British whistle-blower faces prison for exposing U.N. spy efforts

[kalian]

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/news/opinion/7949359.htm

Friends of liberty, raise hell! To the barricades, or at least to the post office and the e-mails. A British citizen named Katharine Gun faces two years in prison for revealing that the U.S. National Security Agency tried - and succeeded - in getting the Brits to help us with illegal spying operations at the United Nations. The targets were the delegations of the six countries on the U.N. Security Council that were undecided on how to vote on the critical Iraqi war resolution.

Now, there are two schools of reaction to this tawdry, slimy little spy episode: It was illegal, immoral and wrong, and Katharine Gun should get a medal for exposing it. Or, some are shocked, shocked to hear of spying at the U.N., where it is apparently only slightly less common than dirt.

Well, if it wasn't much of a secret to begin with, why is this woman going to prison for telling the truth? Give her a medal anyway.

Not in Britain, where the Official Secrets Act is used to scare the bejeezus out of people - fear of the act may have played a role in the suicide of Dr. David Kelly, the scientist who claimed the British government overstated Iraq's weapons capability. If Britain had a constitution guaranteeing freedom of the press, or even a halfway decent whistle-blower law, this truly Orwellian Secrets Act would be tossed out by the courts in no time flat.

...more...
:mad:

[JohnyCanuck]

1. We can help Ms. Gun by sending a letter or email to Phony Tony

There's an article "Smoking Gun" by Justin Raimondo about the arrest of Katharine Gun posted at www.antiwar.com today. Raimondo also gives a list of snail mail, email and fax numbers for contacting Tony Blair and other British Government officials. He suggests that readers write letters of protest to Tony Blair.

Here is the link to the Raimondo article www.antiwar.com/justin/ Note that after a couple days it will move to the archives, but can be accessed from the same link, just check the sidebar on the right.

You can send a message to Tony Blair demanding an end to the prosecution of Katharine Gun. A letter addressed to the Prime Minister at: 10 Downing Street, London SW1A 2AA, Great Britain.

Or send a fax to him at:
44-207925-0918

(preceded by 011 from the U.S.)

Or at 020-7925-0918 from within the United Kingdom. This will have the biggest effect, but you can also send an electronic message to Blair at: http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page4345.asp

Send copies of your message to the Department of Constitutional Affairs: [e-mail]

To Gun's former employer, the Government Communications Headquarters: [e-mail]

To the British Embassy in Washington, D.C.: [e-mail]

And to Gun herself at: [e-mail]

The campaign to exonerate Katharine Gun is vitally important, because, as Daniel Ells berg pointed out:

"Those who reveal documents on the scale necessary to return foreign policy to democratic control risk prosecution and prison sentences, as Katherine Gun is now facing. I faced 12 felony counts and a possible sentence of 115 years; the charges were dismissed when it was discovered that White House actions aimed at stopping further revelations of administration lying had included criminal actions against me. Exposing governmental 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."

Government whistle blowers have a key function in a democratic republic, and in America they are supposedly protected by law, albeit inconsistently. In Great Britain, however, which is fast descending into the morass of soft totalitarianism, there are no similar constitutional guarantees. I am glad to see that Liberty, the British organization of civil libertarians, is taking up Ms. Gun's cause, along with a number of prominent American liberals, including the actor Sean Penn. Now is the time for British conservatives and libertarians to join in the campaign to Free Katharine Gun – and free England from the grip of an increasingly authoritarian form of socialism.

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/

Here is the email message I sent to Phony Tony via the gov.uk web site and copied to the other gov.uk addresses listed above.

Dear Mr. Blair

I am writing you from my home in Canada to ask you to stop the unjustified prosecution (and persecution) of an honourable, conscientious and patriotic British citizen, Katharine Gun. The moral fibre of honest and conscientious citizens like Ms. Gun is the last bastion of defense for the rest of us against corrupt, immoral and illegal activities on the part of officials in high places who apparently operate largely at will in the shadows and away from the scrutiny of the media and the public.

Her prosecution for acting on her conscience and revealing the immoral and illegal activities of your government in attempting to stall a UN compromise to allow more time for UN inspectors to prove, as many of us had suspected, that Iraq did not have WMD and was not a threat to the US, Britain or neighboring countries in the Middle East, would be a travesty of justice and further proof, if any more is needed, that the main threat to our Western democratic traditions is not coming from shadowy Middle Eastern terrorist organizations, but from within our own governments.

Ms. Gun deserves a medal not our censure.

Regards
xxxxx

[bobthedrummer]

2. And here is another link to show support for Katharine Gun

http://www.accuracy.org/gun/