Friday, February 20, 2004
Hurray for Our Side
It's looking like Katherine Gun is going to go free: (from "Case set to be dropped against GCHQ mole who blew whistle on US bugging ", Guardian, 2/20/04)
The prosecution is preparing to abandon the case against a former GCHQ employee charged with leaking information about a "dirty tricks" spying operation before the invasion of Iraq, the Guardian has learned. Katharine Gun, 29, is due to appear at the Old Bailey next week where she has said she will plead not guilty to breaking the Official Secrets Act.
She has said her alleged disclosures exposed serious wrongdoing by the US and could have helped to prevent the deaths of Iraqis and British forces in an "illegal war".
The case is potentially hugely embarrassing for the government and would open up GCHQ operations to unwelcome publicity. Also damaging and politically threatening is her plan to seek the disclosure of the full advice from the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, on the legality of the war against Iraq.
You know, she's lucky she's not American. This sensible decision of the prosecution -- and, generally, I guess, of Blair's administration -- is precisely the sort of thing that BushCo is incapable of. They deal with all criticism, all dissent, by unleashing the dogs. The extent to which this is true actually makes for high comedy in that the Bush administration seems to have real love of cutting off its nose to spite its face. If this case was a US scandal, Ashcroft and the boys would never have let up. It'll ruin someone's life -- too bad, we're going to nail her. Everyone in the world thinks its a bad idea -- too bad, were going to nail her. It actually hurts our own cause because of the harsh light it will shine on us and our actions -- too bad, we're going to nail her.
