Dear Friend,
I am writing to ask you to help Katharine Gun, a courageous GCHQ translator, who
faces prison for exposing an illegal spying campaign. You can help her now by
going to http://www.owos.info/katharine.php - she has a pre trial hearing at the Old
Bailey on 25th February.
In the weeks leading up to the war, at a time when the UN was still considering
whether to pass a resolution authorizing war, Katharine disclosed to The
Observer that the US National Security Agency had asked the British government
to help in a surveillance operation focused on the six delegations holding the
balance of power in the UN Security Council. This involved bugging home and
office phones and intercepting e-mails of diplomats from friendly countries such
as Chile and Mexico.
I urge you to contact Tony Blair and your local MP asking that the case against
Katharine be dropped. Please take few moments to do this now at
http://www.owos.info/katharine.php
Back in the 1960s, I served three US Presidents - Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon -
who lied repeatedly and blatantly about the reasons for entering Vietnam and the
risks in our staying there. For the past year I have seen history repeat itself.
I believe that George Bush and Tony Blair lied - and continue to lie - as
blatantly about their reasons for entering Iraq as the Presidents I served did
about Vietnam.
In 1971 I released to the press what became known as the Pentagon Papers: 7000
pages of top-secret documents demonstrating that virtually everything four
American presidents had told the public about our involvement in Vietnam was
false. In the autumn of 2002, I hoped that officials in Washington and London
who knew that our countries were being led into an illegal, bloody war and
occupation would consider doing what I wish I had done in 1964 or 1965, years
before I did, before the bombs started to fall: expose these lies, with
documents.
I can only admire the more timely, courageous action of Katherine Gun, who
risked her career and freedom to expose clandestine actions to win support for
an illegal war, before that war had started. Her disclosure of secret efforts to
manipulate Security Council votes may have been critical in denying the
invasion a false cloak of legitimacy. That did not prevent the aggression, but
it was reasonable for her to hope that her country would not choose to act as an
outlaw. She did what she could to save lives, in time for it to make a
difference, as indeed others should have done, and still can.
I have no doubt that there are thousands of pages of documents in safes in
London and Washington right now - the Pentagon Papers of Iraq - whose
unauthorized revelation would drastically alter the discourse on whether we
should continue sending our children to die in Iraq. Those who reveal documents
on the scale necessary to return foreign policy to democratic control risk
prosecution and prison sentences, as Katharine is now facing. I faced 12 felony
counts and a possible sentence of 115 years: the charges were eventually
dismissed.
Exposing government lies carries a heavy personal risk, even in our democracies.
But that risk can be worthwhile when a war's worth of lives is at stake. Please
go to http://www.owos.info/katharine.php to contact Tony Blair and your own Member of
Parliament today asking that the charges against Katharine Gun be dropped. You
can also write a message of support there for Katharine, which OWOS will forward
on to her.
Sincerely yours,
Daniel Ellsberg
Trafodwch.