Again, this is before the Iraq War. Ross weighs about 50 kg or 110 lbs. AMY GOODMAN: And it is explosive. A Single Conscience V. the State. 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 . The film stars Matthew Goode, Katherine Kelly, Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes. It seemed like it might be more interesting than some import-export company. So, what did it say and what was your decision-making process? Katherine Ryan's Family. The Man Who Deleted His Past Before He Was Found Dead. The former British intelligence officer leaked a document to the press that announced an illegal NSA spy operation created to convince the UN Security Council to approve the 2003 invasion of Iraq. 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 . You see this headline splashed across the front page. Whistleblowing on wrongdoing is part of that fightback. Gun, outraged by the USA's actions, printed a copy of the email and took it home. She explained that when she was first arrested, her name wasnt released publicly for eight months. Katharine Teresa Gun (ne Harwood) (born 1974) is a British linguist who worked as a translator for the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). And then, one by one, the American networks pulled out. These worries crystalized when GCHQ sent her to San Diego for a conference and she was invited on to an American aircraft carrier. Official Secrets. Katharine Gun : I work at GCHQ. But when she arrived for her trial at the Old Bailey, the prosecution dropped the case with no explanation. In February, Gun attended a demonstration in opposition to the Iraq War. KATHARINE GUN: My husband had absolutely nothing to do with this. GUN: Well, no, I was a recipient alongside about a hundred other recipients of that e-mail. "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. Just put me through. And, sure enough, Frank Koza. That was a good brain moment. BEN EMMERSON: You chose loyalty to your country over loyalty to your government, your marriage and yourself. The original content of this program is licensed under a. We had just come from a press conference with the Iraqi information minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, better known as Comical Ali. In 2003, Katharine Gun, a young specialist working for Britains Government Communications Headquarters, exposed a highly confidential memo that revealed the United States collaboration with Britain in collecting sensitive information on United Nations Security Council members in order to pressure them into supporting the Iraq invasion. I did, rather naively, try calling the press office and getting an interview. Gun is in her forties now and living quietly in Turkey. She was angered by how nonchalant the email was in asking GCHQ to carry out an illegal operation but she didnt know what to do. 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. Yes, I mean, these were, as Martin has suggested, divisive, divided, bitter, difficult times. 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. Katharine Gun is a for mer linguist and analyst at Britain's GCHQ intelligence agency and an Iraq war whistle-blower. today: https://democracynow.org/donateFOLLOW DEMOCRACY NOW! Right here. And I was petrified. "I got into the office, turned on my computer and looked through my emails," says Katharine, more than 16 years later. 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. It was a Friday afternoon. JASMINE: [played by MyAnna Buring] Youre asking me to collude in a breach of the Official Secrets Act. ONLINE:YouTube: http://youtube.com/democracynow Facebook: http://facebook.com/democracynow Twitter: https://twitter.com/democracynowInstagram: http://instagram.com/democracynowSoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/democracynow iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/democracy-now!-audio/id73802554 Daily Email Digest: https://democracynow.org/subscribe It has been suggested that the government was desperate to ensure that documents containing advice about the legality of the war which the defence had requested would not be made public. Ross stands at the height of 5 feet 5 inches or 165 cm tall. Her name is Katharine Gun.Watch Part 1 of this discussion: https://youtu.be/u6n1VFDJ3CY#DemocracyNowDemocracy Now! Yasar Gun is the husband of a British whistleblower, Katharine Gun, who revealed top-secret information. Former British intelligence officer Katharine Gun didnt set out to become a whistle-blower. She revealed the dirty tricks on the UN Iraq war vote to the world. But of course that did not stop the war. Her late husband, Tom, a former special agent of the FBI and one-time head of . MARTIN BRIGHT: The paperthe editorial line was supporting the war, but obviously there were those of us within the paper who didnt. And then, in November, came the call from her lawyer. "Even thinking about it all would cause me anxiety," she says, "but now I am ready." Im Amy Goodman. We're sitting together in a quiet room at the headquarters of human rights organisation Liberty, just around the corner from the streets through which she'd been marching. The following Monday morning, Katharine could immediately tell there was an atmosphere in the office. And they attempt to deport your husband, who is a? "At the back of my mind, the question remained: 'What are they going to do to me? I was very much aware of what the leaders of our countries, Tony Blair and George W. Bush, were saying at the time. I had bought a couple of books which had been rushed into print at that pointone called War Plan Iraq and the other was called Target Iraq. I was convinced that there was nothing Iraq had done [to warrant the invasion]. All I could was this looming war. Target. Well, now Katharine Guns story is being told in the new film Official Secrets, starring Keira Knightley. In November 2002, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1441, which called on Iraq to get rid of chemical and biological weapons and long-range missiles. AMY GOODMAN: Thats the trailer for the new movie Official Secrets, based on the true-life story of whistleblower Katharine Gun. Katharine McPhee shared a sweet snap of her 6-month-old son, Rennie, playing with husband David Foster in the cabin of a private jet. Yasar's wife is a British linguist who worked as a translator for the GCHQ, Government Communications Headquarters. JERRY: [played by Chris Reilly] Hes a Muslim. whistleblower and former specialist for Britains Government Communications Headquarters. I mean, its every journalists dream to have these, you know, front-page splash stories that get followed up around the world. And so, we knew that time was short. Life carried on. We're looking at the real-life political thriller 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. But the difficulty was that it was just words typed on a piece of paper. In Official Secrets, Gun is played by Keira Knightley while Matt Smith takes on the role of Martin Bright. As of 2019, she lived in Turkey with her husband and daughter for several years. I could not get it in the paper. She headed up to Yorkshire and went into hiding, as a media circus descended onto Cheltenham to find her. She was brought up in Taiwan her parents moved there to work when she was three and so was fluent in Mandarin. Katharine Gun's age is listed as 47 years old as of 2021. MARTIN BRIGHT: Was one of the six nations. She is known for having exposed a plan by the US government to spy on the United Nations shortly before a vote concerning America's illegal invasion of Iraq. I was trembling like a leaf. It was an extraordinary moment. It was as it happened. It later emerged that the newspaper was collaborating very, very closely with Tony Blair and his sort of enforcers to keep this kind of thing out of the paper. Hood's film dramatizes events in 2003 and 2004, beginning with British whistleblower Katharine Gun's decision to leak a memo exposing the criminality of the Iraq War and ending with her . That level of pressure, stress and attention took its toll. "And I immediately decided the public should know the lengths the Americans were going to in order to secure legitimacy for this war. And so, I was going crazy. Gun sits down with Christiane to share her story. Eight months later, she was charged with breaking the Official Secrets Act. The following Monday, she walked out of work, a printed copy of the email folded up and hidden in her handbag. And it was a terrible moment when I had to look in my drawer and find it. KATHARINE GUN: Well, they dropped the charges against me. 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.. She had received an email in her inbox asking her and . This is the trailer. The moment she walked out of GCHQ, she was breaking the Official Secrets Act, perhaps committing an act of treason. Because I have processed it now, and Im probably a lot more clear in my thinking, explained Gun, who met with Knightley before filming. "The problem was that I just didn't feel guilty," she tells me. AMY GOODMAN: As the British government says its identified the person who leaked cables that forced out the British ambassador to the United States for calling President Trump inept, we look at the real-life political thriller of a British intelligence specialist who risked everything to blow the whistle on U.S. dirty tricks at the United Nations in the lead-up to the Iraq invasion. Katharine Gun (Katharine Teresa Harwood) was born on 1974 in United Kingdom, is a Linguist. Katharine wonders whether the powers that be just didn't want an ex-GCHQ employee with all she knew to be cross-examined on the stand. This month, a new film Official Secrets, in which she's played by Keira Knightly will be released, telling her story. So, as soon as I was, you knowwell, well get to this, I suppose, but I was arrested. And this was before Isis, which exists, in part, because of events set in train by the war. Ad Choices, In any walk of life, you can choose to do the right thing, whistle-blower Katharine Gun, whom Knightley plays in the film, told, Jimmy Kimmel Roasts Fragile Snowflake Donald Trump for Allegedly Trying to Censor Him, Scene Stealer: The True Lies of Elisabeth Finch, Part 1, Scene Stealer: The True Lies of Elisabeth Finch, Part 2. But were going to go to a break, and then were going to come back to this discussion. Katharine Gun works for British Intelligence, but struggles with the lies governments are telling the public in the run up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. She went home and stewed about the email for the whole weekend. And you said you say that, you know, I didnt join in order to fix a vote in the U.N. to convince the world to go to a war to go to war. Her act of whistle-blowing is portrayed in the recent film Official Secrets . A Chinese translator? He had no regrets whatsoever about removing Saddam. LONDON - FEBRUARY 25: 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. They want to interview Martin Bright, because youve got the story of this memo. But its just because the copy editor ran it through spell check. Now, she was being asked to help get a new war authorised by finding material for the Americans to blackmail and bribe the international community. His wife then took the help of MP Nigel Jones and managed to free him, and gave him the right to stay in the UK. 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.