However, she is not without disappointment about how little obvious difference she made. Keira calmly said: Oh, that was probably me. I still blush to the tips of my toes when I think about it. I don't think she thought they would deport her husband, I really don't think she thought that. Healthy mother-of-two, 32, collapsed and died from brain bleed while she led fitness bounce class. Then, the following Monday, I printed out a copy of the email, folded it up, and tucked it carefully in my bag. Gavin Hood: Yes, it really sticks in my throat too. Ed, I know some people have said that Rhys Ifans [who plays Vulliamy] is slightly over the top. WebKatharine Gun was a young specialist working for Britains Government Communications Headquarters when she exposed a highly confidential memo that revealed the United 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. We even got as far as the Old Bailey. 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? She talks about having read all these books [about the war]. If it was, who cleared it to be passed to GCHQ? So there is sometimes a thought in my head that says: What if Katharine hadn't leaked that memo? Yet to this day there has been barely a mention of the Bush regimes disgraceful demand in official histories of the period, as if its been deliberately written out. So we're in this development meeting, and the executive looks at me and goes, Gavin, I mean we need her running down alleys more, someone needs to throw a brick through her damn window, and when does she don her cape? It was literally the line. I was only a junior analyst, but I knew the email was outrageous: the American government was asking Britain to spy on United Nations diplomats so they could be blackmailed into supporting an invasion of Iraq. Right: Entertainment One, Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. 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. Gavin Hood: And that really happened. Katharine Gun, former intelligence specialist turned whistleblower, discusses the new film "Official Secrets" which details why she leaked a classified memo. Official Secrets Trailer #1 (2019) | Movieclips Trailers, Imagine Donald Trump Running an Actual War. To me, it was a way of showing that Iraq cannot be dismissed as a horror show of suffering, but is an ancient and sophisticated culture that goes back thousands of years. It was only later in the green room that I asked what all the fuss had been about, wondering aloud if it had been the environmental protest group Extinction Rebellion. Weve said it before: The greatest threat to democracy from the media isnt disinformation, its the paywall. Last week in Los Angeles, I got to interview the director, South African-born Gavin Hood, after a screening. So, that's where we had to go for WMD. In the matter of a few years. It's a fascinating film that really evokes the dangers of speaking out in the post-9/11 age, as well as the press's inability to challenge the official story on Iraq, particularly the U.S. press, which really just blacked out the Gun leak entirely. Direct to your inbox. President Bush visits the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Maryland, January 25, 2006. David Dayen: Just the notion that the paper would say, we're for the war, that was their editorial position. This is my second brief moment of fame. Please help keep the independent journalism of Common Dreams strong. I was called on to look this way and that and smile until my face was stiff. David Dayen: So why do you think this is an important story to tell now in 2019? He really wouldnt; that scene in the movie really happened. Iraq All Over Again? Some of those same birds are still flapping wings in the skies above Washington. But depicting that climate, people who were not aware or active at that timedidn't realize how difficult this was to talk against the war both from the journalist's perspective and obviously someone who's in the intelligence community. I didn't plan to have this movie out today and know what was going to be going on. And Where Is Katharine Gun, JUST 36 HOURS TO GO IN OUR WINTER CAMPAIGN. US firms waiting in the wings read to pump 'billions Parents' fury as schools STILL won't tell them if they are closed tomorrow as teacher strikes continue. I didnt know the story and I googled her. Then the story went The email was demonstrating the depths to which the American and British governments would descend in order to get spurious legal cover for a war in the Middle East which would have utterly catastrophic consequences, as we know to our cost today. They published the scoop in March 2003putting Gun directly in the crosshairs of law enforcement, and sparking a legal fight for her freedom. Not only was the cable the most sensitive ever to be disclosed on either side of the Atlantic, it was also unique in its timing. Then, we all started watching the invasion and we werent how we got into the war. And they failed, in part, I believe, because Katharine Gun leaked that memo, Official Secrets director Gavin Hood told Democracy Now!. I was 27 when it all began. Gun made the choice to leak the document, which Martin Bright of The Observer in Britain published in a story on March 2, 2003. It's tough, the laws here are even stricter than in the UK. That kind of propaganda has to stop. "Obviously, we are compressing a story that took place in real life over a period of a year into two hours. She said, I worry what's going to happen, they'll go, Ooh, I don't know if I like Keira Knightly in blonde hair, what's she done to her nose, does she have glasses on? Because they don't have a comparison to make, until you see her at the end of the movie. And that I think was the motivation. 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. He is just way out there in a whole other realm. Whether you work for Boeing or Enron or Wallstreet? Iran has been filmed loading missiles aboard some of its vessels. And then, she said when she got in therenow bear in mind that she still is bound by the Official Secrets Act. By the way, I know some amazing people in the intelligence services. There were some audience questions as well. She will not talk about it anything else. When Official Secrets received its British premiere at Londons BFI Film Festival earlier this month, I was determined to wear something that held a special meaning and settled on a dress by an Iraqi designer. Us, in any situation, wherever you work, I thought that's what this timeless about it. "But that's partly my own fault because I haven't aggressively pursued a career. As a result of the story the paper published 10 years ago this weekend, she was arrested, lost her job and faced trial under the Official Secrets Act. KatharineGun did not stop the war,but was it all entirely in vain? So we just worked on the performance from the very what if it's you? Would you risk your job? 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. Iran, meanwhile, says it doesn't want war, but will defend itself. But my point is simply this: The underpinnings of this country matter. Unfortunately, perhaps, I have a conscience and my dishonesty gnawed at me persistently until the next day, when I confessed. The point of all of this is painfully obvious. 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.". In leaking it to the Observer, she was also doing something unprecedented in the history of espionage. 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. But she said she would still be prepared to give evidence to the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war. I sensed a slight flash of anger as she said: "It's not even a footnote in the history of Iraq." 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? I know what it is like to watch the system become completely authoritarian. Katharine Gun and Martin Bright could be forgiven for fielding Hollywoods overtures with a degree of skepticism. By the time Gun and around 100 of her colleagues received the emailed memo that would change her life, she had already come to the conclusion that the arguments for war with Iraq were not really valid arguments, she tells me. I even thought, naively, Id be able to keep my anonymity. So that's who's running this show. Although the story made headlines around the world at the time of the leak and later at the time of her trial, which collapsed after the prosecution withdrew its evidence, it remains largely missing from the official narratives of the build-up to the Iraq war. WebGun sacrificed so much when she decided to leak and has worked only intermittently since. Liberty, the civil rights organisation, and Ben Emmerson QC had already agreed to defend me and we prepared for trial. 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. Exaggerating threats to provoke a war? And she thought she wouldnt get caught. You have no idea. 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. The difficulties of translating Gun's story also made writing the climax of the film tricky. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. It gives me an interesting pause. Me, you, not some big picture. The paper had taken the controversial decision to back intervention in Iraq. So WMD may not have been as important, had they gotten that resolution. The central issues of whistle-blower protection, public interest disclosures, journalistic freedom and the accountability of our elected representatives continue to be just as relevant today. Anyway, the Office of Special Plans and Abram Shulsky make an interesting Wikipedia read, it won't take you very long. Because it was toughthe guy wouldnt print his stuff. Gavin Hood: Keira is wonderful and is absolutely professional, arrives perfectly prepared, very calm, no fuss. It almost started with, well, would I have the courage to do what she did in another setting maybe? Meanwhile, Kamal Ahmed, who is the guy at The Observer, is now the editorial director of the BBC. I don't know that consciously it did, it's just that I didn't know the story and so, for me, it was I asked Katharine, I flew to London, I met her for five days. Twenty-eight, pretty naive. His work has appeared in The Intercept, The New Republic, HuffPost, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and more. But she still was not uncomfortable with the other things we've talked about. Gavin Hood: Its a question of how conditioned are we to the conventional Hollywood structure. Right now my priorities are to ensure I am there for my daughter.". And it's also true that we were then attacked by the Drudge Report for what would now be called 'fake news. But when Gun's lawyers threaten to question the U.K. Attorney General Lord Goldsmith about Britain's involvement in the Iraq war, the government drops their case against Gun. You work for the government. Whistleblower Katherine Gun, right, is played by Keira Knightly in the movie Official Secrets, Gun was outraged after she learned - as part of her job with GCHQ - that the United States wanted Britain to assist in spying on fellow United Nations Security Council members to win a vote in favour of a planned war in Iraq. So when I sent the script to Keira, and I was very hopeful that she would do it because she does a lot of period dramas, and you dont often see her in a modern drama and I thought shed be great. Did not stop the war, but was it all entirely in vain important... 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