Yasar Gun is the husband of a British whistleblower, Katharine Gun, who revealed top-secret information. I felt guiltylike, I leaked this memo, and now theres going to be a witch hunt for the person who did it, and Im not going to be able to deny it. And the whole process, I think, was just a parallel process that didnt have a. And I said, you know, So, what is this? I talked to a couple of colleagues about it, about even taking it to the editor, because you dont want to take a half-baked story to your editor, particularly at the time of intense prewar preparation. Maybe reporters decided it was a fake, Katharine thought; maybe she'd just entirely misjudged its significance. Guns story being told in Official Secrets. AMANPOUR: And that spoke was this memo that had , AMANPOUR: been leaked to you and then you leaked it to the press, not leaked but delivered to you . Theyd already escorted him down to the custody suite and begun the process. Yasars wife is a British linguist who worked as a translator for the GCHQ, Government Communications Headquarters. The question remains: Why did they invade Iraq? Official Secrets recounts Gun's story, from her fateful decision (which of course accomplished nothing in the end, even though the leak quickly went public) to her bizarre criminal trial. AMY GOODMAN: Rebel Girl by Bikini Kill. Never heard of Gun? We need another Katharine Gun. I think the film will help to focus people on those issues again. How scary was it for you to go ahead and do what you did? What I object to is being asked to gather intelligence to help fix a vote at the U.N. and deceive the world into going to war. Bush had agreed to this to help Blair. The following Monday morning, Katharine could immediately tell there was an atmosphere in the office. AMY GOODMAN: Thats the trailer for the new movie Official Secrets, based on the true-life story of whistleblower Katharine Gun. And I hope that it can get people, Americans, to follow their conscience, and do the right thingstand up for what they believe in., With the world at an even more critical inflection point under controversial leadership, Gun hopes that others might find the courage to speak up if they come across as damning evidence as she dideven if it means temporarily sacrificing comfort. Wise man. Nowadays, everyone can invent their own news - and call out stories - on social media, and . There were a million people in the streets, the Parliamentary Labour party was in revolt, cabinet ministers were resigning; there might be regime change in Britain before it happened in Iraq. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. That level of pressure, stress and attention took its toll. You actually, at that point, had never met Katharine Gun. Gun said that remarkably and very depressingly, Although technically a period piece, moviegoers will be able to make connections to more recent whistleblowing scandals when watching, Knightley said when she asked Gun if she would do it again, Gun simply replied, Yes, absolutely., The Bold True Story Of Official Secrets Katharine Gun, Over the decades, popular culture has created dominant narratives of the Dominican Republic that are most often synonymous with poverty, crime, or state vi, This story contains spoilers for Ant-Man: Quantumania. The invasion proceeded more or less on time with a coalition of the willing led by the United States and Britain. Both screenings feature discussions with the real Katharine Gun, South African director Gavin Hood (of 2015's "Eye in the Sky" fame), and the British journalist who helped break the story, The Guardian's Martin Bright (he worked at the sister paper The Observer at the time). On the night of the 19th of March, 2003, the bombs began to fall. And tell the final results of what happened. The email was a request to tamper with the debate of whether or not to invade Iraq. I mean, what are you doing here? And it was a very collaborativeit was a very collaborative place. Yasar Gun is the husband of a British whistleblower, Katharine Gun, who revealed top-secret information. Our obligation is to the truth. It later emerged that the newspaper was collaborating very, very closely with Tony Blair and his sort of enforcers to keep this kind of thing out of the paper. Katharine feared she'd be fobbed off and then put under surveillance should she report it, so instead she kept silent and headed home for the weekend. Nerves tingling, she went home. AMY GOODMAN: And talk about whatI mean, you risked everything. interviewed Katharine Gun. KNIGHTLEY: Governments change. Currently, Katharine Ross is 82 years old as she was born on 29th January 1940. And you were what? We were handed a simple sheet of A4 paper that had a series of words typed on it. Katherine Louisa Ryan was born on June 30, 1983, to Finbar and Julie McCarthy in the city of Sarnia in southwestern Ontario, Canada. Any intelligence gathered would be used as leverage to coerce those nations into sanctioning a war in Iraq. Katharine Gun (Katharine Teresa Harwood) was born on 1974 in United Kingdom, is a Linguist. When she was acquitted in 2004, it was difficult for her to find a new job that she liked. 2019 | Maturity Rating: R | 1h 51m | Social Issue Dramas. I gather intelligence so that the government can protect the British people. Required fields are marked *. Finally, she called someone (she has never named) who had connections to the media, telling them: I have something explosive, I think it has the potential to avert a war with Iraq. She went back into work on Monday, printed the email, folded it neatly and put it in her bag. "Official Secrets," which opened Friday in New York and . In Official Secrets, Gun is played by Keira Knightley while Matt Smith takes on the role of Martin Bright. And then, in November, came the call from her lawyer. JERRY: [played by Chris Reilly] Hes a Muslim. And truth was having a hard time at The Observer at that point. I do not gather intelligence so the government can lie to the British people. Marcia Mitchell. Now, the political thriller, In case you arent too familiar with Guns story, I dont want to give too much away about what the movie shows. It is based on the whistleblowing investigation by Katharine Gun and Martin Bright. In February, Gun attended a demonstration in opposition to the Iraq War. It wasnt, of course, but hindsight and history may end up judging Guns decisions more kindly than Bushs or Blairs. KATHARINE GUN: Detective, I dont object to being asked to collect information that could help prevent a terror attack. They were going use information gathered from the intelligence to either bribe or blackmail them into voting for this war. We're sitting together in a quiet room at the headquarters of human rights organisation Liberty, just around the corner from the streets through which she'd been marching. "My boys," the "Waitress" actress captioned the snap . She is known for having exposed a plan by the US government to spy on the United Nations shortly before a vote concerning America's illegal invasion of Iraq. Today, she lives in Turkey, with her husband and their child. Forty years later, JoBeth Williams and Craig T. Nelson tell all about the horror classics secrets, tragedies, and controversies. AMY GOODMAN: So, but talk about this, your argument to the editors. But the Iraqis were right and the Americans were wrong. Enter Katharine Gun. Ross stands at the height of 5 feet 5 inches or 165 cm tall. BEN EMMERSON: [played by Ralph Fiennes] You might need our help. She couldnt shake the indelible images of the turkey shoot of retreating Iraqis on the Highway of Death during the first Gulf War in 1991, the road out of Kuwait strewn with burnt-out vehicles and charred bodies. The advice was that, by accepting what she'd done was illegal, the jail time might end up reduced. MARTIN BRIGHT: No, it was a very unusual situation. When I saw the red flagit was like, Oh, my gosh, this is so explosive. Husband: Not Available: Sibling: Not Available: Children: Not Available: Katharine Gun Net Worth. AMANPOUR: by somebody within your organization. You didnt. Her case became awidespread controversy among activists, and many people stepped forward to urge the government to drop the case. And then, finally, it came to me. But of course that did not stop the war. "Public opinion was just so obviously against the invasion that I thought it wouldn't happen," she recalls. Katharine Gun has a much better grasp of the true spirit of democracy than Tony Blair. If people knew about this, nobody would support this invasion.. He was the Observer journalist who was working in Washington on this story, as well, with Martin. And he had told me over two meetings, A, we know that Saddam Hussein has no weapons of mass destruction. Between the worlds greatest democracy and a murderous dictatorship, it seemed easy to know whom to believe. AMY GOODMAN: That was a clip from Official Secrets. Subscribe to the US edition here. Katharine Gun, Martin Bright, Ed Vulliamy and Gavin Hood. Katharine read the content carefully, and immediately felt sick to her stomach: it was a classified directive from the American authorities asking the British to spy on six UN Security Council members. JASMINE: [played by MyAnna Buring] Youre asking me to collude in a breach of the Official Secrets Act. How old were you at the time? AMY GOODMAN: So, that was Katharine Gun back in 2004. 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 classified memo to The Observer newspaper. In 2019, she finally returned to the general public eye for the promotional press occasions for Official Secrets. "And there in my inbox was was this email from [the US] National Security Agency, which in and of itself was quite out of the ordinary.". And so, I was going crazy. The film stars Matthew Goode, Katherine Kelly, Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes. You wanted to stop the Iraq war. Its not true. Revealed: US dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq war. She became the spy who tried to stop a war. When she arrived, escorted by security, all her colleagues knew too. 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