Official Secrets (2019) quotes

Director
Gavin Hood.

Cast
Keira Knightley.
Matt Smith.
Ralph Fiennes.

The true story of a British whistleblower who leaked information to the press about an illegal NSA spy operation designed to push the UN Security Council into sanctioning the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Following orders is not a defense to a war crime.
– Ben Emmerson

Governments change. I work for the British people. I gather intelligence so that the government can protect the British people. I do not gather intelligence so that the government can lie to the British people.
– Katharine Gun

So, you work for the British government?
– TinTin
No. Not really.
– Katharine Gun
No?
– TinTin
Governments change. I work for the British people.
– Katharine Gun

Why did you keep her in a state of distress for a year before you brought charges?
– Ben Emmerson
The services wanted to make an example of her. If we dropped the case any earlier, what kind of message would that have sent?
– Ken MacDonald

[on TV] What we know, is that Saddam has this material.
– Tony Blair
You don’t know that. I mean, he just keeps repeating the lie. Just because you’re the Prime Minister, it doesn’t mean you get to make up your own facts.
– Katharine Gun

I have also always believed that censorship when called for should be based on security issues alone not on whether a news report might embarrass a government.
– Rear Admiral Nick Wilkinson

What do you know about war?
– Yasar Gun
I work at GCHQ.
– Katharine Gun
All you do is listen to people talking! You’ve never seen war, you’ve never smelled it! Never even come close to it!
– Yasar Gun
Yas, I understand why you are angry. It is my fault and I’m sorry. I am so sorry. But I watched Blair with his smug smile and his sterile speeches that tell us nothing of what it must feel like to be a child in Iraq right now. I know I’m not sorry that I tried to stop him. I’m not. I’m only sorry that I failed.
– Katharine Gun

This paper can’t be seen to be supporting a war that we should be doing everything in our power to expose as a con. *A neocon giant fucking con!*
– Ed Vulliamy