![]() Outraged, Gun leaks the email to the Observer, where it’s fashioned into a front-page scoop by home-affairs editor Martin Bright ( Matt Smith). The missive requests the UK’s complicity in a covert bugging operation of six ‘swing nations’ on the UN Security Council – the objective being to coerce them into passing the crucial second resolution approving an invasion. Gun (played with solemn conviction by Keira Knightley), a translator of Mandarin at the intelligence hub in Cheltenham, has her world turned upside down after she casually views an email forwarded by an official at the US National Security Agency. But as scripted by Hood and co-writers Gregory and Sara Bernstein, the tale’s key events – incorporating government leaks, perceived fake news and underhand collusion by global superpowers – feel remarkably timely. Official Secrets, which dramatises the case of GCHQ whistleblower Katharine Gun, takes place immediately before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Martin Bright on a brave deed that should not be forgotten.USA/United Kingdom/Switzerland/People’s Republic of China 2018 ![]() In January 2003 Katharine Gun, a translator at GCHQ, learned something so outrageous that she sacrificed her career to tell the truth. "The big question is not whether Americans can 'handle the truth.' We believe they can."ĭocument:The Woman who nearly Stopped the War Starring: Keira Knightley, Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, Ralph Fiennes īritain’s secret state and the need for whistle-blowing explained by 2003 Iraq War whistleblower Katherine Gunĭocument:Ex-Intelligence Officers, Others See Plusses in WikiLeaks DisclosuresĪ statement of support for Wikileaks. Produced by: Ged Doherty, Elizabeth Fowler, Melissa Shiyu Zuo With her life, liberty and marriage threatened, she must stand up for what she believes in… Charged with breaking the Official Secrets Act 1989, and facing imprisonment, Katharine and her lawyers set out to defend her actions. In 2003, as politicians in Britain and the US angle to invade Iraq, GCHQ translator Katharine Gun leaks a classified e-mail that urges spying on members of the UN Security Council to force through the resolution to go to war. In June 2019, the film "Official Secrets" was released. ![]() " I have no regrets and I would do it again" she said.ĭemocracy Now! speaks 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. Within half an hour, the case was dropped because the prosecution declined to offer evidence. The case came to court on 25 February 2004. Gun planned to plead "not guilty", saying in her defence that she acted to prevent imminent loss of life in a war she considered illegal. Many people stepped forward to urge the UK government to drop the case, including, Daniel Ellsberg and actor Sean Penn who described her as "a hero of the human spirit". On 13 November 2003, Gun was charged with an offence under section 1 of the Official Secrets Act 1989. After contemplating the email over the weekend, Gun gave the email to a friend who was acquainted with journalists. Gun was outraged by the email, and took a printed copy of it home with her. The plan was illegal under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. ![]() These were the six "swing nations" on the UN Security Council that could determine whether the UN approved the invasion of Iraq. Koza's email requested aid in a secret and illegal operation to bug the United Nations offices of six nations: Angola, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea, and Pakistan. 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 National Security Agency. Gun's job at GCHQ in Cheltenham was to translate Mandarin Chinese into English.
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