The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War by Marcia Mitchell

Author:Marcia Mitchell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2019-07-30T17:00:00+00:00

PART IV

THE LEGAL CASE

CHAPTER 11: The Blonde Who Dropped the Bombshell

Katharine Gun, a former GCHQ civil servant, today has been charged with offences under the Official Secrets Act relating to public interest disclosures allegedly made in the run-up to the Iraq War.

Note to editors: This case is likely to put the legality of the Iraq War on trial.

– From a 13 November 2003 Liberty press release

FOR EIGHT MONTHS, Katharine Gun hoped the government would decide not to charge her for the crime to which she had confessed. If the case against her were dropped, the public – and even most of her colleagues in the secret service – would never learn that it was she who revealed the NSA message. After so many months, the prospect of being charged had seemed to fade. Surely, she told herself, again and again, the government would have acted by now if it intended to do so.

The 12 November call from Liberty informing Katharine that she would be charged the following day was a devastating blow. It left her trembling and breathless in a fog of disbelief and denial. As much as she should have been prepared, the reality of what was happening was crushing. Thoughts of having her name in headlines, of seeing herself on television news, made her physically ill. Among the montage of mental images were friends, neighbours, former intelligence colleagues, classmates at Birmingham – all of whom would be shocked. Gone was the fantasy of simply vanishing ‘under the rug’ to live the rest of her life in peace. The rug had been pulled out from under her.

Katharine had just one day to prepare for what she knew would be a media onslaught following her court appearance and announcement of the charge against her. With a subdued Yasar, she made detailed plans to elude an eager press. There was little rest that night, the worst she had experienced since her arrest.

On 13 November 2003, Metropolitan Police Special Branch officers made their formal charge at Cheltenham Police Station. In a brief, one paragraph indictment, Katharine Teresa Gun was charged with violation of Section 1(1) of the Official Secrets Act of 1989.[1] The accused was bailed to appear at Bow Street Magistrates Court on 27 November. It was over in a matter of minutes.

Liberty immediately issued a press release announcing that it was acting for Katharine Gun, ‘a former GCHQ civil servant who has today been charged with offences under the Official Secrets Act’. Those offences, said Liberty, ‘related to public interest disclosures allegedly made in the run-up to the Iraq War’.

Katharine made a statement on her own behalf. It would receive worldwide attention (or almost): ‘I have been charged with offences under the Official Secrets Act. 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.

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