First published on the public account "Film Detective"
ID: ttyingtan
Author: Inspector
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Gavin Hood won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006 with "The Gangster Thug." He made it into Hollywood. Later, he directed "Wolverine" and "Ander's Game", as well as "Eye in the Sky", which is 95% fresh so far.
After filming "Eye in the Sky", producer Ged suddenly called him excitedly. Then ask: Have you ever heard of " Katharine Gun " (Katharine Gun) ? Gavin Hood looked dazed, and he went on to google the woman. Two hours later, Gavin Hood's mood can only be described as "fuck" . He called Ged and said excitedly: I was shocked! Why don't many people know her story? !
Gavin Hood and Ged decide to bring the story of Catherine Gunn to the screen. Although this past event is a shame for the British and American governments. In the end, the cast of the film was very powerful. KK (Kate Knightley) played Catherine Gunn, "Doctor Who" Matt Smith and "Voldemort" Ralph Fiennes played important supporting roles.
The film was screened in major film festivals, and the best film was also won at the Seattle International Film Festival. The reputation is very good. It stands to reason that a movie with a good story, strong cast , and excellent reputation should be vigorously promoted, and it is likely to become a hit at the box office. But the film is like a stone thrown into the sea, without making a splash (the global box office is only more than 6 million US dollars, less than 50 million yuan)...
Who the hell is Catherine Gunn? What is the past that the United Kingdom and the United States do not want to mention? Why 16 years later, many people mentioned this matter again, but they still encountered the same powerless feeling as before, like hitting a rock with a pebble?
>>>>Top Secret Mail
In 2003, Catherine Gunn was 27 years old. She is English and she is proficient in Chinese. She is young, but her job is extraordinary.
Catherine was born in Taiwan, China and spent her childhood there.
On Friday, January 31, there are 47 days before the Iraq War. Catherine goes to work at GCHQ as usual. Because of her strong Chinese ability, she is responsible for the analysis and translation of Chinese information. When applying for a job at GCHQ, she didn't know what company it was, let alone that GCHQ was one of the mysterious organizations behind the British national treasure spy 007 James Bond.
Some reporters have visited GCHQ internally for interviews. When reporters enter the office, employees will be warned. They will quickly turn the computer desktop into a blank or screensaver for a little tiger.
GCHQ, the British Government Communications Headquarters, is an intelligence agency, equivalent to the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States.
Catherine always introduces herself as a language expert and translator, but outsiders prefer to call her and her colleagues "spy".
GCHQ, The Government Communications Headquarters is located in the town of Cheltnam, southwest of London. Together with MI5 and MI6 MI6, they are collectively known as the "trident" of British intelligence agencies. Because of its unique shape, it is also called "doughnut".
On this day, Catherine’s mailbox received many emails marked "Highly Confidential" as usual, and these emails were copied to hundreds of her colleagues at the same time. One of them made her very upset and angry.
Catherine said that in reality, she did not discuss the content of the email with her colleagues because their work content is more serious and there is very little gossip and discussion in the office.
The mail came from the National Security Agency (NSA). The sender is a supervisor named Frank Koza . The content of the email requested GCHQ to assist the NSA in monitoring and collecting personal unfavorable information from officials of several "swinging countries" among the members of the United Nations. The United States can then use this information to put pressure on these countries, and eventually achieve the United Nations' resolution to pass the United States' invasion of Iraq.
"Swing countries" are countries that have not expressed their attitude. These swing countries include: Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria, and Guinea.
At that time, there were two ways for a country to launch a war legally internationally. One is authorized by the United Nations; the other is legitimate defense when the country is threatened. The United States wants to attack Iraq, but it has been unable to obtain UN authorization for a long time.
After the crisis broke out in Iraq in 2002, the United States sent an inspection team to Iraq to check whether weapons of mass destruction (WMD for short) exist, and at the same time it was mediating votes in the United Nations, but it was opposed by many countries.
The United States claims that it has evidence of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and that it poses a great threat to the United States and the United Kingdom. Bring "freedom" and "democracy". On the other side, they secretly asked the United Kingdom to cooperate and illegally monitor the private information of UN members. As an intelligence officer, Catherine knew there was no evidence of WMD in Iraq. This series of despicable American tactics made Catherine both ashamed and angry.
In the film, Catherine's colleague said: Our duty is to execute, we don't need to ask why. But for Catherine, she could not overcome the hurdle of conscience. Because attacking Saddam does not mean only attacking him and his army, but attacking a country with a population of 30 million.
Catherine later recalled that some things would touch the red line of some people's moral conscience. This email touched her red line, and she couldn't bear it anymore.
After two days off.
Monday, February 3, 2003, 44 days before the Iraq War. Catherine printed out the top-secret mail, took it out of GCHQ, and sent it to a friend. Even if she knew that she would violate the Official Secrets Act and even be convicted of treason.
At that time, GCHQ did not search employees or search files in bags and mobile devices. Catherine hid the printed email in her bag. "I felt like there was a time bomb in my bag, " she later recalled.
Catherine hoped that her friend could give the email to the reporter and make it public . In this way, the people will understand the government's lies, and perhaps the war will not happen. But she is too naive...
>>>>The largest protest march in human history
That year Martin Bright 37 years old, he was a reporter British "Observer" newspaper. He will never forget the two events that happened on February 15, 2003. One was the earth-shattering parade.
Saturday, February 15, 2003, 32 days before the Iraq War.
Two weeks have passed since Catherine sent the mail, and the major media have not moved at all.
But on this day, it is still recorded forever in the annals of human history.
The roads in London were blocked and water was blocked. About 2 million people took to the streets (which was recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records) . They held signs in their hands that read:
No war on Iraq
And this is just the tip of the iceberg of protest marches. On this day, protest marches were held in nearly 600 cities around the world, and a total of about 6-10 million people participated.
US President George W. Bush has repeatedly emphasized that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction, and British Prime Minister Blair echoed. The United Nations has never given the United States authorization, but Bush Jr. intends to ignore the United Nations and directly attack Iraq.
In the protest procession, someone held a banner saying: Is this a free world or Bush’s world? Later we learned that this is the world of American hegemony.
The other thing is that Martin got the hard material brought by Catherine from a friend. Once this email is exposed, it will strongly stimulate the anti-war sentiment of the people all over the world, and the governments of the United Kingdom and the United States will also be strongly condemned.
But this email is difficult to distinguish between true and false, even if it is true, once published, Martin and the newspaper may be sued in court. Many media including the BBC also received this email, but none of them has been exposed so far. Persistent Martin went around for verification, and after confirming that there was indeed a man named Frank Koza working in the NSA, he wrote a report.
Sunday, March 2, 2003, 18 days before the Iraq War. In the morning, Catherine went to the store to buy milk. She saw her top-secret email sent to her friends on the front page of a newspaper called The Observer. Catherine knew that the game had started, but the direction of the game was completely different from what she had imagined.
On Monday the next day, as soon as Catherine went to work, she discovered that members of the Internal Security Bureau had begun one-on-one interrogations of employees. Catherine denied everything and took sick leave.
Who knows, because an assistant of the newspaper "The Observer" checked the spelling of the email, the American spelling of the original text was changed to the British habitual spelling (for example, British people are accustomed to writing favorable, and Americans are accustomed to omitting u). Many media therefore speculate that this is simply fake news written by the British, not the NSA from the United States.
No one who broke the news confirmed that the news was a joke. Just when Martin and his colleagues were at a loss, they heard the name "Catherine Gunn" on TV. They never thought that the person who broke the news would be such a young girl, let alone that she would stand up.
In the movie, Catherine suddenly stood up from her work station and walked to the interrogation office to confess everything. In fact, she originally took sick leave on Wednesday morning, but in order to verify the authenticity of the email, she decided to expose herself. She then came to GCHQ to find the supervisor and said to the supervisor: I did it. The supervisor was surprised at first, then sighed deeply, put his hand on her shoulder and said: Hey... Catherine... In the sigh, there is a kind of relief, but also a kind of understanding and helplessness.
Then, the movie presents everything that happened in reality as if it were a re-enactment. Catherine was detained. When interrogating her, the police officer asked: You work for the British government, right? Catherine replied: No, I am not working for the government. The government will alternate, and I only work for the British people. This sentence has been quoted by the media so far.
>>>>Judgement in the flames of war
On March 20, 2003, Ben Emerson will remember this day for a lifetime. At that time, he was 40 years old, was the director of the British human rights organization and a well-known lawyer in the industry.
On Thursday, March 20, 15 days after Catherine was arrested.
When protesters all over the world naively thought that the Iraq war would not happen, the US-British coalition launched an offensive against Iraq.
That night, the night in Iraq was like daylight.
The icy bomb tore through the tranquility under the stars, and blasted the peace that people were guarding to ashes.
Martin and his colleagues looked at the fire on the TV screen in the office, with a heavy heart. "The Observer" was originally a newspaper that supported the Iraq War. After receiving Catherine's revelations, many of them changed their views on the Iraq War. "We failed. We should have reported earlier. As a newspaper, we failed," Martin continued to say in interviews later.
In the news the next day, there were reports of explosion casualties everywhere. The casualties of the British and American forces slowly climbed, while the death tolls of the Iraqi army and civilians were on the rise.
Soon after the United States attacked Iraq, Iraq arrested several American prisoners of war and recorded a video. In the video, the American soldier is bitter and regretful, and keeps saying: We did not come voluntarily, we did not come voluntarily...
When Ben Emerson met Catherine, people had forgotten the 27-year-old girl.
After Catherine was arrested, she was not prosecuted immediately. She was released on bail for 8 months. During this period, she was told, or threatened, that she could not disclose the work of GCHQ to anyone, even her lawyer. This means that she can't explain the whole incident to her lawyer.
Catherine had to choose to remain silent. What she did not expect was that the war in Iraq would start more than ten days later. Two months later, Bush Jr. delivered a speech on the USS Lincoln, stating that "the main battle in the Iraq war has ended . " Soon after Bush Jr. spoke, Catherine was charged with violating the "Official Secrets Act."
After the prosecution was initiated, the British government arrested Catherine's husband in an attempt to deport him. Her husband is a Turk. Although he has not obtained permanent residency in the UK, he goes to the police station to register on time every week and never leaves. With the help of friends, Catherine rescued her husband, but the series of events made her panic.
Ben Emerson decided to defend Catherine for free after learning what the government had done to this single girl. In the movie, Emerson said: I will use my life's ability to defend her! But Catherine, who seemed weak, did not choose to plead guilty and commute her sentence, but chose to fight.
Ben Emerson made a move beyond the ordinary, he chose to use "necessity" to defend Catherine. Because Catherine’s original intention of violating the bill was to prevent an illegal war from happening and to prevent the lives of the Iraqi people from being threatened.
Emerson also asked the government to publish some information to prove the legitimacy of the Iraq war. Obviously, the British and American governments, which did not find weapons of mass destruction and completely ignored UN resolutions, would just slap their mouths in doing so.
Wednesday, February 25, 2004, the 340th day after the Iraq War. No one thought that everything came too dramatic and too sudden. In court, in the face of the request to "publish government information", the Royal Prosecutor's Office withdrew the prosecution against Catherine on the grounds of "insufficient evidence". The British government simply did not have the courage to allow the courts to judge the legitimacy of the Iraq war.
Catherine walked out of the court, someone handed her a bouquet of flowers. A smile finally appeared on the face of the girl who had been tortured for a year.
The reporters surrounded her, and Catherine was at a loss for a while. When a reporter asked her: If I give you another chance, will you still expose that document? Catherine's face suddenly showed her determination when facing the email in the office, and said to the crowd: Yes, I will still do it.
>>>>Our world
We all know the result of the latter thing. In 2009, the British government announced after seven years of investigation that Saddam did not pose an "immediate threat" to them when the British and American forces invaded Iraq. In 2015, Blair apologized for the first time in an interview with CNN, saying that he apologized to the war in Iraq because of wrong information. At this time, his status has become the former prime minister of the United Kingdom. In March 2019, 16 years after the Iraq War, Blair was sued by a British civil organization in the International Criminal Court for this war.
So far, the United States has not found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The scandal of fabricating intelligence to start a war has become the laughing stock of the world. But the United States has so far not apologized for the Iraq war, only admitting that the war has left them "in a quagmire."
It is estimated that in the Iraq War, the US military killed 4,497 people, the British military killed 179 people, and the number of wounded was close to 50,000 (data for 2019). The death toll of the Iraqi people reached 151,000 to 600,000 in the first four years of the war. More than 2.8 million people have been displaced, and there are countless injured and broken families.
For the person in front of the screen, these numbers alone are shocking enough. We can't even imagine what kind of suffering and pain those people are going through on the other end of the screen.
However, such stories, such numbers, are still playing out in some places on our planet...
Some time ago, the former first lady of the United States Hillary Clinton claimed on Twitter that he would continue to promote the so-called "democracy" and "freedom" of the United States in certain countries and regions . The message with the highest liking replied to her like this: Farewell, when you said this last time, Libya, Syria, Iraq and Yemen were all burned to ruins...
As for Catherine, she lost her job, and later she and her husband left London and settled in Turkey. Today, their daughter is 11 years old.
A reporter asked him again: What did you think at the time? You might lose everything, don't you know? Catherine still said firmly: I know I may be sentenced, I may lose my job, or even my marriage. But at that time I knew that everything that was about to happen to me was nothing compared to what was about to happen to the Iraqi people.
In 2003, Catherine Gunn was awarded the Sam Adams Moral Award , which is used to commend intelligence personnel who have taken a stand of integrity and morality. She is the second person to receive this honor. In 2013, Edward Snowden , who exposed the "Prism Project" of the United States , also received this award. Ellsberg, the first to receive this award, said that what Catherine did was "the most important and courageous leak" he had ever seen.
The "Official Secrets" project was launched in 2016, but it was changed hands by many parties. Many directors and producers talked with Catherine and did not follow until Gavin Hood. At the premiere, the host asked Gavin Hood: Why do you insist on making Catherine's story into a movie?
Gavin Hood replied: I am very grateful to Catherine. She is just an ordinary person like those who work at Boeing or other companies. Many people let their wrongdoings continue every day and remain indifferent. But Catherine chose to bet on everything she had to change the world, although in the end she failed. I realized that this is the world in which I live, and this is the world in which my children will grow up and live in the future. I hope this world can be better.
Reference materials:
1.15 Years Later: How UKWhistleblower Katharine Gun Riske Everything to Leak Damning Iraq War Memo-Democracy Now(2019.7.19)
2.Official Secrets-Gavin Hood Q&A (2019.9.2)
3.Katharine Gun & Martin Bright Interview-Official Secrets (2019.10.18)
4. By the numbers: The Staggering Cost of The Iraq War-Business Insider(2013.3.21.) 5. Iraq war whistleblower Katharine Gun: Truth always matter-The Guardian(2019.9.22.)
6. Britain's spies throw open the doors of GCHQ to reveal their most intimate secrets-Dailymail(2015.10.28)
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