The Journal [Ireland] : Couple sought over MI6 officer’s death may never be found, say police

Couple sought over MI6 officer’s death may never be found, say police

February 15, 2011

THE INQUEST THE DEATH of a MI6 officer Gareth Williams has heard that two people wanted in connection with the death have not come forward and are not likely to be traced, the BBC reports.

The body of Williams, 31, of Anglesey, North Wales, was found locked inside a large sports bag inside the bath of his London apartment in August 2010.

He lived in Pimlico, London, just yards from MI6 headquarters. A post-mortem failed to establish the cause of death.

Investigators had said there was no indication his death was due more to his private life than his professional one, though both have been considered and some 40 intelligence employees have been interviewed.

Williams’ work involved him travelling to the US a few times a year to visit the National Security Agency. His family described him as a mathematical genius and a very private person.

Today, the inquest was adjourned until the end of March, but the detective leading the investigation into Williams’ death acknowledged that it was becoming less and less likely that the wanted couple would be traced, according to the Telegraph.

The man and woman were seen at his London home before his death and are described as being a “Mediterranean” couple in their 20s.

Wired : Police Publish Images of Two Sought in Codebreaker’s Death

Police Publish Images of Two Sought in Codebreaker’s Death

By Kim Zetter | January 6, 2011

In an effort to identify two people who may be connected to the mysterious death of a top British codebreaker, authorities have published images of a man and woman who entered his apartment building weeks before his death.

Gareth Williams, 31, was found dead and naked in a North Face duffel bag in the bathtub of his flat last August. The sports bag was padlocked on the outside.

The two, said to be in their 20s and of Mediterranean appearance, were let in to Williams’ building by another tenant in late June or July. They told the tenant they had keys to Williams’ flat but indicated they knew him as Pier Paolo.

Williams, described by those who knew him as a “math genius,” worked for the U.K.’s 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 he died. The flat where he lived was part of a network of flats registered to an offshore front company and rented out to GCHQ workers.

Williams had been dead for at least a week when his body was found. 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. The keys to the padlock on the duffel bag were found inside the bag beneath Williams’ body.

The codebreaker reportedly had made repeated visits to the United States 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.

Investigators haven’t ruled out the possibility that Williams was killed over something related to his work but believe his death may have been related to his personal life. Investigators believe Pier Paolo was an alias Williams may have used that was borrowed from Pier Paolo Pasolini, a controversial Italian filmmaker who made films that included sexual violence. According to recent reports, Williams had accessed five bondage websites prior to his death.

Williams flew up to four times a year to the United States to the NSA’s headquarters at Fort Meade, according to the British paper 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 U.K. 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.”

Express : DEATH MYSTERY SPY GARETH WILLIAMS WAS TERROR PLOT HERO

DEATH MYSTERY SPY GARETH WILLIAMS WAS TERROR PLOT HERO

Gareth Williams helped thwart a Mumbai-style gun rampage in ­Britain

By Gordon Thomas and James Fielding | October 10, 2010

MI6 SPY Gareth Williams helped thwart a Mumbai-style gun rampage in ­Britain just weeks before his mystery death, the ­Sunday ­Express can reveal today.

The 31-year-old, whose body was found in a sports bag in his flat two months ago, uncovered the plot in a secret eavesdropping ­mission in Afghanistan.

He played a pivotal role in intercepting phone calls from British jihadists at a training camp before matching their voice prints to those on a data bank.

Details of the Al Qaeda threats emerged last weekend and involved coordinated gun massacres on the streets of London, Paris and Berlin. Transport hubs and landmarks such as Buckingham Palace, the Eiffel Tower and the Brandenburg Gate were all listed as potential targets.

Mr Williams made several trips to Afghanistan as one of a 10-strong team of specialists from GCHQ, the Government’s listening post and the NSA, the US equivalent.

He was “cherry-picked” for the job because of his specialist skills using voice analysis software. The codebreaker, on a year’s ­secondment to MI6 in ­London from GCHQ in Cheltenham, Gloucs, could identify ­accents picked up in phone conversations with terror suspects from the Midlands, Manchester and Rochdale, Lancashire.

He pinpointed at least one voice print to Pakistani-born Briton Abdul Jabbar, who was known to UK security services. Jabbar was killed in a US drone strike earlier this month after GCHQ alerted the US to his whereabouts.

Information gleaned by Mr Williams also led to the arrest of the ­suspected ringleader, Admed Sidiqi, captured in Kabul in July.

Sidiqi, a German ­national from Hamburg, is being held at a US airbase where he has provided details about the attacks.

Though Mr Williams helped save the lives of thousands in Europe, terror alerts are high.

A source said: “The professionalism and skill of operatives like ­Gareth helped to thwart a disaster but we don’t have a total ­insight into what is unfolding.

“We are still aware of ‘sleeper cells’ ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice.”

Up to 20 British-born militants are in the lawless border tribal lands between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Merchant News : FBI joins investigation of MI6 agent death

FBI joins investigation of MI6 agent death

by Tom Chiltton | September 26, 2010

The FBI is the latest government organisation to join the manhunt for the couple linked to an MI6 agent that was found dead in a London safe house.

Using face recognition technology, the US Federal Investigations Bureau will determine if MI6 spy Gareth Williams at any point traveled to the US with a couple that fits the description of the two individuals being sought after by Scotland Yard. The couple, described as Mediterranean in appearance, is believed to have visited Williams’ flat in June or July.

Scotland Yard has, so far, not been able to locate the couple, but detectives maintain that they are vital to the ongoing inquiry. Williams’, a maths prodigy, made frequent trips to the US to the US National Security Agency in Maryland working on secondment. Williams arrived back in London from Washington on Tuesday 10 August and his body was found in his flat on 23 August. On the 15th of August, Williams was caught on camera shopping at Harrods. The MI6 agent’s funeral was held Friday and attended by MI6 head Sir John Sawers.

FBI agents have searched the flat that Williams used while working at the NSA in the States and have interviewed several of his colleagues. They have also taken steps to investigate whether or not the couple could be linked to Williams small group of friends in the States. According to US intelligence sources, so far nothing compromising has been turned up during the investigation.

Williams was a key player in a joint team operation put together by MI6, NSA and GCHQ. He was working on defence schemes for cyber attacks for both Britain and the US at the time of his death. According to one source, Williams clearance was so high, he had access to more than 30 different categories of NSA information.

Independent : The enigma of a code-breaker's death

The enigma of a code-breaker's death

The reputation of a brilliant man who served his country will be for ever tainted by the failure to explain his demise

By David Randall | September 26, 2010

On Friday, in the Bethel Methodist Chapel in Angelsey, the funeral was held of Gareth Williams. In life, he was a mathematician and an encryption specialist so highly regarded that he was seconded from GCHQ in Cheltenham to work at MI6 in London. In death, he is an enigma, an infuriating mystery for most of us, a deeply upsetting puzzle to his parents; for, though his body is now laid to rest, the questions about the bizarre way he met his end show no sign of being buried. Yesterday brought another theory, something this saga has attracted as a September orchard does wasps.

The facts are these. Gareth Williams was 31, studied mathematics at Cambridge, was recruited by the government's listening and monitoring operation in Gloucestershire, and was lent for a year to MI6. He moved to London last September, lived in a five-storey security services safe house at 36 Alderney Street, Pimlico, worked on matters such as computer security involving the City, and led, as far as police can tell, a rather introverted existence – no known partners or lovers, and little socialising. His only enthusiasm beyond his work seems to have been cycling.

Last month, he took a holiday. He went to the United States, returned on 11 August, and was last seen alive on CCTV at Holland Park Tube station on 14 August, and shopping near Harrods the following day. Eight days later, when he failed to appear back at work, colleagues raised the alarm, and officers went to his home. His flat seemed undisturbed and unoccupied, but in the bath they found a red, outsized, zipped and padlocked North Face holdall. Inside were the decaying remains of Mr Williams. His body (he was 5ft 8in tall) was naked, curled up tightly, with his arms and legs contorted behind him. The bag had 140 litres of storage capacity, and was double-stitched. The flat's direct telephone link to MI6 had not been used, and its front door had been locked from the outside.

Subsequent tests have established that Mr Williams had not been drugged by any known substances and had not taken drink, and his body, the apartment and holdall showed no signs of a struggle. There were no scratches or bruises on his body. Initial examinations indicate that he died of suffocation, with dehydration contributing, but confirmation of this will have to wait for the results of two post-mortems, due in a fortnight's time.

As if these facts were not riddle or sensational enough in themselves, the speculation – by "sources" real or imagined, online or off – has added further layers of weirdness. Into the vacuum created by no swift explanation has rushed a large quantity of hot air and now discredited or denied theorising. He was a sado-masochist ("more James Bondage than James Bond", as The West Australian leeringly put it) with a flat full of porn and restraint equipment. Not true, say police. He had 12 gay lovers. Wrong again on several levels, apparently. He was poisoned "by a foreign power" or "terrorist group" (he had worked, briefly, on systems in both Northern Ireland and Afghanistan), possibly by being injected with polonium, the substance that did for Alexander Litvinenko. There is no evidence for this, either.

What has some credibility is the latest idea, floated by yesterday's Daily Mail, that "MI6 spook did not die alone". This was an answer to the stories that Mr Williams died as a result of a hazardous sex game, a form of auto-eroticism that involved him being able to confine himself in the holdall and then somehow close the zip and secure the padlock. A woman police officer had, according to previous reports emanating from the Mail group and others, re-enacted this scenario to a fully padlocked conclusion.

This theory, which left the locking of the front door from the outside somewhat unexplained, was now, however, pooh-poohed, and, according to the Mail, "He was padlocked into the bag by someone else... and was alive when he got into – or was forced into – the bag." Yet the sex game idea was not entirely abandoned, as it was now speculated that he may have been shut in the bag, his assistant (or assistants) locking it before departing the flat; they were due to return to release him but miscalculated and found him dead when they came back.

This line of thought, outré though it sounds, does lead back to the remaining known facts about Mr Williams' life in London. Both of them involve his association with a couple who have yet to be traced. It has been established, for instance, that, twice a week over a period of a few months, Mr Williams had gone to the Patisserie Valerie in Holland Park, ordered an americano and waited. After a while, a couple would appear, order nothing, talk to Mr Wiliams for some minutes and then leave. Then there is a couple, described as "of Mediterranean appearance" (which the couple in the café were not, eye-witnesses say), who had a key, or at least ready access to Mr Williams' MI6 flat. Neighbours say that this pair did not, as far as they casually observed, need to be "buzzed up" to the flat by Mr Williams.

And so the mystery now lies, doomed – unless clarity is achieved soon – to churn for ever in the articles and websites of conspiracy theorists, leaving the name and reputation of a brilliant man in the service of his country tainted by the failure to explain his death adequately.

Telegraph : FBI joins investigation into MI6 spy's death

FBI joins investigation into MI6 spy's death

By Gordon Thomas and Patrick Sawer | September 25, 2010

The FBI has joined the hunt for the mystery 'Mediterranean' couple linked to the death of the MI6 spy found dead in his London safe house.

The bureau has employed face recognition technology at US airports in a bid to establish whether Gareth Williams travelled in and out of the US any stage with a couple answering the description of two people Scotland Yard have appealed to come forward in connection with his death.

The couple, of 'Mediterranean' appearance, were thought to have visited Mr Williams's flat in Pimlico sometime in June or July. Scotland Yard believes the pair, in their thirties, were known to Mr Williams since neighbours do not recall buzzing them into the address.

So far no trace of the couple has been found and detectives believe they could be significant to the inquiry.

Mr Williams, a computing and maths prodigy whose funeral on Friday was attended by Sir John Sawers, the head of MI6, had made regular trips to the United States, where he worked on secondment to the US National Security Agency (NSA) in Fort Meade, Maryland, helping to create defences against cyberattack on banking and infrastructure systems.

His last trip back to London from Washington was on Tuesday, August 10, following a holiday in the US. On August 15 CCTV showed him shopping at Harrods, eight days before his body was found at his flat in Pimlico.

The Sunday Telegraph understands that FBI agents have questioned baggage handlers at Washington's Dulles International Airport. None of them recall loading a large North Face holdall of the type in which Mr Williams's decomposing body was later discovered in the bath of his flat.

CCTV camera tapes at the airport have been subjected to FBI "Face Recognition" analysis to establish if Mr Williams arrived alone for his departure flight – or whether he was at any stage accompanied by the Mediterranean looking man and woman being sought by the Metropolitan Police.

Agents have also searched an apartment in the US used by Mr Williams close to the offices of the NSA, in a bid to establish if his death presents a threat to their own national security.

The 31-year-old, who had been on secondment to MI6 from the GCHQ listening centre in Cheltenham for a year, is understood to have lived in the flat while working at the NSA.

Agents have also interviewed a number of Mr Williams's colleagues and associates in the US in their attempt to discover if security has been disrupted by his death. The FBI has also checked with Internal Security at the NSA to see if the description of the couple fitted any of the small circle of friends which Williams had developed while working there.

Given his known enthusiasm for cycling the FBI has made checks along the trails through the popular Appalachian Mountains close to Washington, to see if Mr Williams had rented a bicycle in the area or travelled there during his visits.

Intelligence sources say nothing compromising has been found during either the search or the interviews, however the revelations have focused attention on Mr Williams's work in the US and his links to American security agencies.

Mr Williams is understood to have been a key member of a joint team assembled by MI6, GCHQ and the NSA at Fort Meade, where he was helping create defences for both Britain and the US against cyber attack by hostile countries.

He was given his own work station, equipped with a supercomputer with a secure link to GCHQ and MI6.

According to an intelligence source "his clearance was so high that he had access to over 30 categories of information which NSA had gathered". From Fort Meade he would also visit the Pentagon, the headquarters of the US Department of Defence.

Harry Ferguson, a former MI6 officer, said Mr Williams would have been a high-value asset if he had been recruited by a foreign agency.

It is understood that his remit at the NSA was to develop new defences that he would introduce to his post at GCHQ's Office of Cyber Security (OCS) on his return.

The FBI declined to confirm or deny whether its agents had searched Mr Williams's apartment. A spokesman at its Baltimore office, which covers the State of Maryland, said: "We don't discuss ongoing investigations."

Mr Williams's body was found in a state of advanced decomposition in the large North Face holdall, which had been padlocked from the outside and left in the bath of his flat at 23 Alderney Street, on August 23. Detectives have played down speculation that Mr Williams could have closed the padlock around the two zip handles from inside the bag. Officers are understood to believe someone else was involved in the death.

Two separate autopsies have failed to establish the cause of death and tests for other rare toxins which may evade initial examination continued last week on Mr Williams's body. A Home Office pathologist has already established that he was not stabbed, shot or strangled.

The continuing mystery over Mr Williams's death – along with the speculation, often lurid, surrounding it – has made it difficult for his parents Ian and Ellen to come to terms with the loss of their son. Mr and Mrs Williams, along with his sister Ceri, led mourners at his funeral at the Bethel Methodist Chapel in Anglesey before retreating their home in the village of Valley, overlooking the Irish Sea.

Mr Williams's uncle, William Hughes, a farmer and Plaid Cymru county councillor, said: "It's very tough for them at the moment. They are struggling to come to terms with what has happened. The fact no one yet seems to know how or why Gareth died makes it very difficult. He was a wonderful boy and Ian and Ellen were very proud of him."

Daily Mail : Spy's family demand the truth: Relatives of dead MI6 man demand body for independent tests

Spy's family demand the truth: Relatives of dead MI6 man demand body for independent tests

By Sam Greenhill and Charlotte Gill | September 10, 2010

The family of murdered MI6 spy Gareth Williams have demanded his body back, it emerged last night.

They would like to commission their own post-mortem examination, it is understood.

It is a clear sign they are rapidly running out of patience with the police investigation into his death.

The coroner in charge of the case has consistently refused to release the codebreaker's body because detectives have still to discover exactly how he died.

But this delay is infuriating the brilliant mathematician's relatives in North Wales.

They have not been able to hold a funeral and are equally unhappy about the apparent lack of progress into explaining what happened to the 31-year-old.

Yesterday a source close to the family said: 'It is becoming very frustrating trying to get to the bottom of whatever has happened. 'There are just so many things we still don't know.

'We have made it clear to the police that we want the body back as soon as possible.'

It is more than three weeks since detectives began investigating the murder.

Mr Williams's naked body was found in a sports bag in the bath of his top-floor London flat near MI6 headquarters on August 23.

There were no obvious signs of an intruder or clues to how he died and it was later revealed the bag had been padlocked.

Police have announced that the first postmortem examination, carried out two days after Mr Williams's body was found, and toxicology tests were inconclusive.

There was no outward sign that he met a violent death and there was no trace of drugs or alcohol in his blood.

Intriguingly, a further 'examination of the body' was undertaken last week but investigators have refused to reveal why the procedure was carried out or what it revealed.

Pathologists have been searching for signs of whether a rare drug or poison was used.

Last Monday, in their first public appeal, police announced they were seeking a man and a woman, both of Mediterranean appearance, who called at No. 36 Alderney Street in June or July, late one evening, and were let into the communal front door.

Yesterday police renewed their appeal, saying: 'They are yet to contact police and officers are still keen for this couple to come forward.'

On Wednesday the coroner, Dr Paul Knapman, and detectives met behind closed doors to discuss the progress of the case.

Mystery surrounds what was discussed and no announcement has been made for when the next hearing will take place.

But it is known a decision was taken not to release the body to the family. A security source revealed: 'The family are not happy with the way it was going. All their questions are basically being met with one of two answers: that the information is unknown or not disclosable.

'Eventually, they said that if they were not going to be given answers, then they wanted to have his body back.

'They wanted to have their own tests carried out.'

The source said the family was considering paying for an independent pathologist to conduct an examination.

Detectives are struggling to piece together what happened to Mr Williams between the last time he was seen, captured on CCTV on August 15 shopping at Harrods, and eight days later when he was found.

Uniformed officers discovered his body that afternoon after being alerted by friends, family and MI6 that he was missing and not responding to calls.

Mr Williams worked for the Government's eavesdropping service GCHQ. He was an expert on ciphers and had been on a secondment to MI6 in London.

He had just returned from the U.S, where police said he had been on holiday, coming back to Britain on August 11.

Mr Williams lived for his job and was a cycling fanatic, regularly riding with his father around Anglesey and in local competitions with his club.

His parents, Ian, an engineer at Wylfa power station, and Ellen, who worked in education, live in a bungalow in Holyhead, Anglesey.

They have been horrified at unsavoury claims about their bachelor son's supposedly wild homosexual lifestyle.

They feared lurid allegations surrounding his private life, since denied, were planted as part of a 'dirty tricks' campaign.

Last night Scotland Yard said: 'We have got a family liaison officer working very closely with the family.'

San Francisco Examiner : Was British code-breaker assassinated?

Was British code-breaker assassinated?

By Barbara Hollingsworth, Local Opinion Editor | September 10, 2010

Jeff Stein, the Washington Post’s SpyTalk blogger, says that unnamed “U.S. intelligence officials” have downplayed the possibility that British code-breaker Gareth Williams – who worked closely with the U.S. National Security Agency at Fort Meade and American intelligence officials in Kabul – was assassinated.

But back in London, where the naked, decomposing body of the 31-year-old “math genius” was found August 23 in a padlocked duffel bag in the bathroom of an apartment kept as a “safe house” by Britain’s M16, police are not so sure. “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,” according to the Daily Telegraph.

Williams was “on loan” to M16 from Britain’s top-secret Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), and reportedly played a “key role” overseeing Echelon, a secret electronic network that links satellites and super computers in Britain, the U.S. and other Western allies that eavesdrop on terrorist networks.

There was no sign of forced entry at the Cambridge-educated mathematician’s Pimlico address. William Hughes said his nephew had recently returned from a summer visit to the U.S. (presumably to NSA). And according to the Daily Mail, investigators were also looking for Williams’ personally configured laptop, which is reportedly still missing.

Misinformation released at the time Williams’ body was discovered, including initial rumors that he had been stabbed, were later refuted. British officials also backed away from earlier reports that “bondage gear, gay contact magazines and male escorts’ phone numbers” were found at the scene.

The cause of death has still not been established. Toxicology tests found no alcohol or recreational drugs in Williams’ system. Scotland Yard called the death “suspicious and unexplained,” and announced it was looking for a “young Mediterranean couple” who visited Williams a month or two ago, but haven’t been seen since.

Detective Chief Inspector Jacqueline Sebire of London’s Homicide and Serious Crime Command, who is leading the investigation into Williams’ murder, told reporters: “This remains a complex unexplained death enquiry.”

So ruling out the possibility that Williams was assassinated by a foreign intelligence agency would seem to be slightly premature.

Newsweek (blog) : Mystery Surrounding Death of U.K. Code Breaker Deepens

Mystery Surrounding Death of U.K. Code Breaker Deepens

by Mark Hosenball | September 7, 2010

A statement released by Scotland Yard on Monday and posted on the website of the London Metropolitan Police Service reveals more details about the peculiar death of Gareth Williams, a 31-year-old mathematics wizard who worked for Britain's electronic eavesdropping agency, Government Communication Headquarters, but sheds no light on possible causes. Officials on both sides of the Atlantic acknowledge that at the moment, they have no hard information—and no real leads—to explain the bizarre circumstances in which Williams' body was found late last month in an apartment not far from the headquarters of MI-6, Britain's foreign intelligence service, where he for the last year had been on temporary assignment.

The statement describes how Williams' body was discovered by uniformed London bobbies in his apartment—possibly an MI-6 "safe house," depending upon which British media account you believe—in the posh Pimlico neighborhood about half a mile from MI-6 on Aug. 23. The police account describes the exceptionally strange circumstances in which the body was discovered: He was "found unclothed, in a zipped and padlocked red North Face holdall which was in an empty bath," Scotland Yard said.

The police account notes that there was no sign of forced entry into the apartment, "and no signs of disturbance inside. …We do not believe there is any property missing from the flat. There is no suggestion the items within the flat were specifically posed. No drugs, or indications of drug usage were recovered."

The police statement also notes that an autopsy conducted on Aug. 25 "established no obvious cause of death." The police account says that extensive forensic examinations of the Pimlico apartment and of samples taken from Williams' body during the autopsy continue, but adds that "Initial indications from the toxicology examinations show no trace of any alcohol or routine or recreational drugs."

In the statement, the police say they have confirmed that Williams, who had been on a "planned holiday in the U.S.," had returned to London on Aug. 11; video from London's wide-ranging closed-circuit video surveillance network shows him shopping after his return in well-known London retail districts. Police say they are appealing to the public for information to help identify a man and a woman who turned up late one evening at Williams' building on an unspecified day in June or July. The cops say that the couple, who were admitted to the building through the "communal front door," were between 20 and 30 years old and were both of "Mediterranean appearance." But the statement offers no other clues as to their identity, nor any further indication as to what, if any, evidence the authorities might have to link them to the dead man.

British media have been gorging themselves on ever more baroque theories about what's behind the case. A story in the Daily Mail, one of London's most aggressive tabloids, offers a menu of conflicting speculations for possible perpetrators, ranging from Islamic or Irish terrorists to Russian spies or some sinister connection to Williams' personal life. Following the widespread publication of pictures showing a svelte Williams in a tight-fitting cycling uniform, some stories suggested a possible connection with London's gay scene, noting that at least one of London's best-known gay bars was located not far from MI-6 headquarters on the South Bank of the river Thames. Williams' family has denied that he was gay.

Among the few undisputed issues in the case are certain basic facts about Williams' background. Most accounts describe him as a youthful mathematics expert and keen cyclist who was permanently assigned to GCHQ, Britain's version of the American code breaking and eavesdropping National Security Agency, but who was just about to complete a one-year temporary assignment at MI-6 headquarters in South London.

Some accounts suggest that as part of his work for GCHQ, he made periodic trips to the headquarters of both the CIA and NSA, and that the American agencies were deeply concerned about his death. However, U.S. officials have denied British media reports that the CIA is now investigating the case, and there is little indication that the FBI or the U.S. Justice Department are in any way involved. (As is its customary practice, the N.S.A. declined to offer any comment on the case.)

Apart from the latest police statement confirming that before his death, Williams had been on vacation in the U.S., there is no confirmation that he ever paid visits—official or unofficial—to any U.S. intelligence headquarters. Moreover, several U.S. officials who should have been briefed if there was any concern inside U.S. agencies that Williams' death somehow involved the compromise of U.S. or U.K. spy secrets say that they have been given no information about the case whatsoever. Knowledgeable officials on both sides of the Atlantic do stress, however, that at this point, whatever mysteries the case does appear to present, there is no evidence that Williams was involved with a spy unit other than the British agencies that employed him, and therefore no evidence suggesting he was a double agent.

Washington Post (blog) : Gareth Williams probe focuses on mystery couple

Gareth Williams probe focuses on mystery couple

By Jeff Stein | September 7, 2010

London police, still stumped by the bizarre death of British code-breaker Gareth Williams last month, are looking for a young couple "of Mediterranean appearance" who were recorded by security cameras while visiting his building late at night in the weeks or months before he died, according to local reports.

Police have also been studying tapes from London’s closed-circuit security cameras that reportedly recorded Williams shopping in London’s fashionable Sloane district in the days before his decomposing body was discovered in an athletic bag in his apartment.

An autopsy discovered no drugs or alcohol in his system, said police, who were also investigating whether anyone made a duplicate of Williams’s keys.

An expert on the National Security Agency, meanwhile, speculated that Williams was working for the Special Projects Activity, a little-known clandestine unit buried deep in the U.K.’s General Communications Headquarters, Britain’s equivalent of the NSA.

The SPA and its American equivalent, a joint CIA-NSA operation known as the Special Collection Service, conduct ultra-sensitive operations against foreign targets from U.S. and allied embassies abroad.

Williams, a “gifted mathematician,” according to news reports, frequently visited NSA headquarters at Ft. Meade.

“All the people I talk to say Williams was probably involved in what is referred to in the intelligence trade as ‘technical operations,’ which is a broad cover-all term which generically refers to clandestine signal intelligence or telephone tapping, things like that," Matthew M. Aid, author of "The Secret Sentry: The Untold History of the National Security Agency," said in a telephone interview.

“The targets of the clandestine special collection units include the cell phone communications of (foreign) government ministers, police officials, military commanders (and) … security teams that are following (our) intelligence agents around the city,” added Aid, a onetime Russian linguist with the NSA’s Air Force branch.

The synergy of American and British eavesdroppers, Aid and other NSA historians say, is particularly valuable to U.S. intelligence, if only because the U.K. (and other English-speaking allies, such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand) have embassies -- and thus listening platforms -- where Washington doesn’t, such as in Iran and North Korea.

The NSA supplies the allies with advanced interception and code-breaking equipment, they say, and gets to share the take in return.

Telegraph : MI6 spy Gareth Williams murder: police probe poisoning theory

MI6 spy Gareth Williams murder: police probe poisoning theory

Richard Edwards and Duncan Gardham | September 6, 2010

A mystery "Mediterranean” couple are being hunted by police over the suspected murder of Gareth Williams, the British spy, while inquiries focus on whether he was poisoned at his London home.

As Scotland Yard yesterday made the first detailed appeal about the death of the MI6 worker, speculation grew that he was the victim of a professional hit which left no trace of how he was killed.

Detectives believe that poisoning is now a most likely cause of death and are carrying out further tests for toxic substances, after almost all other possibilities were ruled out.

There was no evidence of a struggle at the Pimlico flat where the naked body of the 31-year-old was found inside a padlocked bag in his bath, no signs of a break in and police said that nothing was taken.

However detectives are trying to trace an unidentified man and woman, described as being of Mediterranean appearance and aged between 20-30, who visited the house late at night in the weeks or months before Mr Williams died.

They are the only people unaccounted for who have been seen recently at the property in Alderney Street. Neighbours told police they were let into the communal front door, late one evening, either in June or July.

It is believed they were visiting Mr Williams, but on one has been able to shed any light on their identity. Detectives want them to come forward to eliminate them from the inquiry.

Separately, police are also investigating whether a second key was cut for the apartment.

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan police disclosed the last known images of the spy, captured on CCTV, as he shopped in Harrods and central London.

After drawing a blank from their own inquiries during the past fortnight, detectives yesterday asked the public to help over the death of Mr Williams, who was at the end of a secondment to MI6 from GCHQ, the Government listening post.

But the appeal only furthered the mystery surrounding a case which detectives admit has left them “baffled”.

CCTV images released yesterday, revealing the spy's last known movements, appeared to show him walking around London in a carefree and relaxed manner.

He was captured on successive days the weekend before his death wearing the same clothes – a red T-shirt, beige trousers and white trainers – as he wandered around the West End and Knightsbridge.

He was also seen catching a Tube in Holland Park, west London. Police are unclear as to why he visited that area, but believe he stayed at his own home and not at a friends.

The last CCTV sighting of Mr Williams is on Sunday, August 15, when he went into Harrods and walked towards Sloane Street, near the Dolce and Gabbana store.

Eight days later, when he failed to turn up for his first day back from holiday on August 23, police went round to his home at 36 Alderney Street.

Inside the neat flat, officers discovered the 31-year-old's naked body, zipped and padlocked into a red North Face bag in his ensuite bathroom. There was no water or other liquid in the bath.

Although Mr Williams was unclothed, it is believed the items he was wearing on the day he died had not been removed from the scene.

Contrary to early reports, his mobile phone sim cards were not laid out in any sort of “ritualistic” way.

Lurid suggestions that bondage equipment was found, that the victim had links to male escorts or was a cross-dresser have all been dismissed as “complete garbage” by police sources.

The Met said yesterday: “There was no sign of any forced entry to the property, and no signs of disturbance inside. We do not believe there is any property missing from the flat. There is no suggestion the items within the flat were specifically posed. No drugs, or indications of drug usage were recovered.”

The greatest mystery, however, surrounds the “fit and strong” young man died.

A first post mortem was inconclusive. A further examination found no marks around his neck or elsewhere on his body to suggest he was smothered or asphyxiated.

Toxicology tests have no found no evidence of recreational drugs in his body, such as alcohol, cocaine or heroin, or other basic drugs. Tests are being run into a range of other possible poisons, such as strychnine.

Asphyxiation remains an option but sources said it was difficult to kill someone by such means without leaving bruises.

Detectives drew a blank after probing all friends and associates of the Cambridge-educated mathematician, who was described as a loner with few social contacts even among his work colleagues. This may have contributed to his body lying undiscovered for up to eight days.

The only people now unexplained and unaccounted for in the inquiries are the “Mediterranean” couple.

There are suggestions Mr Williams may have been “hit” by a foreign spy agency.

One source said that although assassination was a possibility, it was only one of several, and they still believe the “reality may be more mundane”.

Reports that Mr Williams was a high-flyer who secretly oversaw top secret Transatlantic projects have been played down and his role at GCHQ was that of a "middleranking civil servant".

It is believed he was due to return Cheltenham to join a unit fighting cyber-crime, especially hackers targeting banks. Police are reluctant even to describe the cipher expert as a spy, or even to confirm he died as a result of a murder, and still consider it an “unexplained death”.

Det Chf Insp Jacqueline Sebire, who is leading the investigation, said: "I would appeal to anyone who may have seen, or had contact with Gareth in the period between 11th and 23rd August to come forward and speak with us at the Incident Room on 0208 358 0200, or to remain anonymous Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

"This remains a complex unexplained death enquiry."

Express : MURDERED SPY GARETH WILLIAMS ‘WAS BEING TAILED’

MURDERED SPY GARETH WILLIAMS ‘WAS BEING TAILED’

By James Murray | September 5, 2010

MURDERED spy Gareth Williams feared he was being followed by two men and told bosses at MI6 he thought he was being targeted by foreign agents.

His superiors were not convinced, however, and took no action to discover the identity of the men, said to be white and in their 40s.

Superfit cyclist Mr Williams, 31, also raised his concerns with officials at GCHQ, the Government’s communications headquarters.

He had been on secondment to M16 from GCHQ when he was found dead inside a padlocked sports bag in the bath of his flat in Pimlico, west London, on August 23. There were no signs of forced entry. The sensational new claims come from a source close to the investigation.

Scotland Yard and GCHQ declined to comment yesterday, saying they would not confirm or deny the allegations.

The source said: “About six months ago Mr Williams complained to people at M16 that he thought he was being followed.

“He said he kept seeing the individuals near his home, at bus stops and hanging around shops where he was staying. He was told they could just be local people, but he felt there was more to it.

“He became frustrated by the response from the people at M16 and so he raised it with his colleagues at GCHQ. He was concerned that people at M16 were not taking his claims seriously.”

Scotland Yard detectives are now going through hours of CCTV footage from the Pimlico area to see if they can spot the men Mr Williams thought were tailing him. However, if Mr Williams was being trailed by foreign spies it is likely they would have taken steps to ensure they were not caught on CCTV.

Daily Mail : Was body of MI6 spy submerged in mystery fluid to speed up decay?

Was body of MI6 spy submerged in mystery fluid to speed up decay?

By Abul Taher and Ian Gallagher | September 5, 2010

The policeman who found the body of MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams said it was submerged in ‘fluid’, The Mail on Sunday has learned.

An inquest heard last week that the 31-year-old spy was padlocked in a sports hold-all and left in the bath of his two-bedroom flat in Pimlico, Central London.

But the disclosure that he was also covered by liquid – not thought to be blood or water – has raised fears that a substance was used to accelerate decay and complicate toxicology tests.

The revelation came as new details emerged of the highly sensitive nature of Mr Williams’s work.

A source said he had the highest security clearance available to an intelligence officer and was part of a secretive ‘cell’ that created devices that can steal data from mobiles and laptops.

Now, nearly two weeks after cycling enthusiast Mr Williams was found in his flat, police are apparently no nearer to learning how or when he died.

This is despite a post-mortem, a second examination and toxicology tests, the results of which might not be available for weeks.

Sources close to the inquiry say the PC who found the body described it as being in ‘fluid’ when he radioed for assistance. Detectives at the scene are understood to have used the same word in their reports.

Immediately after making the discovery at the flat, the PC said: ‘This is a murder scene.’

Mr Williams, from Anglesey, North Wales, worked as a cipher and codes expert for the Government’s eavesdropping centre GCHQ in Cheltenham.

He was on a year-long secondment to MI6 which was due to end days after he was found dead.

Police and security sources have indicated that the explanation for his death is more likely to be found in his personal life rather than his work.

But speculation that he was the victim of a professional ‘hit’ was given credence last night after further details of his work were disclosed.

‘He was involved in some very sensitive projects, known as codeword protected,’ said a security expert.

‘This meant that only the people in his cell would know what he was working on, and nobody else in his organisation.

‘You are signed in to these projects and once you finish one you are signed out and you no longer have access to any data or news about what is happening in the project.’

Mr Williams – a child prodigy who had a degree in maths at 17 and then a PhD in the subject – was part of a team that created devices which ‘hook’ on to mobiles and laptops.

‘It is an aggressive form of Bluetooth or similar wireless technology,’ said the security expert.

He said such devices would be used by spies on the ground to steal data from the handsets of unsuspecting terrorists, organised criminals or officers from rival intelligence agencies.

‘Traditionally, there has been a separation of MI6 and GCHQ,’ said the expert. ‘MI6 has been full of the James Bond types working on the ground and GCHQ is filled with boffins with beards who are doing their scientific stuff.

‘But recently there has been a merger of these agencies’ work and Williams was at the forefront of that. This was why he was on secondment to MI6.’

He added that Mr Williams did similar work when he had stints at the National Security Agency in America.

The NSA is the equivalent of GCHQ and has been leading the West’s attempts to intercept communication between Al Qaeda cells.

Mr Williams worked for the Special Delivery Team, a unit set up in the NSA to create advanced bugging and intercepting devices.

‘If you just look at Williams’s CV, you know he has worked in some of the most important data-mining centres in the UK and US. His salary is no indication of his rank,’ said the expert.

It has also emerged that before his secondment to MI6, Mr Williams worked briefly for MI5, the domestic security agency. As part of that work, he was sent to Bulgaria on a secret mission.

A source close to the investigation said that on August 23 police were asked to check on Mr Williams’s flat as he had not shown up for work. Just before 6pm, a PC went to the Georgian townhouse in Alderney Street, which has been converted into four flats on four floors. Mr Williams had the top one.

The PC could not get into the house so the letting agent, W.  A. Ellis, was called and a woman employee arrived with keys.

She hovered at Mr Williams’s door as the PC went inside. Within minutes he emerged quickly from the en suite bathroom and escorted the woman back downstairs. He then told her: ‘You stay here. This is now a murder scene.’

This weekend, staff at W. A. Ellis, of Knightsbridge, refused to confirm details. A spokeswoman said: ‘36 Alderney Street is owned by a private company, New Rodina.

‘There has been speculation that it is linked to MI6 or that it is a front for MI6. Our clients do not have any links to MI6 whatsoever and are distressed by the death of Mr Williams.’

Daily Mail : A secret stalker. Witnesses who won't talk... but the most tantalising question of all is... Who's got the spy-in-the-bag's missing laptop?

A secret stalker. Witnesses who won't talk... but the most tantalising question of all is... Who's got the spy-in-the-bag's missing laptop?

By Sue Reid | September 3, 2010

Number 36 Alderney Street stands in a terrace of tall white houses with gleaming door knockers at the heart of a London enclave the posh estate agents call ‘alpha territory’.

The Queen’s cousin lives down the road of million-pound homes and for 30 years Mimmo d’Ischia, a nearby Italian eaterie, has been a favourite of the Duchess of Cornwall and film stars Joan Collins and Anthony Hopkins.

Even this week, after the strange murder at Number 36 of young British spy Gareth Williams, there is little to show much has changed.

Nothing, that is, apart from the frantic comings and goings by men in suits from the British secret service, MI6, and detectives from Scotland Yard.

The house is where the decomposing body of Mr Williams, padlocked into a sports holdall and thrown into the bath of his top-floor flat, was discovered by police at 6.30 on the evening of Monday, August 23.

The maths genius, loner and cycling fanatic had not turned up for work as a cipher and codes expert at the headquarters of MI6, half a mile from Alderney Street, on the banks of the Thames at Vauxhall.

Today, the mystery over his death is deepening. Was he killed because of his professional life or his private one? Was it an impromptu killing or one that was planned?

Did he die in the top-floor flat after letting in his own killer? Or was he murdered elsewhere by someone who stole his flat keys, before carrying him back and dumping him?

Is it possible that despite his reputation for clean living, an aspect of his private life has led the young spy into danger? Scotland Yard has not ruled out that a woman, or indeed a man, may have been at his flat in the hours before his death. Was she or he invited there to play a sex game that went wrong?

It is, of course, just another question that needs to be answered about the spy who was ‘on loan’ to MI6 from UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the country’s top-secret listening post in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

When Mr Williams’s gruesome death first became public knowledge, there were lurid and unproven rumours about his private affairs.

Speculation that ‘bondage equipment and gay paraphernalia’ had been found at the flat was later dismissed as ‘garbage’ by Scotland Yard.

His parents, Ian and Ellen, who live in a bungalow in Holyhead, Anglesey, were horrified at the unsavoury claims about their bachelor son’s supposedly wild homosexual lifestyle.

The family insist he lived an exemplary existence and was not gay. A friend of Mr Williams said that the spy was ‘asexual’, and showed little interest in having a relationship with a man or a woman.

A first post-mortem failed to find the cause of his death. A second examination of his body took place a few days ago to unravel if he was drugged, poisoned or smothered. The results of this are still being analysed.

Yet, in a worrying twist, the Mail understands that a turf war has broken out between the police and MI6, with some police officers ­complaining that the spooks are ­hindering their investigation into the spy’s death.

The Mail has learned from sources close to the investigation that Mr Williams informed MI6 that he believed he was being followed in the months before his death, though murder squad detectives say they have not been told this.

This suggests that every aspect of his life at work and at home should be put under the microscope. However, there is frustration at Scotland Yard that the ‘security concerns’ of MI6 are stopping this wide-sweep inquiry happening.

Police attempts to quiz two spies still working at GCHQ who knew Mr Williams well have been unsuccessful and some detectives suspect they have been ‘blocked’ by both MI6 and GCHQ. It is also understood the murder squad was unable to get to one of his closest friends, a former GCHQ spy.

The man lived at the Alderney Street safe house in 2005 and visited there earlier this year. ‘He knows the day-to-day movements of Mr Williams and that is why he is important,’ added our source.

Scotland Yard murder detectives were this week also waiting to quiz another former GCHQ employee, who suddenly moved to America from Cheltenham six weeks ago and is said to be a ‘best friend’ of the dead codebreaker.

There is also friction between MI6 and GCHQ over the level of protection given to Mr Williams while on his London secondment. ‘Some people feel that he was sent to MI6 on secondment as a goodwill gesture and the intelligence service then “lost” GCHQ’s man,’ said a source.

It is a troubling backdrop to any major murder investigation, especially one into an expert codebreaker who was playing a significant role in protecting Britain.

Meanwhile, the Mail has learned of intriguing riddles about his death. The spy’s brain showed no signs of bruising, indicating he was not knocked unconscious before he died.

This has led to speculation that he may have been killed with a tiny injection of poison, possibly through his inner ear. If so, the needle mark would be almost invisible to the naked eye.

Another riddle is that Mr Williams’s personal computer is thought to be missing. He had designed the small machine to his own specifications and it ‘cannot be found’, the Mail has been told.

The laptop, which Scotland Yard refuses to officially confirm is missing, is crucial to the investigation. It could be a vital window on Mr Williams’s private life, his innermost thoughts, any transfers to and from his online bank account and would reveal if he had money problems.

Importantly, it will help trace his movements between the time he was last seen alive, on August 15, and the discovery of his body eight days later in his flat, where there was no sign of a break-in.

This will help pinpoint the time of his death, which is essential to finding a killer. Mr Williams’s bank and credit cards were used during these crucial eight days.

Troublingly, because it is not known when he died, it has been impossible to discover if they were used by him, or someone who had stolen them from him and was involved in his murder.

In a further conundrum, one of the first police officers who entered the flat after Mr Williams was ­discovered dead saw some white powder on several surfaces in the kitchen and living room. Although this could prove innocent, the ­powder is being tested in case it is cocaine or another drug.

In particular, some Scotland Yard detectives believe a public appeal for sightings of Mr Williams in the missing days before his death is essential to solve the murder mystery.

It would involve the release of more photographs and details about his lifestyle, but it is understood to have been ruled out by MI6, which is worried that terrorists might use the information to identify other British spies and their own secrets.

It all sounds disturbingly similar to the case of 28-year-old journalist 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 — ostensibly for his British defence magazine — which was modifying helicopters, possibly to carry nuclear weapons, to sell to the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

But his friends and family believe security sources planted the ­suggestion that he had died while engaged in an auto-erotic act and tried to stand in the way of the family’s own inquiries.

It took his outraged father to expose the cover-up — and find out that his son had 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.

This week, the Mail traced Mr Moyle’s former fiancée Annette Kissenbeck to her home in Germany, where she said the latest death of a British ‘spy in a bag’ brings back painful memories.

‘The British intelligence services tried to smear Jonathan by suggesting he was sexually deviant,’ she said. ‘I felt so helpless and alone trying to stand up to what was untrue against such powerful and shadowy forces.’.

The rumour that Moyle indulged in auto-erotic experiences first ­surfaced at a British embassy cocktail party attended by journalists in Santiago, adding weight to the Chilean claim that he had died by his own hand.

Annette says both were smears to cover up the truth about the murder and the illicit trade with Iraq. ‘Jonathan had everything to live for. We were totally in love with each other and about to get ­married,’ said Annette this week at her home in Essen, where she works as one of Germany’s leading child doctors.

A year after his death, a Chilean judicial investigation concluded that Moyle had been murdered. But two years later, in 1993, the murder investigation was wrapped up without a single suspect being arrested.

‘Jonathan just wasn’t the type to be depressed. And never in all the time we were together was there any hint that he was into auto-erotic sex,’ said Annette this week.

Even today, she is convinced that the spread of false information was deliberately orchestrated by shadowy figures in British secret services to cover up their own knowledge of the helicopter sales and to protect the UK’s relationship with Chile.

So could the extraordinary story of Jonathan Moyle shed any light on the death of Gareth Williams?

Williams played a key role in the world’s most sensitive and ­secretive electronic intelligence-gathering system.

He was helping to oversee a network called Echelon. It links ­satellites and super computers in Britain and the nations of our Western allies, including the U.S.

Set up to monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, Echelon now eavesdrops on terrorists, such as the Taliban in Afghanistan, threatening British security.

In particular, it listens for key words and phrases that might ­suggest that an attack on this country is being planned by overseas terrorist cells or home-grown subversives.

He was signed up by GCHQ at 21 while studying for a post-graduate maths certificate at Cambridge, a favourite recruiting ground for the secret services.

His career path was meteoric. Williams had two passports, which allowed him to travel incognito if necessary. Soon he was working for long spells in Afghanistan for our secret services.

Four times a year, he paid visits to America to liaise with the powerful National Security Agency in Fort Meade in Maryland.

When he died, he was living rent-free at Alderney Street, which was bought by MI6 as a ‘safe house’ ten years ago.

It is one of many owned by MI6 dotted around Pimlico, which have been swept for listening devices and kept under surveillance. They are used to put up visiting operatives or to conduct de-briefings in total secrecy.

Mr Williams was due to return to his former flat, rented from a landlady, in Cheltenham yesterday and start back at work at GCHQ later this month.

An associate of Mr Williams told the Mail this week: ‘Gareth really didn’t like London, although he was sent on secondment to MI6 more than once.

‘He suffered it because he had to for his career. He did make a few friends, mainly others sent from GCHQ in Cheltenham who also lived at this MI6 place in Alderney Street.

‘They are the people that know the most about how he spent his spare time over the past few months and MI6 must let the police murder squad speak to them.’

So will the truth about death of the young spy Gareth Williams ever come to light amid the smears and secrecy of the murky world of espionage?

Today, almost a fortnight after the tragic discovery at 36 Alderney Street, you wouldn’t be wise to put money on it. Even if your name was James Bond or George Smiley.

Le Monde [translated] : The mystery of the spy who was healthy in all respects

The mystery of the spy who was healthy in all respects

Marc Roche | London correspondent | September 2, 2010

The body of a young man, healthy in all respects, is discovered in a gym bag sealed with a padlock in the bathroom of his apartment. The corpse, in a state of decomposition, shows no traces of blows or bullets. Neighbors claim to be unaware of the existence of the victim, a lonely 31-year-old avid cyclist with a PhD in mathematics. Enough ingredients for a decent detective story? Except that the person concerned, Gareth Williams, was a high-flying spy in the service of Her Majesty.

The native of Wales was one of the star code-breakers of GCHQ, the secretive British intelligence agency in charge of wiretapping and monitoring communications. For the past year, Williams was assigned to MI6, the Secret Service outside the kingdom. In September, he should have been promoted to the safety of "figure" at GCHQ. The home where the officer was found dead on August 25 was actually a safe house of the "Six", located close to the organization's headquarters on the banks of the Thames. The lack of conclusion of the second autopsy, performed on September 1, has thickened the mystery. The police are exploring the possibilities of action by Islamic terrorists, Russian spies and dissident Irish Republican Army (IRA) members.

"PINK" COLUMN

For its part, the popular press is suggesting a sex scandal. It would be a sexual game, a break from a monotonous and painstaking existence, a game gone wrong. The sleuths of the tabloids have discovered that, unbeknownst to his employer and his parents, Gareth Williams frequented sadomasochistic homosexual bars in Vauxhall, near the headquarters of MI6. The right-wing dailies remind us of the stories of gay spies who made criminal headlines. The specter of a "pink" column who had infiltrated the intelligence establishment sends shivers down the spines of its devotees.

In the meantime, it's a hands-down battle among thugs. U.S. investigators have arrived in London to sift the computer and mobile phone of the deceased. His expertise in the reconstruction of a puzzle from scattered or hidden pieces, his persistence and his methodical mind had led to his being sent for month-long sessions at Fort Mead in Maryland, headquarters of the National Security Agency (NSA). The Brits were exchanging information with their American "cousins".

The incredible response to Gareth Williams' strange death reveals the deception that always lies behind the scenes in the country that invented the secret agents of film, dilettantes and masterful seducers wielding great checkbooks and deadly gadgets.

George Smiley, the grand old guardian of the jewels of spying, would think, "this is not very proper". He was a gentleman.

Washington Post (blog) : U.S. officials: Gareth Williams death not spy-related

U.S. officials: Gareth Williams death not spy-related

By Jeff Stein | September 2, 2010

British media reports suggesting a spy-world connection to the gruesome death of U.K. code-breaker Gareth Williams are groundless, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

While refusing to comment publicly about the death of Williams, whose decomposing remains were discovered stuffed in a duffel bag in the bathtub of his London apartment on Aug. 23, the officials advised treating the British reports with great skepticism.

Williams, 30 or 31 at the time of his death, depending on reports, was said to be a "math genius" at Britain's code-breaking agency, the Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ. He was on temporary assignment with the U.K. foreign intelligence service MI6. Williams's work decoding terrorist communications caused him to consult frequently with the U.S. National Security Agency at Ft. Meade, Md., according to British news reports.

But James Bamford, author of three authoritative books on the NSA, scoffed at hints of a terrorist or other intelligence-related murder conspiracy.

“There’s been a lot of hyped-up coverage in the U.K., but even codebreakers die from unrelated violence occasionally,” Bamford told SpyTalk. “Hundreds of NSA and GCHQ personnel travel back and forth between agencies every year, and leaving a body in a canvas bag sounds more like a jealous lover or drug deal gone bad than a political assassination.”

Bamford, who has developed scores of NSA sources over the years, added, “I haven’t heard anything of concern from my people on this.”

"Strange story," said a former top CIA official in London, "but I would be very surprised if it involves espionage foul play."

An NSA spokesperson, Vanee Vines, declined to comment on any relationship Williams may have had with the agency, or whether agency officials had been quizzed by British police. The CIA likewise declined to comment.

“I can tell you that we do not confirm or deny agency affiliation,” Vines said by e-mail. “I don't have any information to share with you.”

In a typical British report, the Telegraph of London reported Monday that “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,” the paper said.

Still, after two autopsies, according to reports, police are treating the death of Williams as "suspicious and unexplained."

Le Monde : Le mystère de l'espion bien sous tout rapport

Le mystère de l'espion bien sous tout rapport

Marc Roche | Londres, correspondant | September 2, 2010

Le corps d'un jeune homme, bien sous tout rapport, est découvert dans un sac de sport fermé par un cadenas, dans la salle de bains de son appartement. Le cadavre, en état de décomposition, ne porte aucune trace de coups ou de balles. Les voisins affirment tout ignorer de l'existence de la victime, un solitaire de 31 ans, passionné de cyclisme et titulaire d'un doctorat en mathématiques. Autant d'ingrédients pour un honnête roman policier ? Sauf que l'intéressé, Gareth Williams, était un espion de haut vol au service de Sa Majesté.

Le natif du pays de Galles était l'un des décodeurs stars du GCHQ, la très secrète agence de renseignement britannique chargée des écoutes et du contrôle des communications. Depuis un an, Williams était détaché au MI6, les services secrets extérieurs du royaume. A la rentrée, il aurait dû être promu à la sécurité du "chiffre" au GCHQ. Le logement où l'agent a été découvert mort le 25 août était en fait une planque du "Six", située à deux pas du siège de l'organisation, sur les berges de la Tamise. L'absence de conclusion de la deuxième autopsie, pratiquée le 1er septembre, a épaissi le mystère. La police explore les pistes d'une action de terroristes islamistes, de l'espionnage russe et des dissidents de l'Armée républicaine irlandaise (IRA).

FILIÈRE "ROSE"

Pour sa part, la presse populaire évoque une affaire de mœurs. Il s'agirait d'un jeu sexuel destiné à agrémenter une existence monotone et minutieuse, un jeu qui aurait mal tourné. Les limiers des journaux à sensation ont découvert qu'à l'insu de son employeur et de ses parents, Gareth Williams fréquentait les bars homosexuels sadomasochistes de Vauxhall, proche du QG du MI6. Les quotidiens de droite en profitent pour rappeler les histoires d'espions gays qui ont défrayé la chronique criminelle. Le spectre d'une filière "rose" ayant infiltré le monde du renseignement donne le frisson à ses thuriféraires.

En attendant, c'est le branle-le-bas de combat chez les barbouzes. Les enquêteurs américains ont débarqué à Londres pour passer au crible l'ordinateur et le téléphone portable du défunt. Son savoir-faire dans la reconstitution d'un puzzle à partir de morceaux épars ou dissimulés, son acharnement et son esprit méthodique lui avaient valu d'être dépêché une fois par mois à Fort Mead au Maryland, au siège de la National Security Agency (NSA). Le fonctionnaire échangeait ses informations avec les "cousins" américains.

L'incroyable écho rencontré par cet étrange mort est révélateur de l'espionnite toujours sous-jacente dans le pays qui a inventé les agents secrets de cinéma, dilettantes et grands séducteurs maniant avec virtuosité carnet de chèques et gadgets meurtriers.

"Tout cela n'est pas bien convenable", penserait George Smiley, le grand ancien gardien des joyaux de l'espionnage. Lui n'était qu'un gentleman.

Daily Star : GARETH WILLIAMS: THE 'PERFECT MURDER'?

GARETH WILLIAMS: THE 'PERFECT MURDER'?

By Jerry Lawton | September 1, 2010

SPY Gareth Williams may have been the victim of the “perfect murder” by an expert assassin who used a martial arts death grip.

Police still have no idea how he died, nine days after his body was found stuffed inside a sports bag.

Pathologists are examining the MI6 agent’s neck to see if he could have suffered a “pressure blow” so subtle it did not show up during his post-mortem.

Medics believe it could explain how Gareth, 31, was apparently murdered without the culprit leaving any clue to the method.

There are no marks around his neck indicating he had been throttled. His body shows no signs of a struggle, or puncture marks to suggest he was injected with poison.

The post-mortem failed to determine how he died and detectives are so baffled they have still not been able to officially declare the case a murder.

They hope the results of toxicology tests on the body due later this week will shed some light on the mystery.

But a source told the Daily Star: “At the moment it looks like he was the victim of the perfect murder. There is an increasingly worrying possibility we may never know how he died.”

Detectives probing his background for clues have had their efforts blocked by the security services. Officers are tracing calls on a number of mobile phone SIM cards found at his Government flat in Pimlico, central London.

They are also checking big transactions involving Gareth’s bank accounts.

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.

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.”