what happened to katharine gun husband

Do you think shed meet with me? Because I think we were both a little skeptical of each other. [5] While at work at GCHQ on 31 January 2003, Gun read an email from Frank Koza, the chief of staff at the "regional targets" division of the American signals intelligence agency, the National Security Agency.[7]. And I managed to get through to his assistant. A film, Official Secrets, has been made of her story. We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work. (modern). AMY GOODMAN: And then what happened? It was in a police cell that she uttered those two sentences that now seem to define the person she was and is. And so he went to Elizabeth and had a cup of tea, as you do in England. And I justI just determined to deny it. Truth has a habit of finding a voice, however. After competing in the singing competition, she launched an acting career and was . Iraq war whistleblower Katharine Gun: Truth always matters. Woman who tried to stop a war. Official Secrets, directed by Gavin Hood, is the third in a loose trilogy of political . Much of the news desk was opposed. The film stars Ma. I wonder what she made of the scattershot download methods of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange? We know this because Katharine Gun leaked a short 300-word NSA memo on this shortly before the invasion. And I was tasked to set up a website to look into this. to your inbox each morning. I ended up, bizarrely, teaching a couple of my former colleagues at GCHQ. There was a feeling ofas what you felt, Ed, in this case, yeah. If you are a journalist, check and double-check your sources. In a way, President Trump has been a gift for the previous president, George W. Bush, because it has really rehabilitated his reputation. These were, as I said before, bitter times. KATHARINE GUN: Well, OK, I know I was guilty in the facts of the matter. He was Kurdishhe is Kurdish. Our Daily Digest brings Democracy Now! MARTIN BRIGHT: OK, youre making me feel really bad about going to work for him now. What were your thoughts then? Get Democracy Now! AMY GOODMAN: They said you could have pled. My childhood friend, for example, I remember hearing her father was on a blacklist because he had been agitating for the opposition. [5] In 1993 she began studying Japanese and Chinese at Durham University. Were on the set. When asked by Salon how it felt to see a famous actress act out her life for an audience . Don't let 'the intelligence and the facts be fixed around the policy' this time. Democracy Now! But he certainly was suggesting that people would know. But it was, yeah, a moment of great humility, actually. Gun was defended by Alex Bailin KC. AMY GOODMAN: And the U.S. is still in Iraq. The day before the trial, Gun's defence team had asked the government for any records of legal advice about the lawfulness of the war that it had received during the run-up to the war. So I saw people going in and coming out and going in and coming out. But, you know, these things happen. The film captures well the inspired and stubborn efforts of Bright (Matt Smith in the movie), and colleagues Ed Vulliamy (played with brio by Rhys Ifans) and Peter Beaumont (played by Matthew Goode), to stand the story up, based on the few details it betrayed, and to get it into the paper, despite the strong misgivings of the political desk. Bright has also been closely involved with the film. There are lots of loose ends here still. I am currently reading a book about how to blow the whistle. We are defending ourselves. I could not get it in. So, in the film, when the director of public prosecutions says to Ben Emmerson, trying to wiggle out of it, Listen, it wasnt my decision to prosecute. Thats actually true. whistleblower and former specialist for Britains Government Communications Headquarters. KATHARINE GUN: Yeah, I was very excited to meet Keira in London before they started shooting. Starring Kiera Knightley, Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, and Ralph Fiennes in pivotal roles, the film is one of the more accurate cinematic explorations of real-life instances. Gun thinks she might speak out more considering the current state of political affairs and massive citizen involvement in sociopolitical issues. Koza's email requested aid in a secret operation to bug the United Nations offices of six nations: Angola, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea, and Pakistan. And whats so marvelous about what Gavins done is to just sort of bring this back into the present. The Observer team in a scene from the film, with Matt Smith, front, as home affairs editor Martin Bright. GAVIN HOOD: What she discovers saysis a request from the NSA to GCHQ to hack, bug the private communications and the office communications of U.N. Security Council members, in particular the nonpermanent members, the more junior members. . Attempts were made by the authorities to deport her husband, who grew disillusioned with Britain. Good for him. You have the Iraq War continuing today, 16 years after George W. Bush, knowing there were not weapons of mass destruction, invades Iraq with Britain. KATHARINE GUN: It was GCHQ internal security, yeah. Later, he stands by her as the many intricacies and dangers of his wifes profession and act of bravery surface. [5], Gun graduated with an upper second-class degree, then took a job as an assistant English teacher with the JET program in Hiroshima, Japan. Soon after, they moved to Turkey in 2011, and for the most part, the family has stayed away from the public . I think our problem now, and I think this applies on both sides of the Atlantic, is that we have populist politicians for whom that doesnt matter. She then went on to get a Masters degree in Global Ethics. And I dont know how authentic it appeared to the person interviewing me, but I just felt terrible. In 2003, Gun was working as a translator of Mandarin at the government intelligence agency, GCHQ, in Cheltenham. AMY GOODMAN: That was 2014. Some of the information that would have been revealed at her trial, in particular Lord Goldsmiths conflicting arguments as to the legality of the invasion, did not fully emerge until the publication of the report of the Chilcot inquiry in 2016. Plead out. AMY GOODMAN: Katharine, has your 11-year-old daughter seen the film? We thought that maybe it would be a security expert who had got wind of this, or someone, I mean, relatively senior within GCHQ who was worried about what was going on, and, you know. You think everyone sees on your face that youre the leaker. And all of a sudden his safe, you know, this civil servant wife is in a whole lot of bother that he never expected to have to deal with. Keira Knightley as Katharine Gun in the film Official Secrets. Keira Knightley plays Katharine Gun in the film Official Secrets (Photo: eOne) Now living quietly in Turkey, Gun has been thrust into the global spotlight once again . Although Katharine Gun returned to the public eye in 2019 for the promotional press events for Official Secrets, she has largely retreated from the medias gaze since. He would have had to have the authority of Lord Goldsmith to prosecute. The little-told story of British intelligence whistleblower Katharine Gun leaves a trail of unanswered questions worth probing, even 16 years later, . At the time, Katharine Gun was working for Britains Government Communications Headquarters, known as GCHQ. "[12] In May 2019 The Guardian stated the case was dropped "when the prosecution realised that evidence would emerge that even British government lawyers believed the invasion was unlawful. And a fireman does that if he bashes your house down to get to you. And so, I immediately went home, and Iand at the time, actually, well, my dad was staying with me, because it was Chinese New Year, and he was back from Taiwan, and he was supporting me, so he was at home. Well, if Bush and Blair could have got a U.N. resolution, they would have had perfect cover for going to Iraq without having to bring up the WMD, the weapons of mass destruction, argument, because the whole weapons of mass destruction argument is the self-defense, that they needed a legalyou know, you do want to be going to war legally. And Ben comes up with this idea. I mean, my initial encounter with him at the Faith Foundation was extremely concerning, in fact, because he said that what he wanted me to do was develop a heat map, you know, an interactive map of all the madrassas, you know, Islamic schools, around the world, with my tiny team of two or three interns, showingand he looked me in the eye, and he said, I want you to be ableI want people who are looking on our website to be able to see how radical those madrassas are, by color coding.. And the potential chink in the Official Secrets Act we had found, which could have become a defence for others, the defence of necessity [of speaking up to save imminent danger to life], it wasnt tested in court.. Ahead of a new film, Official Secrets, the GCHQ worker who tried to prevent the 2003 invasion of Iraq recalls those feverish days and their consequences Keira Knightley on playing whistleblower Katharine Gun: Iraq was the first time Id been politically engaged. Katharine Gun (ne Harwood), 47, is married to Yasar Gn, a Turkish Kurd, with whom she has a 13-year old daughter. GAVIN HOOD: They failed. MARTIN BRIGHT: Well, I mean, I think at that time, you knowwe knew, I suppose, by that point, that our paths were destined to cross. Gun was charged for exposing around the time of Colin Powell's infamous testimony to the UN about Iraq's alleged WMDs a top-secret U.S. government memo showing it was mounting an . MARTIN BRIGHT: this was the real deal. And if you are working in government, make sure that you are really clued up about what is going on, and think very hard where your responsibility lies.. In a BBC interview with Jeremy Paxman, she said that she had not raised the matter with staff counsellors as she "honestly didn't think that would have had any practical effect". [2] In 2003, she leaked top-secret information to The Observer, concerning a request by the United States for compromising intelligence on diplomats from member states of the 2003 Security Council. Copy may not be in its final form. Gun is grimly amused to see his current return to the moral high ground over Brexit. "That story" concerns British whistleblower Katharine Gun, played by Keira Knightley in a film that premiered at Sundance festival in January.Fluent in Mandarin, the 28-year-old Gun was . You know, youre not waiting for someone for hours in makeup. Shes out. And towards the end of the Q&A session, an elderly gentleman put up his hand and said, Im very interested in the issue of Frank Koza. Maybe? 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. AMY GOODMAN: So you just thought this was routine. [14] On the day of the court hearing, Gun said, "I'm just baffled in the 21st century we as human beings are still dropping bombs on each other as a means to resolve issues. Enter Katharine Gun. I would love to know. And they had already taken him down into the custody suite, which is, by the way, where I had been before, Gun revealed. And nor did the story end. What's more, her decision and movement to expose lies about the Iraq invasion made it be titled as the courageous and vital leak as per Democracy Now. And they attempt to deport your husband, who is a? Few are aware that her husband had also been thrown into troubled waters when Gun blew the lid off the alleged spy efforts in 2003. ", "US plan to bug Security Council: the text", "Let's free the Official Secrets Act from its cold war freeze | Alex Bailin", "Leaking or briefing? But as we said last night, this is the purpose of Albert Camuss great story La Peste, when Dr. Rieux is given the child dying of plague. In the very typical British manner, we just pretended we had never met, she recalled. Please do your part today. AMY GOODMAN: And when did that come out? No, Gun replied, steadily. KATHARINE GUN: Yeah. You know, I mean, once itsif you plead guilty and you go away for three months, and its, you know, maybe not so bad as going away for two years, but still I would have had a record. My GCHQ career obviously came to an end. That is a tricky question, she says. And I went back to Martin. Keira Knightley: Iraq was the first time Id been politically engaged, Leaking or briefing? They may have chosen to push those boundaries, but they did know the difference, and they knew that it mattered if they were caught. KATHARINE GUN: So, on Wednesday morning, I called in sick. . That accountability is key. This is Democracy Now! I denied it. It doesnt matter if you catch them out in a lie, because they dont care, because they lie as a matter of course, and they change what they say from day to day. And through the lights, I couldnt quite see who the guy was. Katharine Gun was a young specialist working for Britains Government Communications Headquarters when she exposed a highly confidential memo that revealed the United States was working with the United Kingdom to collect sensitive information on United Nations Security Council members in order to pressure them into supporting the Iraq invasion. There is a small group of us, she says. And yeah, it was, AMY GOODMAN: And what did you think, whenbefore you had seen Katharine and met her, what did you imagine she would be like, this young woman, 27-year-old woman of conscience, who. The movie tells the story of Katharine Gun (played by Keira Knightley), a translator with the U.K.'s GCHQ who, in 2003, leaked top secret documents to journalist Martin Bright (Matt Smith) that . GAVIN HOOD: Ben Emmerson. KATHARINE GUN: Mm-hmm. MARTIN BRIGHT: I have an abiding interest in the link between religion and conflict. Authorities had attempted to deport Yasar back to the Middle East. GAVIN HOOD: These are representatives at the U.N.. And so, a lot, a lot later. You know, the conservative estimates are 125,000 up to a million. Yes, in 2003, Gun was working for British intelligencethat's . You know, I felt totally at ease in her company. And so, but theres another irony about the position of the attorney general, which is, the director of public prosecutions in Britain generally has real autonomy in deciding what cases to prosecute, except in cases of the Official Secrets Act, when he or she must get the authorization of the attorney general to prosecute. You know, I felt vindicated. Hes repackaged himself as sort of the European. March 29, 2023 Posted by is vimto squash good for you; We didnt talk about politics much. AMY GOODMAN: And your feelings at that time, Katharine? They knew the difference between truth, lies and propaganda. She urged "those in a position to do so to disclose information which relates to this planned aggression; legal advice, meetings between the White House and other intelligence agencies, assessments of Iran's threat level (or better yet, evidence that assessments have been altered), troop deployments and army notifications. Gun told Bright in 2013, "There seems to be this blas attitude - the spying goes on . A New Film Tells Her Story, 15 Years Later: How U.K. Whistleblower Katharine Gun Risked Everything to Leak a Damning Iraq War Memo, Links to news stories (20032006) about Katharine Gun, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Katharine_Gun&oldid=1149317616, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2020, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2019, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 11 April 2023, at 13:29. It cost Gun, who now lives in Turkey with her husband and daughter, her job. Some journalist needs to go and have a hardcore interview with Lord Goldsmith. Katharine Gun (ne Harwood), 47, is married to Yasar Gn, a Turkish Kurd, with whom she has a 13-year old daughter. AMY GOODMAN: And what did you tell Katharine at that time? And we worked five, six hours every day. Her whistleblowing was not enough to change the path of history, of course, and her last-gasp act of courage was all but forgotten in the brutal shock and awe of war. So, Lord Goldsmith decides to prosecute Katharine Gun. We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work. We pay respect by giving voice to social justice, acknowledging our shared history and valuing the cultures of First Nations. Her upbringing later led her to describe herself as a "third culture kid". Read More: Is Official Secrets a True Story? Ralph Fiennes plays Ben Emmerson. At the time, as I well remember, the paper was split in response to the talk of war. You authorized her prosecution. Counted amongst the likes of Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, and John Kiriakou is Katharine Gun, a whistleblower whose actions revealed the shocking underbelly of international politics and also inspired a big-budget movie that introduced many to the issue. 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. is a 501(c)3 non-profit news organization. Protesters against the invasion of Iraq, February 2003. The difference, I think, is that hereand your program and your viewers are testimony to thisyou have an opposition. And yet this rather shy 30-year-old leaked details of an alleged plot to bug UN delegates before the Iraq war and was sacked from her . MARTIN BRIGHT: No, it was the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. As Coordinator for Shalom Mission Communities, a peace church fellowship near the southern border, Joel, his wife, Anali, and their new baby girl, Daniela Bea, are actively helping . 4 4.Katharine Gun: Ten years on what happened to the woman who 5 5.Iraq War Whistle Blower Katharine Gun Shares Her Story | Video - PBS; 6 6.GCHQ whistleblower Katharine Gun speaks out | Daily Mail Online; 7 7.15 Years Later: How U.K. Whistleblower Katharine Gun - YouTube; 8 8.Katharine Gun & Martin Bright Interview - Official . So, of course, it was justyou know, he was kind of thinkinghe knew I worked for the intelligence services, but he didnt know what that was. Yes and no. But I wasnt thinking about myself really. And he says, I need toso, Im interviewing Ben in a pizza shop, right? Why did you choose to do this film? Gun was outraged by the email, and took a printed copy of it home with her. AMY GOODMAN: Now, he goes in for a regular check-in. Now, what we were doing when we were breaking this story was we were attempting to show that our governments had lied to us. Explain what happened at the Q&A, Martin. [5] Less than a week after the Observer story, on Wednesday 5 March, Gun confessed to her line manager at GCHQ that she had leaked the email, and was arrested. In an interview with Democracy Now!, Gun explained, After they charged me, thats when they tried to deport my husband. He didnt know I had leaked this memo. I wish wed pushed it harder with the boss class within The Observer. You know, in the end, there was a feeling, I think, whatI know that Katharine and I have talked about this a lot. And at some point, with great respect to Lord Goldsmith, he caves. 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. And that mattered, because, for all their faults, it seems to me that Tony Blair and George Bush understood that if they were caught out in a lie, that was a problem for them. You were just waiting. AMY GOODMAN: Were you actually in the car with him, waiting for him to go in for his check-in? Don't worry, we won't share or sell your information. GAVIN HOOD: Well, its interesting you say that, because one of things Keira said to me that drew her to the script was, first of all, that she didnt have to wear a corset, because she does all these period dramas. One foundered for lack of funds, another strayed further from the truth than she would have liked. Before I knew it, I had spent two hours researching Katharine. I wanted to go to the making of the filmKeira Knightley, did you meet with her?and also ask you, Gavin, about Keira taking on this role. Most people do. No need for weapons of mass destruction arguments. Starring Elle Fanning in the title role, the show follows the rise of Catherine as she arrives in Russia as a teenager, naively excited for her arranged wedding night with Peter III (Nicholas . [24] In July 2019, in a lengthy interview on the US program Democracy Now!, Gun, Gavin Hood (the film's director), and Martin Bright and Ed Vulliamy (the journalists who broke the story of the leaked memo) discussed the events that the film describes. In fact, Iyou know, I couldnt bear to watch the scenes. KATHARINE GUN: Actually, time-wise, I was bailed for eight months. I mean, we certainly did meet in the courthouse. So I was bailed until November, when they charged me. MARTIN BRIGHT: Yes, we had a great, a dramatic moment at the Q&A session. Now, Martin, at this point, youve defended your story. But my closest friends stuck by me.. So, 600,000 Iraqi people died. Gavin Hoods 2019 film Official Secrets is the thrilling political drama that explores the events that followed British linguist Guns 2003 media leak. I was called up on Tuesday. Katharine 'Kay' Griggs knows what it's like to have a gun pointed in her face. So, of course, I was a little bit sort of reserved. So give us the nutthe nutshell description of this story. I heard things that stuck. Zooey Zephyr, Montanas First Trans Lawmaker, Speaks Out After Being Banned & Silenced by Republicans, Rising Tide of Fascism: Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones Warns of GOPs Growing Embrace of Authoritarianism, Courage Is Contagious: Zooey Zephyr & Justin Jones on the GOPs Silencing of State Lawmakers, Provocative & Dangerous: Biden to Send Nuclear-Armed Subs to South Korea as Activists Demand Peace, Oklahoma Parole Board Denies Clemency for Richard Glossip, Rejecting Plea from State Attorney General. Then we see her become this woman who's starting to really know herself and starting to try and identify her own feminine being and trying to find her own place in the boardroom as a woman, as an entity, as a sister and . There are plenty of opportunities here for other journalists to take up the baton and find out what really happened. Im going, No, II dont. He said, Just google Katharine Gun and official secrets. So I googled official secrets Katharine Gun, becausethe title of our film comes from the Official Secrets Act, which is what she breached when she leaked the memo. The love between Katharine and her husband, Yasar Gun, is undeniable, and the punishment they must to endure together is heart stopping. Whats the defense? Who is her husband? MARTIN BRIGHT: Well, they didnt even say why. GAVIN HOOD: And then, for five days, I interviewed Katharine and just made notes. Guns words will, in the coming weeks finally receive the much wider audience they deserve. [5] While waiting to hear whether she would be charged, Gun embarked on a postgraduate degree course in global ethics at the University of Birmingham. 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 . Just occasionally Gun is invited to speak at conferences organised by the likes of accuracy.org or VIPS (the Veterans Intelligence Professionals for Sanity). But, you know, it. Lets find out! AMY GOODMAN: The horror of what you did not succeed in preventing, though, which was the deaths of so many in Iraq, and that continues today, but you certainly touched the conscience of not just the nation, but the world, in what you did, talking about what womanwhat one woman could do. [23] Daniel Ellsberg praised the swiftness and importance of Gun taking action, saying it was in some ways more significant than his own whistleblowing on the Vietnam War. We thought maybe it would be some crusty old senior guy from a rival agency. You know, my initial instinct was Ive got to remain anonymous. In April 2020, Gun was set to appear as a speaker at the 14th edition of the International Journalism Festival, but the event was canceled in February of the same year due to COVID-19. Photo: Kevin RC Wilson. I mean, this has been going on for a number of years, and it always sort of ended up kind of petering out, so, GAVIN HOOD: Other people had approached you before. Why did you come in? Katharine Gun outside the Old Bailey after charges had been dropped against her, 2004. Now, the defense of necessity is usually used in very more simple circumstances. When you think, Oh, well, I wish we tried hard with the Americanwith our American colleagues. And nor do newspaper stories. This is her story. This is viewer supported news. Look at those bombs falling on Baghdad. AMY GOODMAN: No, you thought it was routine when he walked in. According to evidence, he woke up during the attack but could not fight her off. KATHARINE GUN: No, I felt a huge sense of relief after I had, you know, confessed. And, you know, he had nothing on him. I ended up, bizarrely, teaching a couple of my former colleagues at GCHQ. And you said in places like Chile. Oh, yeah. (In fact, those -our and -ise endings had been introduced by an Observer editorial assistant, innocently following house style guidelines as she copied out the memo into the system.) The Case Against Mary Katherine Higdon 43:11. He gets more and more pressure from Blair. So, you get this memo. Im on the whole a fairly shy person, she confessed in an interview. The second act of the movie is concerned with the internal newspaper politics of that decision. [6] Gun had previously been unaware of GCHQ, later saying that "I didn't have much idea about what they didI was going into it pretty much blind. I wanted to stop bombs dropping on Iraq., The consequences have been damaging not just for Guns career. Gun splits her time between Turkey and Britain. And we had to sit and wait for two hours while they winged it down from London. AMY GOODMAN: Were going to leave it there, and I want to thank you all so much for being with us, Katharine Gun, the whistleblower; Observer journalists at the time, Martin Bright and Ed Vulliamy; and Gavin Hood, who is the director of Official Secrets, the story of Katharine Gun revealing the lies that led to the Iraq War on both sides of the ocean, in Britain and the United States, and led to so many deaths. MARTIN BRIGHT: We didI tell you what, though, we did feel that we had failed. What I did is a very unusual thing to do, because the results are not generally good. You get pulled over. You know, lets say Iyoure a bit of a gambler, arent you? Ed Vulliamys character, played by Rhys Ifans in the film, says, you know, he effing caved at the time when his country needed him most. How many times has she seen the film now? Is that when you both met? This is a rush transcript. [20] After the charges against her were dropped in 2004, she found it difficult to find a new job. [5] After contemplating the email over the weekend, Gun gave the email to a friend who was acquainted with journalists. For the American gamer, see, Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, United Nations Security Council and the Iraq War, "Whistleblowerin Katharine Gun - "Ich frchtete, sie knnten meine Gedanken lesen", "The US spymaster, the whistleblower, and the secret email she exposed", "Profile: Katherine Gun, Iraq war wistleblower", "Katharine Gun: Ten years on what happened to the woman who revealed dirty tricks on the UN Iraq war vote? You dont know who the GCHQ person is. Watching the film was like watching a case that was very similar to my own: Katharine Gun, photographed last month in Durham. A very good book by Britains most decorated journalist, called Nick Davies, called Flat Earth Newsits about the British press, but it applies everywhererealized that actually the then-editors of our paper were effectively accountable to the Tony Blair enforcement machine. And really, you know, she had so many questions for me, and she really genuinely wanted to know about the whole situation. And so, we talked about motherhood and all sorts of things, but I was just so impressed with how intelligent she was and how incisive she was in getting to the crux of the matter. The implosion continues. KATHARINE GUN: No, nothing atwell, they said they were arresting me on suspicion of breaking the Official Secrets Act. That whole period undermined the judicial process, it undermined the parliamentary process, and it undermined the media and press and the intelligence service. We are all of us living, she believes, with the consequences of that. But then I thought, Well, no, I just cant go on calling in sick. So I went in, and my manager said, you know, Katharine, you look dreadful. Considering the support it has received from its central character and the journalist who helped get the story published, 'Official Secrets' is an accurate dive into the events that happened.

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