![]() ![]() ![]() During the course of the film it is explained how that Attorney General Lord Goldsmith had advised Tony Blair that war with Iraq is unlawful and would amount to a war of aggression – advice that he later changed after a trip to the US where he met with Donald Rumsfeld and others in the Bush administration. Her lawyers at Liberty eventually decided to defend her by arguing that her actions were necessary to protect human life, and in order to do that, they subpoenaed government documents on the legal advice that it had received from the Attorney General. After admitting to her superiors that it was her who leaked the memo, she was detained by the police and later charged with a breach of the Official Secrets Act. Katharine Gun had passed on the memo to a friend who then got it to Yvonne Ridley, who then passed it on to the Observer – which up until the point that this memo was proven to be accurate, supported the war and was printing daily stories justifying the drive to war. What’s more, is the British government’s own inability to defend itself against claims that the war in Iraq was in fact illegal. When the US realised it would still fail to win a second UN vote, it launched the war on Iraq together with Britain anyway – before the UNSC could veto it. Later in the film, it is explained how Donald Rumsfeld bypassed the CIA to set up his own intelligence unit within the Pentagon, the Office of Special Plans, in order to provide the Bush administration with unvetted intelligence that supported the administration’s claims about WMDs in Iraq – which was then used by the British government without question.Īnd this was all happening at the same time as the NSA, GCHQ and MI6 were digging up dirt on UN delegates so that the US could blackmail them. But as the film shows, there was a widespread understanding within the rank-and-file of the intelligence community, that the American and British governments were manipulating and potentially fabricating intelligence. The failure to find any put serious doubts over the legality of any military action in Iraq without securing a second UN resolution mandating it.Īlastair Campbell’s ‘dodgy’ dossier claiming Iraq could attack the UK with biological weapons in 45 minutes, and Colin Powell’s speech to the UN on 5 February, part of which features in the film, claiming that Saddam Hussein had links to Al Qaeda, tried to up the stakes. ![]() Katharine Gun, played by Keira Knightley, was a GCHQ spy who received a memo from the NSA, approved by GCHQ, in which a senior US intelligence officer was asking GCHQ and MI6 to support efforts of gathering intelligence on UN Security Council delegates with the explicit aim of using that intelligence to coerce the members to vote in favour of the Iraq War.Īfter the passing of UNSC resolution 1441 in November 2002, UN weapons inspectors and IAEA inspectors were deployed to Iraq to search for evidence of chemical and biological weapons that the US and UK were claiming were there. As discussions on whether or not Tony Blair should be remembered for instigating the Iraq War have re-emerged, and Julian Assange is facing trial for extradition to the US, the timing of the film’s UK opening is impeccable. Showing up the Chilcot Inquiry, the film exposes the deliberate duplicity of the Blair government in coordination with the Bush administration and the transatlantic intelligence services. ![]() The film masterfully tells the story of a whistleblower from GCHQ who was charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act. Official Secrets is a powerful new film that opened in UK cinemas on 18th October, featuring a number of notable actors including Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes. Official Secrets shows the extent of the lies in the drive to war with Iraq and leaves the viewer asking how on earth Blair got away with it, writes Shabbir Lakha ![]()
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