We had just come from a press conference with the Iraqi information minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, better known as Comical Ali. AMY GOODMAN: That was a clip from Official Secrets. I could tell this email was pretty explosive.". Yasars wife is a British linguist who worked as a translator for the GCHQ, Government Communications Headquarters. MARTIN BRIGHT: Well, I did. It is tough for me to be in the public domain againbut I felt like it was a good thing. We were getting calls from all over the world. Her story was adapted into the film Official Secrets in 2019. And then, on Monday morning, I went back into my workplace, and I just photowell, I made a copy of it, and I printed it out and folded it up into my handbag and put it for the end of the day to take it out of the office. Keira Knightley says she doesn't think she'd have the courage to follow in the footsteps of the "true hero" whistleblower Katharine Gun, whom she plays in new thriller Official Secrets . All I could was this looming war. AMY GOODMAN: Tony Blair was the prime minister of Britain at the time. Nerves tingling, she went home. Charade or not, the diplomacy was frantic. Could you put me through? Whos talking, sir? I cant say. Katharine had assumed a journalist would use the letter as a springboard for their own wider investigation. The following Monday, she walked out of work, a printed copy of the email folded up and hidden in her handbag. Jack Bonneau: Young Entrepreneur Net Worth And Age- His Parents Name Explored, Nancy Cimino Cause of Death, Bio, Family and Chris Cimino, Bobby OJay Net Worth, Real Name, Wedding Pictures, Wife Picture, How Much Money Does Martin Milner Make? And this was before Isis, which exists, in part, because of events set in train by the war. It was too dangerous to make the 20-minute drive from the airport to the British base in Basra. The morning of Friday the 31st of January, 2003 started out just like any other. With the emotional adventure of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever closing out the controversial fourth, Minor spoilers ahead. AMY GOODMAN: But the spelling of it is British spelling. Nayib Bukele Touts Megaprison with Shocking Images of Shackled Detainees, Reporter Seymour Hersh on How America Took Out the Nord Stream Pipeline: Exclusive TV Interview, Outrage Soars in Occupied West Bank After Israel Kills 11, Injures 500 Palestinians in Nablus Raid. Katharine Gun. On January 23 2003, Gun, who worked . The CIA knows it. I actually felt like, if I do this anonymously, nobody will realize its me and Ill carry on as usual. But about a month after leaking the letter, Gun was stunned to see that The Observer had published the document in full on its front page. But were going to go to a break, and then were going to come back to this discussion. What was the headline? Robbie Robertson Reflects on His Legendary Rock Career, Iraq War Whistle Blower Katharine Gun Shares Her Story, Jack Goldsmith Discusses the Limits of Executive Power, + Major support for Amanpour and Company is provided by the Anderson Family Charitable Fund, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim, III, Candace King Weir, Jim Attwood and Leslie Williams, Mark J. Blechner, Seton J. Melvin, Bernard and Denise Schwartz, Koo and Patricia Yuen, the Leila and Mickey Straus Family Charitable Trust, Barbara Hope Zuckerberg, Jeffrey Katz and Beth Rogers, the Filomen M. DAgostino Foundation and. I was like, Mmm. Official Secrets recounts Gun's story, from her fateful decision (which of course accomplished nothing in the end, even though the leak quickly went public) to her bizarre criminal trial. 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 on whether to sanction an invasion of Iraq. Katharine's house was searched before she was sat down to be interviewed the following morning. Amid safety concerns, and anxiety over the fate of a $200 million movie, The Johnny DeppAmber Heard Defamation Trial: The Makings of a Remarkable Moment in American Celebrity. At the time, I was really focused on the Iraq invasion issue, Gun told Vanity Fair this month, ahead of the August 30 premiere of Official Secrets, an intelligence thriller recounting this terrifying chapter of her life and starring Keira Knightley. Iraq War was in March. The following Monday morning, Katharine could immediately tell there was an atmosphere in the office. Thanks so much for joining us. Never heard of Gun? After this, the authorities again started plotting to deport Yasar back to the Middle East. So we at least hadwe at least had a lead. You actually, at that point, had never met Katharine Gun. Katharine Gun in the Liberty office, 2019. Powell span a story of mobile biological weapons factories in trucks and intercepted radio messages about chemical weapons already deployed in the field. For more on this incredible story and the real-life thriller that is coming out on August 30th in movie theaters around the countryour guest, Katharine Gun, is played by Keira Knightleywere joined by Katharine Gun herself, the whistleblower, former employee of Britains global surveillance center, GCHQ, played by actress Keira Knightley, yes. You tried to call. This presented a problem. MARTIN BRIGHT: No, it was a very unusual situation. And you were what? And she sees this memo that says that the evidence for going to war would not be based on intelligence of whether there were WMD, but on trying to get something on the U.N. Security Council members, personal or whatever, to get them to vote for the invasion, to back President George W. Bush. KATHARINE GUN: Well, it was a memo from a chap called Frank Koza, who worked at the NSA. We had at least a name. AMY GOODMAN: GCHQ leads an investigation. KATHARINE GUN: Actually, time-wise, I was bailed for eight months. . Katherine Ryan's Family. Together they have a 13-year-old daughter. . So, I decided that the risk to my career was minute compared to the upcoming war in Iraq, and the best thing to do for me was to leak this information to the press, so that everybody else could have the information, and hopefully it could avert this disastrous course of events that have occurred. Finally, she called someone (she has never named) who had connections to the media, telling them: I have something explosive, I think it has the potential to avert a war with Iraq. She went back into work on Monday, printed the email, folded it neatly and put it in her bag. Release date September 13, 2019 Bush had agreed to this to help Blair. She had leaked a secret email revealing what was called at the time an illegal dirty tricks campaign to fix the UN vote. It's taken a long time for Katharine to feel comfortable talking about everything that happened. Thought-provoking commentary and opinion on politics, books and the arts. And tell the final results of what happened. But its not hard to guess from the, In 2013, Gun spoke with journalist Martin Bright, who published Guns leaked memo and plays a major role in the film, in an interview published by. Ms. Former lead guitarist of The Band Robbie Robertson takes Walter Isaacson behind the scenes of his legendary rock career. Please do your part today. And what did you think? Did you know that you can get Democracy Now! GUN: Well, simply the e-mail was from the NSA, which is the U.S. equivalent of GCHQ, and it was asking for our assistance, GCHQs assistance, in collecting information from six of the swing U.S. Security Council swing nations. We were basically going to put the Iraq War on trial, she said. The Crown Prosecution Service was about to charge her. I was initially terrified, Gun said, before learning the sad truth of the 24-hour news cycle: But people dont pay that much attention to the news, and they dont remember peoples names and you certainly dont remember what people look like. AMY GOODMAN: Weve got to make this fast; we have three minutes. TINTIN: And now youre upset at being asked to do that to members of the Security Council. The UKs own intelligence, published by Downing Street, produced the Sun headline: Brits 45 mins from doom.. Katharine continues to reside in Turkey and occasionally visits Britain as of 2020. Theyre lying about what their motives arethat immediately made me think, I have got to get this out. Asking for the whole gamut of information from domestic and office communications was for her a demand for blackmail material blackmail to manipulate their vote, to sanction a war. This was thought crucial to help Blair and his government survive a no-confidence motion in the House of Commons. After the incident, Katharine struggled to find work, and her husband had grown disillusioned with Britain and then kept away from the general public eye. Democracy Now! Real Life Heroes Wiki is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. AMY GOODMAN: And who were these six countries? Katharine was charged with an offense under section 1 of the Official Secrets Act 1989 on 13 November 2003. It took two hours for the cops from special branch to reach GCHQ in Cheltenham. KATHARINE GUN: I work for the British people. After university and a couple of years teaching in Japan, she was back in Britain and looking for a job. Just put me through. And, sure enough, Frank Koza. That was a good brain moment. We 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 Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg. He remains on death row as of July 2021, but there have been zero executions in the state of California since a 2006 court . Sam Eliott and Katharine Ross . When Katharine Gun came across a memo while working for the British government in 2003, her whole world changed. This is Democracy Now! Plus a change The warI mean, our obligation is not whether we support or are against the war. Otherwise we are living in dictatorships. Members of the Security Council were outraged and any chance of a UN resolution in favour of war collapsed. Discover Katharine Gun's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Yes, its a new Hollywood movie thats coming out, but it is the real-life story of Katharine Gun. We still dont know, to this day, why they did that. Gun, realizing how unfair it was to subject her colleagues to the consequences of her own actions, confessed and was arrested shortly thereafter. S, Welcome to Love Like This?, a romance column where we, Kathleen Newman-Bremang and Ineye Komonibo, revisit some of the most romantic or not, in hindsig, Whether its the iconic early-aughts film Love Dont Cost a Thing or her 2021 Netflix hit Resort to Love, Christina Milian has solidified herself in th, This story contains spoilers for Netflixs You People. Katharine Gun, Martin Bright, Ed Vulliamy and Gavin Hood. KATHARINE GUN: No. I mean, my first reaction was shock and anger. It was an extraordinary moment. A year after she walked down the aisle, Ross gave birth to their only child, Cleo Rose, on September 17, 1984, in Malibu, California. That does it for our show. This is the trailer. And it was a very collaborativeit was a very collaborative place. Almost a decade ago, the world was gripped with anxiety as it watched the legal proceedings against a young Se. Yasur Gunnis is the husband of Katharine Gun, a linguist who specializes in translating Mandarin Chinese into English. KATHARINE GUN: And then I mailed it to a contact, who then passed it on to a journalist, who then passed it on to Martin Bright. Currently, Katharine Ross is 82 years old as she was born on 29th January 1940. As the build-up to war continued, Gun felt increasing dismay. And yeah, it was just a request from the NSA tofor GCHQ to assist them in bugging the domestic and office communications of the six U.N. Security Council delegates. "I got into the office, turned on my computer and looked through my emails," says Katharine, more than 16 years later. I didnt know why, but I was going nuts. Never even come close to it! AMY GOODMAN: So you had nothing to do with what was going on, covering stuff in Iraq or working on that issue. AMY GOODMAN: Wait a second. Due to the pandemic, the event was then canceled. She remains an intensely private personbut, when director Gavin Hood began the process of adapting 2008s The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War: Katharine Gun and the Secret Plot to Sanction the Iraq Invasion, by Marcia and Thomas Mitchell, Gun felt it necessary to revisit this difficult chapter of her life to help make the film. She found the contents absolutely stunning. On the night of the 19th of March, 2003, the bombs began to fall. I went with Blair on his last visit to Iraq as prime minister, in 2007. What I object to is being asked to gather intelligence to help fix a vote at the U.N. and deceive the world into going to war. The whole issue of Iraq has left us with a legacy, which is not good. Don't worry, we'll never share or sell your information. KATHARINE GUN: When I saw this email asking GCHQs help to bug the six swing nations to gather a vote for war with Iraq, I was very angry at first and very saddened that it had come to this, and that despite all the talk from both Tony Blair and George Bush about how important it was to get the U.N. on board and to legitimize any kind of aggression, that they were actually going around it in such low-handed manner. Were joined also by Martin Bright, who is the journalist who reported Guns revelations in The Observer, as well as Ed Vulliamy. Her case became awidespread controversy among activists, and many people stepped forward to urge the government to drop the case. Then the story went away, and that's how I wanted it at that time, because I was actually quite traumatized by the whole thing. She did add, however, that she's hopeful the film will shed much needed light on the subject. Our obligation is to the truth. "I immediately felt like I was in danger," she says, describing her internal panic, the desperation to look calm and to not draw any attention to herself. Katharine Gun worked as an analyst for Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the British equivalent of the secretive U.S. National Security Agency. Theyre one of Hollywoods brightest starsand most troubled actors. She had never planned a career in intelligence and was slightly surprised to find herself working at GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters), Britains electronic spying agency in Cheltenham. The film stars Matthew Goode, Katherine Kelly, Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes. Whistleblower Katharine Gun and journalist Martin Bright are interviewed for their new movie Official Secrets for the film's LFF screening. Ezra Millers Messiah Delusions: Inside. 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. So you had nothing to do with what was going on, covering stuff in Iraq or working that... War continued, Gun, who is the real-life story of katharine Gun actually. Well as Ed Vulliamy and Gavin Hood to members of the Security Council spelling of it is British spelling actually! A lead support or are against the war was a very collaborativeit was a memo from a called... Morning of Friday the 31st of January, 2003, the authorities again plotting., had never met katharine Gun: I work for the British equivalent of the Official Secrets 1989. 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