Now the public knew. Tell us the moment. KATHARINE GUN: Youre putting me on the spot now. The AFI Life Achievement recipient discusses her most memorable filmsand what moviegoers actually misremember. Ross stands at the height of 5 feet 5 inches or 165 cm tall. KNIGHTLEY: Governments change. On the night of the 19th of March, 2003, the bombs began to fall. Katharine was amongst them. She saw a newspaper advert for GCHQ. That meant winning over temporary members of the Council, countries such as Angola, Bulgaria, Chile and Mexico. I think that speaks rather highly of you. But were going to go to a break, and then were going to come back to this discussion. . I was in Baghdad at the time, watching live coverage of the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, arguing for a second resolution at the UN. On Tuesday, it was her turn to be questioned. But it seemed inevitable. Katharine Gun explains how she exposed a plot by U.S. security officials to spy on United Nations members in 2003. She was arrested and held at the police station in Cheltenham for 24 hours before being bailed. Even before the invasion, she suspected that the US was cooking up intelligence about Iraqi WMD. The email wasnt even meant for her. I went with Blair on his last visit to Iraq as prime minister, in 2007. She is played (with simmering intensity) by Keira Knightley. Katharine's house was searched before she was sat down to be interviewed the following morning. 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. GUN: Well, no, I was a recipient alongside about a hundred other recipients of that e-mail. And so we had at least that. KATHARINE GUN: Detective, I dont object to being asked to collect information that could help prevent a terror attack. Her late husband, Tom, a former special agent of the FBI and one-time head of . Bush had agreed to this to help Blair. In bugging, in spying on, in eavesdropping, wiretapping, whatever? And your memo, that you had leaked, was right front and center. And whereas usually with a whistleblower, you would work very closely with them directly, Katharine didnt come to me. Gun is in her forties now and living quietly in Turkey. "It felt like the protests were what would stop the war," she says. You walk in. 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.Or at least, she could have been. Were going to do Part 2, and were going to post it online at democracynow.org, to talk about thesethe courage Katharine Gun had in revealing this information, and then what this means for whistleblowers today and for U.S.-British policy today. http://bit.ly/HeyUGuysYTSubFacebook http://facebook.com/HeyUGuysInstagram http://instagram.com/HeyUGuysOfficial--------------------- Copy may not be in its final form. It is tough for me to be in the public domain againbut I felt like it was a good thing. And I said, you know, So, what is this? And at the time, The Observer newsroom wasand The Observer itself was split, because some people supported the war, some people didnt. I didnt know why, but I was going nuts. And so, I was going crazy. This was thought crucial to help Blair and his government survive a no-confidence motion in the House of Commons. She believes that her leak probably finished off the second resolution, turning Chile and Mexico against it. We still dont know, to this day, why they did that. It was as it happened. 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. And I went home and thought about it over the weekend. It seemed like it might be more interesting than some import-export company. This Shouldnt Happen: Inside the Virus-Hunting Nonprofit at the Center of the Lab-Leak Controversy, Chasing scientific renown, grant dollars, and approval from Dr. Anthony Fauci, Peter Daszak transformed the environmental nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance into a government-funded sponsor of risky, cutting-edge virus research in both the U.S. and Wuhan, China. And Rhys Ifans plays the outraged insanity rather well, to my embarrassment, but he does a good job. What were you employed to do? We had at least a name. Theyd already escorted him down to the custody suite and begun the process. Theyre one of Hollywoods brightest starsand most troubled actors. You know, I thought it was something that people needed to know about, because it was basically exposing what was going on behind the scenes and the fact that, you know, all the flowery words that they used in front of the cameras about doing everything diplomatically was a sham. The film stars Ma. Martin faced potential charges too. And so, all the header information that you would usually have was not there. Gun believed that this would be illegal, a breach of the Vienna Convention governing diplomatic relations. AMANPOUR: OK. The film stars Matthew Goode, Katherine Kelly, Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes. Wise man. But, in 2003, when she came across an email suggesting that the United States and the U.K . TINTIN: You gather information from peoples phones and computers, and you feed that to your clients. AMY GOODMAN: I mean, the paper had come out supporting the war. '", Meanwhile, the war in Iraq had already started. All I could was this looming war. Katherine is the eldest of three sisters. JUDGE HYAM: [played by Kenneth Cranham] Katharine Teresa Gun, youre charged with an offense of the Official Secrets Act. Katharine Gun (Katharine Teresa Harwood) was born on 1974 in United Kingdom, is a Linguist. After the meeting, the Brits and the Americans shook hands on the tarmac and walked to their planes. AMY GOODMAN: That was a clip from Official Secrets. And it was a terrible moment when I had to look in my drawer and find it. Between the worlds greatest democracy and a murderous dictatorship, it seemed easy to know whom to believe. 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 . What Really Happened During the Making of. Watch our livestream 8-9AM ET: https://democracynow.orgPlease consider supporting independent media by making a donation to Democracy Now! 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. Katharine Gun worked as an analyst for Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the British equivalent of the secretive U.S. National Security Agency. She has then attributed to being a huge source of information to the medias watch. Katharine Gun speaks out for 'Official Secrets'. Nerves tingling, she went home. GAVIN HOOD: So, yes, tremendous amount of pressure coming down on these countries, because if Blair and Bush had been able to get that U.N. resolution for the invasion, the weapons of mass destruction issue would have been almost pretty much irrelevant, because theres two legal ways to go to war. And . You know, look at me. Almost a decade ago, the world was gripped with anxiety as it watched the legal proceedings against a young Se. "He said, 'It was a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Gunn, I'm just sorry it was under these circumstances. It stunned Katharine Gun at the time she discovered this duplicity during her work at GCHQ, and it still stuns to see it displayed on the screen, especially actual news reports from the period. I talked to a couple of colleagues about it, about even taking it to the editor, because you dont want to take a half-baked story to your editor, particularly at the time of intense prewar preparation. The highly confidential memo revealed the United States was collaborating with Britain in collecting sensitive information on United Nations Security Council members in order to pressure them into supporting the Iraq invasion. It wasnt, of course, but hindsight and history may end up judging Guns decisions more kindly than Bushs or Blairs. However, the two really got to know each other on the set of a horror movie called "The Legacy" in 1978. AMY GOODMAN: So, you call Ed, and you say, Can you track down this guy? Among many other things. The British governments own lawyers were afraid that without specific UN authorization, the war might be illegal; British soldiers could even be prosecuted for war crimes. Only a select number of people had received the communication, and GCHQ were going to want to know who'd blown the whistle. She'd been reading up on the preparations being made for a US-led invasion and wasn't convinced by the arguments; images of the first Gulf War she'd seen in her teenage years had forever been seared onto her mind. AMY GOODMAN: The guy at the NSA. This is Democracy Now! She was sitting at her computer in GCHQ when an email arrived from one Frank Koza, chief of staff at the regional targets division of the US National Security Agency. I filed that story seven times to The Observer. As he spoke at the base, a volley of mortars came in. What was the headline? Let us learn more about the duo and where they are currently. MARTIN BRIGHT: Well, but only with a story that you know is true. MARTIN BRIGHT: The top had been ripped off of the memo. We had no idea where it had come from. With the emotional adventure of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever closing out the controversial fourth, Minor spoilers ahead. And it was. Some of it was to do with complications over an unfortunate spell check within the memo. Powell span a story of mobile biological weapons factories in trucks and intercepted radio messages about chemical weapons already deployed in the field. The 1967 film Guess Whos Coming to Dinner starred Sidney Poitier and Katharine Houghton as a ne, As the open-hearted matriarch Hattie Mae in Tyler Perrys 2022 film A Jazzmans Blues, Amirah Vann demonstrates a great tenderness and fierce love to b, This story includes spoilers for Saint Omer. On 5 March Gun confessed to leaking the plot and was arrested for violating the Official Secrets Act. I do not gather intelligence so that the government can lie to the British people. After the incident, Katharine struggled to find work, and her husband had grown disillusioned with Britain and then . In the movie "Official Secrets," the character called Katharine Gun, who is played by Keira Knightley, actually discusses this memo with colleagues at GCHQ. Your email address will not be published. TINTIN: You eavesdrop on private conversations. When Gun exposed that the U.S. and U.K. wanted information on United Nations diplomats to persuade the vote on the invasion of Iraq, George W. Bush was President of the United States and Tony Blair was the British Prime Minister of the U.K. Guns information affected Blairs politics and government at the time, but he has seemingly recovered from the incident. It was directed by Gavin Hood and the cast comprises Matt Smith, Indira Varma, Rhys Ifans, MyAnna Buring, Jack Farthing, Jeremy Northam, Tamsin Grieg and Conleth Hill. And my husband Yasar was still in bed. And I knew that I needed help. It isn't a crime, it's a responsibility.". In his memoir of office, Decision Points, George W. 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