You can look up Nicole Mowbray, she wrote an article in The Guardian a couple weeks ago, about this worst day of her life. "One of the things that we discovered quite early on when he was interviewing me was that a lot of stuff was just happening in my head. Not the truth, but the war. By the way, I know some amazing people in the intelligence services. Ed, I know some people have said that Rhys Ifans [who plays Vulliamy] is slightly over the top. What do I do? And that was my way in. Who, one must ask, is provoking whom? But, did it change the way I approached it? Iran, of course, isn't interested in dealing with him. 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. But George W. Bush did something that, thankfully, Trump hasnt pulled off yet: He took us to war. To look at someone who I thought was quite accessible and ordinaryand she doesn't mind me saying this because Katharine is someone who keeps her head below and is quiet, and did something extraordinary. Jeb Bush Just Botched the Iraq Question. They live on a smallholding, renting a house, in rural Turkey. But when Gun's lawyers threaten to question the U.K. Attorney General Lord Goldsmith about Britain's involvement in the Iraq war, the government drops their case against Gun. 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. And it's a tough profession in many ways. Martin Bright, who is in the movie very briefly I guess, is no longer in journalism as I understand it. You dont have to agree with what she did, Im just telling you what she did. Quality journalism. I was suddenly free and bewildered. She said, I thought that might be quite interesting and exciting. Gavin Hood: Its a question of how conditioned are we to the conventional Hollywood structure. I could put a lens on, and now my job is, this actress is doing great work, lets not get tricky, lets just get the audience into her eyes so that you could see those cogs moving. Please help keep the independent journalism of Common Dreams strong. She will not talk about it anything else. 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. "That really happened," Hood confirmed, though it did not go quite as it is shown in the film. 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. The case and the resulting anxiety never seemed far away. Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Some called her a traitor; others insisted she was a hero. We were in development with a particular studio, and I don't mean to be funny after such a heavy film but sometimes we need a little bit of humor. I sensed a slight flash of anger as she said: "It's not even a footnote in the history of Iraq." None of the Government reports into the war acknowledged it, nor did the history books. Chile and Mexico and the other smaller countries were so outraged that they refused to even bring it to a vote. Progressive values. British Secret Service Officer Katharine, then a young bride, risked everything to leak details of the Bush-Blair plan to coerce (possibly blackmail) members of the UN Security Council in order to win their votes to legalize invading Iraq. This and her other writings about intelligence issues have been critically acclaimed. 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. 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. When do the clocks change in 2023? It is to say that we need to know the truth behind the decisions to act or not to act. I was glad to get back to what I hoped would be normality, but the effect on me had been traumatising. Some of those same birds are still flapping wings in the skies above Washington. There's an obvious scene of the immigration deportation. She was charged Who knows whether they would've bent those other nations to vote for a resolution. I was called on to look this way and that and smile until my face was stiff. 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. 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. I dont know if theyd have discovered me eventually, but the fact is I couldnt live a lie for ever. According to the Guardian, We need another Katharine Gun. Interestingly I think we faced a challenge, which some of you may or may not agree with. Throughout her own court case, what only a few knew was that she was also fighting for The only thing that we altered in that is that I didnt have time to tell it for as long as it went on. Spoilers to follow as well. The film also captures my determination to do what I believed was right and reveals how divisive the Iraq War was, particularly highlighting the anger within certain sections of the intelligence services as the sabre-rattling statements of Mr Blair and his spokesman Alastair Campbell were accepted without proper challenge by some in the media. Would you risk your job? Then, the following Monday, I printed out a copy of the email, folded it up, and tucked it carefully in my bag. David Dayen: How did you think Keira Knightley was an asset in showing that emotional journey throughout the movie? Hundreds of thousands were killed. [In the movie, Gun says I dont work for the government, I work for the people.]. In leaking it to the Observer, she was also doing something unprecedented in the history of espionage. 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. The contents were explosive, implicating America in a blackmail plot to swing UN votes in favor of an invasion. 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.". The memo from Frank Koza, chief of staff at the "regional targets" section of the National Security Agency, GCHQ's sister organisation in the US, remains shocking in its implications for British sovereignty. As of 2020 Gun lives in Turkey and Britain. WebYou 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. To this day, however, there has been barely a mention of the year I spent living under a cloud. What resonates to me is the somewhat more, I hope, timeless thing. And she said, I dont work for the government. That was my first thoughtwhat do you mean you dont work for the government? 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. I grew up in South Africa in the seventies and eighties, when apartheid was really tightening and tightening and tightening. Sorry to digress. 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. Meanwhile, Kamal Ahmed, who is the guy at The Observer, is now the editorial director of the BBC. Then, the following November, after eight months of worry, I was finally charged. Again. Now someone else may beI don't know if I could hack people's phones and computers, personally. Gabrielle Bruney is a writer and editor for Esquire, where she focuses on politics and culture. She wasnt planning to get caught and then the dilemma was, My friends are all going to have their lives ruined.. It turned out a copyeditor at The Observer had run the memo through spellcheck before printing it.]. It remains entirely to the credit of Roger Alton, at the time the paper's editor, that he stuck with the story, despite its potential implications. When you support The American Prospect, youre supporting fellow readers who arent able to give, and countering the class system for information. And Where Is Katharine Gun, JUST 36 HOURS TO GO IN OUR WINTER CAMPAIGN. WebKatharine Gun was a young specialist working for Britains Government Communications Headquarters when she exposed a highly confidential memo that revealed the United Warning: The following contains spoilers for Official Secrets. Following the trauma inflicted on Gun, the U.K. Attorney General dropped the case against her with no warning. Public attention is the last thing you expect if, like me, youd settled for a job in the shadowy world of British intelligence. Questioner: The only thing that I've wondered while watching the film, since it's a true story, is how could Ms. Gunn, who was a spy, who was a member of an intelligence agency, be surprised when her husband got deportedor when the government came after her husband, how could she be surprised when all of the different reactions she got came forward? 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? I admitted the leak and my life was turned upside down. But the Bush administration went to war anyway, using the pretext of weapons of mass destruction. So Im very proud of Keiras performance and I dont mind that she doesnt have blonde hair. What did you think was going to happen? An insider with courage. 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. Enter Katharine Gun. Its had far reaching and very negative impacts in all aspects of our institutions and our public life," Gun says. Maybe that was naive, but she didn't think that. A transcript, lightly edited with explainers where necessary, follows. 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? On the other hand, she and Ben, to this day, feel they never got their day in court. To tell too much more of the story would spoil the film, but one part of its ending is clear. 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 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. '", "The scene where all of us receive this email and we're discussing the memo, that never happened. "You get to the end, and there's this court case. It should take the facts as they lead. But she still was not uncomfortable with the other things we've talked about. Gavin Hood: I asked her the same questions, and on about my second day interviewing her, I said to her, because I wasnt sure if I should make the movie; I mean, I needed to know whose story I was telling and if she was batshit crazy. The editorial position should never be that. Taking Vitamin D each day could cut your chances of getting dementia, study claims. Was it because we had demanded the Attorney Generals legal advice as part of my defence? [In real life] I saw the email, I immediately thought, 'Oh, my God, this is shocking.' And it's also true that we were then attacked by the Drudge Report for what would now be called 'fake news. 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. The difficulties of translating Gun's story also made writing the climax of the film tricky. Photograph: Andy Hall for the Observer, en years ago, a young Mandarin specialist at GCHQ, the government's surveillance centre in Cheltenham, did something extraordinary. So, to find that it would be dramatised on the big screen was as wonderfully welcome as it was astonishing. Copyright 2023 | The American Prospect, Inc. | All Rights Reserved, The Alt-Labor Chronicles: Americas Worker Centers, Official Secrets: A Conversation With Director Gavin Hood. But Katharine only ever leaked this one memo. And isnt it also time to re-examine the Official Secrets Act? 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. Unfortunately. She had been following that war, as many of us had, for a year. The decision to leak it was almost instant I felt I had no choice. 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.. Please, become a member, or make a one-time donation, today. In fact, I had no idea what was going on. 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. But my point is simply this: The underpinnings of this country matter. Last week in Los Angeles, I got to interview the director, South African-born Gavin Hood, after a screening. It was both exhilarating and just a little uncomfortable. His most recent book is Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power.. Perhaps they don't trust him to keep his word. Donald Trump also is saying he doesn't want war, which is probably true. Then the most almighty cacophony erupted, a roar so loud we could barely hear to speak. The same countries demanded immediate answers from the British government about its involvement in the spying. And we keep that system alive. 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. 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. The paper had taken the controversial decision to back intervention in Iraq. We all, in some ways, make these decisions. David Dayen: But he is not a headline journalist at a newspaper. David Dayen: And you were dealing with a story that was about a leak that didn't stop a war and leading to a trial that didn't happen. The spin in this country and in the UK was the threat of deadly weapons ready to be deployed by Saddam. I know what it is like to watch the system become completely authoritarian. Yet I do think Keira perfectly captures the strain I was under, the isolation and fear. The more we find out that in fact the million-person march was a real cause of worry for Downing Street and for Blair personally, it makes you think we were so close and yet so far.". There were some audience questions as well. Liberty, the civil rights organisation, and Ben Emmerson QC had already agreed to defend me and we prepared for trial. Before 1989, there had been a Public Interest Defence to protect whistleblowers, but that was altered amid the furore surrounding the sinking of the Argentinian Navy cruiser, the General Belgrano, in the course of the Falklands War. WebAttempts were made by the authorities to deport her husband, who grew disillusioned with Britain. 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. David Dayen: So why do you think this is an important story to tell now in 2019? Abandoned blue sleeping bag, tents and several wooden shelters are found in woodland close to where police Don't just stick to the Malbec! 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. Ed, the real Ed, is absolutely delightful. It is written by Sara and Gregory Bernstein, a California-based husband-and-wife writing partnership who have worked with British director Jonathan Lynn. 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. He is just way out there in a whole other realm. Only now, more than a decade and a half later, is this disturbing sequence of events once again receiving the attention it deserves thanks to Official Secrets, a brilliant new movie starring Keira and former Doctor Who, Matt Smith. You took this job and didnt even know what it was. We need a truth-sayer. Her husband said its a job, its just a goddamn job, I work at a caf. 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. The real-life Gun said: "The attempt at deportation kind of spiked my stress level again for another period of my life." The days and weeks dragged agonisingly by. 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. The story of Katharine Gun, a whistle-blower who exposed NSA spying in the lead-up to the Iraq War, gets the Hollywood treatment. 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. That's really the simplest question: When do you speak up? If the email did reach the newspapers, I reasoned, there would be no more than a discreet summary. His work has appeared in The Intercept, The New Republic, HuffPost, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and more. The team of hawks circling George Bush had long wanted to take out Saddam Hussein, as did Bush. Ms Gun worked as a translator at the GCHQ building in Cheltenham, pictured. My shock turned to anger as the significance sank in. The other kind of fight could be frightening and politically risky. At first, I heard nothing. Rishi Sunak is urgently reviewing his private exchanges with Matt Hancock after bombshell leak of ex-Health 'Drinks cold in fridge at DH!' But I know some folks because of films I made like Eye in the Sky, and before that I made a film called Rendition. Perhaps it was no wonder that Tony Blairs government decided to abandon the case without offering any evidence. 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. Koza was in effect issuing a direct order to the employees of a UK security agency to gather "the whole gamut of information that could give US policymakers an edge in obtaining results favourable to US goals or to head off surprises". He was actually gone for three days. One by one, all those who received the email approximately 100 people were taken in for a grilling. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. He loves a battle, when it's done with words, boasts, and threats. 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. 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 members of the UN Security Council, to effectively blackmail them into voting for a second resolution that would make legal the invasion of Iraq.

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