Channel 4 : MI6 and GCHQ enquiries into dead spy vetting

MI6 and GCHQ enquiries into dead spy vetting

By Jonathan Rugman | August 27, 2010

Exclusive: Channel 4 News has learnt that the government's most secretive intelligence agencies have launched internal enquiries into the vetting of an MI6 employee found dead in his flat.

Police found the body of Gareth Williams in a sports holdall bag on Monday afternoon. The bag was discovered in the bath of his home in Alderney Street, Pimlico, a short distance from MI6 headquarters.

Initial reports suggested the body may have been lying there for up to two weeks, although security sources today claimed Mr Williams had been seen alive "well within" the two week period before his body was discovered, and that it was only a matter of a few days before his absence was noticed by his employers.

The investigation into Mr Williams' death has not resulted in any arrests, but the working assumption is that the killing had no connection with the 31-year-old's secret work, believed to be as a code and cipher expert. He was on secondment from GCHQ to MI6.

Police have still not classified this as a murder investigation because the cause of death has not been established. There were no reported signs of disturbance at the flat, although murder is still considered the most likely possibility.

"There is nothing to suggest a security leak", a source told Channel 4 News. "This is most likely the human tragedy of a private young man who may have had issues."

A post-mortem examination failed to find the cause of death, though claims that he was stabbed have been denied. Further tests are being carried out to see if the keen amateur cyclist may have been asphyxiated or poisoned. It had been reported that there were no obvious signs of strangulation.

GCHQ conducts what it called "rigorous security clearance" for potential employees to ascertain whether there is the "the risk of an individual being placed in a potentially compromising position.

"If you do not meet the Developed Vetting requirements for the job, or fail to disclose any security related issues or concerns, you will not be considered for employment," the organisation said.

Mr Williams regularly travelled to the United States, where it is understood that he worked at the National Security Agency at Fort Meade in Maryland, the American government's listening post and the largest intelligence agency in the world.

The CIA has also been investigating any possible security breach, but British authorities believed that Mr Williams' killer probably did not know about his work.

Newspaper reports have suggested that bondage equipment was found in the flat, but security sources denied this today.

Officials confirmed that the SIM cards from Mr Williams' mobile phone were found at the scene, but believed they had not been laid out in a "ritualistic fashion" and were probably just a sign of personal neatness.

Claims that phone numbers of male escorts were found on the SIM cards have also been denied, though sources conceded that Mr Williams' sexual preferences may have played a role in his death.

Initial leaks of details to the press, including the Welshman's employment at MI6, have caused friction between Britain's secret intelligence agencies and police investigating the case.

Claims about Mr Williams' private life have also upset his family, already grieving over his death. Mr Williams was due to return to his work at GCHQ next month.

"Every nation spies on everyone else"

A former intelligence officer from America has told Channel 4 News that spying goes on "every day, 24 hours a day."

Bob Ayres said: "As long as people use codes to protect their communications, there will still be people working to break them.

"Codes now are based on sophisticated cryptographic systems. Spies are used to create and produce cryptographic systems that other people can’t break, and to break the systems used by other countries. These systems are based on sophisticated mathematics, so that is the ideal background.

"Intelligence, spying, these are jobs and business that go on every day, 24 hours a day. Every nation spies on everyone else and everybody spies on them. There is nothing romantic or intriguing about it. It is just a business. In terms of men in raincoats standing under bridges, that is a very small percentage of what actually goes on in the intelligence business."