", 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? Who, one must ask, is provoking whom? KatharineGun did not stop the war,but was it all entirely in vain? She said, I thought that might be quite interesting and exciting. Eventually, it was widely held that at least one of the reports of the attacks, and perhaps even both, were false. Before 1989, there had been a Public Interest Defence to protect whistleblowers, but that was altered amid the furore surrounding the sinking of the Argentinian Navy cruiser, the General Belgrano, in the course of the Falklands War. Donald Trump also is saying he doesn't want war, which is probably true. The contents were explosive, implicating America in a blackmail plot to swing UN votes in favor of an invasion. Whistleblower and former employee of Britain's global surveillance center GCHQ (Government Communications Head Quarters) Katharine Gun smiles as she speaks to the media during a press conference February 25, 2004 in London, England. His philosophy comes from a military intelligence model, which actually, by the time you go to war, now it's about winning. Director Gavin Hood Writers Sara Bernstein Gregory Bernstein Gavin Hood Stars Keira Knightley Matt Smith Matthew Goode Questioner: The only thing that I've wondered while watching the film, since it's a true story, is how could Ms. Gunn, who was a spy, who was a member of an intelligence agency, be surprised when her husband got deportedor when the government came after her husband, how could she be surprised when all of the different reactions she got came forward? Following the trauma inflicted on Gun, the U.K. Attorney General dropped the case against her with no warning. Happy and carefree, Id recently married my handsome husband and was working at GCHQ as a linguist. And if, 16 years ago, you had told me that one day my life story would be portrayed by Keira Knightley, Id have laughed and changed the subject. That seems like the central undercurrent that is playing throughout the entire film. I grew up in South Africa in the seventies and eighties, when apartheid was really tightening and tightening and tightening. Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Did that change your approach to presenting the film knowing that this was actually going to be somewhat of a surprise to people? And that's quite a depressing place to find yourself in when you feel so strongly and passionately about something. WebKatharine Gun (ne Harwood), 47, is married to Yasar Gn, a Turkish Kurd, with whom she has a 13-year old daughter. It wasone of the reasons I came to this country in 89 was because we were getting drafted, and I thought I cant do this. If if wasnt, what does that mean for the rule of law? Then, the world is safer until the sequel when it all happens again. 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. 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. It was almost as if that request was asking for someone within their own nation to do this work; it wasn't asking another completely independent state for co-operation.". America, Britain, and Spain withdrew their proposed resolution on invading Iraq when it became clear that it would not garner the necessary Security Council votes, in part because of the information Gun brought to light. ", Keira Knightley and Katharine Gun at the London premiere of "Official Secrets. 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. What It Feels Liketo Survive a Chemical Attack. "But the more I think about what happened, the more angry and frustrated I get about the fact that nobody acted on intelligence. You work for the government. Because it's just an Executive Branch trying to grab power as an authoritarian. As it was, a second UN resolution directly to authorise war against Iraq never materialised and air strikes began on 19 March 2003. Would you risk your job? After the charges against her were dropped in 2004, she found it difficult to find a new The truth is that I didnt know who Katharine Gun was until my producer Ged Doherty called me up one day, we made Eye In The Sky together, and said, Have you ever heard of Katharine Gun? Thats one of those moments where you think: Sounds like I ought to have, but I hadnt. So important was this email, I knew it might even derail the case that Tony Blair was making for joining the Americans in an invasion. 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. Gun was visiting friends and family in Cheltenham when I talked to her, with the strain obvious on her face but still looking much younger than her 38 years. And I did the same for the journalists and the lawyers and everybody. 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. He is just way out there in a whole other realm. But again, I cant help but make some small jokes about these things. It left me in an impossible predicament. My job had been to listen to Chinese communications, translate them from Mandarin to English and produce reports for different government departments. Or at least, she could have been. Gavin Hood: After the spellcheck. But any such illusions were shattered on the freezing cold morning of Friday, January 31, 2003, as I read and re-read the most extraordinary email from Americas intelligence service, the National Security Agency. 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. This, remember, was a conflict that caused the deaths of 179 British servicemen, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and caused countless more to suffer serious wounds, both physical and psychological. And I went, Oh, that's how much that superhero myth is in our system. We didn't end up making it with that studio. Do you go vote? Truth and accountability were drilled into me as a child. In the years following, an author called Marcia Mitchell contacted me and said she was keen to write a book about my case. For example, a scene where Gun tries to get her husband out of an immigration detention center actually played out over three days during which she did not know where he was. If the email did reach the newspapers, I reasoned, there would be no more than a discreet summary. The same countries demanded immediate answers from the British government about its involvement in the spying. And Assange is the same. ", As for her own story, she recognises that 10 years on it scarcely registers with the public. Not mine or The Observer's finest hour, has to be said. To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page. His exact words to describe the intelligence method is, The goal of the intelligence is not the truth, but victory. That is a quote from Shulsky. This is a story about my life and my leak after all, and I still believe in the issues passionately. Feel free to republish and share widely. Who spoke to the homeland secretary? 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. 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. Naturally, I was discreet. You have the UN resolution, we're all doing this together to stop the genocide or something, or it's self-defense, we're going to be attacked, it's so clear we're going to be attacked that we have to take pre-emptive action. Spoilers to follow as well. I don't think I've ever met a more determined character and she remained utterly convinced of the justice of her cause: "There's nothing subsequent to the invasion that makes me think it was the right decision made by Bush and Blair." So when, on the first Sunday of March, 2003, my leak appeared on the front page of The Observer newspaper, I was overcome with shock. ", Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters, Keira Knightley's Birthday: Her 15 Best Movies Ranked, 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, Keira Knightley as Katharine Gun in "Official Secrets. Amazing lady, shes still a journalist. Moment fitness influencer asks man to move off park bench 'because he's 'ruining her livestream' - but Mortgage demand plummets to a 28-year low as average interest rates hit 6.71% - just as spring home buying Britain braces for brutal -9C Arctic snap: Met Office warns more snow and ice could lash the country next Is YOUR wood burner at risk? We started working on this three years ago and even then it felt relevant in the sense that the challenges we talked about earlier: Where does my loyalty lie? And then, she said when she got in therenow bear in mind that she still is bound by the Official Secrets Act. 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. Then the most almighty cacophony erupted, a roar so loud we could barely hear to speak. We typically, in the movie business, ever since Joseph Campbell wrote The Hero of A Thousand Facesand Im not meaning to be sarcastic because thats a great piece of work, but it spoiled the idea that every development executive is reading these books because the hero we meet and then something upsets their world and the antagonist that must equal the hero, and eventually we go through these loops and the hero triumphs in the end. Some of those same birds are still flapping wings in the skies above Washington. 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