UK intelligence officer to face secrets charge next month
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, Jan 19, IRNA - A British intelligence officer, accused of leaking a confidential memo about alleged American dirty tricks in the run-up to the Iraq war, is to face charges under the UK`s Official Secrets Act next month. Katherine Gun, who worked as a translator at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham, western England, is to appear at Old Bailey central criminal court on February 16, London`s Bow Street Magistrates Court ruled Monday. The 29-year old intelligence officer was first arrested last March after a memo from US monitoring body the National Security Agency dated January 31 last year was sent to the Observer newspaper. US intelligence allegedly asked their British counterparts for help to tap the phones of UN Security Council delegates ahead of a vote on launching military action against Iraq. According to the Observer, officials from Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria, Guinea and Pakistan all had their phones tapped in what the newspaper described as a "dirty tricks" operation. Under Section 1 of the 1989 Official Secrets Act, it is an offense to disclose security and intelligence information without the correct authorization. Gun has previously said that any disclosures she may have made were "justified." She "only ever followed her conscience," she said in a statement. She said that any alleged leaks exposed "serious illegality and wrongdoing on the part of the US Government" and were designed to prevent "wide-scale death and casualties among ordinary Iraqi people and UK forces." A spokesman for the GCHQ, the government`s main monitoring centre, confirmed Ms Gun had worked for the organisation but said any charges were a police matter. Liberty civil rights group has suggested that the case was likely to put the legality of the Iraq war on trial. HC/AH/213 End
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