Daniel Ellsberg
Katharine Gun Campaign Appeal
Mon Feb 16 19:53:06 2004
64.140.158.105

From: "Gerard Rosenberg, Our World Our Say"
To:
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2004 5:37 PM
Subject: Katharine Gun Campaign Appeal


Dear Our World Our Say supporter,

Katharine Gun, a courageous former translator at GCHQ, is facing two years
is prison for exposing to The Observer how Britain and America spied on UN
Security Council members before the vote on the Iraq war.

Please help Our World Our Say get the charges against Katharine dropped. It
is vital that we place adverts in the press, to get the message out about
her bravery. I am extremely grateful for the help you have already given to
us but the fact is that right now we do not have the cash to place these
adverts.

At http://www.owos.info/make_a_donation/katharine.php  you can donate quickly
and securely, to help raise the funds we ne
ed.

I have attached below a preview copy of an email we are sending out later
this week to over 150,000 people about her plight. Katharine faces two
years in prison, simply for exposing the devious activities of our own and
the American Governments.

The email is written by Daniel Ellsberg, the famous whistleblower whose
Pentagon Papers revelations about US government deception helped end the
Vietnam War. Daniel is deeply concerned about Katharine's situation and
about the deceitful means by which the US and British Governments harnessed
public support for war.

Katharine Gun will appear at the Old Bailey on the 25th February. Our World
Our Say is asking supporters to call on their MP and on Tony Blair to ensure
the Government drops the charges against her.

We want to run full-page adverts in at least two national newspapers to
encourage people to do this. Please consider helping us as generously and
as quickly as you can.

Please go to http://www.owos.info/katharine.php  you can see a draft copy of
the advert we are planning to place.

Daniel Ellsberg's message (below) sets out the case fully. We are extremely
fortunate to have his backing as this is one of the most important campaigns
that OWOS has run to date.

It will also help to further increase the pressure on our Government to
admit its deceit about the Iraq war itself.
Thank you for anything you can do to help.

Yours sincerely,
Gerard Rosenberg

National Coordinator
Our World Our Say
http://www.ourworldoursay.org


LETTER FROM DANIEL ELLSBERG:
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 25th 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
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 stayin
g 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 http://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 on to her.

Sincerely yours,

Daniel Ellsberg