So give us the nutthe nutshell description of this story. I wish wed pushed it harder with the boss class within The Observer. You know, in the end, there was a feeling, I think, whatI know that Katharine and I have talked about this a lot. We continue our conversation now with Katharine Gun, the whistleblower and former employee of GCHQ. Mary Katharine Ham - Smart Women Smart Money Magazine Gun leaked the memo to the press in 2003, setting off a chain of events that jeopardized her freedom and safety, but also opened the door to putting the entire legality of the Iraq invasion on trial. The author advocates anonymity. The diplomats were due to vote on a second United Nations resolution on the prospective 2003 invasion of Iraq. We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work. I didnt want to be that. Katharine 'Kay' Griggs knows what it's like to have a gun pointed in her face. MARTIN BRIGHT: Yeah, who wrote the memo. 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. AMY GOODMAN: And these ambassadors are the ambassadors of? I think the number isand forgive me, I should have the figurethree-and-a-half thousand British and American soldiers, 37,000 wounded. She becomes the corporate sister-daughter, she dives into the power suit and high-waisted pants or Katharine Hepburn moment. How often does she go through that fateful weekend, where she wrestled with her conscience after seeing the memo? The film stars Ma. But yeah, I mean, I was hugely impressed. And towards the end of the Q&A session, an elderly gentleman put up his hand and said, Im very interested in the issue of Frank Koza. GAVIN HOOD: What she discovers saysis a request from the NSA to GCHQ to hack, bug the private communications and the office communications of U.N. Security Council members, in particular the nonpermanent members, the more junior members. I watched it in San Francisco, at the premiere, and my friend from childhood who lived there was with me. Certain friends did not want to see me any more, or be seen with me some people get very paranoid. What's more, her decision and movement to expose lies about the Iraq invasion made it be titled as the courageous and vital leak as per Democracy Now. You cannot talk to anyone about your intelligence work. The implosion continues. The war did not end when George W. Bush said, Mission accomplished. It was only just beginning. And all we were focused on was what might it felt like in this moment to have been Katharine. Protesters against the invasion of Iraq, February 2003. I could not get it in. Ellsberg has called Katharine Guns action the most important and courageous leak I have ever seen. British linguist, translator and whistleblower, This article is about the British whistleblower. And now you go back into work. is katharine gun still married to yasar. She continues to reside in Turkey and occasionally visits Britain. Gavin Hoods 2019 film Official Secrets is the thrilling political drama that explores the events that followed British linguist Guns 2003 media leak. There is a sense of, Did it really happen? Is that really me?. And after about three weeks of this meeting these extraordinary people, I said to Jed, I think I think I would like to do this. And thats where the story came from. Katharine Gun: The GCHQ whistleblower who tried to stop the Iraq War on Because it offered her both a resolution, and none? Katharine Gun - who's played by Keira Knightley in a forthcoming film - blew the whistle on a dodgy scheme by the American government. You know, the conservative estimates are 125,000 up to a million. Im on the whole a fairly shy person, she confessed in an interview. Ben Emmerson is. And she said, Gavin, I dont want to wear makeup. Gun was charged for exposing around the time of Colin Powell's infamous testimony to the UN about Iraq's alleged WMDs a top-secret U.S. government memo showing it was mounting an . Gun thinks she might speak out more considering the current state of political affairs and massive citizen involvement in sociopolitical issues. Lord Goldsmith must have saidI mean, I imagine. I mean, MI6 couldnt do that. I felt awful after I denied it. There are 15 members of that council, and there are these nonpermanent members who could swing the vote in favor of an invasion of Iraq in U.N. resolution. KATHARINE GUN: No, nothing atwell, they said they were arresting me on suspicion of breaking the Official Secrets Act. You know, my initial instinct was Ive got to remain anonymous. We knew for sure. So, I thought it would be great. [5] In February, she travelled to London to take part in the demonstration against the impending invasion of Iraq. Gun is not active on social media and occasionally participates in small-scale conferences and discussions pertaining to politics. The classified email Gun got leaked to The Observer was evidence of the clandestine attempt of the American intelligence to reportedly seek help from the UK in wiretapping the members of the UN Security Council to motivate them to vote in favor of the invasion of Iraq. The Bold True Story Of Official Secrets Katharine Gun - Refinery29 And I justI just determined to deny it. AMY GOODMAN: So, the Daily Mail, very sympathetic also to President Trump. Instead, Jake suffered a fatal bicycle accident. Starring Elle Fanning in the title role, the show follows the rise of Catherine as she arrives in Russia as a teenager, naively excited for her arranged wedding night with Peter III (Nicholas . My childhood friend, for example, I remember hearing her father was on a blacklist because he had been agitating for the opposition. Gun had, of course, been forced to abandon her career in the civil service and finally, struggling for work, left Britain altogether. In April 2020, Gun was set to appear as a speaker at the 14th edition of the International Journalism Festival, but the event was canceled in February of the same year due to COVID-19. I mean, we had imagined all sorts of things about who our source might be. But on the other hand, its just a deeply personal story aboutand I hope Katharine will forgive me saying thisabout an ordinary person, like one of us, who does something extraordinary. Katharine Gun is a British Linguist and Iraq War Whistleblower. ED VULLIAMY: Yes, the people who were giving Martin traction to get this story out, and who effectively, according to Mr. Daviess book, censored mine, about the cooking-up of the WMD and the fact that we knew Saddam didnt have any.