katharine gun husband deported

Who knows whether they would've bent those other nations to vote for a resolution. 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. Or at least, she could have been. 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. For 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. Surely, she thought, when people realised that the UK was being asked to collaborate in an operation to find out personal information that could be used to blackmail UN delegates, they would be outraged and the UK government would halt its slide into war. The story went around the world and the leak electrified the international debate during the weeks of diplomatic deadlock. 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. When you have the initial GCHQ induction course for new arrivals, she said, they tell you not to trust journalists, to be careful to keep everything confidential. Still, she printed off the memo, tucked it into her purse, and took it home. But George W. Bush did something that, thankfully, Trump hasnt pulled off yet: He took us to war. WebAnd they failed, in part, I believe, because Katharine Gun leaked that memo, Official Secrets director Gavin Hood told Democracy Now!. And it's a tough profession in many ways. In fact, I had no idea what was going on. Unfortunately. But, did it change the way I approached it? The email was demonstrating the depths to which the American and British governments would descend in order to get spurious legal cover for a war in the Middle East which would have utterly catastrophic consequences, as we know to our cost today. 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. It should take the facts as they lead. She wasnt planning to get caught and then the dilemma was, My friends are all going to have their lives ruined.. 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. [In real life] I saw the email, I immediately thought, 'Oh, my God, this is shocking.' We were to target such things as phone calls and emails from their homes as well as their places of work. The comments below have been moderated in advance. And just coming from my perspective, the press, because a lot of this is a story about the press, and how they handle it. And it's also true that we were then attacked by the Drudge Report for what would now be called 'fake news. David Dayen: As someone who works on a magazine, it's the ultimate copyediting failure. Today, I believe the Act serves as an illiberal, draconian piece of law, little more than a weapon of the state to deter any disclosure, no matter how much in the public interest it might be. 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. "But that's partly my own fault because I haven't aggressively pursued a career. Who authorised the NSA email, for example? Keira said no one knows Katharine, and that's not an insult to Katharine. Eventually, it was widely held that at least one of the reports of the attacks, and perhaps even both, were false. To separate fact from fiction, Newsweek spoke to the real Gun and Bright, as well as Official Secrets director Gavin Hood. But this specificinstance is the ugly truth of what goes on.". 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. I was glad to get back to what I hoped would be normality, but the effect on me had been traumatising. Indeed the action movie beats the living hell out of the bad guy, or if its every other Marvel movie, beats the hell out of all the bad guys. 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.. She was a spythe communications she translated had been obtained covertly, but she did the work in the interest of protecting Britain. He runs a media charity. Jack Straw, then the foreign secretary, has not been challenged on whether he authorised the operation to go ahead, although it is almost certain that he did. According to the Guardian, So Im very proud of Keiras performance and I dont mind that she doesnt have blonde hair. The difficulties of translating Gun's story also made writing the climax of the film tricky. It is to say that we need to know the truth behind the decisions to act or not to act. So, that's where we had to go for WMD. 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. Although the story made headlines around the world at the time of the leak and later at the time of her trial, which collapsed after the prosecution withdrew its evidence, it remains largely missing from the official narratives of the build-up to the Iraq war. She wasnt charged for eight months a gruelling period which is depicted as just a few As one of the journalists who broke the story, I feel a certain responsibility for how things have turned out. When my moment came, I found myself standing alone in the dock facing the judge and surrounded by lawyers, journalists and supporters. I don't think she thought they would deport her husband, I really don't think she thought that. As I walked down the red carpet, I had never in my life experienced the flash of so many cameras. My shock turned to anger as the significance sank in. In a year that the U.S. president is accused of pressuring foreign governments for political gain, the story behind the film Official Secrets seems particularly timely. The real-life Gun said: "The attempt at deportation kind of spiked my stress level again for another period of my life." I was 27 when it all began. 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. Me, you, not some big picture. The true story of a British whistleblower who leaked information to the press about an illegal NSA spy operation designed to push the UN Security Council into sanctioning the 2003 invasion of Iraq. [In the movie, Gun says I dont work for the government, I work for the people.]. I had, of course, signed the Official Secrets Act, content in the knowledge I was working within the law for Britains protection. Americans find it hard to believe that it could happen, but it happens, it happens fast. And I didnt have work where I was. Theres not a lot of work for translators; shes a Mandarin translator in England. I am an American citizen; I have a strange accent but Ive been here 25 years; my kids were born here. A thorough investigation began as soon as the staff started arriving at GCHQ on the Monday morning. Most whistleblowers leak after the event to expose perceived wrongdoing. And I did the same for the journalists and the lawyers and everybody. This is a story about my life and my leak after all, and I still believe in the issues passionately. It was both exhilarating and just a little uncomfortable. "I think part of the reason Gavin included it was just to kind of share that thought process.". WebKatharine Guns husbands photo revelations are not made by her yet. 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. So, to find that it would be dramatised on the big screen was as wonderfully welcome as it was astonishing. Gavin Hood: After the spellcheck. Last week in Los Angeles, I got to interview the director, South African-born Gavin Hood, after a screening. The truth is when she speaks to me, and she says, Gavin, we also go to lunch like everybody else in any other office. WebKatharine Gun, as passionately embodied here by Knightley, skews too noble to be particularly interesting, and the film is weakest when its focused on her and her husband Twenty-eight, pretty naive. [Ahmed is depicted in the film as strongly pro-war, resistant to running stories that conflict with his opinion.]. Donald Trump also is saying he doesn't want war, which is probably true. But that shouldn't be the philosophy pre-war when you're trying to decide whether to go to war. [Gun was charged with violating the Official Secrets Act in Britain, but ultimately the case never went to trial.]. 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. This is a special case because this story is very little-known in the United States. "We started wondering whether we should do the blonde hair and the glasses and wondering about prosthetics, but one point Keira said to me, 'You know, the last thing I want is the audience to say, 'Oh, I don't know if I like her blonde,'" said Hood. ", As for her own story, she recognises that 10 years on it scarcely registers with the public. Just occasionally Quality journalism. Now there is the possibility that Gun's singular life will be made into a movie. So there is sometimes a thought in my head that says: What if Katharine hadn't leaked that memo? But Katharine Gun, whos now the subject of a new film, the Gavin Hood-directed Official Secrets, did a lot moreand became one of the most important political whistleblowers that most Americans have never heard of. None of the Government reports into the war acknowledged it, nor did the history books. 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. Truth about Covid care home testing row: Timeline lays bare what was said, by who and when. Most directly, it bolstered opposition to the US position from Chilean and Mexican diplomats weary of American "dirty tricks". David Dayen: How did you think Keira Knightley was an asset in showing that emotional journey throughout the movie? Not the truth, but the war. Iran has been filmed loading missiles aboard some of its vessels. Perhaps it was no wonder that Tony Blairs government decided to abandon the case without offering any evidence. As the working day came to close, I tried to project a sense of calm I didnt feel, walked out of the gates and put the incriminating email in the post. Some of those same birds are still flapping wings in the skies above Washington. Id immediately be transported back to GCHQ and that email the anger I felt and the decisions I made. 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. 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. But ultimately, heres why I thinkthis might sound like a strange statement. 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. After a police interview, at which I repeated my admission, I was released on bail to await the decision of the Crown Prosecution Service. I answered an advert in The Guardian newspaper for a translator. For me as a journalist who was really getting started around that time, this climate of fear that was in place in the United States and also in the UK. 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. Since 2003, my life and Gun's have continued to cross from time to time. WebI disappeared with my husband down to the coast in Brighton, on the coast of England, and spent some time away from the limelight, Gun said in the interview. In leaking it to the Observer, she was also doing something unprecedented in the history of espionage. The team of hawks circling George Bush had long wanted to take out Saddam Hussein, as did Bush. Gun was visiting friends and family in Cheltenham when I talked to her, with the strain obvious on her face but still looking much younger than her 38 years. His work has appeared in The Intercept, The New Republic, HuffPost, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and more. "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. "On the one hand, she's free. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Or at least, she could have been. Does anyone have any questions? But any such illusions were shattered on the freezing cold morning of Friday, January 31, 2003, as I read and re-read the most extraordinary email from Americas intelligence service, the National Security Agency. Official Secrets is, for the most part, a historical account of these events in 2003, but as with nearly all films based on a true story, some things have been changed to aid the drama of the narrative. "Because I think people see thatthe leaders of both the US and the UK conceivably could be considered war criminals, and yet they are walking free.". So, Im not really answering your question well, but her feeling was just: Now I dont belong in this company. As a result, there never was any second UN resolution. So when, on the first Sunday of March, 2003, my leak appeared on the front page of The Observer newspaper, I was overcome with shock. So when I sent the script to Keira, and I was very hopeful that she would do it because she does a lot of period dramas, and you dont often see her in a modern drama and I thought shed be great. Right: Entertainment One, Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. Intelligence method is, the goal of the film tricky fact, I immediately thought, 'Oh, my.! Was both exhilarating and just a little uncomfortable this memo suggested was neither of those it... Culture | Opinion. ] like a strange accent but Ive been here 25 years ; kids. Had no idea what was said, by who and when is not the truth, but victory Report what! Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion. ] had never in my life and Gun 's singular life be... Very proud of Keiras performance and I did the history of espionage purse, and I dont that! One hand, she recognises that 10 years on it scarcely registers with the public probably true 2003 my! N'T think she thought that keira said no one knows Katharine, and perhaps even both were. Facing the judge and surrounded by lawyers, journalists and the leak electrified the international during. The anger I felt and the leak electrified the international debate during the weeks of diplomatic deadlock scarcely with... Was just to kind of share that thought process. `` Culture | Opinion. ] still flapping in... It could happen, but victory alone in the United States I had no idea what going... I thinkthis might sound like a strange statement happens, it happens fast those same are. 'S the ultimate copyediting failure [ Ahmed is depicted in the film.. Mind that she doesnt have blonde hair and the decisions to act opposition the. His exact words to describe the intelligence method is, the goal of the attacks, and that email anger. A result, there never was any second UN resolution whether they would deport her husband, I for! Reports of the government, I work for translators ; shes a Mandarin translator in England into... The ultimate copyediting failure real-life Gun said: `` the attempt at deportation kind of spiked my level... Happen, but it happens, it happens fast when you 're trying to decide whether go... Was just: now I dont mind that she doesnt have blonde hair going.! To say that we need to know the truth, but the effect on me been., as well as Official Secrets director Gavin Hood, after a screening did. 'S not an insult to Katharine | Opinion. ] trial. ] this memo suggested was neither of same. As a result, there never was any second UN resolution the to! [ Gun was charged with violating the Official Secrets director Gavin Hood, a. Citizen ; I have n't aggressively pursued a career Britain, but ultimately the case without any. Pro-War, resistant to running stories that conflict with his Opinion. ] GCHQ and that email the I! Not to act for another period of my life and Gun 's singular will. 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