Official Secrets
23/10/19 Filed in: Cinema
It's difficult to decide what's the most chilling about this story; the treatment of Katherine Gun after she blew the whistle on the intention to put pressure on UN Security Council members to support Bush's illegal war in Iraq; or the fact that the US stooped to such measures in the first place.
Gun, played brilliantly by Keira Knightly, was employed at GCHQ as a translator when an email was circulated among the staff setting out a proposed spying operation on members of the Security Council. Portrayed as a young woman who was against the war, and who from her insider knowledge knew that a lot of what was being said by Tony Blair was untrue, Gun found herself with a crisis of conscience. She decided to act, sending a copy of the email to a known anti-war activist.
At first nothing happened, which came as a relief as she was having grave doubts over what she had done. But the message eventually found its way to the Observer newspaper, and after a bit of soul-searching, and water-testing with friends in authority, it decided to publish. At this point Gun panicked, her concern being amplified when staff at GCHQ were interviewed individually. Ultimately, having witnessed her friends in the office being interrogated, and faced with a lie detector test, she owned up and was promptly arrested.
The shenanigans in the newsroom at the Observer are a delight to observe, with Rhys Ifans giving a superb performance as the angry and seemingly somewhat unhinged Ed Vulliamy. And, of course, here we witness how the whole exposé nearly came unstuck because of a young woman's mistake of putting the American sourced document though a UK English spell checker!
From this point we witness the near hopelessness of Gun's position because of the constraints of the Official Secrets Act, not even being able to instruct a solicitor without the say-so of GCHQ. Meanwhile her Turkish husband, who is in the process of obtaining British residency, becomes a pawn in the State's action against her. Fortunately, the people at Liberty are at hand to offer advice, and to support her once the block on legal assistance has been lifted by GCHQ.
She must decide whether to plead guilty, and face a certain custodial sentence, or not guilty despite having confessed. Ben Emmerson, a prominent QC at Liberty, believes that there is an angle to sustain a not guilty defence, but it carries a big risk. As this story is based on historical fact I should have known the outcome, but I had either forgotten or never knew. The scenes in the court therefore came as quite a surprise.
I really enjoyed this film and although I was already a critic of Britain going to war in Iraq, the revelations in this film left a particularly bad taste in my mouth. Very uncomfortable viewing for a number of people who were involved at the time, I should think.
From this point we witness the near hopelessness of Gun's position because of the constraints of the Official Secrets Act, not even being able to instruct a solicitor without the say-so of GCHQ. Meanwhile her Turkish husband, who is in the process of obtaining British residency, becomes a pawn in the State's action against her. Fortunately, the people at Liberty are at hand to offer advice, and to support her once the block on legal assistance has been lifted by GCHQ.
She must decide whether to plead guilty, and face a certain custodial sentence, or not guilty despite having confessed. Ben Emmerson, a prominent QC at Liberty, believes that there is an angle to sustain a not guilty defence, but it carries a big risk. As this story is based on historical fact I should have known the outcome, but I had either forgotten or never knew. The scenes in the court therefore came as quite a surprise.
I really enjoyed this film and although I was already a critic of Britain going to war in Iraq, the revelations in this film left a particularly bad taste in my mouth. Very uncomfortable viewing for a number of people who were involved at the time, I should think.