The Whistleblower Who Tried to Prevent the Iraq War

Of course Katharine Gun was free to have a conscience, as long as it didn't interfere with her work at a British intelligence agency. To the authorities, practically speaking, a conscience was apt to be less tangible than a pixel on a computer screen. But suddenly -- one routine morning, while she was scrolling through e-mail at her desk -- conscience struck. It changed Katharine Gun's life, and it changed history.

Despite the nationality of this young Englishwoman, her story is profoundly American -- all the more so because it has remained largely hidden from the public in the United States. When Katharine Gun chose, at great personal risk, to reveal an illicit spying operation at the United Nations in which the U.S. government was the senior partner, she brought out of the transatlantic shadows a special relationship that could not stand the light of day.

By then, in early 2003, the president of the United States -- with dogged assists from the British prime minister following close behind -- had long since become transparently determined to launch an invasion of Iraq. Gun's moral concerns were not unusual; she shared, with countless other Brits and Americans, strong opposition to the impending launch of war. Yet, thanks to a simple and intricate twist of fate, she abruptly found herself in a rare position to throw a roadblock in the way of the political march to war from Washington and London. Far more extraordinary, though, was her decision to put herself in serious jeopardy on behalf of revealing salient truths to the world.

We might envy such an opportunity, and admire such courage on behalf of principle. But there are good, or at least understandable, reasons why so few whistleblowers emerge from institutions that need conformity and silence to lay flagstones on the path to war. Those reasons have to do with matters of personal safety, financial security, legal jeopardy, social cohesion and default positions of obedience. They help to explain why and how people go along to get along with the warfare state even when it flagrantly rests on foundations of falsehoods.

The e-mailed memorandum from the U.S. National Security Agency that jarred Katharine Gun that fateful morning was dated less than two months before the invasion of Iraq that was to result in thousands of deaths among the occupying troops and hundreds of thousands more among Iraqi people. We're told that this is a cynical era, but there was nothing cynical about Katharine Gun's response to the memo that appeared without warning on her desktop. Reasons to shrug it off were plentiful, in keeping with bottomless rationales for prudent inaction. The basis for moral engagement and commensurate action was singular.

The import of the NSA memo was such that it shook the government of Tony Blair and caused uproars on several continents. But for the media in the United States, it was a minor story. For the New York Times, it was no story at all.

At last, a new book tells this story. "The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War" packs a powerful wallop. To understand in personal, political and historic terms -- what Katharine Gun did, how the British and American governments responded, and what the U.S. news media did and did not report -- is to gain a clear-eyed picture of a military-industrial-media complex that plunged ahead with the invasion of Iraq shortly after her brave action of conscience. That complex continues to promote what Martin Luther King Jr. called "the madness of militarism."

In a time when political players and widely esteemed journalists are pleased to posture with affects of great sophistication, Katharine Gun's response was disarmingly simple. She activated her conscience when clear evidence came into her hands that war -- not diplomacy seeking to prevent it -- headed the priorities list of top leaders at both 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and 10 Downing Street. "At the time," she has recalled, "all I could think about was that I knew they were trying really hard to legitimize an invasion, and they were willing to use this new intelligence to twist arms, perhaps blackmail delegates, so they could tell the world they had achieved a consensus for war."

She and her colleagues at the Government Communications Headquarters were, as she later put it, "being asked to participate in an illegal process with the ultimate aim of achieving an invasion in violation of international law."

The authors of "The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War," Marcia and Thomas Mitchell, describe the scenario this way: "Twisting the arms of the recalcitrant [U.N. Security Council] representatives in order to win approval for a new resolution could supply the universally acceptable rationale." After Katharine Gun discovered what was afoot, "she attempted to stop a war by destroying its potential trigger mechanism, the required second resolution that would make war legal."

Instead of mere accusation, the NSA memo provided substantiation. That fact explains why U.S. intelligence agencies firmly stonewalled in response to media inquiries -- and it may also help to explain why the U.S. news media gave the story notably short shrift. To a significant degree, the scoop did not reverberate inside the American media echo chamber because it was too sharply telling to blend into the dominant orchestrated themes.

While supplying the ostensible first draft of history, U.S. media filtered out vital information that could refute the claims of Washington's exalted war planners. "Journalists, too many of them -- some quite explicitly -- have said that they see their mission as helping the war effort," an American media critic warned during the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq. "And if you define your mission that way, you'll end up suppressing news that might be important, accurate, but maybe isn't helpful to the war effort."

Jeff Cohen (a friend and colleague of mine) spoke those words before the story uncorked by Katharine Gun's leak splashed across British front pages and then scarcely dribbled into American media. He uttered them on the MSNBC television program hosted by Phil Donahue, where he worked as a producer and occasional on-air analyst. Donahue's prime-time show was cancelled by NBC management three weeks before the invasion -- as it happened, on almost the same day that the revelation of the NSA memo became such a big media story in the United Kingdom and such a carefully bypassed one in the United States.

Soon a leaked NBC memo confirmed suspicions that the network had pulled the plug on Donahue's show in order to obstruct views and information that would go against the rush to war. The network memo said that the Donahue program would present a "difficult public face for NBC in a time of war." And: "He seems to delight in presenting guests who are antiwar, anti-Bush and skeptical of the administration's motives." Cancellation of the show averted the danger that it could become "a home for the liberal antiwar agenda at the same time that our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity."

Overall, to the editors of American mass media, the actions and revelations of Katharine Gun merited little or no reporting -- especially when they mattered most. My search of the comprehensive LexisNexis database found that for nearly three months after her name was first reported in the British media, U.S. news stories mentioning her scarcely existed.

When the prosecution of Katharine Gun finally concluded its journey through the British court system, the authors note, a surge of American news reports on the closing case "had people wondering why they hadn't heard about the NSA spy operation at the beginning." This book includes an account of journalistic evasion that is a grim counterpoint to the story of conscience and courage that just might inspire us to activate more of our own.

________________________________________

This article was adapted from Norman Solomon's foreword to the new book by Marcia and Thomas Mitchell, "The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War: Katharine Gun and the Secret Plot to Sanction the Iraq Invasion."

Comments

[malcolmdwightinthemiddle]

The whistle has yet to be blown on the pre 9/11 intelligence and the manipulation of that that intelligence to link Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda, to justify the invasion of Iraq. An upcoming NOVA television show on PBS is seeking to explore these issues. But there is something more disturbing lurking below the surface. Recently NOVA producers sought to interview the two FBI special agents who were assigned to the CIA"s CTC from 1999 to 2004. Dwight and Malcolm, as they are identified in the DOJ office of inspector general report, (made public in 2005). Moreover, and most disturbing, Dwight and Malcolm were NEVER interviewed by the 911 Commission. This raises some very disturbing questions about the thoroughness of the report. What do these two men know? Why has the FBI hidden Dwight and Malcolm from the public? Could these agents have vital information about¦..the meeting in Malaysia of the terrorists; their travel and entry in to the United States; the alleged meeting of Mohammad Atta in Prague with an Iraqi intelligence agent; Secret renditions; violations of human rights; domestic wiretapping; misuse of National Security Letters; extraordinary interrogation methods? The list goes on. Who is Malcolm? Who is Dwight? Why are you being kept from us?

[RobinSeattle]

And the U.S. MSM was AWOL while this was going on. Yet another in a Giza pyramid's worth of profiles in cowardice by NBC, FOX, CBS, ABC, et al.

And I said it in the run up to the war and I will repeat it again, NBC is that most infamous of conglomerations, the military industrial media complex.

GE boss Jack Welch should probably be put on trial for war crimes since it was his ultimate call what happened at NBC, which GE owns. During the occupation of Japan following WWII, Matsutaro Shoriki, the head of the Yomiuri Shimbun, was purged from being able to run his company for several years for his responsibility in helping to stoke war fever in Japan. So were many other Japanese media figures of the time.

At the very least, GE should be forced to sell NBC then for their war responsibility. Won't happen, of course, but morally, that should be the least they should suffer.

[bayside]

Thank you Katherine for trying when others cowered..Thank you..

[Yermammy]

Brave woman. Very good article. I know another woman that could redeem herself and turn this country back from the precipice. She was responsible for knowingly going along with a criminal regime that decided to take over a country by violating every law they could think of, with impunity. She was aware of torture, illegal spying and covert attempts to alter military intelligence and convince the public to endorse a war that had absolutely nothing to do with terrorist events that impacted the country.
This woman in question could act in the name of true patriotism, by acting for the benefit of the country she professes to love, by risking life and liberty. I'm sure the people of this country would be angry and shocked to know the truth, but under immunity, she should come to an assembly of lawmakers and testify to her complicity and point to the source of the grave transgressions to the Rule of Law.
This woman is Nancy Pelosi. Nothing less is satisfactory for the common good of the U.S. of A.

[PADDYWHACK]

The other British whistleblower contemporaneous with the big lie-up to war,Dr.David Kelly was found dead,a suicide it was said.

[raskolnikov72]

Tom Brokaw - Failure
Chris Matthews - Failure
David Gregory - Failure
Howard Fineman - Failure
Charlie Rose - Failure ..

how does it feel to let 300,000 Iraqis, 4,000 Americans, and countless others die? How does it feel to have the American public spend 700BB on a False WAR ...

What the f? Are people not infuriated by this?

The F-ing bankrupt "borrow and b*mb" philosophy of these nitwits continues to be promulgated like it has an ounce of validity. The f-ing data are in folks ... I don't want to bore you with number, but this failed arse philosophy needs to be erased.

[respectingothers]

if you haven't already watched it i would recommend Bill Moyers Buying the War. There were others trying to get the truth out

[proreality]

It is unfortunate that no matter how many times they are given the proof, that 1/3 of America will simply never allow the truth to be reality. It's time for trials. It's time for these people to go to prison. It's time that the media be held accountable for their lies and obfuscation.

[GoodwithWood]

Why are there only 9 comments here? Why isn"t Bush and crew sitting in jail? WTF is wrong with Americans?

[PennP]

Nothing whatsoever is "wrong" with us. The piece is just a teaser for the book. I couldn't figure out why it kept on restating the same thing, paragraph after paragraph, without coming to the point or providing salient specifics on what happened. Then I saw the plug in the footer. Sorry, but with promo like that, there's a reason there's little interest or response. I'll pass.

[TheHandyman]

what is wrong with Americans? Yes, I know it is a rhetorical one but let me list a few. in the sixties, veterans came back from Viet Nam and started an organization The Viet Nam Veterans Against War. In the new century, veterans come back from Iraq and start the organization Iraq Veterans Against the War! There is a major difference right there. Americans are not against War, just ones that they loose. Americans year and a half ago Americans wanted us out. Now that Bush says we are winning not so much. And we want to go big in Afghanistan even though it is the same quagmire that brought down the British and the Russians. Kiss you grandchildrens good life good-bye!

Americans know little about the rest of the world. Americans have sunk back into religious fuedalism. People should be worried when a woman running for the second highest position in the country attends a witch and demon hunting revival held by a man from Kenya who is also a so called priest. This is not amusing or entertaining this is outright crazy along with the notion you want an armageddon to bring back Christ. There have been attempts in the past and they didn't work either.

And that isn't even a chip off an iceberg when it come to what's wrong. But some of it is not just Americans, it is what is wrong with humans!

[Flash-389009]

Interesting commentary but, IMHO, a bit wordy for not having actually described the e-mail in question and what she did about it. Still, enough to get me to trot over to the library or bookstore and check it out.

The more daminig issue that you bring up which all Americans should be very concerned about is the role of NBC, MSNBC, FOX (Of course!!), and the other major print and TV organizations in helping the Bush/Cheney/Republican/Neo-Con groups to propagandize the American public into sheepishly (largely) go into an avoidable and unnecessary war. It is almost as if, after the heyday of Woodward/Bernstein/Deep Throat that U.S. journalism has been neutered. The domination of a few private interests in controlling the U.S. media is a major driving force for free and independent communications and media. We need to be eternally vigilant that they do not control the U.S. Internet teh way that China has done! Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom!

[chrisincalif]

This is what our corporatist media is ~ our version of Pravda.

[Yermammy]

Isvestia is more comprehensive than Pravda, but they're both more reliable than any news source in THIS country. Thank goodness for web translators. My sister used to have a quip, jokingly saying she wouldn't know the truth if she read the National Enquirer unless she read the Globe also. It isn't so funny now.

[booksnmore4you]

Digg this story: http://digg.com/politics/The_Whistleblower_Who_Tried_to_Prevent_the_Iraq_War

[booksnmore4you]

Fantastic work. Thanks for doing this.

[LoyalOpposition]

If the networks truly had a "News" department, then the reasons outlined in the memo regarding cancelling the Donohue Show would be the right reasons for keeping it on the air. Journalists know not to judge the information that is coming across, but to search it out and then attempt an analysis, , about how the information is coming together. Exactly because Donohue's guests brought a dissonent chord is the reason they needed to be heard. And by the way, in NY we had hundreds of thousands out in the streets against the war, so how did silencing the dissent become the only way to be a patriot? The public needs to know, and the public should be told so that the public can make their own decisions.

Thanks Mr. Solomon, I intend to find that book and read it thoroughly.

[celticjag]

Thank you Mr. Solomon. It's sad to see the way the MSM fails to serve the American people and pimps itself to the power structure. Kudos to Ms. Gun.

[Yermammy]

Where do I sign up Sarge. Too many people are cowed by their jobs and their hobbies to take this as seriously as it is. This should be your LIFE. True democracy is but a babe. Tyranny is as old as time. A great piece. I hardly ever say great. This is.