The issue is provocation. Gun had, of course, been forced to abandon her career in the civil service These superheroes, and I don't just mean superheroes in the movie sense, but larger-than-life big political figures, or Edward Snowden is almost mythical in his brilliance whether you like what he did or not, he is sort of not me. 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. Ive already lost a dear friend, and I cant do thisget called up two months of the year, every year, for the next 12 years. We need another Katharine Gun. Perhaps they don't trust him to keep his word. David Dayen is the Prospects executive editor. So Im very proud of Keiras performance and I dont mind that she doesnt have blonde hair. Sixteen years ago, I became headline news after I leaked an internal email from GCHQ, the communications intelligence gathering centre near Cheltenham. 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. She wasnt charged for eight months a gruelling period which is depicted as just a few It almost started with, well, would I have the courage to do what she did in another setting maybe? 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. Her husband said its a job, its just a goddamn job, I work at a caf. If it was, who cleared it to be passed to GCHQ? Iraq All Over Again? And then, she said when she got in therenow bear in mind that she still is bound by the Official Secrets Act. Warning: The following contains spoilers for Official Secrets. He said she didnt even know what the job was. She now has a four-year-old daughter who she is bringing up in Turkey. He really wouldnt; that scene in the movie really happened. David Dayen: How did you think Keira Knightley was an asset in showing that emotional journey throughout the movie? 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. ", Keira Knightley and Katharine Gun at the London premiere of "Official Secrets. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images). Progressive values. I am an American citizen; I have a strange accent but Ive been here 25 years; my kids were born here. ", Left: Dave Benett/Getty. Did that change your approach to presenting the film knowing that this was actually going to be somewhat of a surprise to people? She had been following that war, as many of us had, for a year. You are sitting in the intelligence services, and Ive spoken to many now because Ive made other films in that world and I have some interesting folks that Ive been able to talk to, and the struggle was were being disloyal if you dont toe a party line, as it were, but we know this isnt right. After the initial flurry of media interest, I was left to figure out how to move on with my life and that proved hard. Katharine Gun, a British former government employee, faced two years imprisonment in England for the crime of telling the truth. Despite the millions affected by the Iraq War, its now far removed from British and American news cycles, displaced from the headlines by todays political turmoil. So right there, you are pulling out the highlights," said Hood of the key issue with making Official Secrets. I did feel like, Well, I failed.. In technical speak, the Americans wanted the whole gamut of information which would give US policy makers an edge in obtaining results favourable to US goals in relation to Iraq. As a result, there never was any second UN resolution. Most directly, it bolstered opposition to the US position from Chilean and Mexican diplomats weary of American "dirty tricks". The spin in this country and in the UK was the threat of deadly weapons ready to be deployed by Saddam. A decade on, sitting in a cafe in Cheltenham, not far from GCHQ, I asked her if she still stood by what she had done. 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 I had, of course, signed the Official Secrets Act, content in the knowledge I was working within the law for Britains protection. They had published not some coded version of events, but the email itself in full. Much to the distress of our former partners in the Iran nuclear deal, Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement and announced tougher sanctions. What is this paper? We were in development with a particular studio, and I don't mean to be funny after such a heavy film but sometimes we need a little bit of humor. For several years, just recalling the events would set my heart racing and my hands trembling. I grew up in South Africa in the seventies and eighties, when apartheid was really tightening and tightening and tightening. So, that's where we had to go for WMD. And it was there that, to our amazement and totally without warning, the CPS dropped the charges before the trial had even started. Eventually, it was widely held that at least one of the reports of the attacks, and perhaps even both, were false. Amazing lady, shes still a journalist. So I said goodbye to my mom and moved to America. 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. 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. 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.. They failed. 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? Katharine Gun and Martin Bright could be forgiven for fielding Hollywoods overtures with a degree of skepticism. WebYou 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. "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. 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. The only thing that we altered in that is that I didnt have time to tell it for as long as it went on. Im gratified, too, that the film shows the love and support my husband gave me throughout this ordeal. This is my second brief moment of fame. Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. 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. The truth is when she speaks to me, and she says, Gavin, we also go to lunch like everybody else in any other office. David Dayen: Just the notion that the paper would say, we're for the war, that was their editorial position. So it was a pretty awful thing to happen to her. Seven times I've submitted articles to you with an alternate point of view, and seven times you've turned me down. His philosophy comes from a military intelligence model, which actually, by the time you go to war, now it's about winning. Which really, really, really happened. I could put a lens on, and now my job is, this actress is doing great work, lets not get tricky, lets just get the audience into her eyes so that you could see those cogs moving. But again, I cant help but make some small jokes about these things. "Financially it's the toughest," she said. We even got as far as the Old Bailey. There it was spotted by Debs Paterson, director of the critically acclaimed Africa United, who met Katharine Gun last week with a view to making the film of her life. Gavin Hood: Its a question of how conditioned are we to the conventional Hollywood structure. We all, in some ways, make these decisions. One by one, all those who received the email approximately 100 people were taken in for a grilling. Ed, I know some people have said that Rhys Ifans [who plays Vulliamy] is slightly over the top. To legitimize an invasion and get rid of Saddam, a new UN Security Council resolution, going beyond SC1441 and specifically sanctioning the invasion, was the answer. [Ahmed is depicted in the film as strongly pro-war, resistant to running stories that conflict with his opinion.]. The same countries demanded immediate answers from the British government about its involvement in the spying. So I said to her at one point, and its in the movie because her interrogator said it too and you would ask her the same question, which is Katharine I hear all this, but it was a little muddy, you worked as a spy, you hacked peoples phones and computers, you do dirty tricks. 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. Hundreds of thousands were killed. 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. Throughout her own court case, whatonly a few knew wasthat she was also fighting for the right of her husband, who is from Turkey, to remain in the UK. Please help keep the independent journalism of Common Dreams strong. That kind of propaganda has to stop. Guided by her conscience, Katharine Gun defied her government and leaked the memo to the press, setting off a chain of events that jeopardized her freedom, her safety, but also opened the door to putting the entire Iraq invasion on trial. 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. "There seems to be this blas attitude the spying goes on, everyone does it and so it's nothing to get all hot under the collar about. David Dayen: One thing I think you depict really brilliantly in this story is what the climate was like at the time. David Dayen: The first thing I thought about when looking at this movie is that in most recent historical epics, the audience knows what's happening next. Keira said no one knows Katharine, and that's not an insult to Katharine. Id never seen anything like it. But George W. Bush did something that, thankfully, Trump hasnt pulled off yet: He took us to war. Id immediately be transported back to GCHQ and that email the anger I felt and the decisions I made. I don't think she thought they would deport her husband, I really don't think she thought that. 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.' Anyway, the Office of Special Plans and Abram Shulsky make an interesting Wikipedia read, it won't take you very long. WebKeira Knightley stars in this true story about Katharine Gun, a British intelligence officer who exposed the US government's efforts to force the UN Security Council to sanction the The poor woman is based on a real person. Last week in Los Angeles, I got to interview the director, South African-born Gavin Hood, after a screening. If Keira Knightleys remarkable performance in Official Secrets can help change that, the film will truly have been worthwhile. I've seen that happen. It gives me an interesting pause. ", Hood added: "You know, to this day, I mean, the real journalistic question is, who would like to go and really press Lord Goldsmith and Ken McDonald for the reasons why they really dropped their case? According to the Guardian, By design. What It Feels Liketo Survive a Chemical Attack. I was 27 when it all began. As it was, a second UN resolution directly to authorise war against Iraq never materialised and air strikes began on 19 March 2003. That's really the simplest question: When do you speak up? First, I contacted someone to this day Ive never named them who had the details of a journalist and anti-war activist. 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. We need a truth-sayer. She made the point that if you have Helen Mirren playing the Queen or Meryl Streep playing Maggie Thatcher, everybody knows those people and your judged on how well you impersonate, if you will, those people. Martin Bright, who is in the movie very briefly I guess, is no longer in journalism as I understand it. The risks Gun took in revealing the UN email's existence were huge. Whatever, she blew the whistle ultimately revealing the truth behind the build-up to the Iraq War--regime change, disguised as terrifying threats of weapons of mass destruction. Gun disclosed details of the spying operation as it was happening to stop something she viewed as terrible happening in the future. In the matter of a few years. Or at least, she could have been. 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. Twenty-eight, pretty naive. 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. 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 revealed that the American government's plans to apply pressure on members of the U.N. Security Counsel to pass its war resolution. Katharine Gun, former intelligence specialist turned whistleblower, discusses the new film "Official Secrets" which details why she leaked a classified memo. WebIts the tale of whistleblower Katharine Gun, a former translator for the UKs Government Communications HQ, who leaked a top-secret memo in 2003 on the eve of a divisive US-led war. The film also captures my determination to do what I believed was right and reveals how divisive the Iraq War was, particularly highlighting the anger within certain sections of the intelligence services as the sabre-rattling statements of Mr Blair and his spokesman Alastair Campbell were accepted without proper challenge by some in the media. I got that from Yasar. But get out of that trailer as fast as possible, get onto the set, and work from inside? But my point is simply this: The underpinnings of this country matter. Since 2003, my life and Gun's have continued to cross from time to time. WebKatharine Gun was a young specialist working for Britains Government Communications Headquarters when she exposed a highly confidential memo that revealed the United And isnt it also time to re-examine the Official Secrets Act? Right: Entertainment One, Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. And it's also true that we were then attacked by the Drudge Report for what would now be called 'fake news. Gun made the choice to leak the document, which Martin Bright of The Observer in Britain published in a story on March 2, 2003. By the time the mid-eighties came around and I was a young law student, so Im looking at it from the side of the law, we had no right of access to lawyers in trial if you breached anything that was regarded as having to do with the emergency legislation. Our institutions matter. A thorough investigation began as soon as the staff started arriving at GCHQ on the Monday morning. WebIn 2003, Katharine Gun exposed a plot by U.S. security officials to spy on United Nations members as they ramped up pressure to secure a resolution to go to war with Iraq, and To look at someone who I thought was quite accessible and ordinaryand she doesn't mind me saying this because Katharine is someone who keeps her head below and is quiet, and did something extraordinary. ", As for her own story, she recognises that 10 years on it scarcely registers with the public. If there had been a UN resolution, there would have been no need to make a WMD argument because there are two legal ways to go to war. Gabrielle Bruney is a writer and editor for Esquire, where she focuses on politics and culture. Was it because we had demanded the Attorney Generals legal advice as part of my defence? This meant that a lot of the things that we see Gun go through in the film actually took far longer in real life. It left me in an impossible predicament. 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. What might, IKeira Knightley, feel if I'm sitting at my desk and this happened to me?" The real-life Gun said: "The attempt at deportation kind of spiked my stress level again for another period of my life." A transcript, lightly edited with explainers where necessary, follows. 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. Only later did I appreciate the extent to which the journalists involved Martin Bright, Peter Beaumont and Ed Vulliamy had to go in order to prove that the email was legitimate. The more we find out that in fact the million-person march was a real cause of worry for Downing Street and for Blair personally, it makes you think we were so close and yet so far.". The increasing presence of US Navy ships and a B-52 bomber task force in their neighborhood might provoke the Iranians to load up their missiles. She didnt know where he was for three days and she took the train down from Charlton to London to see the MP, Nigel Jones, who said exactly what he says in the movie. Everyone involved assumed the project had run into the dust, but then it appeared on the Black List, a Hollywood website for unmade film scripts, which has featured Slumdog Millionaire and The King's Speech in the past. Two hours later after this deep dive, I called Ged back and said, How come we dont know this story? I guess the answer to that is that her story was big news for the day, and then very quickly got crushed by a bigger story, which was the story of the invasion. [U.S. media dropped the story because the Drudge Report noted that the NSA memo in The Observer had British spellings for words like favourable, which nobody in the U.S. would write. Even though she didn't stop the war and some people are like what's the point if she didn't stop the warwell, the point is how do you sleep at night? She said to me, Gavin, I had no problem doing the work that involved a lot of listening in, in order to give information about trade negotiations, to give our country the advantage of trade negotiations when they go. However, the Pentagon says the US deployment is "in response to indications of heightened Iranian readiness to conduct offensive operations against US forces and our interests.". [In real life] I saw the email, I immediately thought, 'Oh, my God, this is shocking.' She said, I thought that might be quite interesting and exciting. And for her, this was too much. WebGun, then 28, received an email about a U.S.-led operation enlisting the help of Britain to spy on other countries, in an attempt to blackmail them into supporting the Iraq War. WebWhistleblower Katherine Gun, right, is played by Keira Knightly in the movie Official Secrets View gallery Gun was outraged after she learned - as part of her job with GCHQ - that When I got to the interview thats when they told me that its for GCHQ, I didnt know what GCHQ did. So, I think she entered the world out of a sort of strange curiosity. When I was a young law student, we studied the American Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The days and weeks dragged agonisingly by. But the invasion was forced to proceed with the backing of Bushs coalition of the willinginstead of with the support of the United Nations. I actually think the little memo lands on our lap more often than we think, even if it's just who I should vote for. The work shed signed up to do was covered by British law, and would be something to do with whatever that was necessary to keep British lives safe. The memo, however represented the actual twisting of diplomatic arms in order to secure a war which [was] based on lies., But it also represented an opportunity to show the world the tactics American and British officials were willing to employ in their push for an invasion. If we give over, if we start believing the fake news, as you say, we're all doomed, man. ", 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. Ed, the real Ed, is absolutely delightful. David Dayen: I want to go to the questions now. And she and many in her world knew, and many in the CIA knew, as Mel Goodman who's the man in the boathouse in Washington knew, that this was B.S. It sounds big with Katharine but that's what inspired me. England for the crime of telling the truth be transported back to GCHQ and that 's we... 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