| 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 16th
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 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 onto her.
Sincerely yours,
Daniel Ellsberg |
