16 November 2003. Thanks to O., who writes:
A brief Observer editorial comment is available on the website:'Overhaul the Official Secrets Act'
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4798455-102276,00.html
Gün's statement from Thursday is here:
'Liberty takes up case of GCHQ whistleblower'
See recent story about Gün:
http://cryptome.org/nsa-gun.htm
The Observer (UK), 16 November 2003
by Martin Bright, Antony Barnet and Ed Vulliamy
Senior MPs from all parties called on Foreign Secretary Jack Straw last night to clarify whether he permitted the British intelligence services to participate in a United States 'dirty tricks' operation against the United Nations Security Council in the build-up to war with Iraq.
Katharine Gün, a translator at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the UK's signals intelligence agency at Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, was charged last week with breaching the Officials Secrets Act.
The translator was arrested in March, shortly after the publication of an article in The Observer revealing that the US National Security Agency had asked GCHQ to intercept diplomatic communications. A leaked memo showed the information would be used to help win the key vote for a second UN resolution to legitimise war on Iraq.
The memo demanded a 'surge' in eavesdropping on the key Middle Six nations - Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria, Guinea and Pakistan - whose support was critical to ensure a UN-backed intervention. The story cause [sic] diplomatic furore around the world.
The memo from Frank Koza, chief of staff in the Regional Targets section of the NSA, said the operation aimed to collect: 'the whole gamut of information that could give US policymakers and [sic] edge in obtaining results favourable to US goals or to head off surprises.'
The leak came when there was believed to be growing disquiet in the intelligence services over the drive to war.
In a statement released last week Gün said: '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 widescale death and casualties among ordinary Iraqi people and UK forces in the course of an illegal war.'
She added: 'I have only followed my conscience.'
Former Defence Minister Peter Kilfoyle said: 'If this woman made these important disclosures because she believed she was being asked to do something illegal, we need to know whether the Foreign Secretary endorsed what many of us believe was an illegal and immoral act.'
Shadow Foreign Secretary Michael Ancram said: 'This further strengthens our call for a complete and full judicial inquiry into the run-up to the war with Iraq.'
Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell added: 'If GCHQ committed an illegal act in intelligence gathering, it would be absurd that Katharine Gün should carry the can. Authorisation for activity of this kind could only have been approved at the highest level.'
The Observer has learnt that a UN internal investigation is checking reports that other countries too were bugged by the US.