Sometimes movies can be an effective way to make forgotten stories part of our national narrative, and in that sense, Official Secrets comes not a moment too soon. The British are quite British, you know. [In real life] I saw the email, I immediately thought, 'Oh, my God, this is shocking.' [U.S. media dropped the story because the Drudge Report noted that the NSA memo in The Observer had British spellings for words like favourable, which nobody in the U.S. would write. Ive been impressed by the film-makers determination to stick to the facts Gavin Hood, the director, interviewed me at length over five days and I was consulted throughout the process. It turned out a copyeditor at The Observer had run the memo through spellcheck before printing it.]. Exaggerating threats to provoke a war? So Im very proud of Keiras performance and I dont mind that she doesnt have blonde hair. And just coming from my perspective, the press, because a lot of this is a story about the press, and how they handle it. She will not talk about it anything else. The invasion was a huge blow, says Gun. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Twenty-eight, pretty naive. Koza was in effect issuing a direct order to the employees of a UK security agency to gather "the whole gamut of information that could give US policymakers an edge in obtaining results favourable to US goals or to head off surprises". The story went around the world and the leak electrified the international debate during the weeks of diplomatic deadlock. With the operation blown, the chances of George W Bush and Tony Blair getting the consensus for a direct UN mandate for war were now near zero. That would be awkward. And people do this in every country; they spy, they listen to what are the Chinese going to do when they get to this conference. And she said, Yep, I have no problem being asked to listen in, in instances where I might help prevent a terror attack. What this memo suggested was neither of those things it was a bridge too far for her. To separate fact from fiction, Newsweek spoke to the real Gun and Bright, as well as Official Secrets director Gavin Hood. So I said goodbye to my mom and moved to America. It sounds big with Katharine but that's what inspired me. Right now my priorities are to ensure I am there for my daughter.". 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. What appealed to me in the end is that Katharine is in fact, far more like us. I don't think she thought they would deport her husband, I really don't think she thought that. This included a particular focus on the "swing nations" on the security council, Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria and Guinea, "as well as extra focus on Pakistan UN matters". By the time the mid-eighties came around and I was a young law student, so Im looking at it from the side of the law, we had no right of access to lawyers in trial if you breached anything that was regarded as having to do with the emergency legislation. WebKatharine Guns husbands photo revelations are not made by her yet. I could put a lens on, and now my job is, this actress is doing great work, lets not get tricky, lets just get the audience into her eyes so that you could see those cogs moving. 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. She didnt know where he was for three days and she took the train down from Charlton to London to see the MP, Nigel Jones, who said exactly what he says in the movie. Now there is the possibility that Gun's singular life will be made into a movie. "I never aligned myself specifically with the anti-war movement. What happened to Gun afterwards forms the basis of the film Official Secrets, which opened in New York and Los Angeles earlier this month and goes into wider release today. Eventually, it was widely held that at least one of the reports of the attacks, and perhaps even both, were false. EXCLUSIVE: Lanzarote sticks to its guns and insists it WILL limit tourists and move away from relying on Jeremy Clarkson is axed as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? So when, on the first Sunday of March, 2003, my leak appeared on the front page of The Observer newspaper, I was overcome with shock. KatharineGun did not stop the war,but was it all entirely in vain? Maybe thats rewarding. WebFor example, a scene where Gun tries to get her husband out of an immigration detention center actually played out over three days during which she did not know where he was. What we have in this country is very precious, and in a sense, when I make these kind of films I don't know if I consciously do it, it's actually reminding about us that authoritarianism and governments gone awry are not okay, and what makes us strongoh, that sounds terribly pretentious, but I think you see where I'm coming from. Instead, the American coalition was Surely, she thought, when people realised that the UK was being asked to collaborate in an operation to find out personal information that could be used to blackmail UN delegates, they would be outraged and the UK government would halt its slide into war. Amazing lady, shes still a journalist. If there had been a UN resolution, there would have been no need to make a WMD argument because there are two legal ways to go to war. I never thought Id be choosing a dress for a red carpet appearance at a major film festival. 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. And I didnt have work where I was. Theres not a lot of work for translators; shes a Mandarin translator in England. This content is imported from youTube. I don't think I've ever met a more determined character and she remained utterly convinced of the justice of her cause: "There's nothing subsequent to the invasion that makes me think it was the right decision made by Bush and Blair." Neither my friends nor my family knew what I did all day. In technical speak, the Americans wanted the whole gamut of information which would give US policy makers an edge in obtaining results favourable to US goals in relation to Iraq. His philosophy comes from a military intelligence model, which actually, by the time you go to war, now it's about winning. You have no idea. She failed. You are sitting in the intelligence services, and Ive spoken to many now because Ive made other films in that world and I have some interesting folks that Ive been able to talk to, and the struggle was were being disloyal if you dont toe a party line, as it were, but we know this isnt right. Though celebrated Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg would later call Guns actions the most important and courageous leak in history due to her efforts to save lives through preventing a war, she obviously didnt succeed in stopping the invasion. We typically, in the movie business, ever since Joseph Campbell wrote The Hero of A Thousand Facesand Im not meaning to be sarcastic because thats a great piece of work, but it spoiled the idea that every development executive is reading these books because the hero we meet and then something upsets their world and the antagonist that must equal the hero, and eventually we go through these loops and the hero triumphs in the end. We must not be flummoxed by exaggerated claims of threats against America and our interests. Had the film appeared any earlier, however, I dont think Id have been able to watch it, let alone help the makers. But ultimately, heres why I thinkthis might sound like a strange statement. "You get to the end, and there's this court case. "I think part of the reason Gavin included it was just to kind of share that thought process.". As a result, there never was any second UN resolution. Public attention is the last thing you expect if, like me, youd settled for a job in the shadowy world of British intelligence. Ed, the real Ed, is absolutely delightful. He was actually gone for three days. I was suddenly free and bewildered. President Bush visits the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Maryland, January 25, 2006. Keira calmly said: Oh, that was probably me. I still blush to the tips of my toes when I think about it. After the charges against her were dropped in 2004, she found it difficult to find a new I admitted the leak and my life was turned upside down. ", Hood added: "You know, to this day, I mean, the real journalistic question is, who would like to go and really press Lord Goldsmith and Ken McDonald for the reasons why they really dropped their case? Please help keep the independent journalism of Common Dreams strong. Or at least, she could have been. You see it most vividly in that scene where everybody stops calling Martin Bright, or they start canceling all the interviews. One by one, all those who received the email approximately 100 people were taken in for a grilling. Or at least, she could have been. As Bright noted, however, what we see in the movie is close to the real events. To this day, however, there has been barely a mention of the year I spent living under a cloud. Some called her a traitor; others insisted she was a hero. So WMD may not have been as important, had they gotten that resolution. And Where Is Katharine Gun, JUST 36 HOURS TO GO IN OUR WINTER CAMPAIGN. Yet I do think Keira perfectly captures the strain I was under, the isolation and fear. David Dayen: The first thing I thought about when looking at this movie is that in most recent historical epics, the audience knows what's happening next. Progressive values. 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. By printing off the memo, putting it in her handbag and taking it home, she was already committing a serious breach of the Official Secrets Act. When do the clocks change in 2023? It gives me an interesting pause. And Assange is the same. Now, Trump says, he wants to see Iran back at the negotiating table. And isnt it also time to re-examine the Official Secrets Act? You might say I am biased. This and her other writings about intelligence issues have been critically acclaimed. Two hours later after this deep dive, I called Ged back and said, How come we dont know this story? I guess the answer to that is that her story was big news for the day, and then very quickly got crushed by a bigger story, which was the story of the invasion. You can look up Nicole Mowbray, she wrote an article in The Guardian a couple weeks ago, about this worst day of her life. So that's who's running this show. '", "The scene where all of us receive this email and we're discussing the memo, that never happened. Jack Straw, then the foreign secretary, has not been challenged on whether he authorised the operation to go ahead, although it is almost certain that he did. Seven times I've submitted articles to you with an alternate point of view, and seven times you've turned me down. Id never seen anything like it. Webdeport Guns husband, Yasar (Adam Bakri), a Muslim Kurdish Turk who was awaiting permanent leave to remain in the U.K. "But the more I think about what happened, the more angry and frustrated I get about the fact that nobody acted on intelligence. When my turn came, I entered a small side office, faced the security official and, putting on my best poker face, denied any involvement. Feel free to republish and share widely. 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