Daily Post : Anglesey spy Gareth Williams cause of death still days away

Anglesey spy Gareth Williams cause of death still days away

By Sara Thomas, Daily Post | August 30, 2010

INVESTIGATORS are still days away from finding out the exact cause of death of British code-breaker Gareth Williams, according to police.

The complicated nature of the tests currently being carried out mean it could be well into next week before police are able to piece together how the Anglesey maths genius died.

A post mortem examination last week proved inconclusive and officers are still days away from determining if he was asphyxiated, poisoned or if drugs or alcohol were present in his system.

He was last seen alive eight days before his corpse was found stuffed in a bag at his flat.

A confirmed sighting of Mr Williams, 30, was made on August 15 in London, officers said.

But police would not say whether the sighting was made on CCTV or came from another source.

The investigation is being led by the Met’s Homicide Command with the security-vetted Counter Terror Command (SO15) also playing a lesser role in proceedings.

Scotland Yard are playing down reports that thousands of pounds had passed through Mr Williams’ bank account shortly before his death as “pure speculation”.

It was reported that three sums of £2,000 were paid into his account on consecutive days and then withdrawn on consecutive days.

Meanwhile, Mr Williams’ family, who live in Valley, hit out at rumours that suggested the dead man was involved in risky sexual practices.

In a statement they said speculation linking the secret service employee to a male escort and bondage equipment had been “very distressing”.

Mr Williams, who was on secondment to MI6, was found dead in a sports holdall in the bath of his Government flat last Monday.

As police continued to investigate whether the GCHQ codes expert lived a secret double life, his family paid tribute to the murdered spy.

They said: “Gareth was a generous, loving son, brother, and friend, and he was a very private person.

“He was a great athlete, and loved cycling and music.

“His loss has devastated us and we would ask anyone with information to come forward and assist the police inquiry.”

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “We can confirm that Mr Williams was in London from Wednesday August 11, and what officers believe is the last confirmed sighting of him still alive in London was on Sunday August 15.”

Police turned their focus to Mr Williams’ private life as they attempt to account for his death.

He was days from completing a one-year secondment to the headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, in Vauxhall, London.

He was due to return to a rented flat in Cheltenham where Government Communications Headquarters, GCHQ, is based.

Mr Williams also worked for the United States National Security Agency and made regular trips to Washington DC and Fort Meade, near Baltimore.

Last week a pathologist found Mr Williams was not stabbed or shot and there were no obvious signs of strangulation.

Police refused to categorise the death as a murder, despite the bizarre circumstances and say he may have died innocently.

They were considering whether he became the victim of a sex game that went wrong.

Officers are examining his mobile phone and financial records.

They suspect he may have known his killer as there was no sign of forced entry at his top-floor flat in smart Alderney Street, Pimlico.

But questions remain over why his body was not discovered earlier.

Wired : Dead Codebreaker Was Linked to NSA Intercept Case

Dead Codebreaker Was Linked to NSA Intercept Case

By Kim Zetter | August 30, 2010

A top British codebreaker found mysteriously dead last week in his flat had worked with the NSA and British intelligence to intercept e-mail messages that helped convict would-be bombers in the U.K., according to a news report.

Gareth Williams, 31, made repeated visits to the U.S. to meet with the National Security Agency and worked closely with British and U.S. spy agencies to intercept and examine communications that passed between an al Qaeda official in Pakistan and three men who were convicted last year of plotting to bomb transcontinental flights, according to the British paper the Mirror.

Williams, described by those who knew him as a “math genius,” worked for the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) helping to break coded Taliban communications, among other things. He was just completing a year-long stint with MI6, Britain’s secret intelligence service, when his body was found stuffed into a duffel bag in his bathtub. He’d been dead for at least two weeks. His mobile phone and a number of SIM cards were laid out on a table near the body, according to news reports. There were no signs of forced entry to the apartment and no signs of a struggle.

Initial news stories indicated Williams had been stabbed, but police have since disputed that information, noting that — other than being stuffed into a duffel bag — there were no obvious signs of foul play. A toxicology report is expected Tuesday.

The NSA wiretaps the internet from this secured room in an AT&T building in San Francisco, and similar rooms around the U.S., according to whistleblower Mark Klein.

Investigators say they haven’t ruled out the possibility that the codebreaker was killed over something related to his work. Rumors that sexual bondage equipment was found in his apartment were also nixed by police, who said the rumors were untrue and they found no evidence yet to suggest that anything in Williams’ personal life led to his death.

Williams, an avid cyclist, lived in an apartment in Pimlico in central London that was reportedly part of a network of flats registered to an offshore front company and rented out to GCHQ workers. He is believed to have returned from a trip abroad on August 11. He was last seen alive on August 15, eight days before his body was found.

Williams flew up to four times a year to the U.S. to the NSA’s headquarters at Fort Meade HQ, according to the Mirror. His uncle, Michael Hughes, told the paper that Williams would mysteriously disappear for three or four weeks.

“The trips were very hush-hush,” Hughes said. “They were so secret that I only recently found out about them – and we’re a very close family. It had become part of his job in the past few years. His last trip out there was a few weeks ago, but he was regularly back and forth.”

Williams was said to have worked with the NSA on e-mails intercepted between Abdullah Ahmed Ali and Assad Sarwar and Rashid Rauf, a British national in Pakistan who was allegedly director of European operations for al Qaeda. The e-mails, intercepted by the NSA in 2006, allegedly contained coded messages.

The NSA shared the e-mails with British prosecutors but wouldn’t allow them to use the evidence in an early trial of the suspects out of fear of tipping off Rauf that he was under surveillance. It was only after Rauf was reportedly killed in a U.S. drone attack that the NSA allowed prosecutors to use the e-mails to convict the other suspects. It’s never been known whether the NSA intercepted the messages overseas or siphoned them as they passed through internet nodes on U.S. soil as part of the NSA’s controversial and unconstitutional warrantless wiretapping program.

An unidentified Western intelligence source told the Mirror that Williams’ job would have had him participating in “crucial high-level meetings with American intelligence officers. His job would have been crucial to the security of the UK and our interests abroad – and also to America and Europe.

“Although not particularly high up the GCHQ ladder, the importance of his role should not be underestimated. The man was a mathematical genius.”

His landlady, Jenny Elliott, told the Telegraph, “Occasionally you could hear tapes whirring from his flat, which must have been audio cassettes he used for work, but he never told me what they were.”

Daily Mail : The dead MI6 spy was an unsung hero, so why are shadowy figures trying to blacken his name?

The dead MI6 spy was an unsung hero, so why are shadowy figures trying to blacken his name?

By Melanie Phillips | August 30, 2010

George Smiley would never have behaved like this. Ever since the body of the GCHQ code-breaker Gareth Williams was discovered stuffed into a hold-all in his bath, we have been treated to a stream of unsavoury and contradictory leaks from mysterious sources.

The story is throwing up more obfuscatory trade-craft than a John Le Carré novel. Of course, the secret intelligence world must of necessity work in a deeply shadowy way - concealing its tracks, laying false trails and employing sundry other means of disinformation.

It does so in order to keep this country safe from its enemies. So much is generally accepted.

But when one of its number is found apparently murdered in a flat in central London, you do not expect these black arts of subterfuge to continue.

You certainly don't expect them to thwart the investigation of an apparently sinister death or cause further and needless distress to the dead man's bereaved parents.

Yet this is precisely what seems to have happened after the discovery of Mr Williams's body.

It appears that he was no ordinary GCHQ operative but a vitally important contributor to the defence of the West.

A brilliant mathematical boffin, he was helping to oversee a network which links satellites and super-computers in Britain and the U.S. with those of other key allies.

He had also worked on breaking coded Taliban messages, helping to save the lives of countless British and other Nato soldiers under attack in Afghanistan.

So his death would seem to have serious security implications of one kind or another - including the possibility that he was murdered by enemies of this country.

Yet shadowy unnamed sources started putting it about that 'bondage equipment and gay paraphernalia' were found in his flat.

The implication was that his death was caused by some seedy sadomasochistic practice that went wrong.

At a stroke, Mr Williams's reputation was trashed - transforming him from an unsung hero of his nation into the sordid author of his own terminal misfortune.

Not surprisingly, this planted suggestion greatly upset his grieving family, who protested at the 'horrible and completely fictitious accounts of his private life'.

More remarkably, it was refuted in the strongest possible terms by the police who said no such paraphernalia had been found in Mr Williams's flat - although they wouldn't comment on the suggestion that he was indeed gay.

None of us has the faintest idea why or how he died. But why would these shadowy sources - whoever they may be - want to blacken his name like this? Of course, it is possible that he was killed by a lover.

Most killings, after all, have a rather more prosaic cause than an assassination perpetrated by clandestine agents.

But why plant this suggestion - and in the most lurid and apparently untruthful way - before the police have even established how or when he met his death?

Maybe a clue lies in the further claim that some £18,000 disappeared from one of his bank accounts two months ago - money reportedly moved 'by complex means', leading to speculation that Mr Williams was being blackmailed.

It is possible there is an entirely innocent explanation for all that, too. But why are we being treated to this drip-drip of partial, sensational and contradictory information while a criminal investigation is going on?

It all sounds disturbingly similar to the case of Jonathan Moyle, another British intelligence agent whose body was found hanging inside a hotel wardrobe in the Chilean capital Santiago in 1990 with a padded noose around his neck.

He had been investigating a company which was modifying helicopters, possibly to carry nuclear weapons, to sell to the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

But MI6 planted the suggestion that he had died while engaged in an auto-erotic act. It took his outraged father to discover that his son had probably been drugged, suffocated, injected with a lethal substance and then strung up in the wardrobe - a view supported by the British coroner, who returned a verdict of unlawful killing at his inquest eight years later.

In the Williams case, it appears that a turf-war has broken out between the police and the intelligence world, with the police complaining that the spooks are hindering their investigation.

Shadowy

So just what does the intelligence world want to cover up in this case? Of course, it is possible that disclosure of the precise circumstances of Mr Williams's death would compromise national security in some way.

But it is also possible there is a less honourable motive for the dirty tricks being played in this investigation.


Maybe the intelligence world doesn't want us to know that it didn't vet Mr Williams thoroughly enough; or alternatvely that it shockingly failed to protect the life of its invaluable code-breaker from foreign or terrorist assailants; or maybe it wants to conceal the identity of a country or group that killed him in order to serve some diplomatic end or other.

Who knows? All we can see is that some very peculiar game is being played around this man's demise.

And it's hard not to put this together with that other mystery over the death of the weapons expert Dr David Kelly in 2003.

He was said to have committed suicide during the controversy over the Iraq war - a conclusion endorsed by the official inquiry that replaced an inquest into his death.

Yet the evidence suggests that he could not have killed himself, as we have been told, by slitting his ulnar artery and taking an overdose of pills - not least because there was not much blood at the scene and fewer than one tablet was found in his stomach.

We also learn that people who wanted or needed to give evidence at the inquiry were never called to do so.

Now the pathologist who inspected his body has insisted this was a 'textbook suicide' - an account that raises more questions than it answers.

Conspiracy

True, the idea that Dr Kelly was murdered and that this was covered up in an official conspiracy seems too implausible to be true.

Yet he did possess unique expertise in biological weapons intelligence. So there was a long list of terror organisations or rogue states that may have wanted him dead.

And if it is indeed true that the intelligence world sometimes plants false information that key operatives who have been murdered have instead been responsible for their own deaths, then the questions about Dr Kelly's 'suicide' become even more urgent.

No one expects the intelligence services to reveal their trade secrets or to compromise national security.

But they are also the servants of a free society. And that means they must observe due process - which means unexplained deaths must be properly investigated.

That means a transparent and thorough investigation. It means holding a proper inquest where evidence about the cause of death can be properly aired and interrogated. And it means not dripping salacious snippets manipulatively into the public domain.

We must also not lose sight of the fact that, however they died, the loss of both David Kelly and now gareth Williams has deprived us of two of the most brilliant minds in the intelligence world.

With their deaths, the defences of this country have been left that much weaker.

The coincidence of two random and unfortunate events? Perhaps. Who knows?

At this rate, none of us will do so.

Telegraph : Spy death may be linked to MI6 work

Spy death may be linked to MI6 work

By Richard Edwards and Duncan Gardham | August 30, 2010

Police have not ruled out the possibility that the death of a British spy could be linked to his work after investigations into his private life failed to provide a motive for his murder.

Detectives say they are still looking at whether Gareth Williams may have been killed by a foreign intelligence agency seeking to stop his work on intercepting messages and code-breaking.

Interviews with friends and family of Mr Williams, 30, have offered no clear leads as to how or why he died. Checks on his phone records and bank accounts have also yet to provide anything conclusive.

As to Mr Williams’s social life, reports that he may have died in a sex game gone wrong have been played down by police, who say that although he may have visited a gay bar, they have found nothing to suggest that sex played a role in his death.

As a result, sources say they are continuing to co-operate closely with MI6, where Mr Williams was finishing a year-long secondment from GCHQ, and interviewing colleagues.

They are also investigating links with the US where he made a number of trips to liaise with the National Security Agency and the CIA.

He is thought to have returned to Britain from a foreign trip on Aug 11 and was last seen alive on Aug 15, eight days before his body was found in a holdall and left in his bath at the MI6 flat where he lived in Pimlico, London.

Investigators are keeping details of his exact movements secret to avoid encouraging spurious sightings. One source said: “Those people who know him will come forward and those who do not and have something to hide, we will track down.”

Sources close to the inquiry said they are looking at the possibility that his body was manhandled into the bag in order to remove it from the premises. They are searching the flat for fingerprints and DNA to determine if anyone was present when he died.

A pathologist has been unable to identify why Mr Williams died but toxicology test results are expected in the next few days that should identify whether he was smothered, poisoned or had taken drugs.

The keen cyclist seems to have had few close friends and been willing to confide little about his work or private life. Officers are eager not to jump to any conclusions about why Mr Williams was killed, or even whether he could have died in a bizarre accident and his body then moved.

One senior detective said: “It is possible he was the victim of a political assassination but the reality may be more mundane.”

Mr Williams’s family in Wales have said the continued speculation about his private life is “very distressing”.

Telegraph : British spy death: police probe links to secret work

British spy death: police probe links to secret work

By Richard Edwards and Duncan Gardham | August 30, 2010

Police have not ruled out the possibility that the death of a British spy could be linked to his work after investigations into his private life failed to provide a motive for his murder.

Murder detectives say they are still looking at whether Gareth Williams may have been killed by a foreign intelligence agency seeking to stop his work on intercepting messages and code-breaking.

Interviews with friends and family of Mr Williams, 30, have so far offered no clear leads as to how or why he died.

Checks on his phone records and bank accounts also appear to have drawn a blank.

As to Mr William's social life, lurid reports that he may have died in a sex game gone wrong have been played down by police who say that although he was seen visiting a gay bar, they have not yet categorically determined his sexuality.

As a result sources say they are continuing to co-operate closely with MI6, where Mr Williams was finishing a year-long secondment from GCHQ, and interviewing colleagues. They are also investigating links with the US where he made a number of trips abroad to liaise with the National Security Agency and the CIA in the US.

He is thought to have returned to Britain from a foreign trip on August 11 and was last seen on alive on August 15, eight days before his body was discovered, although investigators are keeping details of his exact movements under wraps in order to avoid encouraging spurious sightings.

`Those people who know him will come forward and those who do not and have something to hide, we will track down,` one source told the Daily Telegraph.

`Everyone he worked with wants to understand why he died and we are confident the truth will come out.`

Police are struggling to work out why Mr Williams may have been killed and his body put into a holdall and left in his bath at the MI6 flat where he lived in Pimlico, central London.

Sources close to the inquiry said they are looking at the possibility that his body was manhandled into the bag in order to remove it from the premises.

They are continuing a painstaking re-examination of the flat, searching for fingerprints and DNA that could identify whether anyone else was present when he died.

So far a pathologist has been unable to identify why Mr Williams died but the results from toxicology tests are expected in the next few days.

That should identify whether he was smothered or whether he was drugged or poisoned.

The keen cyclist seems to have had few close friends and been willing to confide little about his work or private life even with his family. They are there expanding the circle of acquaintances they speak to in the hope of unearthing any connection that might shed light on his death.

Police are aware of reports that Mr Williams visited a gay bar near the MI6 headquarters in Vauxhall Cross called Bar code.

One man who met him, Lemuel Miller, a medical student from Selhurst, South London, said: `He was a very sweet guy. He came here when he was

in London. He was very intelligent, he never really talked about his work.’

Officers are keen not to jump to any conclusions about why Mr Williams was killed, or even whether he could have died in a bizarre accident and his body then moved.

One senior detective said: `It is possible he was the victim of a political assassination but the reality may be more mundane.`

Sources have denied reports that bondage equipment was found in the flat or that the body had been stabbed or dismembered.

But Mr Williams’s personal life was such a mystery that they are unsure whether he was in a relationship and do not want to suggest that he was the victim of a homosexual killing.

His family in Wales have said the continued speculation about his private life is `very distressing’ but called for anyone with information to come forward.

'Gareth was a generous, loving son, brother, and friend, and he was a very private person,` they said in a statement. 'He was a great athlete, and loved cycling and music. His loss has devastated us and we would ask that anyone with information to come forward and assist the police inquiry.'

Daily Mail : Police find 'no evidence' that dead MI6 agent was gay

Police find 'no evidence' that dead MI6 agent was gay

By Daily Mail Reporter | August 30, 2010

Investigators have found no evidence so far that murdered MI6 spy Gareth Williams was gay, it emerged yesterday.

His family and friends have said there was nothing to suggest he was gay and have reacted furiously to ‘untruths’ that he led a colourful homosexual lifestyle, claiming the rumours could be government smears aimed at discrediting him.

Police inquiries have supported their view that he was not gay. Scotland Yard has denied speculation that gay paraphernalia was discovered in the flat or that there is any link to a male escort.

Mr Williams was found dead last Monday at his £400,000 flat in Pimlico, central London, just half a mile from MI6 headquarters. His body was discovered in the bath stuffed into a sports holdall.

Although it is highly likely that he was murdered, the post mortem revealed no signs of a violent struggle. Toxicology results to show if poison, drugs, alcohol or asphyxiation could be the cause may not come back until later this week.

One line of enquiry is that the cipher and codes specialist could have died in a bizarre accident and that his body was later put in the bag.

Detectives are also looking at whether he may have been killed by a foreign intelligence agency seeking to stop his work on intercepting messages and code-breaking, the Telegraph reported.

The Metropolitan police continue to describe his death as ‘suspicious and unexplained’.

It was reported yesterday that £18,000 had also disappeared from Mr Williams’ bank account two months ago and had yet to be traced.

Detectives are trying to establish where the money, said to be moved by ‘complex means’, ended up, it is claimed.

The sum was reportedly moved from Mr Williams’ online deposit account. It is understood that his salary was paid into another account.

There may be a perfectly innocent explanation for the transaction, it could also suggest that Mr Williams was being blackmailed or selling information.

A security source said any ‘unexplained’ movements of money in the Mr Williams’ bank accounts were being scrutinised for clues as to how he met his death.

It emerged yesterday that Mr Williams was thought to have made at least two trips to Afghanistan, helping break coded Taliban messages at MI6’s key listening station in Kabul.

He is also said to have played an important role in the development of a highly sensitive and secret electronic intelligence gathering system called Echelon and was helping with a new system to monitor internet phone calls such as Skype.

There were also reports that Mr Williams, who was single and lived alone, had frequented a gay bar in Vauxhall, South London just yards from MI6 headquarters.

There have been no arrests and on Friday Scotland Yard issued an appeal to anyone who knew Mr Williams or may have seen him in the eight days before his body was found to come forward.

Independent : Police reject rumours surrounding MI6 man found dead in flat

Police reject rumours surrounding MI6 man found dead in flat

By Mark Hughes, Crime Correspondent | August 30, 2010

Police took the unusual decision yesterday to step in and deny increasingly lurid reports about the private life of the murdered GCHQ officer Gareth Williams.

Scotland Yard sources said that reports of bondage equipment found at his flat and a "ritualistic" arrangement of his possessions were untrue. A spokesman later added that the detective team investigating the death, had clarified the accuracy of the reports "out of respect" for Mr Williams' relatives.

Mr William's body was found stuffed into a holdall in the bathroom on his home in Pimlico, central London, last week. Since the discovery suggestions regarding Mr Williams' private life and sexual tendencies have been rife.

Reports included the suggestion that the 30-year-old was, variously, a male escort or a transvestite; that bondage equipment had been found at his flat; and that a dozen mobile phone SIM cards had been laid out in a ritualistic manner in his home.

His family said they feared there was a smear campaign. Mr Williams' uncle told newspapers: "The family are concerned it may have been an attempt to put false, unkind details about Gareth's private life into the public domain to diminish him and take attention away from the security services he worked so loyally for."

All police have previously confirmed is that they are investigating a "suspicious death" – preferring that term to murder – and that the last known sighting of Mr Williams was in London on Sunday 15 August, eight days before his body was found. Initial reports said he had not been seen for a fortnight.

His body was discovered when police were called to check on him after a colleague voiced concerns.

Those scant details aside, little is known about precisely when, why or how Mr Williams died. As is usual in such cases, police have not confirmed any potential motive they are investigating. Early speculation suggested that Mr Williams' job may have been the reason for his death. But latterly, the focus has shone more on his personal life. Last week a pathologist was unable to establish a cause of death. Toxicology tests will determine if he was poisoned, or if drugs or alcohol were a factor. But the report suggested he was not stabbed.

On Saturday night Channel 4 News claimed that the initial police report had stated that Mr Williams' death was a "neat job", suggesting that he was killed by someone who knew what they were doing.

There are also suggestions that Scotland Yard detectives have become frustrated with the interference of colleagues in the intelligence agencies who are not used to their own organisations or employees being the subject of investigations. Police are also said to be investigating payments and withdrawals of thousands of pounds into and out of Mr Williams' bank account in the days leading up to his death.

Mirror : Gareth Williams death: Detectives won't rule out link to spy job - Exclusive

Gareth Williams death: Detectives won't rule out link to spy job - Exclusive

By Jon Clements and Josh Layton | August 30, 2010

Detectives investigating the death of code-breaker Gareth Williams have not ruled out a link to his job.

Officers are "completely open-minded" about the circumstances of the MI6 officer's death and insist it is too early to rule out a connection with national security.

A source told the Mirror: "There has been a lot of talk that the key to this tragedy must lie in his personal life. Well, that isn't necessarily the case and until more facts are known all the possibilities are still there."

Mr Williams' body was found last week inside a red bag in the bath of his flat in Pimlico, Central London. Detectives suspect someone was planning to move Mr Williams' body in the bag at a later date.

His parents Ian and Ellen Williams have been devastated by claims that bondage gear was found at the property and alleged links to gay escorts.

Scotland Yard yesterday refused to comment on reports that a wig and make-up were also found, as fresh claims surfaced linking keen cyclist Mr Williams to a gay bar near MI6 headquarters in Vauxhall, South London.

Meanwhile insiders confirmed the 31-year-old's financial affairs were being closely examined but stressed there was no evidence of blackmail.

Last week a pathologist was unable to establish cause of death and the results of a second postmortem are expected tomorrow.

Daily Star : SPY PROBE FOR LINKS WITH GAY COMMUNITY

SPY PROBE FOR LINKS WITH GAY COMMUNITY

By Jerry Lawton | August 30, 2010

POLICE probing spy Gareth Williams’s bizarre death are trying to establish whether he was involved in the gay community.

Customers in a gay bar on the doorstep of MI6’s HQ said the 31-year-old maths genius was a regular visitor and “very sweet guy”.

Medical student Lemuel Miller said the spy had frequently visited trendy Barcode in Vauxhall, south London.

“I often saw Gareth here and spent an evening last summer chatting to him and a group of other guys,” he said.

“He was a very sweet guy. He was intelligent but never talked about his work.”

Fellow regular Matt Green, 38, a music producer, added: “He was shy but seemed comfortable here.”

But yesterday Gareth’s family insisted his reputation was being smeared to take the pressure off the security services.

And his uncle William Hughes said the secret agent, who had twice been to Afghanistan to crack the Taliban’s secret codes, had a girlfriend for the past year.

Mr Hughes said: “It never crossed our minds that he could be gay.”

Gareth was found dead in a sports bag in his flat in Pimlico, London.

Detectives believe unlocking the mysteries surrounding his private life is ­vital in determining if his death was triggered by sex, money, or terrorism. But they have reportedly been frustrated by security chiefs blocking their inquiries “at every turn”.

Officers are also investigating Gareth’s bank accounts. Three sums of £2,000 were paid in and immediately withdrawn, the last time on the eve of his death, suggesting he was possibly being blackmailed.

Express : SPY FAMILY’S FURY AT BLACKMAIL ‘LIES’

SPY FAMILY’S FURY AT BLACKMAIL ‘LIES’

By John Twomey | August 30, 2010

THE family of murdered spy Gareth Williams yesterday dismissed claims that he was being blackmailed.

Relatives hit out at “untrue rumours” as detectives probed money transfers totalling £24,000 to and from the code breaker’s accounts.

The biggest single movement of cash is believed to be £18,000 withdrawn from one of his accounts eight weeks ago.

Three sums of £2,000 paid in and then out of the 31-yearold’s accounts on consecutive days are also being examined. Two bundles of £500 – one in an envelope and the other tied with an elastic band – are said to have been found in the flat where he died.

But relatives of the brilliant mathematician are convinced the transfers and the bundles of cash all have totally innocent explanations. They say the allegations of blackmail and rumours about his private life have now become “intolerable”.

Mr Williams’ uncle, Bill Hughes, said: “We know nothing of this. It’s another example of unsupported rumours being allowed to circulate. To the best of our knowledge, Gareth wasn’t gay and wasn’t being blackmailed.” Mr Williams was found dead in the bath of his top-floor flat in Pimlico, central London, last Monday.

His body had been stuffed into a sports holdall and may have lain there for up to eight days. The bag was padlocked. One theory that detectives are working on is that Mr Williams knew his killer and let him into the flat. A post-mortem examination last week proved inconclusive. Further tests are being carried out.

Forensic experts returned to the scene of the murder on Friday in a bid to find clues which will solve the mystery. Mr Willaims worked for the Government’s listening post GCHQ in Cheltenham and was on secondment to MI6. He made frequent trips to America, including visits to the National Security Agency’s Fort Meade base in Maryland.

He is said to have played a key role in the world’s most sensitive electronic intelligence gathering system, linking satellites and super computers in Britain, the US and elsewhere. Murder squad detectives are trying to piece together a detailed picture of the last days of the spy’s life.

He was last seen alive on August 15 in London. Inquiries have include tracing the spy’s neighbours and previous tenants of the flat where he lived. Police are also understood to be asking about another GCHQ worker who used to live in the same house as the murdered man.

The First Post : MI6 murder: Who planted the gay contacts stories?

MI6 murder: Who planted the gay contacts stories?

Gareth Williams’s uncle points finger at the state - and there is a precedent

By Nigel Horne | August 30, 2010

The case of Gareth Williams, the murdered MI6 codebreaker, becomes curiouser and curiouser. The First Post was among the first to suggest that the 'evidence' pointing towards a homosexual and/or sadomasochistic murder might be a ruse, possibly planted by the killer to lead investigators astray.

Now it appears we were right to be suspicious - but that the misinformation might not be the work of the killer, as we suggested, but of the government, possibly MI6 itself.

Police who found Williams's body at his Pimlico flat have now made it clear that reports about the discovery of bondage gear, gay contact magazines and male escorts' phone numbers at the scene are quite wrong. No such things were found.

According to the Guardian, the officers described the killing as "a neat job", indicating a professional hit.

So who has been putting out the story that Williams might have been part of a London gay scene and was probably killed as a result?

Williams's uncle, William Hughes, says the dead man's family have been "furious" at the way the innuendo has been allowed to circulate. He believes that some agency of the government might be trying to discredit Williams by creating a smear campaign.

With that in mind, it is instructive to recall the case of another MI6 man, Jonathan Moyle, who died 20 years ago.

Moyle was the 28-year-old editor of the magazine Defence Helicopter World. He was found dead in a bedroom at the Carrera Hotel in Santiago in 1990. It later transpired that he had been employed by MI6 and was visiting the Chilean capital to investigate an arms dealer trying to sell helicopters to Saddam Hussein.

His body was found hanging inside his hotel room wardrobe with a padded noose around his neck. In other words, it looked like a sex game gone tragically wrong. Later, a Foreign Office official, believed to be an MI6 source, let it slip at a reception that Moyle had died accidentally while engaged in an auto-erotic act.

Just as Williams's parents don't believe a word of the stories circulating about their son, so Moyle's parents, Diana and Tony, were convinced their son's death scene was phony.

Diana Moyle, interviewed by the Mail on Sunday yesterday, says she spoke to her son on the phone 10 minutes before he is supposed to have died. "He was in good spirits even though he had just got back to discover his room had been ransacked and there were papers scattered everywhere".

Her husband Tony, a retired teacher who died three years ago, investigated his son's death and worked out that he had most likely been suffocated and injected with a lethal substance before being strung up in the wardrobe. According to the Mail on Sunday report, the same view was reached by a coroner who returned a verdict of unlawful killing.

Diana Moyle said yesterday: "My heart goes out to the family of Gareth Williams. Why should they have to hear such cruel untruths being spread about his death?

"Perhaps some would claim it was in the national interest. But we went through exactly the same thing when Jonathan was killed two decades ago. The pain which those lies caused me then and now is unbearable."

Mrs Moyle claims that the Foreign Office official who talked about her son's death at the reception had written to her and husband apologising for his claims which, he said, had been "overheard".

But, said Mrs Moyle, "I know that such things are not accidentally leaked. It is done deliberately."