TWO TRUTH TELLERS, ONE FARCE You tell one honest thing at work and regret it. In 2003, civil servants Katharine Gun and David Kelly did exactly that about Iraq, and the government treated both as the problem. Katharine Gun was a translator at @GCHQ, Britain's electronic spy agency. David Kelly was a weapons expert at the Ministry of Defence @DefenceHQ. In January 2003, Katharine Gun read an email from America's NSA asking GCHQ to spy on six UN Security Council countries and lean on their votes for the Iraq invasion. She leaked it to @ObserverUK, which printed it in March. David Kelly spoke to @BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan about the government's Iraq weapons report. Katharine Gun was charged under the Official Secrets Act and faced two years in prison. The ministry confirmed David Kelly's name to journalists who guessed it, after a meeting chaired by Tony Blair. 3 days after MPs questioned him, David Kelly was found dead. Lord Brian Hutton, a judge the government appointed, largely cleared the government on 28 January 2004. Shocking scenes. @BBC chairman and director general resigned, and David Kelly's inquest was suspended and never resumed. 4 weeks later, on 25 February 2004, the prosecution offered no evidence against Katharine Gun and gave no reason. @guardian reported in 2019 that the case was dropped because evidence would allegedly emerge that government lawyers thought the war illegal. The Chilcot inquiry ran to 2.6 million words and never mentioned Katharine Gun. Proper thorough, that. Sources @ObserverUK @thetimes @BBCNews