Thomas Mitchell - The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War

William Collins

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This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2019

Copyright © Marcia and Thomas Mitchell 2008; 2019

Cover design by Jack Smyth

Cover image © Alexandru Zdrobau/Unsplash

Marcia and Thomas Mitchell assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins

Source ISBN: 9780008348564

Ebook Edition © October 2019 ISBN: 9780008348571

Version: 2019-07-30

For daughter Kristin and sons Alan and Jay, and for their

loved ones – which makes them ours as well

And for Paul and Jan Harwood,

Katharine’s remarkable parents

It was a decision of conscience in a world where nobody celebrates that. She will go down in history as a hero of the human spirit.

– SEAN PENN

We are going to be in a very dangerous situation as a country if people feel they can simply spill out secrets or details of security operations, whether false or true actually, and get away with it.

– TONY BLAIR

CONTENTS

COVER

TITLE PAGE

COPYRIGHT

DEDICATION

EPIGRAPH

FOREWORD

THE KOZA MEMO

PART I: INVITATION TO A CONSPIRACY

CHAPTER ONE: MESSAGE SENT

CHAPTER TWO: MESSAGE RECEIVED

CHAPTER THREE: FOUR WEEKS THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING

CHAPTER FOUR: CONSCIENCE MEETS INSPECTOR TINTIN

PART II: FALLOUT

CHAPTER FIVE: DETOUR ON THE SECRET ROAD TO WAR

CHAPTER SIX: OUTRAGE

CHAPTER SEVEN: SILENCE IN WASHINGTON

CHAPTER EIGHT: TAIWAN CALLING

PART III: THE WOMAN

CHAPTER NINE: EIGHT MONTHS IN LIMBO

CHAPTER TEN: THE THIRD-CULTURE KID

PART IV: THE LEGAL CASE

CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE BLONDE WHO DROPPED THE BOMBSHELL

CHAPTER TWELVE: DEPORTATION REVISITED

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE PROSECUTION AND THE DEFENCE PREPARE FOR COURT

PART V: AFTERMATH

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: A HISTORIC COLLAPSE AT THE OLD BAILEY

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: REACTION, REBELLION, AND A CRUSHING NEW REVELATION

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: AN UNCOMMON DAY IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: MOTIVATIONS, MISDEEDS, AND TRAGIC MISTAKES

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: WHISTLE-BLOWING: CONSCIENCE AND CONFRONTATION

CHAPTER NINETEEN: A LIFE INTERRUPTED

EPILOGUE

NOTES

INDEX

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

The consequences of the invasion and of the conflict within Iraq which followed are still being felt in Iraq and the wider Middle East, as well as in the UK. It left families bereaved and many individuals wounded, mentally as well as physically.

– ‘The Chilcot report’ Executive Summary, 2016

Chilcot has shone a light on what happened, but it is clear there are still bits of the puzzle that are missing. Now that we know better, will we do better?

– Katharine Gun, Guardian , 8 July 2016

Gun will not go quietly. Her trial … will rehash the war’s legality.

– Time Magazine Europe, 2 February 2004

ON 6 JULY 2016 – thirteen years after Katharine Gun was arrested for violating the Official Secrets Act, eight years after this book was first published, and seven years after the official UK Iraq Inquiry was launched – a comprehensive government report made worldwide headlines. In twelve volumes totalling 2.6 million words, the inquiry report concluded that the Iraq War was unnecessary, was based on questionable intelligence, and resulted in a chaotic, painful aftermath – all of which were avoidable.

Relevant to this story, Sir John Chilcot’s investigating committee concluded that the legality of military action taken by then-US President George Bush and then-UK Prime Minister Tony Blair was questionable and never satisfactorily determined. From January to March 2003, a series of conflicting advisories and decisions revealed shady machinations fuelling Bush’s passionate pursuit of the grand prize: a sanctioned war and the removal of Saddam Hussein.

While two heads of state, two of the most powerful men on the planet, secretly plotted the invasion of Iraq to topple Saddam, a young British woman was among those who suspected that the two were set on war – an unnecessary, possibly illegal, war – despite repeated claims to the contrary. Katharine Gun enthusiastically marched against the invasion, along with thousands of others. But for her, marching was not enough.

It’s been said that Katharine Gun remains a moral compass for the United Kingdom – someone who was willing to put her own interests behind those of her country and of the world. Fearful that the United Kingdom would launch an illegal war, the British secret service officer risked her freedom and her future in an effort to derail that war and to save lives certain to be lost. She did so by blowing the whistle on a United States spy operation against the UN Security Council (UNSC), an operation designed to ensure that it voted for war. Some called the operation blackmail; others, US ‘dirty tricks’. By whatever name, it was unlawful.

At the time, the UNSC was considering a highly controversial resolution to legitimize war against Iraq. Truth, made public by Katharine’s whistle, ended the US National Security Agency spy operation and hopes for legalizing the war.

Where the Crown Prosecution Service’s most distinguished practitioners wanted to make the criminal case against Katharine about sharing secrets, Katharine wanted it to be about the secrets themselves. She wanted the public to understand what our governments were doing, and who would suffer as a result. She was deeply concerned about the multitude of deaths that would result from an unnecessary war. Her defence, that she believed the Iraq War was illegal, would – years later – be supported by excerpts from the Chilcot report.[1]

But five years would pass before the inquiry would be initiated.

When it was complete, the historic, voluminous document substantiated what Katharine and many others had believed all along – that after the 9/11 World Trade Center tragedy, George Bush determined to get rid of Saddam Hussein and then dragged a reluctant Blair along with him. Of special interest was the release of declassified correspondence between Downing Street and the White House. The cosy exchange of thirty-one letters concerning a proposed invasion of Iraq revealed the truth of the matter. Writing in July of 2002, eight months prior to the invasion – Blair told Bush that, ‘I will be with you, whatever.’ A mountain of criticism has been heaped upon the former prime minister for fulfilling his risky promise. He is still widely accused of having followed the wrong man into a wrong war.