what happened to katharine gun husband

I think our problem now, and I think this applies on both sides of the Atlantic, is that we have populist politicians for whom that doesnt matter. She was arrested and charged with breach of the Official Secrets Act. And I went back to Martin. We speak 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. And so I did. How often does she go through that fateful weekend, where she wrestled with her conscience after seeing the memo? [2] In 2003, she leaked top-secret information to The Observer, concerning a request by the United States for compromising intelligence on diplomats from member states of the 2003 Security Council. AMY GOODMAN: Now, he goes in for a regular check-in. KATHARINE GUN: It was GCHQ internal security, yeah. Guardian Australia acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of Country throughout Australia and their connections to land, waters and community. delivered to your inbox every day! Her whistleblowing was not enough to change the path of history, of course, and her last-gasp act of courage was all but forgotten in the brutal "shock and awe" of war. These were the six "swing nations" on the UN Security Council that could determine whether the UN approved the invasion of Iraq. Just trying to figure out what to do next. The Observers front page story on 2 March 2003. This U.K. Whistleblower Almost Stopped the Iraq Invasion of 2003 AMY GOODMAN: Youre watching that on television. Inside the world of ministers secrets, Iraq war whistleblowers trial was halted due to national security threat, Permanent Record by Edward Snowden review the whistleblowers memoir, 'They wanted me gone': Edward Snowden tells of whistleblowing, his AI fears and six years in Russia, I had a moral duty: whistleblowers on why they spoke up, 'You've caused an international incident': how my work mistake came back to haunt me, Fortheir eyes only: the secret stories ministers dont want you to read, Take it from a whistleblower: Chilcot's jigsaw puzzle is missing a few pieces, Hollywood beckons for whistleblower who risked jail over Iraq dirty tricks. Thats [inaudible]. There is a sense of, Did it really happen? Is that really me?. 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.. 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. And so, we talked about motherhood and all sorts of things, but I was just so impressed with how intelligent she was and how incisive she was in getting to the crux of the matter. And they attempt to deport your husband, who is a? And at the end of the Q&A, I went to try and find him, and hed gone. So, you know, it doesnt end, as Martin said. This is a rush transcript. There is no single answer to that, she says, but Bright had the best stab at it: The only thing you can do is do your job right, and be a good citizen., In other words, she says, whatever your job is, do the things that you are supposed to do. 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. 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. He was Kurdishhe is Kurdish. But that is unbelievably difficult now especially in the digital world.. ED VULLIAMY: Mr. Alton, screechy, ultra-right-wing. ED VULLIAMY: Thank you. Does she tell her story when she meets new people? Iraq war whistleblower Katharine Gun: 'Truth always matters' [20] After the charges against her were dropped in 2004, she found it difficult to find a new job. So, of course, I was a little bit sort of reserved. MARTIN BRIGHT: I have an abiding interest in the link between religion and conflict. 'Official Secrets' - The True Story of the British Spy Film - Vice Good for him. And I justI just determined to deny it. Dont just swallow what politicians tell you. White House Correspondents' Dinner: What's Happening & Who - Yahoo As soon as I opened the door and he saw me coming in, and he could see something was wrong, and thenand I said, Theyve taken him. And he went, The bastards! So, anyway, I was on the phone. You know, I felt totally at ease in her company. 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. And I dont know how authentic it appeared to the person interviewing me, but I just felt terrible. One question that recurs, she says, comes from audience members asking what they should do, how they should behave, in the current mendacious political climate. "[5], Gun's regular job at GCHQ in Cheltenham was to translate Mandarin Chinese into English. We have sort of, you know, I want to take my country back from all those Portuguese nurses and Polish plumbers, that we really must get rid of, and sort of whats best for Britain. You know, we dont have an opposition in our country, whereas you do in yours, thank god. All I want to do is feel the emotions that this young woman felt, and dont want to be fussed over. And it was great. They called for your documents. KATHARINE GUN: No, she hasnt. 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 . So, of course, it was justyou know, he was kind of thinkinghe knew I worked for the intelligence services, but he didnt know what that was. delivered to your inbox every day! The little-told story of British intelligence whistleblower Katharine Gun leaves a trail of unanswered questions worth probing, even 16 years later, . This is her story. Fox News' Kat Timpf Marries Cameron Friscia: See the Photos - People The legal case against Gun was eventually dropped by the British government in 2004, after her lawyer, Ben Emmerson QC (played in the film with fabulous charisma by Ralph Fiennes), threatened to use disclosure to put the legal basis of the war itself on trial. AMY GOODMAN: So, before the time of the trial, Katharine, youthey have clamped down on you. Gun owned up to the leak a few days later to save her GCHQ colleagues from a witch-hunt. Shes ordinary. KATHARINE GUN: Yeah, I was very excited to meet Keira in London before they started shooting. You know, youre not waiting for someone for hours in makeup. is katharine gun still married to yasar. They may have chosen to push those boundaries, but they did know the difference, and they knew that it mattered if they were caught. It wasn't that she was naive . [5] Gun heard no more of the email, and had all but forgotten about it until Sunday 2 March, when she saw it reproduced on the front page of The Observer newspaper. Katharine Gun (ne Harwood), 47, is married to Yasar Gn, a Turkish Kurd, with whom she has a 13-year old daughter. And the potential chink in the Official Secrets Act we had found, which could have become a defence for others, the defence of necessity [of speaking up to save imminent danger to life], it wasnt tested in court.. "[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. Katharine Gun: The GCHQ whistleblower who tried to stop the Iraq War on But jokes aside, the reason she said to methe reason I constantly find myself going. So I was bailed until November, when they charged me. He gets more and more pressure from Blair. 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. Shes not wearing tons of makeup. I mean, we had imagined all sorts of things about who our source might be. GAVIN HOOD: Ben Emmerson. You authorized her prosecution. 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? In Turkey, close to her husbands family, Gun and her partner, Yasar, could raise their child in peace. AMY GOODMAN: This is the NSA guy who wrote the memo. And a fireman does that if he bashes your house down to get to you. We still dont know who within the American administration ordered the operation. I havent watched the films about either of them, she says. AMY GOODMAN: That was 2014. AMY GOODMAN: And did they say they were going to charge you with the Official Secrets Act? The comedown after they dropped the case, and trying to recover from that, was quite stressful.. With no life insurance and unpaid maternity leave on the horizon, Mary Katharine forged ahead with a singular conviction. It was a very big audience, lovely, lovely theater. Gun was defended by Alex Bailin KC. I work for the British people. It was shown in the Castro Theatre. You didnt know what would happen with this memo you leaked to someone, who gave it to someone, but you knew you felt it wasI mean, you werent part of a movement. And as Martin has just said, and as Katharine put it so well in the film, you know, wars, unlike football and basketball games, do not end when the whistle blows. That is a tricky question, she says. At the time, as I well remember, the paper was split in response to the talk of war. 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. GAVIN HOOD: Well, its interesting you say that, because one of things Keira said to me that drew her to the script was, first of all, that she didnt have to wear a corset, because she does all these period dramas. I mean, thats why MartinI remember Martin and Ed. So, 600,000 Iraqi people died. 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. Interview: Whistleblower Katharine Gun. 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. Shes just wearing her jeans and jumpers, you know, to work. Kay Griggs, Former Marine Colonel's Wife Talks Again - WHALE Im going to start with you, Gavin. The Tony Blair Conscience Fund or something? You know, this is hundreds of thousands of people killed. The diplomats were due to vote on a second United Nations resolution on the prospective 2003 invasion of Iraq. Iraq now, nightmare. How dodo they join the dots? Katharine Gun leaked that memo to the Observer, in the belief that the revelation of the proposed bugging and blackmail tactics might be enough to stop the war. [6] She left teaching in 1999, and after some temporary jobs, finding it difficult to find work as a linguist, Gun applied to GCHQ in 2001, after reading a newspaper advertisement for the organisation. Instead, Jake suffered a fatal bicycle accident. AMY GOODMAN: So, theyre processing him. The last few hectic days have left her relieved and happy, she says, but completely uncertain as to her future. Be consistent. I felt awful after I denied it. I think a lot of our current issues go back to that time. All rights reserved. . AMY GOODMAN: And so, you decide to go back and revealwho was it that was questioning you? 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. ED VULLIAMY: Its a story of endeavor, to no avail. We pay respect by giving voice to social justice, acknowledging our shared history and valuing the cultures of First Nations. 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. And at some point, with great respect to Lord Goldsmith, he caves. Why did you come in? And we had to sit and wait for two hours while they winged it down from London. And so, theyre first prize was get the United Nations Security Council to pass a resolution saying that we, as a collective United Nations, are going to take out Saddam Hussein. Now, Martin, at this point, youve defended your story. In 2003, Gun was working as a translator of Mandarin at the government intelligence agency, GCHQ, in Cheltenham. [23] Daniel Ellsberg praised the swiftness and importance of Gun taking action, saying it was in some ways more significant than his own whistleblowing on the Vietnam War. ED VULLIAMY: But my point is not against Mr. Ahmed. "[12], Two years after her trial, Gun wrote an article titled "Iran: Time to Leak",[22] which asked whistleblowers to make public any information about plans for a potential war against Iran. Koza's email requested aid in a secret operation to bug the United Nations offices of six nations: Angola, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea, and Pakistan. So, GCHQ had been aware of this for over 24 hours, and they were waiting for everybody to come back into work on Monday, and they were prepared. And you said in places like Chile. Published on May 3, 2021 08:23 PM. We thought maybe it would be some crusty old senior guy from a rival agency. 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 . This is viewer supported news. And he says, Well, I called Elizabeth Wilmshurst, who is the assistant attorney general, who had resigned. There is a small group of us, she says. Protesters against the invasion of Iraq, February 2003. Gun has spoken at the 51Fest and conferences arranged by organizations such as the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS). I think of journalists as being bullet-proof in a way, she says, but obviously not., She and Bright have done several question and answer sessions in the US after the film has been screened at various festivals. The people who went in and smashed it up in 2003, do they watch the news? I mean, no ones going tono crocodile tears over that. I think. That was in this moment, moment by moment, as the story evolves, what would it feel like if you were in her shoes. Katharine Gun and Martin Bright could be forgiven for fielding Hollywood's overtures with a degree of skepticism. When Brights story originally landed there were concentrated efforts to rubbish it in the gung-ho parts of the media. Of course he does. KATHARINE GUN: No, I felt a huge sense of relief after I had, you know, confessed. 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. This is, sadly, a story of failure. Gun had given a copy of the memo, with no supporting verification, to a friend of a friend who eventually brought it to the Observers investigative reporter Martin Bright. Among them were Reverend Jesse Jackson, Daniel Ellsberg (the US government official who leaked the Pentagon Papers), and Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Therefore, it is not surprising that Gun chose to move away from the center point of all the chaos once it died down. How the NSA Pushed Iraq Invasion - accuracy.org And also, I didnt want to even risk having a criminal record. Oh, yeah. 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. 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. I felt awful. In the film, Official Secrets, she is played by Keira Knightley. Also with us, the director of Official Secrets, Gavin Hood. Im on the whole a fairly shy person, she confessed in an interview. So, where is Gun now? The first is a U.N. resolution for war. The simple fact is, she says: Truth always matters at the end of the day., Official Secrets is released on 18 October. Jed didnt sort of put the two of us together. During the season 5 finale of American Idol, Katharine McPhee was named the runner-up against winner Taylor Hicks. I ended up, bizarrely, teaching a couple of my former colleagues at GCHQ. Who is her husband? I wasno, as soon as he didnt come out, I. So I was in a dreadful state. 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 . And whats so marvelous about what Gavins done is to just sort of bring this back into the present. Ben Emmerson decides the way to defend Katharine Gun is to ask for Lord Goldsmiths documents. We, as a collective group of countries, decide that we need to stop an event, a humanitarian disaster or a genocide or whatever. Yes and no. So, lots of leads there. And the other way is the good, old-fashioned self-defense. Strange concept, but you do. Shes pregnant. And then, on Tuesday, they called me in, and I went in. We're looking at the real-life political thriller 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. She knows what it's like to have her face slapped, her bones broken and her nose bloodied by her former bully of a husband, an active Marine Colonel and a man who she claims is "above the law and literally gets away with murder." It was in a police cell that she uttered those two sentences that now seem to define the person she was and is. You know, lets say Iyoure a bit of a gambler, arent you? I mean, my initial encounter with him at the Faith Foundation was extremely concerning, in fact, because he said that what he wanted me to do was develop a heat map, you know, an interactive map of all the madrassas, you know, Islamic schools, around the world, with my tiny team of two or three interns, showingand he looked me in the eye, and he said, I want you to be ableI want people who are looking on our website to be able to see how radical those madrassas are, by color coding.. What happened next is the subject of a new Hollywood movie starring Keira Knightley as Katharine Gun. There was a feeling ofas what you felt, Ed, in this case, yeah. [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. Congratulations are in order for Fox News personality Kat Timpf and her beau Cameron Friscia! How am I possibly going to do that? Katharine Gun Husband: Learn Everything About Iraq War Whistleblower Her life story is depicted in the new film Official Secrets. In Part 2 of our discussion, we speak with Katharine Gun; the British journalists who reported on Guns revelations in The Observer newspaper, Martin Bright and Ed Vulliamy; and Gavin Hood, director of Official Secrets.. Does he try to treat it? GAVIN HOOD: They failed. I wanted to go to the making of the filmKeira Knightley, did you meet with her?and also ask you, Gavin, about Keira taking on this role. AMY GOODMAN: Ed Vulliamy, you were the U.S. correspondent for The Observer. GAVIN HOOD: Thats exactly right. So a very big story got crushed very quickly. Maybe there will be sympathy.. The film captures well the inspired and stubborn efforts of Bright (Matt Smith in the movie), and colleagues Ed Vulliamy (played with brio by Rhys Ifans) and Peter Beaumont (played by Matthew Goode), to stand the story up, based on the few details it betrayed, and to get it into the paper, despite the strong misgivings of the political desk. You didnt have that kind of support. And we can say that, you know, thatso, he comes back, under all this pressure. Theyre watching, you know, video games and bombs landing on Baghdadshock and awe. Laggies. Lord Goldsmith must have saidI mean, I imagine. Most people do. to your inbox each morning. 'Official Secrets' Reveals How Little We Still Know About the Push for Shes beginning to understand the issues, but she hasnt seen it yet. Before I knew it, I had spent two hours researching Katharine. MARTIN BRIGHT: But once everyone did, there waswe knew that there was somethingthere was something going on. Its the intelligence agency, like the NSA, the National Security Agency, in the U.S. She leaked a memo revealing that the United States was collaborating with Britain in collecting sensitive information on United Nations Security Council members, countries, in order to pressure the members, the ambassadors, into supporting the Iraq invasion of March 2003. He knows he cant save the child. MARTIN BRIGHT: I did, yes. I mean, I dont think we imagined that we would be still friends and still talking about it 14, 15 years later. Dr. I was aware I was doing something I wasnt supposed to be doing. When Katharine Gun came across a memo while working for the British government in 2003, her whole world changed.

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