what happened to katharine gun husband
You're KATHARINE GUN: . You know, he couldntand it was the first time he had heard about it. The biggest story was: Who cares why were in the war? A film, Official Secrets, has been made of her story. In its absence, Tony Blair won another election in 2005. So, I thought it would be great. Please do your part today. Youre breaking the speed limit. Gun had, of course, been forced to abandon her career in the civil service and finally, struggling for work, left Britain altogether. And, you know, he had nothing on him. She has a younger brother who teaches in Taiwan. He was Kurdishhe is Kurdish. She is played, with steely English resolve, by Keira Knightley. Mary Katherine Higdon of Griffin, Georgia, was arrested for the murder of her live-in boyfriend, Steven Freeman. Now, that doesnt mean we shouldnt try to hold them to account. " Gun tails off, as if embarrassed to make too grand a claim for herself. But, I mean, I ended up being a whistleblower myself within that organization. But anyway. How Did Catherine the Great's Husband Really Die? - Harper's BAZAAR In January that year, Katharine Gun was copied into a classified memo sent to GCHQ by a senior figure in the NSA, its US equivalent. Im Amy Goodman, as we bring you Part 2 of our extended look at a new film thats out called Official Secrets, thats coming out at the end of August, that tells the story 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. I felt that I had done the morally right thing to do. All rights reserved. And I had to thank her forI mean, you know, in totally selfish terms, helping me break the biggest story of my life. KATHARINE GUN: to police custody, yes, and kept overnight in a police cell. KATHARINE GUN: No, nothing atwell, they said they were arresting me on suspicion of breaking the Official Secrets Act. GAVIN HOOD: Chile, Bulgaria, Angola, Cameroon, Pakistan, Mexico. After the case was dropped I did some media for 24 hours and then I immediately decided to run away and hide and not pursue the story any more. We didnt talk about politics much. The Observer published the dirty tricks memo as a front-page splash just over two weeks before the invasion. The Observers front page story on 2 March 2003. Youre the guy who got the goods on the author of the memo in the NSA, who wrote to GCHQ and said, Were going to bug the U.N. ambassadors.. AMY GOODMAN: And you actually said you hadnt heard of Katharine Gun at the time, which is interesting in itself, because the story, in a sense, was almost killed for a bit. In an interview with Democracy Now!, Gun explained, After they charged me, thats when they tried to deport my husband. Shes just wearing her jeans and jumpers, you know, to work. "The U.S. government, through the NSA, was spying in violation of international law on other UN Security Council members in order to better coerce them to back the invasion of Iraq. The film, Official Secrets, comes out officially at the end of August. [12] The Guardian newspaper had reported plans to drop the case the previous week. We know this because Katharine Gun leaked a short 300-word NSA memo on this shortly before the invasion. Gun has spoken at the 51Fest and conferences arranged by organizations such as the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS). 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. You dont know who the GCHQ person is. Shes beginning to understand the issues, but she hasnt seen it yet. If we found other information, it may have been different, but this information seemed to show us that wed been lied to. Im sure that what Katharine felt when in 2010 we found out that Lord Goldsmith had declared the war, in his advice, illegal, must have been pretty painful for Katharine to hear, as it was for me when Congress said, I think around 2004, '05, we knew, actually, there were no weapons of mass destruction. I call them the Usual Suspects., She thinks, given the current state of politics, that she might start to speak out more. I had had my own story on the fabrication of the weapons of mass destruction, the existence of a shadow intelligence-cooking agency within the Pentagon, which we at The Observer had for five months before Sy Hersh, with great respect to Sy, published it in The New Yorker. AMY GOODMAN: the person in charge of news. Oh, yeah. to your inbox each morning. I mean, I dont think we imagined that we would be still friends and still talking about it 14, 15 years later. And he was the barrister who ultimately put the case before the court, as short as that trial was, on behalf of Katharine, and came up with a truly original defense to the Official Secrets Act, which is the defense of necessity. KATHARINE GUN: Well, yeah, yeah. Iraq 'Dirty Tricks' Tale Gets Star Treatment, But Big Questions Remain And I was tasked to set up a website to look into this. Guardian Australia acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of Country throughout Australia and their connections to land, waters and community. If the war was illegal and she broke the law in order to expose an illegal war and potentially save hundreds of thousands of lives, I can use this defense of necessitythats usually used in more mundane, dare I say, contextsin this great political trial., And so he says, All right, now I need to know whether the war was legal or illegal. And he says, I need to find out what Lord Goldsmiths, the attorney-generals, legal position was in the run-up to that war. What I did is a very unusual thing to do, because the results are not generally good. Yes. what is the true story behind the Keira Knightley film? - The Sun And the other way is the good, old-fashioned self-defense. How many times has she seen the film now? In the film, Official Secrets, she is played by Keira Knightley. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. [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. You come home. AMY GOODMAN: Katharine, has your 11-year-old daughter seen the film? And, with great respect, I think he did. AMY GOODMAN: And this is a critical moment, when you say October, because thats when the U.S. Senate voted to authorize war. The official editorial line, led by the then editor Roger Alton (now an executive editor at the Daily Mail) and political editor Kamal Ahmed (now editorial director of BBC News) was in close support of the Blair governments position on the invasion. We are defending ourselves. Youre terrified. Katharine 'Kay' Griggs knows what it's like to have a gun pointed in her face. GAVIN HOOD: And then, for five days, I interviewed Katharine and just made notes. When Katharine Gun came across a memo while working for the British government in 2003, her whole world changed. And Mr. Ahmed is now the editorial director of the BBC, the revered BBC. Spoiler: After Katharine Gun's identity became known, we at the Institute for Public Accuracy brought on Jeff Cohen, the founder of FAIR, to work with Hollie Ainbinder to get prominent individuals to support Gun. MARTIN BRIGHT: No, it was the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. You know, the conservative estimates are 125,000 up to a million. Why did you come in? Before I knew it, I had spent two hours researching Katharine. Katharine Gun (ne Harwood), 47, is married to Yasar Gn, a Turkish Kurd, with whom she has a 13-year old daughter. As well as illuminating Guns story, though, the film gives what was, by any standards, one of the great scoops of recent British journalism the credit that is long overdue. We met in London. I think the number isand forgive me, I should have the figurethree-and-a-half thousand British and American soldiers, 37,000 wounded. [25][26] Together with journalist Peter Beaumont, Gun advised and consulted over the years it took to make the film and they are "very happy with the result.[20]. Its a paper that supported fascism between the wars, and sort of still does, in its way. I mean, this is difficult for me to say this, but, for those of your viewers who are interested in what happens in the mediaMartin and I, here we are, doing our bestthe two people involved, who are in the film, ED VULLIAMY: The top people are, respectively, managing editor of the Daily Mail, which is a sort of rather. Gun is grimly amused to see his current return to the moral high ground over Brexit. Now, the defense of necessity is usually used in very more simple circumstances. The first is a U.N. resolution for war. But you areis this part of the film true, where you have the authorities come in and say, Were questioning everyone, because someone here did this.. Shes ordinary. So I saw people going in and coming out and going in and coming out. And Im saying, Ben, but how did you know, when you called for those documents, that theyd be there? And theres this pause. AMY GOODMAN: Who is played in the film by? There is a small group of us, she says. delivered to your inbox every day! [5] After contemplating the email over the weekend, Gun gave the email to a friend who was acquainted with journalists. 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 . As Katharine Gun told me during our "Salon Talks" conversation, being played by Keira Knightley in a movie was approximately the last thing she ever thought might happen to her. He says, Wait a minute. AMY GOODMAN: But once everyone did, you knew. AMY GOODMAN: Now, he goes in for a regular check-in. In the movie, her husband (Adam Bakri) is initially portrayed as a civilian, perceiving her job to be mundane. She is also well known as a GCHQ spy. Yeah, so it was panic stations after that. How am I possibly going to do that? And yeah, it was absolutely terrifying. [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. Nobody knows if whistleblowing is nurture or nature. I mean, obviously, at that point, then felt very sorry that someone had been arrested, but it was a huge relief at the time. In 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 she leaked the . I met her in August in Durham, when she was on a brief visit to see her father. KATHARINE GUN: Devastation. 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. Thats our job. How dodo they join the dots? delivered to your inbox every day! . Therefore, it is not surprising that Gun chose to move away from the center point of all the chaos once it died down. Her performance reminds you of the sentiment of Daniel Ellsberg, the man who famously leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times in 1971, revealing the full truth of American involvement in Vietnam. 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. Its so great to have you all with us. So, I just lay that out, really. [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]. Later, he stands by her as the many intricacies and dangers of his wifes profession and act of bravery surface. Mr. Davies, in his book, has done more recently, AMY GOODMAN: And he said to you, Martin, at least in the film, This will jeopardize our access.. Young, in love, with a beautiful toddler and a baby on the way, Mary Katharine expected her husband of four years, Jake Brewer, to return from cycling in a charity event. Timpf, 32, and Friscia, 34, tied the knot . Katharine Gun outside the Old Bailey after charges had been dropped against her, 2004. (modern). That was in this moment, moment by moment, as the story evolves, what would it feel like if you were in her shoes. Soon after, they moved to Turkey in 2011, and for the most part, the family has stayed away from the public . I'm Amy Goodman. 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. She grew up in Taiwan, where her father had gone to teach, and her accent is hard to place. Inside the world of ministers' secrets", "Iraq war whistleblower's trial 'was halted due to national security threat', "Official Secrets: A Conversation With Director Gavin Hood", "Official Secrets review Keira Knightley excels in Iraq war whistleblower drama", "15 Years Later: How U.K. Whistleblower Katharine Gun Risked Everything to Leak a Damning Iraq War Memo", "Film on British whistleblower's life to hit Turkish theaters", "Whistleblowerin Katharine Gun - "Ich wrde es wieder tun", "Sundance 2019: Premieres Include Harvey Weinstein Docu, Mindy Kaling, Dr. Ruth, UK Spies, Miles Davis & Ted Bundy", "Daniel Ellsberg speaking about Katharine Gun", In 2003, This U.K. Whistleblower Almost Stopped the Iraq Invasion. KATHARINE GUN: I dont know. GAVIN HOOD: She did work for the attorney general, right up until a matter of weeks or so before the war, at which point, when he changed his mind, under massive pressure, having visited Washington and spoken to Gonzales and all the various lawyers who worked for Rumsfeld and Bush and Cheney, and theyd sold him on this idea of using Resolution 678, which authorized the 1991 Gulf War, and said, Really, that war didnt end, and were really still at war with Iraq. I mean, couldnt have been happier with the casting choice, because Ben Emmerson is a force of nature, absolute force of nature, and a great international lawyer. AMY GOODMAN: And did they say they were going to charge you with the Official Secrets Act? 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 . Shes not wearing tons of makeup. GAVIN HOOD: Almost a million. 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. 15 Years Later: How U.K. Whistleblower Katharine Gun Risked Everything And really, you know, she had so many questions for me, and she really genuinely wanted to know about the whole situation. "[15], In September 2019 Ken Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, said the case against Gun was not dropped in order to stop the Attorney General's advice on the legality of the Iraq War from being revealed. Just trying to figure out what to do next. "[22], In January, 2019, the film Official Secrets, recounting Gun's actions in 2003, received its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, with Keira Knightley playing Gun. ED VULLIAMY: Yes. And, of course, I was sitting in the restaurant waiting for her to come in, and I had no idea what to expect. Iraq war whistleblower Katharine Gun: 'Truth always matters' He knows he cant save the child. [19] 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. The implosion continues. [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. KATHARINE GUN: So, on Wednesday morning, I called in sick. Ben Emmerson is. The difference, I think, is that hereand your program and your viewers are testimony to thisyou have an opposition. GAVIN HOOD: Theres an outrage. Bright has also been closely involved with the film. 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 . I grew up in Taiwan, which was a military dictatorship. The Whistleblower Who Almost Stopped the Iraq Invasion By Ben Davies BBC News Online political staff at the TUC in Brighton There is something about Katharine Gun that makes her seem an unlikely candidate for whistleblowing. Laggies. They were just going to pick him up, and took him out. And after about three weeks of this meeting these extraordinary people, I said to Jed, I think I think I would like to do this. And thats where the story came from. There have been other attempts to make a film over the years. Shes beginning to understand the issues, but she hasnt seen it yet, Gun said in 2019 when her daughter was 11-years-old. And you said in places like Chile. AMY GOODMAN: You mean period dramas of strong women have to be a hundred years ago. Why did you drop the case? So, of course, I was a little bit sort of reserved. Domination, Sing Your Song: Remembering Harry Belafonte, Who Used His Stardom to Help. And all we were focused on was what might it felt like in this moment to have been Katharine. 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. 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. In 2003, Gun was working as a translator of Mandarin at the government intelligence agency, GCHQ, in Cheltenham. [16], Her husband, Yaar Gn,[17][18] is a Turkish Kurd. GAVIN HOOD: Well, for me, what I love about the story is actually, on the one hand, its got this huge global political relevance, and it resonates still today. Interview: Whistleblower Katharine Gun. AMY GOODMAN: Well, explain that. But my closest friends stuck by me.. Hood uses chemistry among each character to bring them to life. "[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. Gun is on Mondays episode of the Guardian podcast Today in Focus, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. Maybe there will be sympathy.. But this gets out, and suddenly you see it on the front page of The Observer when you go to buy, what, milk in the morning for you and your husband. And we worked five, six hours every day. "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 . AMY GOODMAN: And what did you tell Katharine at that time? MARTIN BRIGHT: Yeah, who wrote the memo. I mean, youre talking about the editorial leadership of The Observer, the editor-in-chief. And we still dont know why the British government dropped the case. You know, any tiny lingering doubts we had about whether this was a sophisticated Russian forgery, as some people suggested, or, you knowwe absolutely knew that this was real. Her act of whistleblowing cost her a career as a translator at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), made her stand in a highly publicized trial for violating the Official Secrets Act, and reduced her chances of getting another job due to being an internationally recognized whistleblower. Protesters against the invasion of Iraq, February 2003. Certain friends did not want to see me any more, or be seen with me some people get very paranoid. 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 . And you had a showing in San Francisco. I was teaching Mandarin in the local college in Cheltenham. You want to know where he is?. I hope when shes ready for this story, she will [see the film]. It cost Gun, who now lives in Turkey with her husband and daughter, her job. Shes pregnant. But jokes aside, the reason she said to methe reason I constantly find myself going. This U.K. Whistleblower Almost Stopped the Iraq Invasion of 2003 KATHARINE GUN: No, I felt a huge sense of relief after I had, you know, confessed. AMY GOODMAN: I mean, youre the guy who broke the story that showed that Britain was collaborating with the U.S. in trying to get dirt on U.S. ambassadors, AMY GOODMAN: to get them to vote for the war in Iraq, which ended up killingwhat do you say at the end of the film? It just means that the job is even more difficult than it was before. Right? Gun is a singular presence, and she answers with characteristic care, speaking slightly haltingly, weighing her words. Dont just swallow what politicians tell you. Never mind the number injured. Ben Emmerson decides the way to defend Katharine Gun is to ask for Lord Goldsmiths documents. And I can remember sitting back and thinking, This guy is not all there. Photos from Keira Knightley's Best Roles - E! Online Good for him. 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. But that is unbelievably difficult now especially in the digital world.. Then, Katherine Knight took a butcher knife from next to her bed where she had always kept them and stabbed Price 37 times. ED VULLIAMY: But my point is not against Mr. Ahmed. 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. Explain what happened at the Q&A, Martin. Yes, in 2003, Gun was working for British intelligencethat's . AMY GOODMAN: How rarely a woman actress, an actor, gets to play, you know, the protagonist, the solid, strong hero, Gavin. 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. 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. AMY GOODMAN: And then what happened? This is, sadly, a story of failure. Megan (Knightley) is having a quarter-life crisis after her boyfriend proposes, so she escapes for a week to her new friend, a 16-year-old named Annika's ( Chlo Grace Moretz) house . She said, you know, its ironic that here we are in the age when women now have the vote, and theyre supposed to beand were all supposed to be equal, and yet so many roles are still about women being the sidekick, women being raped, so much violence, use ityou know, a woman whos in jeopardy. We were mostly in our mid-20s, so it was the usual stuff, who is going out with who. Martin Bright and Ben Emmerson stick by Kathrine the whole time . You want to know where he is? he said. AMY GOODMAN: But so, did you have any conversations with the former prime minister at the time, Tony Blair? Its all so resonant. "The Most Important Leak" -- How Katharine Gun Tried to Stop the Iraq MARTIN BRIGHT: this was the real deal. Is Official Secrets Based on a True Story? - The Cinemaholic Youre a bit, AMY GOODMAN: So, there is an uproar. In this episode of Schenck Talks Bonhoeffer, TDBI Founder and President, Rev. Iraq war whistleblower Katharine Gun: Truth always matters. GAVIN HOOD: By Ralph Fiennes. This is Democracy Now! Did everything change? KATHARINE GUN: Well, OK, I know I was guilty in the facts of the matter. Also with us, the director of Official Secrets, Gavin Hood. Director Gavin Hood resists this for the most part though I cant recall Martin being applauded into the office the morning after the story broke (muttered sarcasm and grudging praise was more likely the tone). KATHARINE GUN: Mm-hmm. AMY GOODMAN: So, Katharine, as all of this is unfolding, the U.S. and Britain bomb Iraq. Gun discusses her attempt to stop the Iraq War, which is the subject of the new movie Official Secrets. 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. Katharine Gun: The GCHQ whistleblower who tried to stop the Iraq War on Rob Schenck, introduces newly named Senior Fellow Dr. Joel Looper and his new book, Bonhoeffer's America: A Land without Reformation. KATHARINE GUN: Oh, no. How often does she go through that fateful weekend, where she wrestled with her conscience after seeing the memo? There are plenty of opportunities here for other journalists to take up the baton and find out what really happened. AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. March 29, 2023 Posted by is vimto squash good for you; Youre, KATHARINE GUN: And then I was taken away. But I wasnt thinking about myself really. These were the six "swing nations" on the UN Security Council that could determine whether the UN approved the invasion of Iraq. That accountability is key. And I had already not been able to eat for about 24 hours. Macdonald stated that Gun would not have received a fair trial without the disclosure of information that would have compromised national security. You dont do you? It was like watching a case that was very similar to my own. You didnt have that kind of support. AMY GOODMAN: And, Katharine, describe that moment, when you come into court in this very dramatic waybut this is not just a feature film; this is your lifeand youre facing years in prison, your husband not there because youre concerned he will become the story as a refugee in Britain. AMY GOODMAN: The networks, like Fox, and The Drudge Report, CNN refused to interview you, saying that this couldnt be a real memo because, unfortunately, your newspaper translated it into British. When you think, Oh, well, I wish we tried hard with the Americanwith our American colleagues. What were your thoughts then? Gun thinks she might speak out more considering the current state of political affairs and massive citizen involvement in sociopolitical issues.
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