Blair government misfires

Back on January 19 I posted about the case of Katharine Gun, the British intelligence employee who spilled the beans about the US spying on UN delegations during the Security Council debate about Iraq last year. She was charged with violation of the Official Secrets Act and faced two years in jail.

This last Wednesday, she walked. From BBC News for Thursday:

A GCHQ translator sacked for revealing a secret e-mail has been cleared of a charge under the Official Secrets Act.

Katharine Gun, 29, from Cheltenham, claimed the e-mail was from US spies asking British officers to tap phones of nations voting on war against Iraq.

She walked free on Wednesday when the prosecution offered no evidence.

Ms Gun had always said she had acted in an effort to prevent the war, and outside court said: "I have no regrets and I would do it again."

There is a real question about why the case was dropped so abruptly.

Mark Ellison, for the prosecution, said [to the court]: "There is no longer sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction.

"It would not be appropriate to go into the reasons for this decision." ...

All that is needed for a successful prosecution under the Official Secrets Act is for the prosecution to demonstrate the accused is covered by it, which Ms Gun was, and they have revealed information covered by it, which she also admitted.

Her solicitor James Welch described the prosecution's excuse as "rather lame".

Indeed it was. The likely reason is that, as I noted in that previous post, she'd been allowed to offer a "necessity" defense, under which what would normally be a crime is excused because of its use in preventing something worse. (As the common example has it, breaking into a house would usually be criminal, but if the house is on fire and the break-in was to save a trapped child, it was necessary.) Because of that, the planning for the war and particularly discussions within the government of its legality would be subject to being revealed in court The Blair administration probably figured it's had it share of embarrassments and has already dodged a couple of bullets, no point risking another.

So it's for a rather backhanded reason, but the fact remains that Katharine Gun is free and justice has been done for her.