Katharine spent a few days thinking very hard. When she had taken her job, she had promised not to talk about any secret information to anyone outside the government. She knew that she would be committing a crime if she took the letter to a newspaper. She knew that she might go to jail. But after thinking for a long time she went ahead and did it. The letter was in “The Observer” newspaper on March 3, 2003, just over two weeks before the war began.

Right after the letter was in the newspaper, the police took Katharine to jail. She soon got out of jail, but the police kept questioning her, and she lost her job with the government. For the next eight months, Katharine was lonely and afraid. She couldn’t look for another job because she didn’t want to answer questions about her past. She was even afraid to go out on the street because people had seen her picture and would know who she was.

Finally, in November, 2003, the government decided to put Katharine on trial. Her lawyers’ plan was to say that Katharine had not committed a crime by taking the letter to a newspaper. They were going to say it was true that she had given them secret information, but she had only done this because she believed a war against Iraq would be against the law, and she wanted to stop the government from committing a crime. The government said it had papers that showed the war was not against the law. Katharine’s lawyers asked to see them. The government said they could not see them. The lawyers said that, in court, they would ask the judge to make the government show them these papers. Then, on February 25, 2004, the day before Katharine’s trial was going to begin, the government said it had changed its mind about putting her on trial. Katharine was free.

-information from: The Los Angeles Times, 04.01.30 (Daniel Yi); The Los Angeles Times, 04.02.10 (H.G. Reza, Joel Rubin); The Los Angeles Times, 04.02.12 (Joel Rubin, Christine Hanley); The Los Angeles Times, 04.02.13 (H.G. Reza, Jennifer Mena); The Los Angeles Times, 04.02.23 (H.G. Reza, Christine Hanley, James Ricci);