Pulling together!

by Joe Kandra, Kathie Malley-Morrison, Pat Daniel

On January 22, 2021, the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) entered into force—giving the world what might be the best path to survival. You can learn more about the TPNW by visiting ICAN—the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons—a coalition of non-governmental organizations promoting implementation of the United Nations nuclear weapon ban treaty. For an example of the approach of one peace organization—Mass Peace Action—to the threat of nuclear disaster and the passing of the TPNW] check out the announcement for this webinar, scheduled for April 24, 2021: Building Political Support for the Nuclear Ban Treaty in Congress and at state and local levels.   Zoom event: Saturday, April 24, 2021 10:30 am-12:45 EDT  

The spy who tried to stop a war: Katherine Gun’s Courage of Conscience

A KC-135 Stratotanker prepares to refuel a B-2 Spirit bomber during in the “Shock and Awe” campaign of “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image or file is in the public domain in the United States.

by Stefan Schindler

Katherine Gun was 27 in January 2003, working in England as a translator and intelligence analyst for the British secret service.  At that time, the American and British governments were beating the drums for war against Iraq.

Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction, but President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, echoed and amplified in the British and American mainstream news-media, claimed Iraq did have such weapons.  They argued that a preemptive attack on Iraq was therefore justified.  Bush and Blair sought United Nations approval for the war, knowing that such approval would give the war a veneer of legitimacy.

Risking prison and the ruination of her life, marriage, and career, Katherine Gun released a classified memo to the press.  The memo was from America’s National Security Agency (the NSA).  The memo was to GCHQ (Government Communication Headquarters, the British equivalent to the NSA), where Ms.. Gun worked in one of its specialized branches.

The classified memo asked England’s secret service to spy on U.N. Security Council diplomats, and to pass their findings to the National Security Agency.  That information could then be used by the Bush Administration to bribe and blackmail targeted U.N. diplomats to vote in favor of the war.

Knowing that she was breaching England’s Official Secrets Act, and thereby committing what the law calls “treason,” Ms. Gun hoped that publication of the secret memo in Britain’s press would force a public reexamination of the war’s legitimacy, and, ideally, prevent the insane loss of life and tragic suffering that war would surely entail.

Ms. Gun was well aware of the Anglo-American push for war against Iraq.  It was the major news of the day.  However, to Ms. Gun, it didn’t sound right – it didn’t feel right – as Iraq had long been enduring international sanctions and Anglo-American surveillance.  The claim that Iraq had WMDs didn’t make sense.  To check the validity of her intuition, Ms Gun informed herself further by reading books on Iraq’s recent history and its tensions with the West.

Thus, already suspicious of the Bush-Blair trajectory toward another act of international violence, Ms. Gun viewed the memo as confirming illegal activities in support of an illegal war.

She felt an instantaneous revulsion at the moral hypocrisy of so-called statesmen; she saw the memo’s explosive potential; and she felt an obligation to the British people to show them that they were being lied to and manipulated.

Throughout February, 2003, Gun’s memo did not appear in the press; then, in early March, it did appear, two weeks prior to the American start of the bombing of Iraq which President Bush called “shock and awe.”

Publication of the memo caused an international sensation.  GCHQ began an immediate hunt for the whistleblower.  Ms. Gun at first denied that she was the leak.  The following day, not wanting her colleagues to suffer suspicion and humiliation, she confessed.

Arrested and interrogated, Ms. Gun was asked if she worked for the British government.  She said no, governments come and go; she works for the British people; she “does not gather intelligence so the government can lie to the British people.”

Out on bail, it was eight months before Katherine Gun was charged with violating the Official Secrets Act.  Her defense team prepared a “defense of necessity” case on her behalf.

“Defense of necessity” means that a person has legitimately violated the law in order to prevent harm or loss of life.  (For example, breaking the speed limit in order to get a grievously wounded person to a hospital.)

In preparing a “defense of necessity” case, Gun’s legal team was putting the war itself on trial.  The prosecution would be forced to reveal the various Anglo-American “dirty tricks” designed to drum up support for the war.

On the first day of the trial, the prosecution dropped all charges, and Katherine Gun was a free woman.

Release of the memo did not stop the war, but it did cause the U.N. Security Council to deny approval for the war, depriving Bush and Blair of the U.N. blessing they were hoping for.

The Katherine Gun story was barely covered in America’s news media, yet it parallels in highly relevant and fascinating ways Daniel Ellsberg’s release of the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times in early 1971, Ellsberg risking prison to try to halt the ongoing slaughter in America’s Indochina holocaust (euphemistically called The Vietnam War).

To learn more about Katherine Gun’s odyssey, I recommend the 2008 book The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War, by Marcia Mitchell and Thomas Mitchell.  I also recommend the film based on that book.  Called Official Secrets and released in 2019, the film stars Keira Knightley.

On youtube, I recommend Amy Goodman’s interviews with Gun at “Democracy Now;” also on youtube, the “True Spies” podcast, Episode 14, “The Spy Who Said No.”

Katherine Gun has recently been nominated for The Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award.  In an interview for Vanity Fair (August 30, 2019), she offers this reflection as the fruit of her experience:

“In any walk of life, you can choose to do the right thing.  At the end of the day, we are accountable to our conscience.  We should think about that and remember that.”

Building Political Support for the Nuclear Ban Treaty in Congress and at state and local levels

Zoom event: Saturday, April 24, 2021 10:30am-12:45 EDT

  Click here for Registration

10:30 AM – 11:00 AM: Global Support for the Nuclear Ban Treaty 

·      Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)

·      Thomas Hajnoczi, Former Head of Disarmament at the Austrian Foreign Ministry 

·      John Finnie, Member of Scottish Parliament

·      Vicky Reynaert, Member of the Belgian Federal Parliament 

11:00 AM – 11:20 AM: The US Congress and the Nuclear Ban Treaty 

·      Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (District of Columbia)

·      Rep. Rashida Tlaib (Michigan 13th Congressional District)

·      Rep. Jamie Raskin (Maryland 8th Congressional District)

11:20 AM -11:40 AM:  Supporting the Treaty at State and Local levels 

·      State Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, Massachusetts 

·      Mayor Nicole LaChapelle, Easthampton

11:40 AM – 12:10 PM: Panel Discussion – “ICAN pledge – Collecting signatures in other nuclear-armed and nuclear-reliant countries” 

·      Heidi Kassai (ICAN Germany)

·      Tilman Ruff (ICAN Australia) 

·      Erin Hunt (Mines Action Canada/ICAN Partner) 

12:10 PM – 12:30 PM: Breakout Rooms – Writing to Your Elected Representatives

Participants will break up into small groups by state/region to write letters and emails to federal, state, and local representatives in their own states and districts.

12:30 PM – 12:40: Debrief and next steps

12:40 PM – 12:45 PM: Closure 

Background on the ICAN Pledge and Nuclear Ban Treaty:

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) went into effect on January 22nd of this year. Everything to do with nuclear weapons is now illegal in 54 countries, and that number will continue to rise. In countries where governments are not yet ready to sign this treaty, their elected officials are pressuring them to do so. Over 250 parliamentarians in Italy have signed the ICAN Pledge, nearly 200 in Germany, over 100 in Australia, and almost every member of the Scottish Parliament.

So far, ten members of the US Congress have signed the ICAN Pledge. Join us on April 24th to hear from Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and from ICAN campaigners around the world, on how they have successfully used the ICAN Pledge to build support for nuclear abolition in other nuclear-armed and nuclear-weapon-reliant countries. Also hear from US legislators who have signed the ICAN Pledge or are considering doing so. We will discuss how to get many more members of the US Congress to sign, and how this could begin to change the conversation about nuclear weapons in Washington towards a clear call for the abolition of these weapons. We will also look at how getting state and local legislators to sign the Pledge can help build pressure on Members of Congress to also sign.  

Event Co-Sponsors: NuclearBan.US, The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), Massachusetts Peace Action, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF US), World Beyond War, CodePink, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Sierra Club, Veterans for Peace, Physicians for Social Responsibility, United Methodist General Board of Church and Society and Baltimore Nonviolence Center, Beyond Nuclear, Catholic Worker New York City, Center for Nonviolent Solutions, Coalition for Peace Action, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, Engaging Peace, Inc., Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution Peace Task Force, Genesee Valley Citizens for Peace, Granny Peace Brigade New York City, Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart, Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, Hampton Roads Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Maryland Peace Action, Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment, New England Peace Pagoda, New Hampshire Peace Action, Northampton Friends Meeting (Quakers), Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Nuclear and Carbon Free Future Coalition, Nuclear Hotseat Podcast/Broadcast, Nuclear Resister, NuclearWakeUpCall.Earth, Nukewatch, Nukewatch New Mexico, Oregon PeaceWorks, Outrider Foundation, Pax Christi Baltimore, Pax Christi Metro New York, Peace Action Maine, Peace Action New York State, PEAC Institute, Physicians for Social Responsibility Kansas City, Prevent Nuclear War Maryland, Resistance Center for Peace and Justice, Traprock Center for Peace and Justice, Tri-Valley CAREs, Upper Midwest Chapter World Beyond War, Veterans for Peace Chapter 27, Veterans for Peace Chapter 34, Veterans for Peace Chapter 80, Veterans for Peace Golden Rule Project, War Resisters League New York City, Women Against Military Madness, Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility, War Prevention Initiative Jubitz Family Foundation.