We are defending ourselves. 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. Director Gavin Hood resists this for the most part though I cant recall Martin being applauded into the office the morning after the story broke (muttered sarcasm and grudging praise was more likely the tone). And looking back, its easy to be nostalgic about how things were with Bush and Blair, because it looks like these people were easier to hold to account. 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." Does he try to treat it? So. You want to know where he is? he said. On the one hand I was relieved because my life wouldnt have to be scrutinised in court. He knows he cant save the child. KATHARINE GUN: Actually, time-wise, I was bailed for eight months. I wonder what she made of the scattershot download methods of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange? Oh, yeah. And through the lights, I couldnt quite see who the guy was. Maybe there will be sympathy.. 'You've caused an international incident': how my work mistake came What Happened to Katharine McPhee? Find Out Where the - Yahoo AMY GOODMAN: Shes then arrested. (In fact, those -our and -ise endings had been introduced by an Observer editorial assistant, innocently following house style guidelines as she copied out the memo into the system.) AMY GOODMAN: And when did that come out? [4], After spending her childhood in Taiwan, where she attended Morrison Academy until the age of 16, Katharine returned to Britain to study for her A-levels at Moira House School, a girls' boarding school in Eastbourne. MARTIN BRIGHT: Yeah, who wrote the memo. Keira Knightley as Katharine Gun in the film Official Secrets. I mention those lines about working for the people rather than the government. MARTIN BRIGHT: Yeah, I mean, around that time. And so, but theres another irony about the position of the attorney general, which is, the director of public prosecutions in Britain generally has real autonomy in deciding what cases to prosecute, except in cases of the Official Secrets Act, when he or she must get the authorization of the attorney general to prosecute. Details at membership.theguardian.com. 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. Why did you drop the case? AMY GOODMAN: And, Ed, you see whats going on in this country, in the United States, not to mention where youre from, in Britain. But yeah, I mean, I was hugely impressed. Following the dropping of the case, Liberty commented, "One wonders whether disclosure in this criminal trial might have been a little too embarrassing. Shes beginning to understand the issues, but she hasnt seen it yet. Don't let 'the intelligence and the facts be fixed around the policy' this time. 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 like saying, I tried to tell you this seven times, and you would not let me print it. You know, it's tough. This is notthis fringe idea of the war has never ended since 1991, what nonsense. AMY GOODMAN: Were you actually in the car with him, waiting for him to go in for his check-in? KATHARINE GUN: So, on Wednesday morning, I called in sick. And nor did the story end. Well, this article is all about the Katherine Johnson childhood, Katherine Johnson husband (s), Katherine Johnson family and Her career in NASA. I wasno, as soon as he didnt come out, I. And also, I didnt want to even risk having a criminal record. GAVIN HOOD: Almost a million. Starring Kiera Knightley, Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, and Ralph Fiennes in pivotal roles, the film is one of the more accurate cinematic explorations of real-life instances. MARTIN BRIGHT: But once everyone did, there waswe knew that there was somethingthere was something going on. Its all so resonant. AMY GOODMAN: Ed Vulliamy, you were the U.S. correspondent for The Observer. The original content of this program is licensed under a. I could not get it in. ", "US plan to bug Security Council: the text", "Let's free the Official Secrets Act from its cold war freeze | Alex Bailin", "Leaking or briefing? And the case was dropped. Anyway. And they said they would try their best. He didnt know I had leaked this memo. 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. Does she think that was a unique belief among colleagues at GCHQ? So I really didnt want any of that to be scrutinized because it just felt too vulnerable, stated Gun, on why she chose to retreat from the limelight once the dust had settled. Whistleblower Katherine Gun, right, is played by Keira Knightly in the movie Official Secrets. It just means that the job is even more difficult than it was before. It was very difficult initially. AMY GOODMAN: And a story that could have saved so many lives, except. How Katherine Knight Slaughtered Her Boyfriend And Made Him Into Stew "[5], Gun's regular job at GCHQ in Cheltenham was to translate Mandarin Chinese into English. You know, I felt vindicated. ED VULLIAMY: Its a story of endeavor, to no avail. And she said, Gavin, I dont want to wear makeup. The cop says, you know, Heres your ticket. Youre guilty of breaking the speed, but youre guilty of a crime. Youre breaking the speed limit. When Brights story originally landed there were concentrated efforts to rubbish it in the gung-ho parts of the media. I think youll find hes hiding in plain sight. And there was a dramatic hush in the audience. She was the real-life translator who photocopied . So, you know, it doesnt end, as Martin said. Im going to start with you, Gavin. We, as a collective group of countries, decide that we need to stop an event, a humanitarian disaster or a genocide or whatever. At first they dont name you, but then they do. Because it offered her both a resolution, and none? And I was tasked to set up a website to look into this. Theyre watching, you know, video games and bombs landing on Baghdadshock and awe. Maybe? I do not gather intelligence so the government can lie to the British people., Sixteen years have passed since Katharine Gun said those words, but they still ring in the air. 101 years old Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson was an American mathematician whose orbital mechanics calculations as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent crewed spaceflights in the United States. But she sails in with Gavin and comes straight up to me and goes, Oh, Katharine! and gives me a big hug. AMY GOODMAN: And these ambassadors are the ambassadors of? The last few hectic days have left her relieved and happy, she says, but completely uncertain as to her future. GAVIN HOOD: Yes, strong women. Many wonder whether Guns young daughter has seen the film or been told of the importance of her mothers extraordinary actions. Shes just wearing her jeans and jumpers, you know, to work. But, I mean, I ended up being a whistleblower myself within that organization. So, lots of leads there. Woman who shot and killed boyfriend says she didn't know her gun had a AMY GOODMAN: And so, you decide to go back and revealwho was it that was questioning you? So a very big story got crushed very quickly. I think I found like the missing piece. Anyway, thats why the scene. Then, Katherine Knight took a butcher knife from next to her bed where she had always kept them and stabbed Price 37 times. AMY GOODMAN: So then you have Scotland Yard taking over. There is a Guardian Live preview screening with Katharine Gun, Gavin Hood and Martin Bright on 12 October. Were also joined by Martin Bright and Ed Vulliamy, the two journalists who reported Guns revelations in The Observer newspaper, at a time when the paper was editorially openly supporting the Iraq invasion. I think the number isand forgive me, I should have the figurethree-and-a-half thousand British and American soldiers, 37,000 wounded. Ben Emmerson decides the way to defend Katharine Gun is to ask for Lord Goldsmiths documents. And we still dont know why the British government dropped the case. Almost a million Iraqis. AMY GOODMAN: Martin, you went on to work with Tony Blair, didnt you? We sat in the bar of a city centre hotel, and talked about the ancient history of 2003. I watched it in San Francisco, at the premiere, and my friend from childhood who lived there was with me. KATHARINE GUN: I was waiting outside in the police station, yes. As Coordinator for Shalom Mission Communities, a peace church fellowship near the southern border, Joel, his wife, Anali, and their new baby girl, Daniela Bea, are actively helping . is katharine gun still married to yasar. Gun is on Mondays episode of the Guardian podcast Today in Focus, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. what is the true story behind the Keira Knightley film? - The Sun I mean, the pack of cards has gone from Afghanistan to Iraq to Syria. Yeah, so it was panic stations after that. In the very typical British manner, we just pretended we had never met, she recalled. We still dont know who within the American administration ordered the operation. I ended up, bizarrely, teaching a couple of my former colleagues at GCHQ. And she said, I have to go, mostlyto find strong female characters, I have to go back 100 and 200 years and wear a corset to play a strong female character. And she said, This isI want to do this, because its a strong female character not in a corset. At the time, as I well remember, the paper was split in response to the talk of war. I was very exercised about what was happening. The trials and tribulations of daringly telling the truth and facing its consequences must certainly not be a light burden to bear. And the memo was like this big red flag as soon as I saw it.. We know this because Katharine Gun leaked a short 300-word NSA memo on this shortly before the invasion. It doesnt matter if you catch them out in a lie, because they dont care, because they lie as a matter of course, and they change what they say from day to day. There have been other attempts to make a film over the years. There are lots of loose ends here still. BBC NEWS | UK | Politics | Interview: Whistleblower Katharine Gun And I went back to Martin. AMY GOODMAN: Whatever you tried to do didnt succeed. The movie tells the story of Katharine Gun (played by Keira Knightley), a translator with the U.K.'s GCHQ who, in 2003, leaked top secret documents to journalist Martin Bright (Matt Smith) that . That whole period undermined the judicial process, it undermined the parliamentary process, and it undermined the media and press and the intelligence service. We are all of us living, she believes, with the consequences of that. You know, banks of civil servants couldnt do that. UPDATED with latest attendees, livestream link: President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, will attend Saturday's . But, you know, these things happen. whistleblower and former specialist for Britains Government Communications Headquarters. According to evidence, he woke up during the attack but could not fight her off. Gun discusses her attempt to stop the Iraq War, which is the subject of the new movie Official Secrets. ED VULLIAMY: said on the program, I filed that story seven times. MARTIN BRIGHT: Not until around the time of the trial. A New Film Tells Her Story, Part 2: 15 Years Later: How U.K. Whistleblower Katharine Gun Risked Everything to Leak a Damning Iraq War Memo, Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License, John le Carr (1931-2020) on the Iraq War, Corporate Power, the Exploitation of Africa & More, U.S. Plans Migrant Processing Centers in Latin America and Rapid Deportations from Southern Border, Food Shortages Worsen in Sudan as Battles Continue Despite Ceasefires, Abortion Ban Bills Fail in South Carolina and Nebraska, Keeping Abortion Legal Until 22 Weeks, Climate Protesters Descend on Podesta Talk to Demand Biden Admin Halt Fossil Fuel Projects, Mike Pence Testifies Before Jan. 6 Grand Jury, Vice News Tonight Canceled as Vice Media Fires Over 100 Staff, White Woman Whose False Accusation Led to Emmett Tills Lynching Dies Without Ever Facing Justice, Jeffrey Sachs on Chinas Historic Push for Multipolar World to End U.S. Sometimes you break stories, and networks ring you and say they want to interview you, and then they drop you because of the agenda.
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