 February 2004
American Friends Service Committee Peacework Magazine Sara Burke, Managing Editor Sam Diener, Editor Pat Farren, Founding Editor 2161 Massachusetts Ave. Telephone number: Fax number:
pwork@igc.org Peacework has been published monthly since 1972, intended to serve as a source of dependable information to those who strive for peace and justice and are committed to furthering the nonviolent social change necessary to achieve them. Rooted in Quaker values and informed by AFSC experience and initiatives, Peacework offers a forum for organizers, fostering coalition-building and teaching the methods and strategies that work in the global and local community. Peacework seeks to serve as an incubator for social transformation, introducing a younger generation to a deeper analysis of problems and issues, reminding and re-inspiring long-term activists, encouraging the generations to listen to each other, and creating space for the voices of the disenfranchised. Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC. |
On Trial for Exposing US Wiretaps on UN Information from the Institute for Public Accuracy (www.accuracy.org) and The Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk). Katharine Gun faces two years in prison for telling the truth, exposing government crimes, and attempting to prevent a war. Gun, a British former government employee, is charged with leaking a US intelligence memo. The memo discussed US spying on UN delegations in early 2003 in order to bolster the Iraq war resolution. Gun, a former employee of the UK intelligence agency known as Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ), faces charges that she violated Britain’s Official Secrets Act. The government has now banned Gun from discussing her work at the agency with her lawyer, on the grounds that it would violate the Official Secrets Act. The leaked memo detailed the US National Security Agency’s (NSA) spying on the UN delegations of six countries on the Security Council which had not decided to support the invasion. The surveillance included the interception of personal and official phone lines and email accounts, in search of "the whole gamut of information that could give US policymakers an edge in obtaining results favorable to US goals." The NSA sought the assistance of Britain’s GCHQ, where Gun worked as
a translator. Katharine Gun explained that she sought "to prevent wide-scale
death and casualties among ordinary Iraqi people and UK forces in the course
of an illegal war." To protest the prosecution of Katharine Gun, and the suppression of her
defense, contact the British Embassy; in the US: 3100 Mass. Ave., Washington,
DC 20008; Please cc solidarity@accuracy.org. 
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