Date: 2024-05-15 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00014733
Courage
Katherine Gun
She blew the whistle to prevent a war
'I felt that the public really needed to know about that.'
Katherine Gun
She blew the whistle to prevent a war
'I felt that the public really needed to know about that.'
Original article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/08/chilcot-iraq-war-gchq-inquiry
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
I archived this article several years ago ... maybe in 2016. I was appalled at the US decision to go to war in Iraq in the aftermath of the 9/11 events in 2001 and participated in the activist protests outside the UN in New York in the run-up to the Iraq invation.
At the time I approved of much of the Blair policy framework, but not his government's support for the Bush (43) agenda in the Middle East.
I do not consider myself 'an expert' on the Middle East but know a bit thanks to a quite good British education and several months spent in the region over a period of several years in the early 1980s. During some of this time I was in Kuwait, and there was one incident where aircraft dropped bombs near Kuwait City and the Kuwait authorities avoided identifying whether or not it was Iraq or Iran who were responsible. The general population seemed to think it was aircraft from Iran, but given the subsequent attack on Kuwait from Iraq it could have been an Iraqi attack!
More than anything else, the story recounted in this article is a reminder of the complexity of most everything and the massive amount of discussion and deliberation that goes on and is never reported. If anything it is worse today than a decade ago ... and little sign that it will get better!
Peter Burgess
'I felt that the public really needed to know about that.' Katharine GunSome extraordinary events are coming up soon in London -- and we need your help to make them powerful with media coverage and historic impact.
Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg called what Katharine Gun did “the most important and courageous leak I have ever seen.... No one else -- including myself -- has ever done what Gun did: tell secret truths at personal risk, before an imminent war, in time, possibly, to avert it.”
Katharine Gun was a 28-year-old linguist and analyst at GCHQ -- the British equivalent of the NSA -- when Prime Minister Tony Blair was teaming up with President Bush. They were eager to push a resolution through the UN Security Council for an invasion of Iraq.
On the last day of January 2003, Katharine recounts, she and other GCHQ employees “received an email from a senior official at the National Security Agency. It said the agency was ‘mounting a surge particularly directed at the UN Security Council members,’ and that it wanted ‘the whole gamut of information that could give U.S. policymakers an edge in obtaining results favorable to U.S. goals or to head off surprises.’”
In other words, the Bush and Blair governments wanted to eavesdrop on key UN delegations and then manipulate or even blackmail them into voting for war.
Katharine took action: “I was furious when I read that email and leaked it. Soon afterwards, when the Observer ran a front-page story -- ‘U.S. dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq war’ -- I confessed to the leak and was arrested on suspicion of the breach of section 1 of the Official Secrets Act.”
Now, RootsAction is joining with ExposeFacts and several British organizations for a major set of events in London that will bring the significance of Katharine Gun’s courageous actions into the present day.
To help this happen in a big way, please click here and make a tax-deductible contribution, giving a boost to this vital effort!
As policies of perpetual war and suppression of information continue on both sides of the Atlantic, we’re flying world-renown whistleblowers to London for a news conference, media interviews and public forums, including a major event at the University of London on March 2 titled “War, Journalism and Whistleblowers.”
If you hadn’t heard the name Katharine Gun, that’s not surprising. The U.S. news media hardly covered the story. Yet her simple and profound act of bravery made headlines across much of the rest of the world, while helping to galvanize the British mass movement of opposition to the Iraq War.
As George Orwell said, “Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.”
Today, the forces backing Prime Minister Theresa May and President Trump certainly want to suppress the historic reality of what Katharine Gun did -- and what it means for our current circumstances. The 15th anniversary of her exemplary whistleblowing can be a historic moment of its own.
Our news conference, media interviews and public events in London will bring Katharine Gun together with other courageous truth tellers -- including NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake, State Department whistleblower Matthew Hoh and Justice Department whistleblower Jesselyn Radack -- to speak truth to and about power.
If that sounds good to you -- if you’d like to amplify their articulate and profound voices -- we hope you’ll make a tax-deductible donation now.
Our upcoming events in London could have great impact -- not only in support of truth-telling, whistleblowing and alternatives to war, but also as a vibrant assertion of the essential role played by the press in upholding the fabric of democratic life.
Katharine Gun’s explanation of her whistleblowing is crystal clear: “I was particularly concerned about the reason behind the [UN] bugging, because it was in order to facilitate an invasion in Iraq.... It was about the potential slaughter of citizens and the disruption and destruction of a country which was already practically on its knees. I felt that the public really needed to know about that.”
A reporter at the Observer who co-wrote the blockbuster article that Katharine made possible, Martin Bright, describes its aftermath this way: “The story went around the world and the leak electrified the international debate during the weeks of diplomatic deadlock. Most directly, it bolstered opposition to the U.S. position from Chilean and Mexican diplomats weary of American 'dirty tricks.'”
As a result, “The same countries demanded immediate answers from the British government about its involvement in the spying. 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.”
Now, at a time of unparalleled mass surveillance and perpetual war, we must reaffirm and amplify the vital importance of such whistleblowing and truth-telling.
Thank you!
--- The RootsAction Education Fund team
Background:
>> Katharine Gun, The Guardian: “Take It From a Whistleblower”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/08/chilcot-iraq-war-gchq-inquiry
>> U.S. Plan to Bug the UN Security Council: Text of Memo From NSA
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/mar/02/iraq.unitednations1
>> Institute for Public Accuracy: The Katharine Gun Case
http://www.accuracy.org/1104-the-katharine-gun-case/
>> Norman Solomon, Common Dreams: “Finally, the Story of the Whistleblower Who Tried to Prevent the Iraq War”
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2008/09/25/finally-story-whistleblower-who-tried-prevent-iraq-war
>> Sam Husseini, ConsortiumNews: “Katharine Gun’s Risky Truth-telling”
https://consortiumnews.com/2014/11/19/katharine-guns-risky-truth-telling/
>> Upcoming Event at University of London: “War, Journalism and Whistleblowers: 15 Years After Katharine Gun’s Truth-telling on the Verge of the Iraq War”
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/war-journalism-and-whistleblowers-15-years-after-katharine-guns-truth-telling-on-the-verge-of-the-tickets-42350362073
www.RootsAction.org