I can’t remember the last time I clapped at the end of a film, I did tonight
Talking of memory I don’t remember the case of Katherine Gun the UK Government Communication Head Quarters (GCHQ) whistleblower. In 2003 she leaked an email she mistakenly received from the US National Security Agency (NSA) requesting their UK counterparts to supply any intelligence on the 6 temporary members of the UN security council. The purpose which was in effect to ‘blackmail’ those countries into supporting the US resolution at the UN to invade Iraq.
Gun who was then 27 could not sit on this information and passed it to an anti-war activist who in turn passed it to a journalist at The Observer. Initially, it was believed to be so incredulous it was a fake, delaying it being printed. The enquiries to authenticate it proved it to be true and it was printed by The Observer.
GCHQ launched an enquiry which led in time to Gun making her confession. She was arrested placed on Police Bail and later charged. On the day of her trial, as she stood in the dock, she with everyone else was to learn that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was to produce no evidence. She walked free from the Court.
Since watching the film I have a vague recollection of a woman standing outside the Old Bailey being interviewed about how she felt having no case to answer.
The film did, 17 years later, what journalism had failed to do which was show me the corruption that can exist within Intelligence services but more importantly how Tony Blair led us into a war that could not be justified. A war which continues to have its casualties.
I could not but clap as Katherine Gun’s actions were brave and an example to us all.
g
