I mean, we certainly did meet in the courthouse. Gun is grimly amused to see his current return to the moral high ground over Brexit. So, in the film, when the director of public prosecutions says to Ben Emmerson, trying to wiggle out of it, Listen, it wasnt my decision to prosecute. Thats actually true. 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. Gavin Hoods 2019 film Official Secrets is the thrilling political drama that explores the events that followed British linguist Guns 2003 media leak. 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 . AMY GOODMAN: But so, did you have any conversations with the former prime minister at the time, Tony Blair? You dont know who the GCHQ person is. And yeah, it was, AMY GOODMAN: And what did you think, whenbefore you had seen Katharine and met her, what did you imagine she would be like, this young woman, 27-year-old woman of conscience, who. The second act of the movie is concerned with the internal newspaper politics of that decision. Now, what we were doing when we were breaking this story was we were attempting to show that our governments had lied to us. At the time, Katharine Gun was working for Britains Government Communications Headquarters, known as GCHQ. That was in this moment, moment by moment, as the story evolves, what would it feel like if you were in her shoes. Look at those bombs falling on Baghdad. The spy who wouldn't keep a secret - The Guardian The film, Official Secrets, comes out officially at the end of August. MARTIN BRIGHT: No, it was the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. Katharine Gun Official Secrets True Story Interview - Esquire This is Democracy Now! You were just waiting. Following the incident, Gun struggled to find work that she loved, and her husband had grown disillusioned with Britain. The legal case against Gun was eventually dropped by the British government in 2004, after her lawyer, Ben Emmerson QC (played in the film with fabulous charisma by Ralph Fiennes), threatened to use disclosure to put the legal basis of the war itself on trial. Explain what happened at the Q&A, Martin. Indeed, your point about Bush is right. Is Official Secrets Based on a True Story? - The Cinemaholic AMY GOODMAN: But what caused you to say no? Thats [inaudible]. Film-makers generally like to glamorise newspaper offices, making them All the Presidents Men hothouses of high-level argument and intrigue. You have the Iraq War continuing today, 16 years after George W. Bush, knowing there were not weapons of mass destruction, invades Iraq with Britain. And we had to sit and wait for two hours while they winged it down from London. Brights story was news to Gun herself, to a large degree. This is Democracy Now! AMY GOODMAN: So, and we want to get to all that, but nowwe want to get to all that, but right now youre showing this film around the country. It cost Gun, who now lives in Turkey with her husband and daughter, her job. Gun had, of course, been forced to abandon her career in the civil service and finally, struggling for work, left Britain altogether. Soon after, they moved to Turkey in 2011, and for the most part, the family has stayed away from the public eye. The author advocates anonymity. March 29, 2023 Posted by is vimto squash good for you; The last few hectic days have left her relieved and happy, she says, but completely uncertain as to her future. 'You've caused an international incident': how my work mistake came I mean, obviously, at that point, then felt very sorry that someone had been arrested, but it was a huge relief at the time. Guns words will, in the coming weeks finally receive the much wider audience they deserve. Ralph Fiennes, fantastic, wonderful actor. Katharine Gun: Ten years on what happened to the woman who revealed Hes repackaged himself as sort of the European. But a part of me thought: Damn we could have put the war on trial. It opens on August 30th. And he says, I need toso, Im interviewing Ben in a pizza shop, right? And the other way is the good, old-fashioned self-defense. That is a difficult question, she says. She urged "those in a position to do so to disclose information which relates to this planned aggression; legal advice, meetings between the White House and other intelligence agencies, assessments of Iran's threat level (or better yet, evidence that assessments have been altered), troop deployments and army notifications. So, you are there standing alone in the dock. And they attempt to deport your husband, who is a? delivered to your inbox every day! Official Secrets: A Conversation With Director Gavin Hood Keira Knightley to star in 'forgotten' story of Iraq war whistleblower I mean, thats why MartinI remember Martin and Ed. Timpf, 32, and Friscia, 34, tied the knot . So a very big story got crushed very quickly. She has a younger brother who teaches in Taiwan. Macdonald stated that Gun would not have received a fair trial without the disclosure of information that would have compromised national security. And nor do newspaper stories. [10] Her case became a cause clbre among activists, and many people stepped forward to urge the government to drop the case. AMY GOODMAN: So, before the time of the trial, Katharine, youthey have clamped down on you. And we can say that, you know, thatso, he comes back, under all this pressure. [25][26] Together with journalist Peter Beaumont, Gun advised and consulted over the years it took to make the film and they are "very happy with the result.[20]. AMY GOODMAN: So, Katharine, as all of this is unfolding, the U.S. and Britain bomb Iraq. How dodo they join the dots? "[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. No need to prove anything further. Theyre going to send him back to Turkey. KATHARINE GUN: Yeah, I was very excited to meet Keira in London before they started shooting. UPDATED with latest attendees, livestream link: President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, will attend Saturday's . And Ben comes up with this idea. That accountability is key. Im on the whole a fairly shy person, she confessed in an interview. (modern). So, of course, I was a little bit sort of reserved. [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. [5], Gun graduated with an upper second-class degree, then took a job as an assistant English teacher with the JET program in Hiroshima, Japan. And you had a showing in San Francisco. ED VULLIAMY: But my point is not against Mr. Ahmed. So I was . Katharine Gun outside the Old Bailey after charges had been dropped against her, 2004. Now, Martin, at this point, youve defended your story. [11], The case came to court on 25 February 2004. All I want to do is feel the emotions that this young woman felt, and dont want to be fussed over. And it was great. I would love to know. We still dont know who within the American administration ordered the operation. I ended up, bizarrely, teaching a couple of my former colleagues at GCHQ. GAVIN HOOD: What she discovers saysis a request from the NSA to GCHQ to hack, bug the private communications and the office communications of U.N. Security Council members, in particular the nonpermanent members, the more junior members. The woman in her 20s attempted to stop the war and firmly stood to her truthful morals. I mean, really, these people need to be held accountable for what theyve done. But lets talk about that moment in the courthouse. We pay respect by giving voice to social justice, acknowledging our shared history and valuing the cultures of First Nations. Yeah, I mean, they knew, in fact, GCHQ, I think, because theres this system whereby, you know, before the news goes to print, the government and various organizations get the front pages, so they know whatslike, before it goes to press. delivered to your inbox every day! I work for the British people. Keira Knightley plays Katharine Gun in the film Official Secrets (Photo: eOne) Now living quietly in Turkey, Gun has been thrust into the global spotlight once again . A film, Official Secrets, has been made of her story. So her moral certainty was rooted in those formative experiences? And he says, Well, I called Elizabeth Wilmshurst, who is the assistant attorney general, who had resigned. A very good book by Britains most decorated journalist, called Nick Davies, called Flat Earth Newsits about the British press, but it applies everywhererealized that actually the then-editors of our paper were effectively accountable to the Tony Blair enforcement machine. She knows what it's like to have her face slapped, her bones broken and her nose bloodied by her former bully of a husband, an active Marine Colonel and a man who she claims is "above the law and literally gets away with murder." In 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 she leaked the . I havent watched the films about either of them, she says. 4 4.Katharine Gun: Ten years on what happened to the woman who 5 5.Iraq War Whistle Blower Katharine Gun Shares Her Story | Video - PBS; 6 6.GCHQ whistleblower Katharine Gun speaks out | Daily Mail Online; 7 7.15 Years Later: How U.K. Whistleblower Katharine Gun - YouTube; 8 8.Katharine Gun & Martin Bright Interview - Official . Congratulations are in order for Fox News personality Kat Timpf and her beau Cameron Friscia! Consider donating here. She is also well known as a GCHQ spy. The diplomats were due to vote on a second United Nations resolution on the prospective 2003 invasion of Iraq. What's more, her decision and movement to expose lies about the Iraq invasion made it be titled as the courageous and vital leak as per Democracy Now. What happened next is the subject of a new Hollywood movie starring Keira Knightley as Katharine Gun. It wasn't that she was naive . AMY GOODMAN: The San Francisco Film Festival. TOP 9 what happened to katharine gun husband BEST and NEWEST [16], Her husband, Yaar Gn,[17][18] is a Turkish Kurd. She then went on to get a Masters degree in Global Ethics. And its sothe nonpermanent members, who realized they were being hacked and their personal things were beingin order to try and blackmail them into a vote. I didnt want to be that. And through the lights, I couldnt quite see who the guy was. And all we were focused on was what might it felt like in this moment to have been Katharine. Mary Katharine Ham's Husband Jake Brewer Killed - Mediaite ED VULLIAMY: Thank you. There is no single answer to that, she says, but Bright had the best stab at it: The only thing you can do is do your job right, and be a good citizen., In other words, she says, whatever your job is, do the things that you are supposed to do. For example, youre racing to the hospital with your wife. Her performance reminds you of the sentiment of Daniel Ellsberg, the man who famously leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times in 1971, revealing the full truth of American involvement in Vietnam. Ellsberg has called Katharine Guns action the most important and courageous leak I have ever seen. He says, Wait a minute. You know, lets say Iyoure a bit of a gambler, arent you? I was aware I was doing something I wasnt supposed to be doing. Katharine Gun Husband: Learn Everything About Iraq War Whistleblower They live on a smallholding, renting a house, in rural Turkey. And I had already not been able to eat for about 24 hours. You authorized her prosecution. 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 . Keira Knightley as Katharine Gun in the film Official Secrets. I wish I could have written that scene. And then, on Tuesday, they called me in, and I went in. Don't worry, we won't share or sell your information. 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. Im Amy Goodman, as we bring you Part 2 of our extended look at a new film thats out called Official Secrets, thats coming out at the end of August, that tells the story 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. In 2003, Gun was working as a translator of Mandarin at the government intelligence agency, GCHQ, in Cheltenham. 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. 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. Theres no doubt. Gun had, of course, been forced to abandon her career in the civil service and finally, struggling for work, left Britain altogether. GAVIN HOOD: Yes, strong women. KATHARINE GUN: Mm-hmm. 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". And we worked five, six hours every day. But as it happened, I wasnt called up on Monday. But lets go back to the moment. You know, this is hundreds of thousands of people killed. I think I found like the missing piece. Anyway, thats why the scene. MARTIN BRIGHT: But once everyone did, there waswe knew that there was somethingthere was something going on. And she said, I have to go, mostlyto find strong female characters, I have to go back 100 and 200 years and wear a corset to play a strong female character. And she said, This isI want to do this, because its a strong female character not in a corset. Shes ordinary. As Coordinator for Shalom Mission Communities, a peace church fellowship near the southern border, Joel, his wife, Anali, and their new baby girl, Daniela Bea, are actively helping . AMY GOODMAN: And the U.S. is still in Iraq. Shes not wearing tons of makeup. When Brights story originally landed there were concentrated efforts to rubbish it in the gung-ho parts of the media. In an interview with Democracy Now!, Gun explained, After they charged me, thats when they tried to deport my husband. Gun leaked the memo to the press in 2003, setting off a chain of events that jeopardized her freedom and safety, but also opened the door to putting the entire legality of the Iraq invasion on trial. And yet this rather shy 30-year-old leaked details of an alleged plot to bug UN delegates before the Iraq war and was sacked from her . Does she tell her story when she meets new people? AMY GOODMAN: This is the NSA guy who wrote the memo. Protesters against the invasion of Iraq, February 2003. Gun splits her time between Turkey and Britain. AMY GOODMAN: Katharine, has your 11-year-old daughter seen the film? BBC NEWS | UK | Politics | Interview: Whistleblower Katharine Gun The little-told story of British intelligence whistleblower Katharine Gun leaves a trail of unanswered questions worth probing, even 16 years later, . Truth has a habit of finding a voice, however. AMY GOODMAN: And so, what did you do when they said, Were going to take each one of you into a room.. You know, youre the attorney general. I hope, when shes ready for this story, she will. I think the number isand forgive me, I should have the figurethree-and-a-half thousand British and American soldiers, 37,000 wounded. Its so great to have you all with us. KATHARINE GUN: Yeah. 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 . I had, you know, encounters with Blair. is katharine gun still married to yasar. [23] Daniel Ellsberg praised the swiftness and importance of Gun taking action, saying it was in some ways more significant than his own whistleblowing on the Vietnam War. Gun told Bright in 2013, "There seems to be this blas attitude - the spying goes on . Strange Hollywood person. I had had my own story on the fabrication of the weapons of mass destruction, the existence of a shadow intelligence-cooking agency within the Pentagon, which we at The Observer had for five months before Sy Hersh, with great respect to Sy, published it in The New Yorker. AMY GOODMAN: Works for the attorney general. We do not accept funding from advertising, underwriting or government agencies. 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 . I thought you said youre sick. And I said, I need to talk to you. And so we went into a small room, and I just said, I did it. And then she put her arm around me and went, Oh, Katharine. And then I burst out crying. [4], After spending her childhood in Taiwan, where she attended Morrison Academy until the age of 16, Katharine returned to Britain to study for her A-levels at Moira House School, a girls' boarding school in Eastbourne. Few are aware that her husband had also been thrown into troubled waters when Gun blew the lid off the alleged spy efforts in 2003. Your defense becomes: It was necessary to break the law in order to achieve a higher purpose, which is the saving of human life. "That story" concerns British whistleblower Katharine Gun, played by Keira Knightley in a film that premiered at Sundance festival in January.Fluent in Mandarin, the 28-year-old Gun was . Zooey Zephyr, Montanas First Trans Lawmaker, Speaks Out After Being Banned & Silenced by Republicans, Rising Tide of Fascism: Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones Warns of GOPs Growing Embrace of Authoritarianism, Courage Is Contagious: Zooey Zephyr & Justin Jones on the GOPs Silencing of State Lawmakers, Provocative & Dangerous: Biden to Send Nuclear-Armed Subs to South Korea as Activists Demand Peace, Oklahoma Parole Board Denies Clemency for Richard Glossip, Rejecting Plea from State Attorney General. Keira Knightley: Iraq was the first time Id been politically engaged, Leaking or briefing? [5] In February, she travelled to London to take part in the demonstration against the impending invasion of Iraq. Democracy Now! These were, as I said before, bitter times. as Katharine knows, it can be tougher to be right than to be wrong sometimes, if on those lucky occasions that one is right. The Tony Blair Conscience Fund or something? First day, what did you feel? I was called up on Tuesday. And so, I immediately went home, and Iand at the time, actually, well, my dad was staying with me, because it was Chinese New Year, and he was back from Taiwan, and he was supporting me, so he was at home.
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