Confessions of spy

Official Secrets: How a Real-Life Spy Tried to Stop the Iraq War

Former British intelligence officer Katharine Gun didn’t set out to become a whistle-blower. But, in 2003, when she came across an email suggesting that the United States and the U.K. governments were intending to blackmail members of the United Nations to authorize an invasion of Iraq, Gun—then just 28—felt morally obligated to leak the letter.

“At the time, I was really focused on the Iraq invasion issue,” Gun told Vanity Fair this month, ahead of the August 30 premiere of Official Secrets, an intelligence thriller recounting this terrifying chapter of her life and starring Keira Knightley. “I was very much aware of what the leaders of our countries, Tony Blair and George W. Bush, were saying at the time.… I had bought a couple of books which had been rushed into print at that point—one called War Plan Iraq and the other was called Target Iraq.… I was convinced that there was nothing Iraq had done [to warrant the invasion]. When I saw the red flag…it was like, Oh, my gosh, this is so explosive. They’re lying about what their motives are…that immediately made me think, I have got to get this out. If people knew about this, nobody would support this invasion.”