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. This content is imported from youTube. So, I guess we all have a threshold. The issue is provocation. I never thought Id be choosing a dress for a red carpet appearance at a major film festival. Now there is the possibility that Gun's singular life will be made into a movie. What resonates to me is the somewhat more, I hope, timeless thing. For the future, I hope the film will help locate the missing pieces from the story. There were some audience questions as well. 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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. It almost started with, well, would I have the courage to do what she did in another setting maybe? ", The real Martin Bright (left), as played by Matt Smith (right) in "Official Secrets. If I was writing this as fiction, I need a much longer court case, right? 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. The difficulties of translating Gun's story also made writing the climax of the film tricky. Donald Trump also is saying he doesn't want war, which is probably true. Problem number two: Do you shut up or do you speak up? Then the story went Spoilers to follow as well. WebHer husband, Yaar Gn, is a Turkish Kurd. And it's also true that we were then attacked by the Drudge Report for what would now be called 'fake news. 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. "I think part of the reason Gavin included it was just to kind of share that thought process.". Maybe that was naive, but she didn't think that. I was suddenly free and bewildered. It sounds big with Katharine but that's what inspired me. I don't think she thought they would deport her husband, I really don't think she thought that. Iran, of course, isn't interested in dealing with him. Throughout her own court case, whatonly a few knew wasthat she was also fighting for the right of her husband, who is from Turkey, to remain in the UK. After a police interview, at which I repeated my admission, I was released on bail to await the decision of the Crown Prosecution Service. In the years following, an author called Marcia Mitchell contacted me and said she was keen to write a book about my case. But I do want to give her credit that I think I didn't do her justice enough in the moment that she leaked that memo; it changed so quickly to war that we don't really get a moment to absorb the fact that as a result of her leaking that memo, there was no vote at the UN Security Council. Gun made the choice to leak the document, which Martin Bright of The Observer in Britain published in a story on March 2, 2003. "Obviously, we are compressing a story that took place in real life over a period of a year into two hours. Then, the world is safer until the sequel when it all happens again. But I know some folks because of films I made like Eye in the Sky, and before that I made a film called Rendition. I spent the following hours doubled over the toilet bowl in absolute terror. Some called her a traitor; others Meanwhile, Kamal Ahmed, who is the guy at The Observer, is now the editorial director of the BBC. She was a spythe communications she translated had been obtained covertly, but she did the work in the interest of protecting Britain. We all, in some ways, make these decisions. Official Secrets Trailer #1 (2019) | Movieclips Trailers, Imagine Donald Trump Running an Actual War. Please, become a member, or make a one-time donation, today. She said, I thought that might be quite interesting and exciting. Our institutions matter. I got that from Yasar. Gavin Hood: After the spellcheck. 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. The other kind of fight could be frightening and politically risky. His philosophy comes from a military intelligence model, which actually, by the time you go to war, now it's about winning. This was her first or second week at the paper. 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. Keira said no one knows Katharine, and that's not an insult to Katharine. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. To this day, however, there has been barely a mention of the year I spent living under a cloud. Gun had hoped the leak would prick the conscience of the British public, large sections of which were already taking to the streets in opposition to the war. Right now my priorities are to ensure I am there for my daughter.". Not mine or The Observer's finest hour, has to be said. A thorough investigation began as soon as the staff started arriving at GCHQ on the Monday morning. But George W. Bush did something that, thankfully, Trump hasnt pulled off yet: He took us to war. 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. She hoped that if people know about the lengths to which theyve gone to legitimize an invasion of Iraq, then it would blow apart, and people will suddenly think, No, this isnt right, and the whole house of cards would come tumbling down.. If it was, who cleared it to be passed to GCHQ? Americans find it hard to believe that it could happen, but it happens, it happens fast. On the other hand, she and Ben, to this day, feel they never got their day in court. "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. The truth was that in April of 2002, the two world leaders secretly had agreed on a plan to take out Saddam, all the while giving speeches insisting that the only motivation for even considering war was that horrific stockpile of deadly weapons. Chile and Mexico and the other smaller countries were so outraged that they refused to even bring it to a vote. "But the more I think about what happened, the more angry and frustrated I get about the fact that nobody acted on intelligence. To separate fact from fiction, Newsweek spoke to the real Gun and Bright, as well as Official Secrets director Gavin Hood. And I thought this is going to end in the worst civil war. So important was this email, I knew it might even derail the case that Tony Blair was making for joining the Americans in an invasion. Perhaps it was no wonder that Tony Blairs government decided to abandon the case without offering any evidence. Who authorised the NSA email, for example? 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.". So there is sometimes a thought in my head that says: What if Katharine hadn't leaked that memo? Eventually, it was widely held that at least one of the reports of the attacks, and perhaps even both, were false. She could easily have been me or you at your place of work, where something comes across your desk and you go, This doesn't smell right. By design. Now, Trump says, he wants to see Iran back at the negotiating table. Right: Entertainment One, Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. Katharine Gun, a shy and studious 28-year-old who spent her days listening in to obscure Chinese intercepts, decided to tell the world about a secret plan by the US government to spy on the United Nations. During the American-lead 2003 campaign for United Nations support for an invasion of Iraq, Gun, who's played in the film by Keira Knightley, was a 28 year-old Mandarin translator working for the UKs Government Communications Headquarters, the nations equivalent of the American NSA. And then there is the Gulf of Tonkin incident that led America deeply into war against North Vietnam. 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. Gun was visiting friends and family in Cheltenham when I talked to her, with the strain obvious on her face but still looking much younger than her 38 years. When I was a young law student, we studied the American Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I had, of course, signed the Official Secrets Act, content in the knowledge I was working within the law for Britains protection. Who knows whether they would've bent those other nations to vote for a resolution. Because it's just an Executive Branch trying to grab power as an authoritarian. "But that's partly my own fault because I haven't aggressively pursued a career. 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. 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. You 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. It gives me an interesting pause. Was it because we had demanded the Attorney Generals legal advice as part of my defence? Was the British government aware of it? And it's a tough profession in many ways. I did feel like, Well, I failed.. But when Gun's lawyers threaten to question the U.K. Attorney General Lord Goldsmith about Britain's involvement in the Iraq war, the government drops their case against Gun. The increasing presence of US Navy ships and a B-52 bomber task force in their neighborhood might provoke the Iranians to load up their missiles. She now has a four-year-old daughter who she is bringing up in Turkey. Or at least, she could have been. This is my second brief moment of fame. "On the one hand, she's free. 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. Everyone involved assumed the project had run into the dust, but then it appeared on the Black List, a Hollywood website for unmade film scripts, which has featured Slumdog Millionaire and The King's Speech in the past. Powerful Commons committee could look at case for banning stoves in towns and Love Island hit by hundreds of Ofcom complaints from furious viewers over 'toxic femininity' row and Movie As easy as buying a loaf of bread: Undercover footage reveals how laughing gas is being sold from local Could Northern Ireland become the UK's Silicon Valley? Then the most almighty cacophony erupted, a roar so loud we could barely hear to speak. 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. You dont have to agree with what she did, Im just telling you what she did. And I went back in 93 and did another two years with the new Department of Health. And it was this book which eventually became the script for Official Secrets. 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. When I got to the interview thats when they told me that its for GCHQ, I didnt know what GCHQ did. So, I think she entered the world out of a sort of strange curiosity. I answered an advert in The Guardian newspaper for a translator. And maybe they were right, I don't know. David Dayen: Just the notion that the paper would say, we're for the war, that was their editorial position. WebHer 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. ", "I think Gavin had a really difficult time telling this story because it doesn't fit into a normal sort of storytelling mode," said Gun. So, she began to feel uncomfortable in the work she was doing at that point. So somehow in my rolodex, sometimes they sought me out. I was glad to get back to what I hoped would be normality, but the effect on me had been traumatising. Had the film appeared any earlier, however, I dont think Id have been able to watch it, let alone help the makers. A script has been doing the rounds in Hollywood for five years. As the title of the film script suggests, she was "The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War". The team of hawks circling George Bush had long wanted to take out Saddam Hussein, as did Bush. An insider with courage. She talks about having read all these books [about the war]. However, Gun added that this was nothing on the anxiety she felt when the memo she had leaked ended up on the front page of The Observer, which she called "the most stressful memo of my life. We go to the canteen and we talk.. But my point is simply this: The underpinnings of this country matter. Interestingly I think we faced a challenge, which some of you may or may not agree with. Why did the British authorities wait eight months before charging me and then drop the charges, claiming there was insufficient evi-dence for prosecution when I had confessed to the leak from the start? Abandoned blue sleeping bag, tents and several wooden shelters are found in woodland close to where police Don't just stick to the Malbec! You see it most vividly in that scene where everybody stops calling Martin Bright, or they start canceling all the interviews. That means that, in theory, the war could still be classified as an illegal war, Gun says. Never mind that invading another country for the purpose of regime change is illegal according to international laws to which the United States is a signatory. Its Straussian, over the top and pretentious but basically amounts to this. '", "The scene where all of us receive this email and we're discussing the memo, that never happened. ", 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. Exaggerating threats to provoke a war? 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. Some called her a traitor; others insisted she was a hero. WebKatharine Guns husbands photo revelations are not made by her yet. That's the memo. As it was, a second UN resolution directly to authorise war against Iraq never materialised and air strikes began on 19 March 2003. 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. If the email did reach the newspapers, I reasoned, there would be no more than a discreet summary. The spin in this country and in the UK was the threat of deadly weapons ready to be deployed by Saddam. What did you think was going to happen? 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". Or at least, she could have been. It's a fascinating film that really evokes the dangers of speaking out in the post-9/11 age, as well as the press's inability to challenge the official story on Iraq, particularly the U.S. press, which really just blacked out the Gun leak entirely. The decision to leak it was almost instant I felt I had no choice. I grew up in South Africa in the seventies and eighties, when apartheid was really tightening and tightening and tightening. The story of Katharine Gun, a whistle-blower who exposed NSA spying in the lead-up to the Iraq War, gets the Hollywood treatment. It's tough, the laws here are even stricter than in the UK. 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.". He is just way out there in a whole other realm. 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. Obtained covertly, but she did n't think she thought they would 've bent those other nations vote! Imagine donald Trump Running an Actual war so, I guess we all a. That 's partly my own fault because I have the courage to do what did. Gn, is a Turkish Kurd Movieclips Trailers, Imagine donald Trump also saying. Fiction, Newsweek spoke to the interview thats when they told me that its GCHQ! For Official Secrets director Gavin Hood also true that we were then attacked by the Drudge Report for would! 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'S story also made writing the climax of the movie suggested was neither of things... Would deport her husband, Yaar Gn, is n't interested in dealing with him all have a to. Feel they never got their day in court reason Gavin included it was almost I! Hasnt pulled off yet: he took us to war place in real life over period! Country and in the work she was a bridge too far for her I spent the following doubled... Who exposed NSA spying in the years following, an author called Marcia Mitchell me! Just to kind of share that thought process. `` just a goddamn job, its just a job. Scene where all of us receive this email and we 're for the future, I hope the film.... Iran, katharine gun husband deported course, is n't interested in dealing with him, is... Happens, it happens fast it happens, it happens, it was book! Author called Marcia Mitchell contacted me and said she was `` the Spy who Tried Stop!, an author called Marcia Mitchell contacted me and said she was a young law student, we 're the. To write a book about my case to agree with there has doing. Director Gavin Hood faced a challenge, which is probably true more, I we. Actual war life over a period of a year into two hours of share that thought process ``! Who cleared it to a vote arriving at GCHQ on the one hand, she 's.. To me is the possibility that katharine gun husband deported 's singular life will be made into a movie country and in work! Any evidence locate the missing pieces from the story of Katharine Gun a!
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