Tech Eye : Top codebreaker intercepted terror emails

Top codebreaker intercepted terror emails

Now mysteriously dead

by Nick Farrell in Rome | August 31, 2010

A British codebreaker, who was found mysteriously dead in his flat, worked with the National Security Agency (NSA) and British intelligence to intercept e-mail messages that helped convict would-be bombers in the UK.

Gareth Williams, 31, helped British and US spooks intercept and examine communications that passed between an al Qaeda official in Pakistan.

According to Wired, he was behind the conviction of three men accused of plotting to bomb transcontinental flights.

Williams worked for the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) helping to break coded Taliban communications. He had just finished a year contract with MI6 when his body turned up stuffed into a duffel bag in his bath. He had been dead for two weeks.

His mobile phone and a number of SIM cards were laid out on a table near the body. The door had not been forced and there was no sign of a struggle. There was no indication that he was up to any bizarre sex games either.

Other than the fact his body had ended up in a duffel bag there were no obvious signs of foul play. Wired points out that it would be difficult for a person to stuff themselves into a duffel bag after they were dead.

If he had been bumped off because of his services to Queen and country you would have expected the phones to be taken. If he had topped himself, he would not have stuffed himself in a duffle bag, if he had been murdered he might have put up a bit of a fight. Sounds like a case for Sherlock. But he is not real.