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Dear Our World Our Say supporter,

Katharine Gun, a courageous former translator at GCHQ, is facing two years is prison for exposing to The Observer how Britain and America spied on UN Security Council members before the vote on the Iraq war.

Please help Our World Our Say get the charges against Katharine dropped. It is vital that we place adverts in the press, to get the message out about her bravery. I am extremely grateful for the help you have already given to us but the fact is that right now we do not have the cash to place these adverts.

At http://www.owos.info/make_a_donation/katharine.php you can donate quickly and securely, to help raise the funds we need.

I have attached below a preview copy of an email we are sending out later this week to over 150,000 people about her plight. Katharine faces two years in prison, simply for exposing the devious activities of our own and the American Governments.

The email is written by Daniel Ellsberg, the famous whistleblower whose Pentagon Papers revelations about US government deception helped end the Vietnam War. Daniel is deeply concerned about Katharine's situation and about the deceitful means by which the US and British Governments harnessed public support for war.

Katharine Gun will appear at the Old Bailey on the 25th February. Our World Our Say is asking supporters to call on their MP and on Tony Blair to ensure the Government drops the charges against her.

We want to run full-page adverts in at least two national newspapers to encourage people to do this. Please consider helping us as generously and as quickly as you can.

Please go to http://www.owos.info/katharine.php you can see a draft copy of the advert we are planning to place.

Daniel Ellsberg's message (below) sets out the case fully. We are extremely fortunate to have his backing as this is one of the most important campaigns that OWOS has run to date.

It will also help to further increase the pressure on our Government to admit its deceit about the Iraq war itself.
Thank you for anything you can do to help.

Yours sincerely,
Gerard Rosenberg

National Coordinator
Our World Our Say
www.ourworldoursay.org

LETTER FROM DANIEL ELLSBERG:

Dear Friend,

I am writing to ask you to help Katharine Gun, a courageous GCHQ translator, who faces prison for exposing an illegal spying campaign. You can help her now by going to www.owos.info/katharine.php - she has a pre trial hearing at the Old Bailey on 25th February.

In the weeks leading up to the war, at a time when the UN was still considering whether to pass a resolution authorizing war, Katharine disclosed to The Observer that the US National Security Agency had asked the British government to help in a surveillance operation focused on the six delegations holding the balance of power in the UN Security Council. This involved bugging home and office phones and intercepting e-mails of diplomats from friendly countries such as Chile and Mexico.

I urge you to contact Tony Blair and your local MP asking that the case against Katharine be dropped. Please take few moments to do this now at www.owos.info/katharine.php

Back in the 1960s, I served three US Presidents - Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon - who lied repeatedly and blatantly about the reasons for entering Vietnam and the risks in our staying there. For the past year I have seen history repeat itself. I believe that George Bush and Tony Blair lied - and continue to lie - as blatantly about their reasons for entering Iraq as the Presidents I served did about Vietnam.

In 1971 I released to the press what became known as the Pentagon Papers: 7000 pages of top-secret documents demonstrating that virtually everything four American presidents had told the public about our involvement in Vietnam was false. In the autumn of 2002, I hoped that officials in Washington and London who knew that our countries were being led into an illegal, bloody war and occupation would consider doing what I wish I had done in 1964 or 1965, years before I did, before the bombs started to fall: expose these lies, with documents.

I can only admire the more timely, courageous action of Katherine Gun, who risked her career and freedom to expose clandestine actions to win support for an illegal war, before that war had started. Her disclosure of secret efforts to manipulate Security Council votes may have been critical in denying the invasion a false cloak of legitimacy. That did not prevent the aggression, but it was reasonable for her to hope that her country would not choose to act as an outlaw. She did what she could to save lives, in time for it to make a difference, as indeed others should have done, and still can.

I have no doubt that there are thousands of pages of documents in safes in London and Washington right now - the Pentagon Papers of Iraq - whose unauthorized revelation would drastically alter the discourse on whether we should continue sending our children to die in Iraq. Those who reveal documents on the scale necessary to return foreign policy to democratic control risk prosecution and prison sentences, as Katharine is now facing. I faced 12 felony counts and a possible sentence of 115 years: the charges were eventually dismissed.

Exposing government lies carries a heavy personal risk, even in our democracies. But that risk can be worthwhile when a war's worth of lives is at stake. Please go to www.owos.info/katharine.php to contact Tony Blair and your own Member of Parliament today asking that the charges against Katharine Gun be dropped. You can also write a message of support there for Katharine, which OWOS will forward on to her.

Sincerely yours,

Daniel Ellsberg

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