Katherine Gun

Katherine Gun   (whistleblower)
Katherine Gun in 2003
Exposed	• GCHQ/Illegal spying • NSA/Illegal spying
Member of	Sam Adams Award
Exposed illegal efforts by the GCHQ to illegally bug the UN offices of 6 nations in an effort to start an illegal war. Considered a hero by many.

Revealing bugging of UN by US and UK in lead-up to Iraq war.

Gun is a former employee of Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), a UK SIS Agency. In 2003 she leaked top-secret information to the press concerning alleged illegal activities by the United States and the United Kingdom in their push for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. On January 31, 2003, she received an e-mail from a National Security Agency official named Frank Koza. This e-mail requested aid in a secret and illegal operation to bug the United Nations offices of six nations: Angola, Cameroon, Guinea, Pakistan, Mexico and Chile. These were the six "swing nations" on the UN Security Council that could determine whether the UN approved of the invasion of Iraq. The plan clearly violated the Vienna Conventions, which regulate global diplomacy. Gun leaked the email to The Observer, hoping to prevent the war. After her revelation, she was fired from GCHQ and prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act. "I have no regrets and I would do it again" she said.

The prosecution mysteriously dropped the case against her a day before the trial was to commence.

 

Documents by Katherine Gun

Title	Document type	Publication date	Subject(s)	Description
Document:Britain’s secret state	article	5 March 2020	"National security" Official Secrets Act 1989	Britain’s secret state and the need for whistle-blowing explained by 2003 Iraq War whistleblower Katherine Gun
Document:Ex-Intelligence Officers, Others See Plusses in WikiLeaks Disclosures	statement	7 December 2010	Wikileaks	A statement of support for Wikileaks. "The big question is not whether Americans can 'handle the truth.' We believe they can..."

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:The Woman who nearly Stopped the War	article	19 March 2008	Martin Bright	In January 2003 Katharine Gun, a translator at GCHQ, learned something so outrageous that she sacrificed her career to tell the truth. Martin Bright on a brave deed that should not be forgotten.

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