A British intelligence official accused of leaking US plans to spy on UN Security Council delegations in the run-up to the Iraq war is likely to have legal proceedings against her dropped, a report said yesterday.
The charges against translator Katharine Gun, 29, will not be pursued so as to avoid potential embarrassment to the British government, The Guardian said, citing unnamed sources.
Gun was due to have appeared Monday at the Old Bailey criminal court in London to enter her plea on charges of disclosing intelligence information without authorization, but the hearing was postponed until next week.
She was sacked from the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Britain's electronic intelligence monitoring center, in June, two months after The Observer exposed a memo from US intelligence asking for GCHQ's help in spying on six UN Security Council member states.
The six -- Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria, Guinea and Pakistan -- each wielded crucial votes on UN resolutions intended to green-light the US and British invasion of Iraq that took place in March.
According to The Guardian, Gun has said she will plead not guilty to leaking secrets because her actions were justified in trying to prevent the deaths of British and Iraqi troops in an "illegal war."
As part of her defense, she would seek disclosure of confidential information on the legality of the war issued to the British government before the conflict by its top legal advisor, Attorney General Peter Goldsmith.
Prime Minister Tony Blair and other ministers have always insisted Goldsmith backed the war's legality, but his reasoning has never been released.
According to The Guardian, the government would most likely refuse to release the advice, allowing Gun's lawyers to argue their client could therefore not get a fair trial.
The long delay in bringing Gun to trial indicated that there had been divisions between GCHQ and the government over the wisdom of the case, The Guardian added.
In a report last Sunday, The Observer said the joint British and US spying operation scuppered a last-ditch initiative to avert the invasion of Iraq within the UN.
Earlier this month the paper had reported that Gun, a Mandarin Chinese expert, was thought to have become involved as part of plans to target China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese