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. She wasnt planning to get caught and then the dilemma was, My friends are all going to have their lives ruined.. WebKatharine Guns husbands photo revelations are not made by her yet. Keira calmly said: Oh, that was probably me. I still blush to the tips of my toes when I think about it. Times have often been tough, not least because of the itinerant life she has chosen for herself. And she said, I dont work for the government. That was my first thoughtwhat do you mean you dont work for the government? You have no idea. David Dayen: And you were dealing with a story that was about a leak that didn't stop a war and leading to a trial that didn't happen. Then, the following Monday, I printed out a copy of the email, folded it up, and tucked it carefully in my bag. Director Gavin Hood Writers Sara Bernstein Gregory Bernstein Gavin Hood Stars Keira Knightley Matt Smith Matthew Goode Iran, meanwhile, says it doesn't want war, but will defend itself. Public attention is the last thing you expect if, like me, youd settled for a job in the shadowy world of British intelligence. He really wouldnt; that scene in the movie really happened. Taking Vitamin D each day could cut your chances of getting dementia, study claims. "We started wondering whether we should do the blonde hair and the glasses and wondering about prosthetics, but one point Keira said to me, 'You know, the last thing I want is the audience to say, 'Oh, I don't know if I like her blonde,'" said Hood. At first, I heard nothing. Moment fitness influencer asks man to move off park bench 'because he's 'ruining her livestream' - but Mortgage demand plummets to a 28-year low as average interest rates hit 6.71% - just as spring home buying Britain braces for brutal -9C Arctic snap: Met Office warns more snow and ice could lash the country next Is YOUR wood burner at risk? Official Secrets is, for the most part, a historical account of these events in 2003, but as with nearly all films based on a true story, some things have been changed to aid the drama of the narrative. It is probably still too early to tell. So WMD may not have been as important, had they gotten that resolution. Official Secrets Trailer #1 (2019) | Movieclips Trailers, Imagine Donald Trump Running an Actual War. As the title of the film script suggests, she was "The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War". Or, in this case, when the Office of Special Plans was set up, youve got Feith and someone like Abram Shulsky, whose philosophy of intelligence is very different. I did feel like, Well, I failed.. If it was, who cleared it to be passed to GCHQ? We were in development with a particular studio, and I don't mean to be funny after such a heavy film but sometimes we need a little bit of humor. Gavin Hood: There is a kind of cognitive dissonance. So there is sometimes a thought in my head that says: What if Katharine hadn't leaked that memo? Naturally, I was discreet. Interestingly I think we faced a challenge, which some of you may or may not agree with. It left me in an impossible predicament. And it's a tough profession in many ways. A manufactured provocation. In the film, when Gun is sent an email from someone high up in the U.S. government that reveals the U.S. covert plan, she decides to leak it to Bright, who works for the British newspaper The Observer, which then publishes it on their front page. I believe that all of this should have been formally acknowledged as part of the history of the second Gulf War. On the other hand, she and Ben, to this day, feel they never got their day in court. Gavin Hood: Keira is wonderful and is absolutely professional, arrives perfectly prepared, very calm, no fuss. I became a mother, we moved countries and I have come to terms with that year of my life, though it will always define me in some ways. However, when her friends start being interrogated about the leak, Gun confesses to being the whistleblower, leading to her being arrested and taken to court for breaching the Official Secrets Act. You have the UN resolution, we're all doing this together to stop the genocide or something, or it's self-defense, we're going to be attacked, it's so clear we're going to be attacked that we have to take pre-emptive action. I dont know if theyd have discovered me eventually, but the fact is I couldnt live a lie for ever. A script has been doing the rounds in Hollywood for five years. And I did the same for the journalists and the lawyers and everybody. She now has a four-year-old daughter who she is bringing up in Turkey. WebAttempts were made by the authorities to deport her husband, who grew disillusioned with Britain. And they failed, in part, I believe, because Katharine Gun leaked that memo, Official Secrets director Gavin Hood told Democracy Now!. 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". Enter Katharine Gun. Now the goal is not truth, it is victory. 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 when I sent the script to Keira, and I was very hopeful that she would do it because she does a lot of period dramas, and you dont often see her in a modern drama and I thought shed be great. It is to say that we need to know the truth behind the decisions to act or not to act. The issue is provocation. 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. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. The poor woman is based on a real person. But get out of that trailer as fast as possible, get onto the set, and work from inside? And it was there that, to our amazement and totally without warning, the CPS dropped the charges before the trial had even started. This was her first or second week at the paper. Id never seen anything like it. 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. Quality journalism. But any such illusions were shattered on the freezing cold morning of Friday, January 31, 2003, as I read and re-read the most extraordinary email from Americas intelligence service, the National Security Agency. Katharine Gun, former intelligence specialist turned whistleblower, discusses the new film "Official Secrets" which details why she leaked a classified memo. Six months later they released Nelson Mandela. You might say I am biased. A translator for UK intelligence agency GCHQ, Gun read a brief from the US National Security Agency urging its British sister organisation to spy on members of the UN Security Council, to gain influence i n a vote For 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. We must not be flummoxed by exaggerated claims of threats against America and our interests. ", As for her own story, she recognises that 10 years on it scarcely registers with the public. However, her husband and the father of her daughters name is Yasar Gun. The other was Coleen Rowley, former FBI special agent and counsel at the Minneapolis bureau, who blew the whistle on FBI and other shortcomings In fact, I had no idea what was going on. When my turn came, I entered a small side office, faced the security official and, putting on my best poker face, denied any involvement. Gavin Hood: And that really happened. 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. Me, you, not some big picture. Gun, a translator with the British intelligence service known as Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), received a document just before the war from an NSA manager, seeking British intelligence support in spying on members of the UN Security Council, to effectively blackmail them into voting for a second resolution that would make legal the invasion of Iraq. Did that change your approach to presenting the film knowing that this was actually going to be somewhat of a surprise to people? ", Bright noted that apart from some small flourishes to heighten the drama, he didn't think Official Secrets had "any genuine liberties taken with the truth. But Katharine Gun, whos now the subject of a new film, the Gavin Hood-directed Official Secrets, did a lot moreand became one of the most important political whistleblowers that most Americans have never heard of. Sorry to digress. So she said, Can I just do nothing with my hair, put on the jeans like Katharine wore? So the wardrobe is accurate to Katharine's style. This, despite credible evidence that Iran was in full compliance with terms of the agreement. I never thought Id be choosing a dress for a red carpet appearance at a major film festival. Only now, more than a decade and a half later, is this disturbing sequence of events once again receiving the attention it deserves thanks to Official Secrets, a brilliant new movie starring Keira and former Doctor Who, Matt Smith. The true story of a British whistleblower who leaked information to the press about an illegal NSA spy operation designed to push the UN Security Council into sanctioning the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Her husband said its a job, its just a goddamn job, I work at a caf. My job had been to listen to Chinese communications, translate them from Mandarin to English and produce reports for different government departments. Some called her a traitor; others I don't think she thought they would deport her husband, I really don't think she thought that. "There seems to be this blas attitude the spying goes on, everyone does it and so it's nothing to get all hot under the collar about. ", Speaking to Gun, and seeing her in archival footage at the end of the film, it is clear that Knightley didn't try to emulate the look or sound of the real-life Gun. Across the world, millions protested the invasion of Iraq, doing their own small parts to attempt to prevent the war. Daniel Ellsberg, the celebrated American whistleblower who leaked the Pentagon Papers about the build-up to the war in Vietnam, described it as "the most important and courageous leak I have ever seen".He added: "No one else including myself has ever done what Katharine Gun did: tell secret truths at personal risk, before an imminent war, in time, possibly, to avert it.". 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