Express : What Does MI6 Have To Say About The Spy In The Bag?

WHAT DOES MI6 HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE SPY IN THE BAG?

By James Gillespie | May 5, 2012

THE bizarre case of Gareth Williams has thrown the spotlight on an intelligence service whose shadowy work leads some critics to ask whether it has become a law to itself.

There is an address in South London where even the police can’t go. Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, the officer leading the investigation into the baffling death of MI6 agent Gareth Williams – the so-called “Spy in the Bag” case – must have wished her powers extended to 85 Vauxhall Cross. But they don’t.

That address is the home of MI6 and although Sebire is a highly-experienced murder detective she doesn’t have security clearance to even enter the building much less question its inhabitants.

Instead her investigation depended on the mediation of Detective Superintendent Michael Broster of SO15, the counter-terrorism branch, which works closely with the intelligence services.

Only in the final stages of the inquest into Williams’s death this week did it emerge that no verbatim notes were taken of interviews with his MI6 colleagues and that a black holdall and nine memory sticks had been found at his desk but not handed over to the investigating officers.

Now 50 MI6 staff are facing DNA tests after the coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox, in a narrative verdict, ruled that it was likely Williams was “unlawfully killed”. Investigators are understood to believe that a colleague either from MI6 or the Government’s secret listening post at GCHQ was in the Pimlico flat when Williams died.

For his family – sister Ceri and parents Ian and Ellen – the inquest has raised as many questions as it has answered. And the most disturbing question of all is: does MI6 think it’s above the law?

The family has accused the intelligence service of withholding vital clues and failing to make “basic inquiries” until a week after Williams disappeared. “We are also extremely disappointed over the reluctance and failure of MI6 to make available relevant information,” they added.

Dr Wilcox echoed those concerns when she said that the forgetfulness of some employees at MI6, where Williams was on secondment from GCHQ, “stretched probability” and she refused to rule out the possibility that someone from the world of intelligence was involved.

From the moment the 31-year-old’s body was discovered in a North Face bag in the bath of his flat the response of MI6 has been puzzling. It took staff seven days even to report Williams – a conscientious time-keeper – missing then they appeared keen for police to be first into the apartment that MI6 has used for many years as temporary accommodation for employees.

The flat’s heating had been turned up high, despite the warmth of August, speeding up the decomposition of the body. The placing of the bag containing Williams into the bath prevented the giveaway leakage of fluids through the floor.

There were suggestions that the flat had been “swept” by someone who was forensically aware, to remove as many clues as possible.

Dr Wilcox said there was no evidence to suggest MI6 was involved in the death but “it is still a legitimate line of inquiry” and she added that “many agencies fell short” in the aftermath.

Sir John Sawers, MI6 chief, has apologised “unreservedly”, saying that lessons had been learned. But have they?

The problem may be that deep within MI6, in its culture and attitudes, lies a belief that the law is for other people.

The very nature of its work (MI6 deals with foreign intelligence, MI5 with domestic) means it is often on the boundaries of legality. The service is already under investigation for its part in sending Libyan dissidents into the hands of Muammar Gaddafi’s secret police.

Conservative MP Andrew Tyne, chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on extraordinary rendition, this week called on Foreign Secretary William Hague to investigate whether MI6 officers had briefed journalists over the Libyan case – in breach of the Official Secrets Act.

The 1994 Intelligence Services Act allows MI6 officers to carry out acts abroad that if done in Britain would be in breach of criminal law. It would be hardly surprising if that attitude spreads to their staff at home.

Michael Smith, author of SIX: The Real James Bonds, says: “MI6 would recoil at any suggestion that it sees itself as above the law but the inherent secrecy of organisations like MI6 does tend to make them think that keeping everything they do secret, even the slightest thing, is so important that it transcends everything else.

“We’ve definitely seen that here, which is why the coroner and some police officers are so angry, justifiably so.”

But who are the people who spend their days working in the modernistic building on the banks of the Thames at 85 Vauxhall Cross?

There are about 2,500 people working for MI6 of whom about half are support staff.

The others are divided into two types: Intelligence Branch (IB) officers and General Service officers.

General Service officers asses reports.

It is the IB officers who are the real James Bonds. They train in the "killing houses" of the SAS and SBS at Hereford and Poole and have their own firing range at the MI6 training school at Fort Monckton on the Solent.

Within their shadowy world there are as many tensions and disagreements as in any workplace but these are hidden. In the Williams case a senior MI6 officer identified as F blamed his subordinate G for a "breakdown in communications" but G was not disciplined and no one will ever know who they are.

But Williams was a computer expert on secondment from GCHQ in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. What sort of people work there?

“Geeks,” said one who knows GCHQ staff but did not want to be identified. “They are brilliant in languages, maths or computers but they tend to be the sort of people who don’t mix easily. At university they are always the top ones in their class but they’re loners. A bit awkward.”

That description certainly fits Williams. He was a fitness fanatic who loved competitive cycling but also had a £20,000 collection of women’s clothing in his flat. When it came to the inquest, friends were few and far between.

HOWEVER those who did know him believe the picture painted during the inquiry was misleading. Some have claimed the clothes were gifts for female friends and talk of him visiting claustrophilia websites turned out to be based on four visits in two years. Hardly evidence of a dangerous obsession, as Dr Wilcox pointed out.

Perhaps the truth about what happened to Williams has fallen victim to MI6’s rather ambivalent attitude to the law.

“The secret world lives in a bubble,” says Smith. “It very often seeks to keep secret even things that are freely available on the internet.”

Another intelligence services expert, author Michael Burleigh, says: “After imagining that it could outmanoeuvre Plod, meaning highly-competent detectives, MI6 needs to think about how it lost track of its ‘vital’ employee – for tracking people is what it allegedly does on a global stage.

“It needs also to think about how it can allay the understandable distress of the Williams family while helping DCI Sebire, who has every right to feel short-changed.”

By protecting its right to secrecy every step of the way in the case of Gareth Williams, MI6 may actually be doing nothing more than what it does best: keeping secrets. What it does not appear to have done is to have helped significantly in finding out the truth of what happened in that Pimlico flat.

And MI6 seems to have shown scant regard for the others involved, not least Williams’s sister and his parents.

Because MI6 appears to think of itself as being above the law it hasn’t convinced anyone that it did the right thing.

It has just made itself look guilty.

Telegraph : Gareth Williams' relatives break down as inquest hears MI6 did not notice codebreaker missing

Gareth Williams' relatives break down as inquest hears MI6 did not notice codebreaker missing

The family of MI6 spy Gareth Williams were left horrified on Thursday as they heard no-one was disciplined over a litany of failures by the security services to notice the codebreaker was missing.

By Tom Whitehead, Security Editor | April 26, 2012

The inquest in to Mr Williams’ death had to be halted as one member of his family shrieked and broke down as further details over the debacle which left the spy undiscovered for a week were disclosed.

A senior MI6 officer said the service was “profoundly sorry” and that the delays had made it harder for the family to “come to terms with his dreadful death”.

The scenes came on another dramatic day of evidence at the inquest in to Mr Williams’ death, whose decomposing, naked body was found in a padlocked holdall in his flat in Pimlico in August 2010.

It emerged Mr Williams had conducted unauthorised searches of secret MI6 files which could have put him at risk from “hostile and malign” forces.

But his apparent penchant for womens’ clothing and sadomasochism websites may not have prevented him becoming a spy, it was suggested.

The family of Mr Williams have found the evidence increasingly hard to listen to in the first four days of the hearing as it became apparent that his absence failed to spark any concern.

The spy, normally a meticulous time keeper, failed to show up for work at MI6 for a week before his body was discovered and should have attended two pre-arranged meetings during that time.

But despite his sensitive job, his absence barely raised a flicker and led to only cursory attempts to raise him on the phone.

Even when his secret service bosses finally decided he was missing on Monday August 23rd it still took another four hours before they reported it to the police.

Helen Yelland, from GCHQ where Mr Williams had been due to return, said there was “confusion” over who was responsible for his whereabouts.

A senior manager at MI6, who can only be identified as SIS F, told the hearing from behind a screen: “We are profoundly sorry about what happened.

"It shouldn't have happened and we recognise that the delay in finding Gareth's body has made it even harder for the family to come to terms with his dreadful death and we are truly sorry for that.

"I also appreciate the delay had some impact on the police investigation."

Despite blaming Mr Williams' line manager for the "breakdown in communication", the officer revealed that no one had been disciplined over the incident.

A female member of the family, who were also sat behind the screen, reacted with shock over the news and the hearing had to be briefly adjourned.

A member of the family was also heard hyperventilating on Wednesday after hearing of the lack of effort to find Mr Williams.

Anthony O’Toole, the lawyer for the family, accused the agencies of a "total disregard for Gareth's whereabouts and safety".

He blamed the delay for preventing the family from saying goodbye to Mr Williams while his body was in an "acceptable form" and for making it more or less impossible for detectives to establish how he died.

SIS F also revealed Mr Williams had carried out a number of searches of the secret service database without permission but did not explain what they were.

She admitted such “activities” could “theoretically” have put him at greater risk of pressure from other forces.

She said if they knew of his activities but not MI6 then: “a third party with hostile or malign intent could theoretically use that knowledge to put some pressure on Gareth”.

However, she insisted there was no evidence such a breach in security has occurred.

She also dismissed family concerns that “dark arts” had been involved in his death or after, insisting no security officers had been to the flat.

She said Mr Williams at GCHQ, before being seconded to MI6, had been “world class” and that he had been “operational” at MI6 and had worked at times alongside two undercover agents.

The inquest also heard how Mr Williams apparent penchant for womens’ clothing and sadomasochism websites may not have prevented him becoming a spy.

SIS F said vetting processes focused on “trustworthiness, integrity and reliability” in handling “sensitive information.

She said people can have “lifestyle choices” that are “perfectly legitimate” but that the service would want to know about them in case their background puts them at risk.

The inquest has already heard Mr Williams had £20,000 worth of womens’clothing in his flat and had visited websites about claustrophilia - the love of enclosure - and bondage and sadomasochism.

It emerged on Wednesday that he was also once discovered tied to his own bed wearing only boxer shorts.

Telegraph : Date rape drug found in the body of spy Gareth Williams

Date rape drug found in the body of spy Gareth Williams

Traces of the date rape drug GHB were found in the body of Gareth Williams, the MI6 spy, an inquest heard on Thursday, as experts said they were unable to rule out poisoning as the cause of death.

By Tom Whitehead, Security Editor | April 26, 2012

Small amounts of the Class C drug, which has sedative effects, were found in post mortem tests.

Denise Stanworth, a toxicologist, told the inquest that the traces had probably occurred naturally, which is common shortly after death, but it was possible that Mr Williams had taken the drug.

A panel of forensics experts which reviewed the post mortem findings was unable to rule out the use of certain poisons, such as cyanide and chloroform, because the body was so decomposed, the inquest heard.

Miss Stanworth said it was unlikely that Mr Williams had been given some “old fashioned poison” but she could not rule out other “volatile agents”.

The inquest at Westminster Coroners’ Court has heard how Mr Williams’s naked body was in a padlocked holdall in his London flat for more than a week before it was discovered in August 2010.

While there were no obvious signs of poisoning, the level of decomposition made it impossible to test for certain substances, the hearing was told.

A number of drugs and poisons were ruled out, but abuse of amyl and alkyl nitrites, such as poppers, and “lots of substances that could have caused poisoning and death” could not be detected nine days after death, the inquest heard.

When asked if the toxicology findings were reliable, Miss Stanworth said: “In terms of many of the drugs, many of the analyses of the drugs, it was reliable. In terms of the more volatile substances, in terms of certain unstable substances, [it was] not that reliable.”

The inquest also heard it was impossible to tell whether Mr Williams was alive or dead when he got into the bag.

At one stage, the inquest had to be halted after a member of Mr Williams’s family broke down when an MI6 manager disclosed that no one had been disciplined over the errors that led to the codebreaker’s body lying undiscovered for so long.

The spy, a meticulous time-keeper, failed to show up for work for a week and should have attended two pre-arranged meetings during that time.

But despite the sensitive nature of his job, his absence led to only cursory attempts to raise him on the phone.

Even when his secret service bosses finally decided he was missing on August 23, it took another four hours before they contacted the police.

A senior manager at MI6, identified only as SIS F, told the hearing from behind a screen: “We are profoundly sorry about what happened. It shouldn’t have happened and we recognise that the delay in finding Gareth’s body has made it even harder for the family to come to terms with his dreadful death and we are truly sorry for that.”

Despite blaming Mr Williams’s line manager for the “breakdown in communication”, SIS F said no one had been disciplined over the incident.

A female member of the family, who was also sat behind the screen, reacted with shock to the disclosure and the hearing was briefly adjourned.

Anthony O’Toole, the lawyer for the family, accused the security agencies of a “total disregard for Gareth’s whereabouts and safety”.

He blamed the delay for denying the family the chance to say goodbye to Mr Williams while his body was in an “acceptable form” and for making it more or less impossible for detectives to establish how he died.

SIS F also disclosed that Mr Williams had carried out several searches of the secret service database without permission. She did not explain what the searches involved, but admitted that if a “hostile or malign” third party knew of his activities, it could “theoretically use that knowledge to put some pressure on Gareth”. However, she said there was no evidence that a breach in security had occurred.

She dismissed family concerns that “dark arts” had been involved in his death, saying that no security officers had been to the flat.

The inquest continues.

Telegraph : Secret meeting between MI6 and police hours after discovery of spy Gareth Williams's death

Secret meeting between MI6 and police hours after discovery of spy Gareth Williams's death

The head of MI6 met Britain’s most senior policeman hours after the discovery of the body of a spy inside a locked holdall.

By Patrick Sawer and Gordon Thomas | April 22, 2012

Sir John Sawers, the chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, held a secret meeting Sir Paul Stephenson, the then commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, to discuss how Scotland Yard would handle the investigation into Gareth Williams’s death.

MI6 feared that detectives would extend their inquiries into sensitive areas, including the top secret nature of the work carried out by the 31-year-old codebreaker for both MI6 and the US National Security Agency (NSA), leading to potential breaches of security.

Intelligence sources claim Sir John sought assurances from Sir Paul that his officers would not stray beyond their remit during the investigation into the discovery of Mr Williams’s body inside a locked North Face holdall left in the bath of his Pimlico flat, in August 2010.

The revelation raises questions over the independence of the police inquiry and will add to fears in some quarters of a secret service cover-up.

It comes ahead of the opening of the full inquest into his death, due to open at Westminster Coroner’s Court this week.

Mr Williams, who worked at the Government’s listening centre GCHQ, was on secondment to MI6 when his body was found. The alarm was raised after he failed to turn up to work for over a week.

His family, in Holyhead, north Wales, believe his death may have been linked to his work at MI6, where he had recently qualified for “operational deployment”.

They fear that fingerprints, DNA and other evidence was wiped from the scene in a deliberate cover up.

Anthony O’Toole, the barrister representing the family, told an interim hearing ahead of the inquest last month that Mr Williams could have been killed by someone who specialised in “the dark arts of the secret services”.

He later added: “To properly explore the circumstances of his death we do need to know something of the deceased’s work.”

Among the matters discussed by Sir John and Sir Paul during their meeting, which is thought to have been held at Sir John’s private dining room at SIS headquarters, in Vauxhall, was the question of which senior officer was to head the investigation.

It is understood that Sir John expressed his satisfaction with the choice of Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire as lead officer in the inquiry.

An intelligence source said: “SIS wanted to make sure that the Met didn’t stray too far into the question of what Gareth Williams’s job entailed. They did not want any potential leaks over the nature of his work for the NSA, GCHQ or MI6.”

It has also emerged that the US State Department asked MI6 to ensure that no details of Mr Williams’s work should emerge at the forthcoming inquest. US officials asked SIS to raise the matter with the Foreign Office.

Sir John, who attended Mr Williams’s funeral, is understood to have discussed the matter with William Hague, the Foreign Secretary.

Mr Hague subsequently signed a public interest immunity certificate authorising the withholding of details from the inquest about Mr Williams’s secret work and joint operations with the Americans.

it is understood that as a result NSA and FBI officers who would have been called as witnesses at the inquest will no longer be asked to attend.

Mr Williams had been working at NSA shortly before his death, where he was helping to develop a joint GCHQ-NSA defence against cyber attack’s on the west’s computer infrastructure, particularly in the banking and transport sector.

At one stage during his work at NSA, shortly before he returned to London, Mr Williams was given security clearance to visit its facility in the Utah desert, which the agency classifies as “above top secret”.

Mr Williams also spent several months at Menwith Hill, the secret listening station in Yorkshire used by the United States to intercept coded messages, and Fort Meade in Maryland, the home of the NSA.

Police told the interim hearing that experts were agreed it was impossible for Mr Williams to have locked himself in the holdall before his death. Mr O’Toole said that if he had not locked the bag himself, there was “a high probability that there was a third party present in the flat” at the time.

He suggested that “the unknown third party was a member of some agency specialising in the dark arts of the secret services, and perhaps evidence was removed from the scene post mortem by an expert in those dark arts”.

Outside the hearing, Mr O’Toole said the family did not know whether the “third party” might have belonged to a British or foreign agency.

An intelligence source said: “Given the sensitivity of the situation, both Hague and Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, would have been kept informed after the claims made by the Williams family barrister.”

There has been speculation that either the Russian or Chinese security services could have been responsible for Mr Williams’s death.

SVR, the Russian foreign intelligence service, is understood to have around forty spies in this country. They are either working under diplomatic cover at their embassy or with trade missions. MSS, the Chinese foreign intelligence service, is believed to have staff of over three thousand based in every country, including a number of 'hit’ teams.

Britain’s three main intelligence services – MI6, MI5 and GCHQ – have a number of safe-houses in and around London.

They are used as bases to interrogate foreign spies before they are handed over to Scotland Yard for arrest and trial and to brief or debrief an officer before or after a mission.

They also provide accommodation for an officer in transit from one posting to another, as in Mr Williams’s case.

His Pimlico safe-house had an unlisted number which gave him direct contact with MI6. All his calls were logged on the service’s switchboard facility. These were later checked and apparently produced no clue to assist the police.

Scotland Yard said it was not prepared to discuss details of the investigation into the death of Mr Williams, which its says remains an ongoing inquiry.

Mirror : Was body-in-the-bag spy betrayed by a double agent? Mole theory over MI6 codebreaker's death

Was body-in-the-bag spy betrayed by a double agent? Mole theory over MI6 codebreaker's death

In a throwback to the dark days of the Cold War, a worrying theory has emerged about the death of body-in-the-bag spy Gareth Williams

March 10, 2012

In a throwback to the dark days of the Cold War, a worrying theory has emerged about the death of body-in-the-bag spy Gareth Williams

The expert codebreaker’s decomposing body was found locked in a large sportsbag in the bath of his London flat in 2010.

There were no obvious signs of how he died or who was responsible – with many claiming a “wall of silence” surrounding his death points to a cover-up at the very heart of the British establishment.

And now it has been revealed Gareth may have been betrayed by a British double agent.

Security bosses are trying to establish if a mole somewhere within intelligence revealed his identity to foreign assassins.

The brilliant mathematician, 31, was working for the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and would have been a high value target – vital in producing hi-tech defences to prevent cyber attacks on our most secret government departments.

He was one of only a handful of spies launching effective counter attacks to stop enemy hackers infiltrating British networks.

Williams had been seconded from the top-secret Government Communications Headquarters in Cheltenham to MI6 in the capital.

He was making clandestine visits to Washington to team up with US espionage agents and share intelligence in operations to fend off hostile hacking infiltrations by Russia and China.

Eighteen months after his bizarre death, investigators are still piecing together his every move to try to get information which could lead them back to a British double agent.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, chairman of the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee, refuses to rule out the possibility that British national security has been breached by the death.

He said: “Reassurance can only be given if it’s based on some new information, and only those who have the skills and the responsibility to carry out such an investigation can take that forward. There have been exhaustive inquiries but they have been unable to reach a conclusion.”

North Wales-born Williams’s parents, Ian and Ellen, hope more will be revealed when a full inquest is opened next month.

They have been told by MI6 chiefs not to talk about his death, while police and security officers have also remained tight-lipped – fuelling speculation the British establishment does not want to reveal what happened to one of its most valued agents.

It was 4.40pm on August 23, 2010, when his naked, contorted body was found by police, zipped and padlocked in a red, 140-litre-capacity North Face hold-all in the bath of his top-floor apartment owned by MI6.

There were no signs of a struggle within flat 4, Alderney Street, Pimlico, less than a mile away from MI6’s HQ, across Vauxhall Bridge.

The key to the bag’s Yale lock was in the hold-all and police said forensic tests showed at least one other person was involved but have not been able to prove it was murder and do not think he killed himself.

Williams, a 9st cycling enthusiast, had not showed up at work for days when an officer went to the flat. Police said he probably died eight days earlier – just weeks after a man and woman of Mediterranean appearance had called at his flat.

Mystery also surrounds a break-in at the flat in the months before – while more twists and turns in the story led to lurid tales about his private life.

One claimed he was a transvestite who police thought may have been murdered by a gay lover.

And the most extreme claim was that he may have died in an auto-erotic asphyxiation sex game gone wrong.

Police also revealed he had £15,000 worth of unworn women’s designer clothing, shoes and wigs in his flat, but his friends believe many of these stories were planted to cloud the investigation.

Crispin Black, an intelligence analyst and former adviser to the Government, says the most likely explanation is that Williams was murdered.

“The thing has a professional air – it’s neat, it’s tidy, it’s organised,” he said.

“A bath is where you put things if you don’t want any forensic residue to be left behind – because you know where the body’s been and you can clear up after it.”

The fact the body was found locked in a holdall, with the key inside, provides the strongest indication he was executed by a foreign death squad.

Investigators believe the team were so expert at their deadly trade, they left no obvious signs of the cause of death.

A security source said: “This has all the hallmarks of a state-sponsored assassination. If you’ve got a problem with your codes being broken, the only solution is to remove the codebreaker.

"They’re incredibly hard to replace because they are recruited for having the sharpest mathematical brains.

"There’s always suspicion about the Russians because in many ways the Cold War never completely ended.”

The possibility of a British intelligence mole has to be a huge worry for national security.

Professor Anthony Glees, director of security and intelligence studies at the independent University of Buckingham, said: “Sir Malcolm himself says he could not give the public reassurance that national security had not been breached by Gareth Williams’s death.

"I think we need an answer, especially in light of the fact that this year, with the Olympics and Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, we are clearly a target.

“It’s a possibility that there is a spy and that someone betrayed Gareth Williams.

"It’s by no means unthinkable he was targeted by intelligence officials from other countries who believed he was targeting them.”

The police have not spoken publicly about the death for a year.

And Williams family friend Trefor Lloyd Hughes, 64, said: “I have no doubt some higher influences will be involved here which may stop certain information from getting through, but the family need peace.”

Even before his secondment to MI6, his work in signals intelligence at GCHQ would have put him on the front line in the international cyber war, helping to combat insurgent bombers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Codebreakers, phone and radio interceptors and internet experts fight the triple threat of terrorism, espionage and organised crime.

At Williams’s funeral at the windswept Bethel Chapel in Holyhead, Anglesey, his family were consoled by MI6 chief Sir John Sawyers, who said: “Gareth did really valuable work with us in the cause of national security.”

Back in Anglesey, those who knew Gareth Williams would no doubt like to know if it was that cause which he ended up giving his life for.

Channel 4 : Did MI6 spy Gareth Williams commit suicide?

Did MI6 spy Gareth Williams commit suicide?

By Jonathan Rugman | September 14, 2010

One of the greatest mysteries of recent weeks has been the unexplained death of an MI6 employee found in a padlocked and zipped up bag in the bath of his flat. Channel 4 News' Jonathan Rugman analyses the possibility of suicide.
Gareth Williams, one of the last pictures taken of the MI6 spy, who was found dead padlocked into a sports bag (Image: Reuters)

The circumstances of his passing are so bizarre that no conspiracy theory can be ruled out - and nor will anything be ruled out until the police investgation is complete - but one theory currently in play is suicide.

This may sound extraordinary, but when you look at what we know, suicide may be no more extraordinary than any other aspect of this remarkable spy-novel case, which the police are still not confident enough to call murder.

Gareth Williams was found dead by police in Pimlico on August 23rd. The door of his flat was double-locked and a forensic sweep of his Alderney Street flat has not, as far as we know, revealed signs of forced entry.

Police toxicologists have concluded that drugs or alcohol did not contribute to his death, though more toxicology tests may be required. Police have appealed for information about a "Mediterranean couple" - a phrase which surely should be consigned to the novels of Agatha Christie or Eric Ambler - who apparently visited the flat a few weeks before.

But this may just be due diligence on the part of an investigative team duty bound to keep an open mind. From the very beginning, there has been no suggestion from the corridors of Whitehall that a national security breach has occurred.

Conspiracy theorists will argue that this is a cover up by the Secret Intelligence Service or SIS, but for now I don't buy that.

First off, we know that Mr Williams travelled to the US listening centre in Maryland where he also worked, but he did not have any dealings - that we know of - with governments or foreign intellligence agencies potentially hostile to Britain.

Nor is there any reason to think that the Talibans or Al Qaeda, in their many franchises, knew who he was. And if terrorists killed him, surely they would have told us by now?

There is no evidence - again, that we know of - that anything like a laptop or mobile phone was taken from Williams' flat. In fact, we know that his phone SIM cards were neatly laid out on a table.

At first this was interpreted as a sign of a ritualistic killing, but with hindsight it may have been just the punctiliousness of a very private man - ideal for his job, I would have thought. Mr Williams was on secondment to MI6 from GCHQ in Cheltenham and was due to return to Gloucestershire imminently.

This fact - that he was going back to his former place of employment - is the only potential "trigger moment" we have which could provide a clue to the puzzle of his death. In the week the police found the body, I reported for Channel 4 News the theory that the code expert's "sexual preferences" may have had something to do with his death.

Two days later, The Sunday Times reported that it had spoken to two witnesses who had seen Mr Williams on the gay scene in South London.

All this apparently appalled the dead man's family in Wales - only beginning to come to terms with his tragic death - and both they and the police let it be known that this was not a useful line of enquiry. One outraged family member suggested that this could be an orchestrated "dirty tricks" campaign by British Intelligence. What would be the merits of MI6 falsely describing its employee as gay?

MI6 employs gay people, and like every other branch of the civil service it cannot discriminate against them. What it may not be able to tolerate is the security risk of an employee being a closet gay - leading a double life on top of their double life as a spy - in case this leaves an employee open to blackmail.

A "dirty tricks" campaign unfairly suggesting that Williams was a closet homosexual in fact does the reputations of GCHQ and MI6 few favours, because it makes it obvious that their supposedly rigorous vetting procedures failed. In other words, it is an "own goal" for SIS. So why suggest it if it wasn't true?

To disguise the fact that the Russians or the Iranians or Mafia hit men killed him, when they could have killed him in myriad and far less bizarre ways if they had wanted to, assuming they had even known who he was? Which brings us back to the body in the bag.

A padlocked bag in a flat which was double-locked with no sign of forced entry that we know of. Could the bag have been padlocked from the inside?

It has been reported that it could. Which leads us to the theory - and that is all this is - that an act of "erotic self-asphyxiation" or sex game caused Gareth Williams' death, either by accident or on purpose.

And if it was on purpose and involved no one else, what was the trigger? Perhaps it was his imminent departure from the bright lights of London and his return to his old life in Cheltenham.

I repeat that this is just a theory based on the little that we know; but Gareth Williams lived in a world of secrets, and perhaps the secret of his private life was, for him, one secret too many.

Independent : MI6 death: Murder most strange

MI6 death: Murder most strange

Jonathan Owen tries to determine the facts about the death of intelligence officer Gareth Williams, and asks experts for their views on a real-life spy mystery

Jonathan Owen | August 29, 2010

The Metropolitan Police were under mounting pressure last night to bring in counter-terrorism officers to investigate the death of Gareth Williams, the British intelligence officer whose decomposing body was found stuffed in a sports bag in the bath of his flat in Pimlico, central London, last Monday.

Officers from the Met's Homicide and Serious Crime Command are understood to be furious at being stonewalled by Britain's secretive intelligence agencies. Detectives claim to have been "blocked" from interviewing potentially crucial witnesses, such as Mr Williams's "best friend", a female colleague at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), who was posted to the US last month.

Counter-terrorism officers are security vetted, which would make it harder for intelligence agencies to withhold information on the grounds of security clearance, say detectives. "It's a big cover-up... The security services obviously don't want the police to pry too deeply," said a police source.

It emerged yesterday that police are investigating three sums of £2,000 paid into Mr Williams's account on consecutive days, and then withdrawn on consecutive days, with the last transaction on the eve of his killing. The money trail has heightened concerns that his death may present a national security risk. Mr Williams was on secondment to MI6 from GCHQ and was a regular visitor to the US National Security Agency HQ, Fort Meade.

His murder is unprecedented in that it took place just a short walk from MI6 and has seen a police investigation undertaken amid a frenzy of public speculation. Even the basic fact that he was murdered has yet to be officially confirmed, with a post mortem failing to discover the cause of death, despite reports he had been stabbed and found dumped in a sports bag in his bath. Police will only describe it as a "suspicious and unexplained death", and tests are under way to establish how the 30-year-old mathematician from Anglesey died. The results are expected this week. And after initially claiming he had been dead for two weeks before his body was found, police said on Friday that he had been in London from 11 August, with the last sighting of him on 15 August.

Mr Williams's family hit out yesterday at speculation in some newspapers that he was a cross-dressing homosexual who may have been killed by a gay lover. His uncle, William Hughes, said: "The family are concerned it may be 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."

Sir Paul Lever, Former chair of Joint Intelligence Committee

"If you want to dispel a suggestion that something is work-related, you inevitably imply it's to do with the person's non-work life... ergo their private life, so you end up perhaps implying things that may distress his family. I would be very surprised if his employers were deliberately setting out to smear him."

Annie Machon, Former MI5 agent

"The trouble is that it's so murky at the moment. It could be misdirection ... towards some sort of sexual thing that went wrong. But there's also the fact that he was working on secure communications... the SIM cards and telephone laid out indicate the killer was aware of where he worked and was letting people know that."

Mark Birdsall, Editor 'Eye Spy' magazine

"The fact that he was in a holdall is a classic indication that the body was going to be moved. There's something not quite right here, but I think the story is being created to give the ordinary man in the street the opinion, 'well, he was involved in some sort of lovers' tiff'... I think the whole background about Mr Williams is being manipulated, possibly to disguise what he was up to, which is natural. You put out a cover story to disguise the real operation."

David Wilson, Professor of Criminology, University of Central England

"In the vast majority of murders you don't look for a Hollywood motive, you look for the most banal motive – the most banal motives are love, rage, and jealousy... I'm absolutely convinced with virtually every serious crime I've been involved with that there's a great deal of misinformation... when one talks to press officers of any government agency they have a line that they try to feed."

'John Smith', A former head of GCHQ

"This is first and foremost a personal tragedy. Clearly it's unwelcome that it is someone working for the intelligence services who might have been working for anyone else, and it isn't yet clear quite what the ramifications beyond that might be. People are going spare [at GCHQ/MI6] because there is a public relations crisis to handle. As a precautionary measure, they will be looking at how much this chap knew and how much he could have communicated to anyone."

Rupert Allason, Espionage author & former Tory MP

"The only security concern regarding Gareth Williams's death would be if there was evidence that classified information had been compromised. Doubtless SIS and GCHQ security staff are pursuing those lines and a search of his flat and laptop would be top of the list. In the absence of any indication that there had been a breach of security there would not appear to be any other issues, apart perhaps from one: which police officer tipped off the media to the link with Vauxhall Cross?"

Prof Anthony Glees, Director, Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, University of Birmingham

"I don't think he would have been murdered because of what he knew but because of his private life. If his private life brought him into contact with someone who went on to kill him, he was a risk-taker... If you do risky things, you may not be blackmailable but you may still be a security risk because your risk-taking may bring you into contact with people who might try to exploit this trait to get secrets out of you."

James Bamford, Author of three bestsellers on the US national security agency (NSA)

"Rather than a 'spy' in the James Bond sense of the word, he was far more likely a routine cryptanalyst. It is also very unlikely, especially given his sexual interests, that there is any foreign intelligence involvement in his death. Those things happen in the movies but rarely in real life. Nevertheless, I'm sure there is a very intense investigation, both at the NSA and GCHQ, into what accesses Williams had, his travels and his telephone, email and internet communications."

Stephen Dorril, Intelligence expert University of Huddersfield

"GCHQ has been sending people into the field in Afghanistan to monitor communications; they have small units of personnel who are doing field work instead of just being behind the desk, so they have obviously been working closely with MI6."

Nicholas Anderson, Former MI6 agent and author

"My first gut thought was that he couldn't have been a high-security risk as it took nearly two weeks for the FCO [Foreign & Commonwealth Office] employee assistance head to follow up on why he hadn't been at work. Granted, he may have had a job where he worked alone so he didn't have to report in, but most lone operators, like I used to be, report to somebody on a timely basis regardless."

Roger Graef, Broadcaster and criminologist

"The one thing we won't know is the truth. This is in the category of iconic crimes, when you don't ever expect to be told the real thing, and there are just too many reasons to keep it secret... None of it adds up: if he was such a hot shot at code breaking then presumably he'd have been protected... We are very unlikely to ever know what happened."

Prof Martin Innes, Director of the universities' police science institute at cardiff university

"If they've stuck him in a bag ready to be moved, if that was what happened, then that suggests someone a bit more intent on what it is they're trying to do... If the individual concerned is out there and dismembering the body, there's something else going on. But until we know that it's pretty difficult to say anything useful."

Michael Smith, Author of 'Six: A history of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service'

"No conversation I have had with anyone genuine within the intelligence community has given any information on this guy that would be any use in building up a picture of him other than off-the-record confirmation that he was a GCHQ employee who has been on attachment to MI6."

Channel 4 : Exclusive: 'neat job' on MI6 spy's death

Exclusive: 'neat job' on MI6 spy's death

By Channel 4 News | August 28, 2010

Channel 4 News learns the police who found the body of MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams described his death as a "neat job" - understood to be code for a professional killing.

The evidence obtained by Channel 4 News from the day the MI6 employee was found dead in his central London flat suggests that reports that he was secretly gay or owed bondage equipment are untrue.

The evidence also suggests his mobile phone sim cards were not arranged in a "ritualistic" way and there were no numbers for male escort agencies on them.

This, Channel 4 News understands, is what the police know about the death of the MI6 code breaker, contrary to the speculation which has been in other reports which is apparently based on MI6 briefings.

Channel 4 News reporter James Blake said none of the sexual links or mobile phone details were mentioned in the official police despatch for that day, the CAD.

He also said: "Officers did not touch the body so they were not sure, but one said the apparent murder was a 'neat job', a phrase used by police for a professional killing."

After the police left, the building was locked down and MI5 and MI6 officials rushed to the scene.

The family of code breaker Gareth Williams broke their silence to say they have found speculation over whether his sex life could be linked to his death "very distressing".

Police are still working to establish the cause of Mr Williams' death. They confirmed that he was last seen eight days before his corpse was discovered stuffed into a bag in his flat. His body was discovered on Monday after the police went to do a "welfare check" on him, after a GCHQ colleague sounded the alarm when he was not seen at work.

MI6 and GCHQ inquire into vetting of dead spy

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

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

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

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

In a statement, Mr Williams' family 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 that anyone with information to come forward and assist the police enquiry.

"The continued speculation in the press about his private life has been very distressing."

Channel 4 News reporter James Blake said that the evidence he has obtained suggest that the reports are untrue.

When the police entered the flat, he said: "There was no mess, no evidence of a struggle, and, importantly, no overwhelming smell of a body decomposing. When they entered the bathroom, officers described finding a suitcase with red liquid seeping out."

Police confirmed that Mr Williams was last seen alive on 15 August, although they would not discuss whether he was seen on CCTV or via another source.

The investigation is being led by the Met's Homicide Command, with the security-vetted Counter Terror Command also involved.

No national security risk

At this stage, all parties are suggesting that Mr Williams' killer is unlikely to have been aware of his job and his death presents no threat to national security.

Channel 4 News has learned that both MI6 and GCHQ have launched internal inquiries into the vetting of Mr Williams.

Mr Williams was a GCHQ employee on secondment to MI6.

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

Relative William Hughes, 62, a councillor on Anglesey, insisted there was no evidence the allegations over Mr Williams' private life are correct.

Mr Hughes, a cousin of Mr Williams' mother, Ellen, said: "I have spoken to Gareth's parents and they are not doing well at all.

"They are in a state of shock and struggling to come to terms with what has happened.

"They have seen what has been in the papers and they are very, very upset about these untruths. I don't see any evidence of it.

"It never crossed my mind that Gareth was that sort of person. He left home at a young age and what happened in his private life was his business.

"When you have these rumours in the papers, it is most distressing.

"It is heartbreaking that he has died so young and his family have enough on their plate without having to read these stories."

Mr Hughes said it was possible the government, or another agency, might be attempting to discredit Mr Williams.

Earlier this week a pathologist found Mr Williams was not stabbed or shot, and police are still working to find out how he died. Their investigations have included looking into Mr Williams' private life in an attempt to account for his death.

"Every nation spies on everyone else"

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

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

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

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

The Australian : Murdered spy more James Bondage than James Bond

Murdered spy more James Bondage than James Bond

From: The Times | August 28, 2010

POLICE investigating the murder of a British spy found bondage equipment in his flat and evidence linking him to a male escort, The Times has learnt.

The find has raised questions over how Gareth Williams's private life slipped through the vetting procedures of the security services.

Senior security personnel are said to be "extremely concerned" that an employee with high clearance had a lifestyle that put him in danger of being compromised.

A source close to the investigation said evidence discovered in the London flat included bondage items, porn films and paraphernalia associated with sado-masochism. It is also understood Mr Williams, who was on secondment to MI6 from GCHQ, the British government's top-secret listening post at Cheltenham, has been linked to a male escort.

Detectives have focused their investigations on the private life of Mr Williams, 30, since he was found on Monday murdered and stuffed into a sports bag in his flat in Pimlico, a short walk from MI6 headquarters in London.

It also emerged that Mr Williams travelled regularly to Washington DC on official business, raising further concerns about potential national security breaches because of the information to which he had access.

The national security agency refused to confirm or deny yesterday that Mr Williams, who is believed to have been an expert in codes, had worked for it.

The initial post-mortem examination has proved inconclusive and several tests, thought to include toxicology tests, are now being conducted.

The picture of Mr Williams that has emerged is that of a genius who led a solitary existence. Friends described him as athletic, kind and intelligent, but extremely private. Dylan Parry, a school friend, described him as academically gifted but socially naive, an isolated child fascinated by mathematics and computers. He was "the kind of person who found it difficult to engage with people on a normal level".

A former maths teacher said Mr Williams had "definitely the best brain" he had known. "It didn't surprise me at all that he was very interested in codes and ciphers and it didn't surprise me that he was recruited by GCHQ."

Online tributes mainly referred to his shy and quiet nature. One fellow Cambridge student said: "He seemed a shy and quiet chap, but had a peculiarly memorable laugh and smile that are haunting me somewhat today. I knew that Gareth had gone on to work at Cheltenham but would never have imagined his life culminating in this."

Keith Thompson, of Holyhead Cycling Club, said he had known Mr Williams since he joined the club at 17. "We were clubmates, but Gareth wasn't the sort to go the pub after a race so he didn't have any close friends in the group. I never spoke to him about his job or his private life."

Daily Star : SPY FOUND DEAD HAD LINKS WITH USA

SPY FOUND DEAD HAD LINKS WITH USA

By Jerry Lawton | August 28, 2010

THE CIA is probing the bizarre death of a real life James Bond after it emerged he had been on secret missions to the United States.

American intelligence officers are poring over MI6 spy Gareth Williams’ work to see if US national security has been compromised.

The 31-year-old code cracker flew to the National Security Agency, the listening post for the Pentagon, up to four times a year. He had returned from his latest trip only a week before he was found dead.

A Brit intelligence agency source said: “The Americans are as concerned as we are about what has happened.

“The police will understandably want to know details of everyone with whom he had recent contact.

“Discovering who was behind this is the key to determining if national security has been breached.’’

Mr Williams was found dead in a sports bag in his flat in Pimlico, central London, on Monday.

Youth worker Raphael L’Hoste-Morton, 32, of Cheltenham, Glos, listed as living at the same London address and who reportedly worked at GCHQ, says any alleged links made between the pair were “purely coincidental” as he had never met Williams.

Manchester Evening News : Professor who helped death riddle spy get job at MI6

Professor who helped death riddle spy get job at MI6

Yakub Qureshi | August 28, 2010

The professor who helped death-riddle MI6 man Gareth Williams begin his intelligence career has told of his shock at the tragedy.

Gareth, whose body was found stuffed inside a bag at his flat, gained a PhD in computer game technology at Manchester University. Prof Terry Hewitt has described how he helped the ‘exceptional’ maths scholar secure his first job with the government’s codebreaking agency, GCHQ.

Prof Hewitt, who now works for Bangor University, told the MEN: “He came into my office one day and said ‘I’m going to GCHQ’. He had to tell me as I was his referee for his vetting. MI5 eventually got hold of me and examined me about him.

“He worked very well. He was clearly a very able student. He came to us at the age of 18 – four years younger than most postgraduate students.

“He was modelling how light reflects on surfaces. His knowledge of maths skills and computing techniques would make him attractive to them.”

His PhD thesis, entitled ‘Methods for Global Illumination Models’, examined how light and shade could be replicated in computer games.

The subject involved the study of complex mathematical calculations and advanced computer technology.

Prof Hewitt, a computer graphics expert who left Manchester in 2008, added that Mr Williams – whose mysterious death has sparked fears over possible security breaches – was friendly but ‘reserved’ with staff and fellow students.

He said: “Everything that was said about him was true, He was interested in cycling.

“He was very private and worked well on his own. He was certainly not a ‘geek’ but was reserved is the best description. I thing that reserve came about because he was so much younger than other students around him.

“I was shocked when I heard the news. He was an exceptionally gifted student and very talented.”

Mr Williams, originally from Anglesey, gained special permission to leave school for university aged just 15.

After completing his degree at Bangor University while still living with his parents, he moved to Manchester in 1997.

Mr Williams signed up for the Cheltenham-based GCHQ, which employs 5,000 people to intercept and break coded international communications, just after beginning a post-doctoral qualification at Cambridge, and dropping out of the course.

Officials have confirmed that he had been working for MI6 for the past year, following a secondment from GCHQ.

It is believed the intelligence worker lay dead for two weeks before being found, although there were no signs of forced entry to the flat.

Post-mortem tests have so far proved inconclusive.

The investigation has now turned to the intelligence worker’s private life.

Metropolitan Police have yet to describe the death as a murder, with one line of inquiry that the may have died as a result of a botched sex game.

Channel 4 : MI6 and GCHQ enquiries into dead spy vetting

MI6 and GCHQ enquiries into dead spy vetting

By Jonathan Rugman | August 27, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Every nation spies on everyone else"

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

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

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

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

The Australian : Slain spy Gareth Williams linked to bondage, male escort

Slain spy Gareth Williams linked to bondage, male escort

Staff writers | From: The Times | August 27, 2010

POLICE investigating the murder of a British spy found bondage equipment in his flat and evidence linking him to a male escort.

The find has raised questions over how Gareth Williams's private life slipped through the vetting procedures of the security services. Senior security personnel are said to be "extremely concerned" that an employee with high clearance had a lifestyle that put him in danger of being compromised.

A source close to the investigation said that evidence discovered in the London flat included bondage items, porn films and paraphernalia associated with sado-masochism. It is also understood that Mr Williams, who was on secondment to M16 from GCHQ, the Government's top secret listening post, has been linked to a male escort.

Detectives have focused their investigations on the private life of Mr Williams, 30, since he was found on Monday murdered and stuffed into a holdall in his flat in Pimlico, a short walk from M16 headquarters.

It also emerged that Mr Williams travelled regularly to the United States on official business, raising further concerns about potential national security breaches because of the information he had access to. He went to Washington several times a year, stayed for a few weeks each time and went shortly before he died.

Last night the National Security Agency refused to confirm or deny that Mr Williams, who is believed to be an expert in codes and ciphers, had worked for them. It is not unusual for members of the security services to spend time working for government security departments in America.

Jenny Elliott, the spy's former landlady in Cheltenham, said Mr Williams regularly travelled to America. "He would go to Washington about three times a year. It was always Washington. That was part of his job." She said that Mr Williams would usually combine the trip with a holiday.

Detectives from the Homicide and Serious Crime Command may have to wait for up to a week to find out how Mr Williams died. The initial postmortem examination proved inconclusive and several tests, thought to include toxicology tests, are now being conducted.

A picture of Mr Williams as a genius who led a solitary existence began to emerge yesterday. Friends described him as athletic, kind and intelligent, but above all extremely private. Dylan Parry, a schoolfriend, described him as academically gifted but socially naive. Mr Parry, 34, said Mr Williams was an isolated child fascinated by mathematics and computers.

The pair attended Uwchradd Bodedern secondary in Anglesey, where Mr Williams was "the kind of person who found it difficult to engage with people on a normal level".

"It was clear he was going to go far, but we all assumed he would end up in academia. Finding out he became a spy was a shock," Mr Parry said.

Geraint Williams, the spy's maths teacher at Bodedern, said he had "definitely the best brain" he had known. "If you explained something once to Gareth he remembered it. You didn't have to explain a second time. It all stuck there. It didn't surprise me at all that he was very interested in codes and ciphers and it didn't surprise me that he was recruited by GCHQ."

Online tributes mainly referred to his shy and quiet nature. One fellow Cambridge student, said: "He seemed a shy and quiet chap, but had a peculiarly memorable laugh and smile that are haunting me somewhat today. I knew that Gareth had gone on to work at Cheltenham but would never have imagined his life culminating in this."

Keith Thompson, of Holyhead Cycling Club, said he had known Mr Williams since he joined the club at the age of 17. "It's true that he was very quiet. He wasn't a great conversationalist. We were clubmates but Gareth wasn't the sort to go the pub after a race so he didn't have any close friends in the group. I never spoke to him about his job or his private life. Nobody did with Gareth. It was his cycling that we knew about. A couple of times he won the club's 'best all-rounder' award."

Mirror : THE U.S. CONNECTION -- EXCLUSIVE: Chiefs mourn loss of 'genius'

THE U.S. CONNECTION -- EXCLUSIVE: Chiefs mourn loss of 'genius'

By Jon Clements | August 27, 2010

The full extent of murdered spy Gareth Williams' role in the world of espionage slowly began to emerge last night.

He was rated as one of the best codebreakers in the business - an elite agent who fought in secret to thwart al-Qaeda terror attacks at home and abroad.

And the 31-year-old maths genius's unique skills were also recognised by spy chiefs across the Atlantic.

Despite a dislike of flying, he regularly travelled from London to Baltimore to meet US National Security Agency officials at their Fort Meade HQ - dubbed the Puzzle Palace.

He made the trip up to four times a year "on business" for the Government's GCHQ listening post.

Last night his uncle told how he would mysteriously disappear for up to three or four weeks at a time.

Speaking at his farmhouse at Anglesey, North Wales, Michael Hughes said: "The trips were very hush-hush. 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."

Mr Williams' mysterious death has shocked and dismayed officials at the NSA, which has an agreement with GCHQ to pool their signal intelligence - known as SigInt.

Fort Meade officials have been updated on the police investigation into how the keen cyclist, who was on attachment to MI6, was found dead in a sports holdall in his bathtub.

They are anxious to know if there has been any breach of global security as a result of the murder at Mr Williams' Government-owned flat in Pimlico, Central London.

Britain now relies heavily on the NSA to help monitor phone calls, emails, texts and other communications of UK terror suspects.

When MI5 discovered the plot in 2006 by British Muslims to bomb transatlantic jets, GCHQ called in the NSA to help - and Williams worked closely alongside them.

Spy satellites tracked and secretly copied emails from mastermind Rashid Rauf in Pakistan to the two ringleaders in Walthamstow, East London. The messages were vital to the 2008 convictions of Abdullah Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain.

Mr Williams, who won a first class honours degree in maths at just 17, used to spend an average 19 days on each US trip before taking a fortnight's holiday.

One Western intelligence source told the Mirror: "He will have had 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."

It is thought Mr Williams may have had input into the monitoring of communications between Taliban commanders in Afghanistan - and even the tracking of serious organised crime suspects.

His death is being seen as a major blow to the security services because of his unusual and rare talents. A spokesman for Bangor University, where he completed his degree in just two years, described the fitness fanatic as "extremely gifted".

And a former classmate at Uwchradd Bodedern secondary in Anglesey said: "Nobody ever needed a calculator when Gareth was around."

Police investigating his death continue to focus on his personal life as they try to establish a motive.

Relatives are baffled by claims his body lay undiscovered for up to two weeks as his sister Ceri, from Chester, says she spoke to him last Wednesday.

Daily Record : Revealed: Murdered spy was elite codebreaker and made secret trips to US

Revealed: Murdered spy was elite codebreaker and made secret trips to US

By Jon Clements | August 27, 2010

MURDERED spy Gareth Williams was one of the world's elite codebreakers helping US spooks foil al-Qaeda terrorism, it was revealed yesterday.

The 31-year-old maths genius jetted to America regularly to meet National Security Agency officials at their Fort Meade HQ in Maryland, nicknamed "The Puzzle Palace".

Williams's mysterious death has been greeted with dismay at the NSA.

Fort Meade officials have been kept updated on the investigation into how the keen cyclist, on attachment to MI6, was found dead in a sports bag in his bath.

They are keen to know if there has been any breach of global security as a result of the murder at his Government-owned flat in Pimlico, central London.

Police investigating Williams's death continue to focus on his personal life hoping to establish who have a motive to kill him.

Relatives are baffled by suggestions his body was undiscovered for up to two weeks as sister Ceri, from Chester, spoke to him last Wednesday.

Further tests to establish the cause of death may not be completed until next week and detectives are urgently checking his mobile phone records.

Speaking at his farmhouse on Anglesey, north Wales, Williams's uncle Michael Hughes revealed: "He'd be away in the US for up to three or four weeks at a time and he was making up to four of these trips per year.

"They were very hush-hush, they were so secret that I only recently found out about them and we are a very close family.

"His last trip out there was a few weeks ago, Gareth was regularly back and forth from America."

Williams, so gifted he secured a first class honours degree in maths aged just 17, spent up to 19 days working on each trip before having a fortnight on holiday.

One Western intelligence source said: "Williams will have had high-level meetings with American intelligence officers.

"His job would have been crucial to the security of the UK and UK interests abroad - but 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 genuis."

Williams may have had input into the monitoring of communications between Taliban commanders in Afghanistan and even the tracking of serious organised crime suspects.

A spokesman for Bangor University, where he completed his degree in just two years, described the fitness fanatic as "extremely gifted".

He said: "Gareth came here at the age of 15 and he attained the highest degree possible. It is an exceptional achievement for any student, let alone someone so young."

Former classmate Dylan Parry said: "Gareth seemed precocious yet naive about the harsher realities of life. He was someone people could easily take advantage of.

"It would have been very hard to imagine Gareth in a relationship or attracted to the vain things of life."

Britain relies heavily on the NSA to help monitor the telephone calls, emails and texts of UK terror suspects.

When MI5 discovered the plot in 2006 by British Muslims to bomb transatlantic jets, GCHQ called in the NSA to help.

Williams worked closely alongside them.

Spy satellites tracked emails from mastermind Rashid Rauf in Pakistan to the two ringleaders in London.

The messages were vital in convicting Abdullah Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain in 2008.

Mirror : Security chiefs mourn loss of ‘genius’ spy Gareth Williams

Security chiefs mourn loss of ‘genius’ spy Gareth Williams

By Jon Clements | August 27, 2010

The full extent of murdered spy Gareth Williams’ role in the world of espionage slowly began to emerge last night.

He was rated as one of the best code-breakers in the business – an elite agent who fought in secret to thwart al-Qaeda terror attacks at home and abroad.

And the 31-year-old maths genius’s unique skills were also recognised by spy chiefs across the Atlantic.

Despite a dislike of flying, he regularly travelled from London to Baltimore to meet US National Security Agency officials at their Fort Meade HQ – dubbed the Puzzle Palace.

He made the trip up to four times a year “on business” for the Government’s GCHQ listening post.

Last night his uncle told how he would mysteriously disappear for up to three or four weeks at a time.

Speaking at his farmhouse at Anglesey, North Wales, Michael Hughes said: “The trips were very hush-hush. 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.”

Mr Williams’ mysterious death has shocked and dismayed officials at the NSA, which has an agreement with GCHQ to pool their signal intelligence – known as SigInt.

Fort Meade officials have been updated on the police investigation into how the cyclist, who was on attachment to MI6, was found dead in a sports holdall in his bathtub.

They are anxious to know if there has been any breach of global security as a result of the murder at Mr Williams’ Government-owned flat in Pimlico, Central London.

Britain now relies heavily on the NSA to help monitor phone calls, emails, texts and other communications of UK terror suspects.

When MI5 discovered the plot in 2006 by British Muslims to bomb transatlantic jets, GCHQ called in the NSA to help – and Williams worked closely alongside them.

Spy satellites tracked and secretly copied emails from mastermind Rashid Rauf in Pakistan to the two ringleaders in Walthamstow, East London. The messages were vital to the 2008 convictions of Abdullah Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain. Mr Williams, who won a first class honours degree in maths at just 17, used to spend an average 19 days on each US trip before taking a fortnight’s holiday.

One Western intelligence source told the Mirror: “He will have had 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.”

It is thought Mr Williams may have had input into the monitoring of communications between Taliban commanders in Afghanistan – and even the tracking of serious organised crime suspects.

His death is being seen as a major blow to the security services because of his unusual and rare talents. A spokesman for Bangor University, where he completed his degree in just two years, described the fitness fanatic as “extremely gifted”.

And a former classmate at Uwchradd Bodedern secondary in Anglesey said: “Nobody ever needed a calculator when Gareth was around.”

Police investigating his death continue to focus on his personal life as they try to establish a motive.

Relatives are baffled by claims his body lay undiscovered for up to two weeks as his sister Ceri, from Chester, says she spoke to him last Wednesday.

THE PUZZLE PALACE

The National Security Agency HQ - the Puzzle Palace - is "the largest espionage organisation the world has known".

Author James Bamford, who was given access to the organisation in Fort Meade, Maryland, in the US, said it intercepts millions of emails and calls an hour.

Bamford, author of The Puzzle Palace, said: "It is capable of eavesdropping on conversations virtually anywhere on the planet." The CIA and British partner, MI6, are better known, but the NSA and GCHQ gather most intelligence. The NSA also has a far bigger budget than the CIA and was known to have bugged six swing UN nations over Iraq. And while most intercepts are pulled from the ether, some are gathered the old-fashioned way - bugs planted in offices by "cleaners".

Channel 4 : Family shock after spy sex claims

Family shock after spy sex claims

August 27, 2010

The family of a spy who was found dead in a bag in his bath are "shocked" by allegations about his life. Channel 4 News hears that code breakers are still needed by governments.

Gareth Williams had worked at GCHQ, but was recently based at MI6. His body was found by police on Monday in the flat which had been provided for him in London by the government. Scotland Yard detectives have been investigating his private life in an attempt to discover why he was killed.

There have been claims that Mr Williams was linked to a male escort and that bondage equipment was found in his home. A relative said there is no evidence the allegations are true: "I have spoken to Gareth's parents and they are not doing well at all. They are in a state of shock and struggling to come to terms with what has happened. They have seen what has been in the papers and they are very, very upset about these untruths."

It is understood that Mr Williams made regular trips to Washington DC and Fort Meade, near Baltimore.

Bob Ayres, a former intelligence officer from America, said that code breakers are still very much needed today: "As long as people use codes to protect their communications, there will still be people working to break them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

A childhood friend of Gareth Williams, Dylan Parry, said Mr Williams was academically gifted but socially naïve. Bob Ayres said that intelligence organisations prefer staff to be: "Quiet, reserved and keep to themselves. If you are complying with the desires of an intelligence organisation, you do not tell people what you do or where you work. You do not get engaged in conversations which might lead you to say what you do.

"Either Gareth Williams was being a good intelligence practitioner, or he was just shy and uncomfortable.

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

"You might think it is a game, but it is when you realise the consequences of losing the game it becomes more serious."

Further tests will be carried out on Mr Williams' body after a post-mortem examination did not identify a cause of death. A pathologist said he was not stabbed or shot and there were no obvious signs of strangulation.

The Australian : Security breach probe after British spy is found dead, stuffed in a bag

Security breach probe after British spy is found dead, stuffed in a bag

Adam Fresco, Fiona Hamilton | From: The Times | August 26, 2010

DETECTIVES investigating the murder of a British spy found stuffed into a sports bag are focusing on his private life in search of a motive.

Potential national security breaches are also being examined after Gareth Williams, 30, lay dead in his London flat, close to MI6 headquarters, for up to a fortnight.

The Home Secretary and the heads of MI5, MI6 as well as anti-terror chiefs at Scotland Yard, are being kept informed of developments.

The spy's family spoke last night of a solitary figure who would not discuss his work with them. William Hughes, a close relative, said: “I knew he was working in London doing something. He would never talk about his work and it felt rude to ask really.”

Mr Williams, who was single, had been on secondment to MI6 from GCHQ, the government's top-secret listening post in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, for the past year.

A post-mortem examination yesterday was inconclusive, although it is understood that there were no stab wounds on the body. Sources said that a “national security” motivation for the murder was unlikely.

Mr Williams's body was discovered when police broke into his Pimlico flat on Monday night. He had moved to London in 2009 after living in Cheltenham while working at GCHQ, where he was due return next month.

It is believed that his decomposed body, found in a bag in the bath, could have been there for two weeks.

It is understood that Mr Williams, a bright student who took university courses at secondary school, was recruited while taking an MA in the advanced study in mathematics at Cambridge University in 2000. He dropped out of the year-long course.

He lodged in a self-contained granny flat in Cheltenham for almost a decade and had recently made arrangements to return. Jenny Elliott, 71, his former landlady, said that the intelligence analyst rarely entertained and did not appear to have a girlfriend during his time in Cheltenham.

She said: “Gareth was a really nice guy who was polite and mild-mannered and wouldn't hurt a fly. But he didn't really seem to have much of a circle of friends. As far as I'm aware, he never bought a girl back in the 10 years I knew him, although that's not to say he didn't meet girls.

“He was an extremely intelligent person but would not talk about his job as it was a secret, on account of working for GCHQ. All he told me was it was something to do with codes.”

A keen cyclist and runner, Mr Williams was a member of the Cheltenham and County Cycle Club. A fellow cyclist told The Times: “He turned up at events, rode very well and then went on his way. He never took part in any of our more social rides.”

The spy's family - Ian, his father, Ellen, his mother, and Ceri, his sister - were told of his death at their home in Holyhead, North Wales.

The company that owned the flat that Mr Williams lived in is called New Rodina, which means “new home” or “new homeland” in Russian. Details of its ownership are not available because it is registered in the British Virgin Islands and not listed with Companies House. Neighbours include the former home secretaries Michael Howard and Lord Brittan.

Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent, died in a London hospital after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium-210 in 2006.

GCHQ declined to comment. It is believed that Mr Williams had been seconded to MI6 to provide specialist electronic intelligence assistance.

The Times