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| Britain |
| Ex-GCHQ woman charged over "leak" |
| 2003-11-13 |
| Another intelligence service leftie betrays the nation... A woman sacked by UK intelligence after a top secret memo was allegedly leaked to the press has been charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act. Katharine Teresa Gun, 29, was first arrested in March after a memo from US monitoring body the National Security Agency was sent to the Observer. Ms Gun has said any disclosures she may have made were "justified". She was charged at Cheltenham Police Station and bailed to appear at Bow Street Magistrates on November 27. The January 31 memo received by the Observer reportedly said the NSA had begun a "surge" in eavesdropping on UN Security Council countries about to vote on action in Iraq. Officials from Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria, Guinea and Pakistan all had their phones tapped in what the newspaper described as a "dirty tricks" operation. The author of the memo was supposedly Frank Koza, Defence Chief of Staff (Regional Targets) at the agency. Under Section 1, of the 1989 Officials Secret Act it is an offence to disclose security and intelligence information without the correct authorisation. Ms Gun has justified the disclosures saying in a statement that she had "only ever followed her conscience". "My feelings made me do it! My head shook and it said "no" but my feelings nodded and they said "yes"! No, I don’t use my head very much. No, I don’t know why I was allowed to work there." "No-one has suggested (nor could they), that any payment was sought or given for any alleged disclosures," she said in the statement released through her lawyers. Ms Gun claimed any alleged leaks exposed "serious illegality and wrongdoing on the part of the US Government" and were designed to prevent "wide-scale death and casualties among ordinary Iraqi people and UK forces". No "widespread death" in Iraq under Saddam, then... A spokesman for the Government’s communications headquarters at Cheltenham confirmed Ms Gun had worked for the organisation but said it "was a matter for the Metropolitan Police" who charged her. A spokesman for Liberty claimed the case was likely to put the legality of the whole war on Iraq on trial. Or maybe it’ll just be one traitorous moron? |
| Posted by:Bulldog |
| #5 Make her move to Iraq and identify thr bodies of all women and chidren in mass graves. Good work for a woman of conscience. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-11-13 8:43:11 PM |
| #4 I remember reading history where a US Secretary of State tried to shut down all diplomatic and military decyphering of encrypted diplomatic transmissions because "Gentlemen don't read other gentlemen's mail". Even with the reduced capacity secretly left in place by the Navy, we were surprised at Pearl Harbor. Twits like this who have such high 'moral standards' usually unwittingly perpetuate similar consequences. How many people have to die because of their misplaced moral outrage? Lock her in the lowest dungeon of the Tower of London and turn off the sump pump. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-11-13 8:42:02 PM |
| #3 Was this the memo with the Anglicized spellings? Does Britain still have the death penalty for treason? |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2003-11-13 2:56:24 PM |
| #2 Souonds like someone needs a little time out. How about 10 years in prison. Do they have a nasty womens prison in UK for ther Bulldog? If not we have one here in California. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) 2003-11-13 2:44:28 PM |
| #1 Oops, forgot to remove the BBC scare quotes. I'm sure there's a suitable punchline answer to the question "how many BBC reporters does it take to recognise a leek?"... |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2003-11-13 2:09:00 PM |