Guardian: Gun appears in court tomorrow accused of
breaching the Official Secrets Act by allegedly
leaking details of a secret US 'dirty tricks'
operation to spy on UN Security Council members in the
run-up to war in Iraq last year. If found guilty, she
faces two years in prison. She is an unlikely heroine
and those who have met her say she would have been
happy to remain in the shadows, had she not seen
evidence in black and white that her Government was
being asked to co-operate in an illegal operation.
Repudiate the 9/11 Coverup and the Iraq War Lies, Show
Up for Democracy in 2004: Defeat Bush (again!)
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0118-01.htm
Published on Sunday, January 18, 2004 by the
Observer/UK
US Stars Hail Iraq War Whistleblower: GCHQ worker Katharine Gun faces jail for exposing American corruption in the run-up to war on Saddam. Now her celebrity supporters insist it is Bush and Blair who should be in the dock.
by Martin Bright
She was an anonymous junior official toiling away with
4,500 other mathematicians, code-breakers and
linguists at the Government Communications
Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham.
But now Katharine Gun, an unassuming 29-year-old
translator, is set to become a transatlantic cause
célèbre as the focus of a star-studded solidarity
drive that brings together Hollywood actor-director
Sean Penn and senior figures from the US media and
civil rights movement, including the Reverend Jesse
Jackson.
Katharine Gun is a former translator at GCHQ in
Cheltenham
Gun appears in court tomorrow accused of breaching the
Official Secrets Act by allegedly leaking details of a
secret US 'dirty tricks' operation to spy on UN
Security Council members in the run-up to war in Iraq
last year. If found guilty, she faces two years in
prison. She is an unlikely heroine and those who have
met her say she would have been happy to remain in the
shadows, had she not seen evidence in black and white
that her Government was being asked to co-operate in
an illegal operation.
The leak has been described as 'more timely and
potentially more important than The Pentagon Papers by
Daniel Ellsberg, the celebrated whistleblower who
leaked papers containing devastating details of the US
involvement in Vietnam, in 1971. Ellsberg has been
vocal in support of Gun. She was arrested last March,
days after The Observer first published evidence of an
intelligence 'surge' on UN delegations, ordered by the
GCHQ's partner organization, the National Security
Agency.
Legal experts believe that her case is potentially
more explosive for the Government than the Hutton
inquiry because it could allow her defense team to
raise questions about the legality of military
intervention in Iraq. The Attorney General, Lord
Goldsmith, is likely to come under pressure to
disclose the legal advice he gave on military
intervention - something he has so far refused to do.
At a hearing last November, Gun's legal team indicated
that she would use a defense of 'necessity' to argue
that she acted to save the lives of British soldiers
and Iraqi civilians.
At the time Gun, who was sacked after her arrest and
whose case is funded by legal aid, said in a
statement: 'Any disclosures that may have been made
were justified on the following grounds: because they
exposed serious illegality and wrongdoing on the part
of the US government who attempted to subvert our own
security services; and to prevent wide-scale death and
casualties among ordinary Iraqi people and UK forces
in the course of an illegal war.'
She added: 'I have only ever followed my conscience.'
Sean Penn and Jesse Jackson have already signed a
statement of support for Gun and a broader campaign
will be launched later this year. They are joined by
Ellsberg, who is keen to travel to Britain soon to
meet Gun.
Other signatories of the statement, to be released in
the coming weeks, include Linda Foley, president of
the Newspaper Guild, and Ramona Ripston of the
American Civil Liberties Union, both in their personal
capacities.
The statement is a glowing tribute to the
publicity-shy GCHQ mole who has avoided all media
attention since her arrest: 'We honor Katharine Gun as
a whistleblower who bravely risked her career and her
very liberty to inform the public about illegal spying
in support of a war based on deception. In a
democracy, she should not be made a scapegoat for
exposing the transgressions of others.'
The statement also pays tribute to the transatlantic
opposition to the war in Iraq, which it links to
historical campaigns against oppression. 'There has
been much talk in recent months about the "special
relationship" between the US and British governments,
which led the world to war, but history tells us of
another "special relationship" - between people of
good will in the United States and Britain who worked
together in opposition to slavery and colonialism, and
most recently against the push for war on Iraq. It is
in the spirit of friendship between our peoples in
defense of democracy that we sign this statement.'
The leaked memorandum - dated 31 January 2003 - from
Frank Koza, chief of staff of the NSA's Regional
Targets section, requested British intelligence help
to discover the voting intentions of the key 'swing
six' nations at the UN. Angola, Cameroon, Guinea,
Chile, Mexico and Pakistan were under intense pressure
to vote for a second resolution authoring war in Iraq.
The disclosure of the 'dirty tricks' memo caused
serious diplomatic difficulties for the countries
involved and in particular the socialist government in
Chile, which demanded an immediate explanation from
Britain and America. The Chilean public is deeply
sensitive to dirty tricks by the American intelligence
services, which are still held responsible for the
1973 overthrow of the socialist government of Salvador
Allende. In the days that followed the disclosure, the
Chilean delegation in New York distanced itself from
the draft second resolution, scuppering plans to go
down the UN route.
Opposition politicians are already increasing pressure
on Tony Blair to release Goldsmith's legal advice.
Parliamentary answers last week to Lord Alexander of
Weedon QC, the Tory head of the all-party legal reform
group Justice, show that the Government recognizes
there are precedents for disclosure.
In 1993, government legal advice in the arms-to-Iraq
affair was disclosed to the Scott inquiry and advice
concerning the 1988 Merchant Shipping Act was
disclosed when Spanish fishermen argued that it
breached EU law. The government response of Baroness
Amos would appear to be an open invitation to Gun's
defense team: 'In both cases, disclosure was made for
the purposes of judicial proceedings.'
But she continued: 'It has been made clear in a number
of parliamentary questions that the Attorney General's
detailed advice would not be disclosed in view of a
long-standing convention, adhered to by successive
governments, that advice of law officers is not
publicly disclosed. The purpose of the convention is
to enable the Government, like everyone else, to
receive full and frank legal advice in confidence.'
A summary of the legal advice published on 17 March
last year showed that Goldsmith believed that UN
Resolution 678, which authorized force against Iraq to
eject it from Kuwait in 1990, could be used to justify
the conflict. This position has been fiercely
criticized by most experts in international law, who
argue that 678 applied specifically to the threat
posed to the region by Saddam in 1990. Alexander has
accused Goldsmith of 'scraping the bottom of the legal
barrel' and described the use of 678 as 'risible'.
When the details of the GCHQ disclosure were published
in The Observer on 2 March last year, there was
considerable media speculation that Goldsmith was set
to resign over the issue of his legal advice over the
war. Foreign Office legal experts were known to be
split on the issue.
A key figure could prove to be 54-year-old Elizabeth
Wilmshurst, deputy legal adviser to the Foreign
Secretary, Jack Straw, who stepped down on 21 March.
Wilmshurst is said to have left her post because she
would not agree to Goldmith's legal advice.
Since leaving her post she has not spoken about the
crucial discussions in the Foreign Office last March.
Many believe that a second whistleblower could prove
fatal to the Government.
· For full details, go to accuracy.org
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
Posted by richard at January 18, 2004 09:19 AM