This meant that a lot of the things that we see Gun go through in the film actually took far longer in real life. Yet I do think Keira perfectly captures the strain I was under, the isolation and fear. 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. Not good enough, the trio decided. We may earn a commission from these links. So we're in this development meeting, and the executive looks at me and goes, Gavin, I mean we need her running down alleys more, someone needs to throw a brick through her damn window, and when does she don her cape? It was literally the line. But, did it change the way I approached it? However, her husband and the father of her daughters name is Yasar Gun. Well, you don't have one and get that almost anti-climactic moment that is a punch in the gut," said Hood. And it's not an easy question, it sounds easy, but I don't think it is. Just occasionally But depicting that climate, people who were not aware or active at that timedidn't realize how difficult this was to talk against the war both from the journalist's perspective and obviously someone who's in the intelligence community. Katharine Gun and Martin Bright could be forgiven for fielding Hollywoods overtures with a degree of skepticism. And it's a tough profession in many ways. "Financially it's the toughest," she said. "On the one hand, she's free. What appealed to me in the end is that Katharine is in fact, far more like us. Gun, her husband, and their four-year-old daughter shed their coveted privacy long enough to allow Katharine to be one of two former Sam Adams Award winners to present this year's award. And I think thats why you get this very honest, pure, deeply felt performance. Iran has been filmed loading missiles aboard some of its vessels. 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. After the charges against her were dropped in 2004, she found it difficult to find a new To this day, however, there has been barely a mention of the year I spent living under a cloud. Ive already lost a dear friend, and I cant do thisget called up two months of the year, every year, for the next 12 years. So Im very proud of Keiras performance and I dont mind that she doesnt have blonde hair. Please, become a member, or make a one-time donation, today. [Gun's husband Yasar, a Kurd, was nearly deported back to the Middle East at one point, even though he had nothing to do with the leak.]. And if, 16 years ago, you had told me that one day my life story would be portrayed by Keira Knightley, Id have laughed and changed the subject. Because it was toughthe guy wouldnt print his stuff. WebHer husband, Yaar Gn, is a Turkish Kurd. Naturally, I was discreet. The point of all of this is painfully obvious. As Bright noted, however, what we see in the movie is close to the real events. She said, I worry what's going to happen, they'll go, Ooh, I don't know if I like Keira Knightly in blonde hair, what's she done to her nose, does she have glasses on? Because they don't have a comparison to make, until you see her at the end of the movie. Does your loyalty lie to your own conscious, does your loyalty lie to your marriage, does your loyalty lie to your government, does your loyalty lie to your country? I was 27 when it all began. 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. We have a blondish-looking Katharine. Her late husband, Tom, a former special agent of the FBI and one-time head of counter-intelligence in New York, co-authored the Gun story. But there's no way I would have expressed that to any of my colleagues," Gun explained. [In real life] I saw the email, I immediately thought, 'Oh, my God, this is shocking.' 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. It was written in technical language, but the meaning was clear enough: the Americans were asking around 100 people in GCHQ to gather information from the communications made by diplomats from six nations Angola, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea and Pakistan all which were then sitting on the United Nations Security Council. Questioner: The only thing that I've wondered while watching the film, since it's a true story, is how could Ms. Gunn, who was a spy, who was a member of an intelligence agency, be surprised when her husband got deportedor when the government came after her husband, how could she be surprised when all of the different reactions she got came forward? 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. So thats how the scene happened, but she didnt know where he was for three days, he was at Harmonsworth, before she got him out. 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. His most recent book is Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power.. And she thought she wouldnt get caught. Do you vote, do you analyze who you should vote for or do you just take it for granted? But that shouldn't be the philosophy pre-war when you're trying to decide whether to go to war. Provocation? 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. They're more polite to their suspects. A thorough investigation began as soon as the staff started arriving at GCHQ on the Monday morning. And it's also true that we were then attacked by the Drudge Report for what would now be called 'fake news. So, Im not really answering your question well, but her feeling was just: Now I dont belong in this company. I had, of course, signed the Official Secrets Act, content in the knowledge I was working within the law for Britains protection. This was her first or second week at the paper. Gavin Hood: Its a great question. Despite the risk of a harsher sentence, I decided to plead not guilty because I felt strongly that my actions had been intended to prevent the unnecessary loss of life in an illegal war. When Official Secrets received its British premiere at Londons BFI Film Festival earlier this month, I was determined to wear something that held a special meaning and settled on a dress by an Iraqi designer. WebYou may not know the name Katharine Gun unless you live in the United Kingdom, but she was a pivotal figure in the run-up to the Iraq War. The decision to leak it was almost instant I felt I had no choice. And the reason? The only thing that we altered in that is that I didnt have time to tell it for as long as it went on. America, Britain, and Spain withdrew their proposed resolution on invading Iraq when it became clear that it would not garner the necessary Security Council votes, in part because of the information Gun brought to light. Ten years ago, a young Mandarin specialist at GCHQ, the government's surveillance centre in Cheltenham, did something extraordinary. Some of those same birds are still flapping wings in the skies above Washington. 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. Since 2003, my life and Gun's have continued to cross from time to time. KatharineGun did not stop the war,but was it all entirely in vain? The contents were explosive, implicating America in a blackmail plot to swing UN votes in favor of an invasion. 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. However, the Pentagon says the US deployment is "in response to indications of heightened Iranian readiness to conduct offensive operations against US forces and our interests.". Cheering crowds have never been my sort of thing. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images). In a year that the U.S. president is accused of pressuring foreign governments for political gain, the story behind the film Official Secrets seems particularly timely. David Dayen: But he is not a headline journalist at a newspaper. 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.". "Because I think people see thatthe leaders of both the US and the UK conceivably could be considered war criminals, and yet they are walking free.". It was only later in the green room that I asked what all the fuss had been about, wondering aloud if it had been the environmental protest group Extinction Rebellion. Us, in any situation, wherever you work, I thought that's what this timeless about it. She will not talk about it anything else. ", Left: Dave Benett/Getty. Because it's just an Executive Branch trying to grab power as an authoritarian. Maybe thats rewarding. ", 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. To look at someone who I thought was quite accessible and ordinaryand she doesn't mind me saying this because Katharine is someone who keeps her head below and is quiet, and did something extraordinary. She was horrified and leaked the email to the Observer. It was both exhilarating and just a little uncomfortable. WebKatharine Gun was a young specialist working for Britains Government Communications Headquarters when she exposed a highly confidential memo that revealed the United It should take the facts as they lead. That kind of propaganda has to stop. "Still no regrets," she said. The team of hawks circling George Bush had long wanted to take out Saddam Hussein, as did Bush. And she and many in her world knew, and many in the CIA knew, as Mel Goodman who's the man in the boathouse in Washington knew, that this was B.S. The more we find out that in fact the million-person march was a real cause of worry for Downing Street and for Blair personally, it makes you think we were so close and yet so far.". But again, I cant help but make some small jokes about these things. And then, she said when she got in therenow bear in mind that she still is bound by the Official Secrets Act. 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. [In the movie, Gun says I dont work for the government, I work for the people.]. I was only a junior analyst, but I knew the email was outrageous: the American government was asking Britain to spy on United Nations diplomats so they could be blackmailed into supporting an invasion of Iraq. Over the weekend, I got to work. Exaggerating threats to provoke a war? Neither my friends nor my family knew what I did all day. 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The memo from Frank Koza, chief of staff at the "regional targets" section of the National Security Agency, GCHQ's sister organisation in the US, remains shocking in its implications for British sovereignty. It was the first time I had worked with characters who were still alive, and they very much wanted it to be accurate or they wouldn't sign over their life rights. Id never seen anything like it. I spent the following hours doubled over the toilet bowl in absolute terror. ", 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. For the Observer too, it was a story full of risks. 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. 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