The Case of Katherine Gunn...the US illegal request

[Tyburn]

I've just watched a film about Katherine Gunn.

She was a woman who worked at GCHQ...the heart of the British Civil Service

She was arrested because she leaked some top secret information to the British Press...but its not information I have EVER heard until today...which is suprising considering what I was studiying at University at the time.

Now how much of this stems from the Bush Administration we may never know, but the National Security Agency of the US asked her, specifically, and in writing, to help them by planting listening devices in certain buildings of The United Nations...Angola, Cameroon, Chilie and Pakistan were the targets.

The United States wished to know if The United Nations, specifically those countries, would back a Resolution to invade Iraq, and to see out of those who had involvement with them, who would, and who would not support such a process, and why. These Countries were those who held special votes on the Security Council at the time when the US was ready to approach the United Nations...but who were not permanent members of the Security council like France, Russia, China, and Britain.

This is against International Law.

Katherine was arrested when she tried to resign because she had leaked the information. Because she worked for the head of the civil service, she basically was violating the official secrets act.

When the Trial came to court in 2004, the Government dropped all charges and let her go.

Sooooo...now I ask you.

What happened in America to a man called Frank Koza....it was he who asked for this illegal activity to take place. Was this ever uncovered in the US I cant really believe that the United States Government was really THAT bothered about the rulling of the United Nations to bother going to illegal measures to find out votes that wont make a difference to their already decided course of action. Sooo I wonder if this was more a...secret service opporation

[flo]

This is a non-story, Dave. Ms. Gunn is a cause célèbre with MoveOn.Org, Sean Penn, Dem Underground, and the usual suspects.

Here's the alleged NSA memo.

To: [Recipients withheld]
From: FRANK KOZA, Def Chief of Staff (Regional Targets)
CIV/NSA
Sent on Jan 31 2003 0:16
Subject: Reflections of Iraq Debate/Votes at UN-RT Actions + Potential for Related Contributions
Importance: HIGH
Top Secret//COMINT//X1

All,

As you've likely heard by now, the Agency is mounting a surge particularly directed at the UN Security Council (UNSC) members (minus US and GBR of course) for insights as to how to membership is reacting to the on-going debate RE: Iraq, plans to vote on any related resolutions, what related policies/ negotiating positions they may be considering, alliances/ dependencies, etc - the whole gamut of information that could give US policymakers an edge in obtaining results favorable to US goals or to head off surprises. In RT, that means a QRC surge effort to revive/ create efforts against UNSC members Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria and Guinea, as well as extra focus on Pakistan UN matters.

We've also asked ALL RT topi's to emphasize and make sure they pay attention to existing non-UNSC member UN-related and domestic comms for anything useful related to the UNSC deliberations/ debates/ votes. We have a lot of special UN-related diplomatic coverage (various UN delegations) from countries not sitting on the UNSC right now that could contribute related perspectives/ insights/ whatever. We recognize that we can't afford to ignore this possible source.

We'd appreciate your support in getting the word to your analysts who might have similar, more in-direct access to valuable information from accesses in your product lines. I suspect that you'll be hearing more along these lines in formal channels - especially as this effort will probably peak (at least for this specific focus) in the middle of next week, following the SecState's presentation to the UNSC.

Thanks for your help

BTW, last December she signed a statement in support of Wikileaks. Wikileaks, who endanger the lives of our servicepeople overseas.

[Tyburn]

oh