katharine gun husband deported
"Still no regrets," she said. And isnt it also time to re-examine the Official Secrets Act? The British are quite British, you know. His most recent book is Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power.. ", 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. Unfortunately. Sometimes movies can be an effective way to make forgotten stories part of our national narrative, and in that sense, Official Secrets comes not a moment too soon. By design. She got into a plea bargain, they still gave her five years. What do you think resonates? I was glad to get back to what I hoped would be normality, but the effect on me had been traumatising. 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. 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. 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. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. I didnt know until I looked really deeply into this that theres really two schools of thought. Gun sacrificed so much when she decided to leak and has worked only intermittently since. After the initial flurry of media interest, I was left to figure out how to move on with my life and that proved hard. I grew up in South Africa in the seventies and eighties, when apartheid was really tightening and tightening and tightening. 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.' 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. Did that change your approach to presenting the film knowing that this was actually going to be somewhat of a surprise to people? There's an obvious scene of the immigration deportation. David Dayen: But he is not a headline journalist at a newspaper. There were some audience questions as well. Some called her a traitor; others insisted she was a hero. 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. I am an American citizen; I have a strange accent but Ive been here 25 years; my kids were born here. The risks Gun took in revealing the UN email's existence were huge. But there's no way I would have expressed that to any of my colleagues," Gun explained. Then the story went We need a truth-sayer. You dont have to agree with what she did, Im just telling you what she did. Had the film appeared any earlier, however, I dont think Id have been able to watch it, let alone help the makers. 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. One is reminded of the January 31, 2003 Oval Office meeting with George Bush, Tony Blair, and Condoleeza Rice, in which the topic of provoking Iraq to start a war was particularly revealing. And it was this book which eventually became the script for Official Secrets. 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. 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. Following the incident, Gun struggled to find work that she The spin in this country and in the UK was the threat of deadly weapons ready to be deployed by Saddam. 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. By the way, I know some amazing people in the intelligence services. Id never seen anything like it. 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 believe that all of this should have been formally acknowledged as part of the history of the second Gulf War. As opposed to trying to be Katharine Gun. Right now my priorities are to ensure I am there for my daughter.". But George W. Bush did something that, thankfully, Trump hasnt pulled off yet: He took us to war. As I walked down the red carpet, I had never in my life experienced the flash of so many cameras. Her 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. Perhaps they don't trust him to keep his word. She wasnt charged for eight months a gruelling period which is depicted as just a few 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. For several years, just recalling the events would set my heart racing and my hands trembling. 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. I've seen that happen. In fact, I had no idea what was going on. 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. What resonates to me is the somewhat more, I hope, timeless thing. If the email did reach the newspapers, I reasoned, there would be no more than a discreet summary. It is probably still too early to tell. She said, I worry what's going to happen, they'll go, Ooh, I don't know if I like Keira Knightly in blonde hair, what's she done to her nose, does she have glasses on? Because they don't have a comparison to make, until you see her at the end of the movie. 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". Or at least, she could have been. 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. 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. 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. That would be awkward. Us, in any situation, wherever you work, I thought that's what this timeless about it. The point of all of this is painfully obvious. ", Bright noted that apart from some small flourishes to heighten the drama, he didn't think Official Secrets had "any genuine liberties taken with the truth. But my point is simply this: The underpinnings of this country matter. One is kind of what I thought it was, which is the CIA is the Central Intelligence Agency, walled off from politicians and the executive in a perfect world, where all the intelligence comes in, they analyze it and they then present their best intelligence estimates; this is pre-war, youre not at war, to the executive branch. 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. First, I contacted someone to this day Ive never named them who had the details of a journalist and anti-war activist. 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? Gavin Hood: After the spellcheck. 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 also opposed the pending war. And just coming from my perspective, the press, because a lot of this is a story about the press, and how they handle it. 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. And he kept thinking, 'How am I going to portray this? We may earn a commission from these links. Throughout her own court case, what only a few knew was that she was also fighting for In leaking it to the Observer, she was also doing something unprecedented in the history of espionage. You took this job and didnt even know what it was. So, Im not really answering your question well, but her feeling was just: Now I dont belong in this company. "I think part of the reason Gavin included it was just to kind of share that thought process.". This is a special case because this story is very little-known in the United States. Who spoke to the homeland secretary? 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 she then said: 'My way into this is what would I as the unadorned, no-makeup, no-fancy-edges Keira Knightley what would I feel like if this memo landed on my desk?'". "I never aligned myself specifically with the anti-war movement. Whistleblower and former employee of Britain's global surveillance center GCHQ (Government Communications Head Quarters) Katharine Gun smiles as she speaks to the media during a press conference February 25, 2004 in London, England. Gun had, of course, been forced to abandon her career in the civil service As one of the journalists who broke the story, I feel a certain responsibility for how things have turned out. So she said, Can I just do nothing with my hair, put on the jeans like Katharine wore? So the wardrobe is accurate to Katharine's style. This is my second brief moment of fame. You see it most vividly in that scene where everybody stops calling Martin Bright, or they start canceling all the interviews. What did you think was going to happen? Public attention is the last thing you expect if, like me, youd settled for a job in the shadowy world of British intelligence. 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. To tell too much more of the story would spoil the film, but one part of its ending is clear. From nightmares to candy cravings, the seemingly innocuous habits in Man is banned from touching every parking meter in Liverpool for two years after being convicted of theft, Katharine Gun, Gchq Whistleblower For The Mail On Sunday, Do not sell or share my personal information. Twenty-eight, pretty naive. WebGun was followed, denied legal advice and her Turkish husband faced deportation. 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. At first, I heard nothing. WebKatharine Gun wasn't looking for attention or any type of notoriety when in 2003, while working as a British intelligence specialist, she leaked a top secret memo. 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, Don't mention the Iraq war, William Hague tells cabinet, Tenyears on, the case for invading Iraq is still valid, Occupying Iraq: a US army veteran's ambivalence, Howthe Bush administration sold the war and we bought it, the story the paper published 10 years ago this weekend, was arrested, lost her job and faced trial under the Official Secrets Act, collapsed after the prosecution withdrew its evidence. Whether you work for Boeing or Enron or Wallstreet? And I went back in 93 and did another two years with the new Department of Health. So, to find that it would be dramatised on the big screen was as wonderfully welcome as it was astonishing. This is a story about my life and my leak after all, and I still believe in the issues passionately. Hundreds of thousands were killed. She leaked a memo, she thought she'd get away with it, and she faced another one of these little moral dilemmas which was a few days later all her friends were being interrogated. 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. Where do you draw the line? Its Straussian, over the top and pretentious but basically amounts to this. In the runup to the critical vote on war in Iraq, Katharine Gun exposed a US plot to spy on the UN. 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). That means that, in theory, the war could still be classified as an illegal war, Gun says. Do you vote, do you analyze who you should vote for or do you just take it for granted? Gabrielle Bruney is a writer and editor for Esquire, where she focuses on politics and culture. Martin Bright, who is in the movie very briefly I guess, is no longer in journalism as I understand it. The case and the resulting anxiety never seemed far away. 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. I never thought Id be choosing a dress for a red carpet appearance at a major film festival. The other was Coleen Rowley, former FBI special agent and counsel at the Minneapolis bureau, who blew the whistle on FBI and other shortcomings As Bright noted, however, what we see in the movie is close to the real events. So thank you for being here, it means a lot. Over the weekend, I got to work. 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. I got that from Yasar. When my turn came, I entered a small side office, faced the security official and, putting on my best poker face, denied any involvement. It almost started with, well, would I have the courage to do what she did in another setting maybe? They had published not some coded version of events, but the email itself in full. [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.]. Script for Official Secrets time to re-examine the Official Secrets much more of the movie briefly... That 's what this timeless about it above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect views..., I reasoned, there would be normality, but one part of reason! Major film festival most vividly in that scene where everybody stops calling Bright... But one part of the movie but one part of the second Gulf.! 'S what this timeless about it I would have expressed that to any of my colleagues, '' explained... 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