I just thought this was funny enough to share with you guys. I support the war and all, but this was just bizarre! ================================ Iraq war 'spy memo case' collapses http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/02/25/uk.gchq/index.html Wednesday, February 25, 2004 Posted: 1415 GMT (10:15 PM HKT) LONDON, England -- Charges have been dropped against a British government translator accused of leaking a memo on an alleged U.S. "dirty tricks" campaign in the run-up to the Iraq war. Katherine Gun, 29, walked free from the Old Bailey criminal court in central London on Wednesday after prosecutors said they would offer no evidence against her. Gun was sacked from her job as a Mandarin Chinese language expert at Britain's Government Communications Headquarters listening station (GCHQ) in Cheltenham, western England, last June. She was charged in November under the Official Secrets Act 1989 of disclosing security and intelligence information. This related to a request, allegedly from an American National Security Agency official to British counterparts, to tap the telephones of U.N. Security Council delegates. Details of the leaked memo, reported to be written by Frank Koza, defense chief of staff (regional targets) on January 31, 2003, were later published by The Observer newspaper in Britain. The request was allegedly made as Washington and London were attempting to obtain a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the Iraq war. Targets of the eavesdropping efforts were reported to be Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria, Guinea and Pakistan. Prime Minister Tony Blair's government refused to comment on the allegations, saying it never discusses intelligence matters. Gun admitted she had leaked the memo. She said "any disclosures were justified because they exposed serious illegality and wrongdoing on the part of the U.S. government, who attempted to subvert our own security services." She also defended the disclosures as an attempt to prevent the deaths of Iraqi civilians and British troops in a war. Prosecutor Mark Ellison refused to give detailed reasons in court for the decision to drop charges against Gun, stating only there was "no longer sufficient evidence to support a realistic prospect of conviction." But legal sources -- who had predicted the collapse of the case -- told Reuters the government was unwilling to have a sensitive trial in which the legality of the Iraq war would have come under question. A lengthy trial would have had the potential to further embarrass the British and U.S. governments, still reeling from intelligence failures over Iraq and accusations of lies and bullying in trying to persuade the world to endorse military action against Saddam Hussein. Earlier this month, Mexican officials asked the United States and Britain to respond to reports they also spied on the Mexican mission at the United Nations. Gun, who was reported to have seen the top-secret e-mail by accident, said after her court appearance she was "delighted" by the decision to drop the charges but added she "would do it all again." "I felt that this was an essential and important issue that needed to get out to the public," she told reporters.
Those UN terrorists... http://www.christiansciencemonitor.com/2004/0226/dailyUpdate.html?s=entt UN spying charges roil Britain Former cabinet minister says Anan targeted. By Seth Stern | csmonitor.com Adding fuel to the debate in Britain over whether war in Iraq was justified, a former cabinet minister on Thursday accused the government of spying on United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Anan. Ex-Minister of International Development Clair Short claimed in an interview with BBC radio that Mr. Anan had been recorded during the run up to war in Iraq. Ms. Short, who resigned last May in protest against the war, claimed she had read transcripts of Anan's conversations and wondered whether her own talks with him were being recorded. "In fact I have had conversations with Kofi in the run-up to the war thinking, 'Oh dear, there will be a transcript of this and people will see what he and I are saying," Short said, according to a Guardian transcript of her BBC interview. Short's comments were a response to questions about the British government's decision to drop an investigation against a former intelligence linguist, Katharine Gun, who was arrested last March for leaking a confidential memo about spying against the United Nations. Prime Minister Tony Blair did not comment on the veracity of Short's allegations at his monthly press conference Thursday but called the disclosure "deeply irresponsible." He added British intelligence always acts within the law and would do nothing "in breach of our international obligations." Apparently, the news was less of a surprise at the UN. BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said that many UN officials always worked on the basis that they were being bugged. But he added: "That is not to say that it is acceptable if they are not suspected of terrorism or other crimes." . . .
Good thing the UN members weren't in the US or we could have tapped them under the PATRIOT act with no repercussions whatsoever.
