Gareth Williams

Gareth Willimas
Photo-credit The News Chronicle

Template:Current Events Gareth Williams was 31 years old when his body was discovered in a padlocked sports holdall submerged in 'a fluid' in the bath of his top (3rd) floor flat at 36, Alderney Street, Pimlico, London Map on the afternoon of 23 August 2010. He had last been see alive in London on 15 August 2010. Police reported that the body "was in an advanced state of decay" when found and this made establishing the cause of death problematical.

Employment

Williams was an employee of GCHQ Cheltenham. It is reported that, at the time of his death, he was nearing the end of a six month secondment to MI6 whose HQ is about a mile away from his London flat on the opposite side of the river Thames. Williams is reported to have been a 'mathematical genius' and key (though relatively junior) member of GCHQ staff working in the field of cryptography as it applies to the Signals and communications intelligence functions of GCHQ. He is reported to have been a regular visitor to US NSA establishments at Fort Meade, Maryland and to have been a recent visitor to military intelligence establishments in Kabul, Afghanistan. However, Foreign Office policy is to neither confirm or deny the status of employees so this information remains wholly in the realms of media speculation at this time.

The Alderney Street Flat

36 Alderney St Pimlico - 23 August 2010

36 Aldernet St, Top (3rd) floor

The letting agents for the Alderney Street flat, Messrs WA Ellis of Knightsbridge, are quoted as follows in the Daily Mail:

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.’

In the immortal words on Mandy Rice-Davis "Well he would say that wouldn't he".

New Rodina is an off-shore company based in the British Virgin Islands. It is therefore next to impossible to discover who its directors or controllers are. What IS known however, is that properties owned by New Rodina have been used in the past as "Safe Houses" provided by agencies of the British Government for people deemed in need of anonymity. Salman Rushdie is perhaps the best known example. It is also interesting to note that "Rodina" is both a Russian and Bulgarian word meaning "Motherland" and that "The Rodina Society" was used as a cover operation for KGB activity in the West during the Cold War. At the very least therefore, the name "New Rodina" will resonate with MI6 - and the possibility that "resonate" is a serious understatement should not be ruled out.

Since Wikispooks' approach to life dictates that 'conspiracy' ALWAYS has a higher probability than 'coincidence' in explaining intriguing events - and especially so where "intrigue" is involved by definition, research into associations between past events involving the SIS's and use of the word "Rodina" is clearly needed.

MSM speculation

The British MSM has indulged itself in predictable speculations (some no doubt planted) surrounding the unexplained death of a so-called 'spy'. They have variously been alleged that:

• His mobile phone simcards were arranged in a "bizarre ritualistc manner"
• There were Escort Agency telephone numbers on one phone SIM card and pornographic material on another.
• He was gay and may have attracted the unwelcome attentions of a jealous aspiring partner
• "Bondage equipment was found at his flat.

The police - to their credit - have matter-of-factly stamped on most of this stuff. Although they seem happy to allow, and even encourage continuing speculation

On 7 September 2010 the police appealed for information about a couple "of Mediterranean appearance" - with all the strange connotations the expression carries - who were allegedly captured on CCTV "one or two months before Mr Williams died" .

Wikispooks Speculation

Red Extra-large "North Face" holdall in which the body was found

The following speculations rest on one over-riding assumption. It is that the real reason for Gareth William's murder are known to MI6 and must NOT become public knowledge. That assumption in turn rests on substantial evidence of a so-called 'turf-war' between the Metropolitan Police charged by statute with the investigation of a capital crime, and the 'Security Services' who are reported as being 'less than helpful' to the investigation. That together with lurid speculation in the MSM and variously attributed to 'sources close the inquiry', 'senior intelligence sources' and other such journalistic euphemisms. The waters are being well-and-truly muddied by people well placed to undertake the muddying.

Speculation 1 - The Manhattan 11 connection?

The murder is connected with the recent "Manhattan 11" Russian Espionage fiasco in which 11 alleged Russian "Deep-Cover" sleeper spies were arrested, charged and subsequently exchanged for 4 alleged US spies held in Russia

MURDERED spook Gareth Williams could have helped to nail Russian spy beauty Anna Chapman. However, this connection is hugely tenuous. Detectives are looking into claims the MI6 code breaker was in the US when ­Chapman was uncovered in June.... However, investigators are meeting “resistance” from US and UK intelligence agencies..... a high-level source told the Daily Star ­Sunday: “Mr Williams’ work in America is forming part of the inquiry.

“We need to know what he was working on during his ­visits there. MI6 and CIA code crackers played a vital part in outing Chapman and the ­Russian spy ring."

Further indications of a possible Russian connection are provided by the name of the company that owns Williams' flat - see The Alderney Street Flat above

More soon

Speculation 2 - A Mossad / Israeli 'false-flag' connection?

The rationale here goes like this:

There is one over riding, non-negotiable requirement for the success of Israel's foreign policy goals. It is that the growing regional power and alleged nuclear weapons ambitions of Iran be neutralised. Israeli cannot accomplish this on its own and judges sanctions to be a waste of time. Israel SIS's judge that the best way to provoke the US into a military attack would be for it to suffer a major terrorist attack by Iran. This speculation holds that Israel was/is at an advanced planning and logistical stage of ensuring that just such an attack occurs and is blamed on Iran. And that Gareth Williams, because of his deep involvement and knowledge of UKUSA / Israeli SIGINT / NSA operations handled, or otherwise came across, evidence of the planned operation and voiced his concerns to the wrong people.

Evidence for this speculation is that the way in which the body was left would greatly inhibit the spread of the smell of decay or of body fluids leaking through the floor and thus delay discovery sufficient for the perpetrators to be well clear of the country with little or no CCTV evidence still extant. It is also consistent with police appeals for information about a couple "of Mediterranean appearance" caught on what CCTV there is (or rather has been revealed) of the weeks before the body was discovered. Williams is also reported to have been a regular visitor to the NSA HQ at Fort Meade Maryland and these reports are now subject to obfuscation and water muddying. He was also on secondment to MI6. He was thus at the hub of the technical and operational agencies charged with finding out and dealing with such possibilities - the purposes to which such 'finding-out' is put, remaining moot.

Speculation 3 - A Hamid Kazai 'Special Operation' connection?

Pure speculation this one - lateral thinking you might say.

Williams is reported to have visited 'Intelligence facilities' in Kabul in the weeks before his death. Hamid Kazai (President of Afghanistan) has become both an embarrassment and a liability to US objectives in Afghanistan. Great hopes were vested in his being ousted in the Autumn 2009 'elections' but despite them being reported by independent observers as little better than a sham, Karzai easily held on to power. It is speculated that Williams became privy to a Special Forces operation to eliminate Karzai. For whatever reason, the operation failed or had to be aborted - or maybe it is still on the stocks. Williams knowledge was dangerous and he voiced the wrong kind of concerns - or worse - to the wrong people.

Speculation 4 - International Banking security connection

This is based entirely on a Telegraph report attributed to "Sources" and "a British Intelligence Officer". So, all the caveats concerning spook routine use and manipulation of the MSM apply in spades. According to the Telegraph:

Sources have told this newspaper that Britain's intelligence services – MI6, MI5 and GCHQ – are liaising closely to establish whether Gareth Williams was targeted by a foreign power. The 31-year-old was seconded from GCHQ to work on top-secret systems to defend British banks and transport infrastructure from cyber attack and to eavesdrop on terrorist communications. As a result he may have come to the attention of foreign intelligence agencies. .... It is feared that by the time of his death last month Mr Williams's presence in London had become known to foreign spies, despite the fact he was living in a MI6 safe house with an alarm system linking him to nearby MI6 headquarters. "It would have been part of their brief", said a British intelligence officer. ....It is understood Mr Williams's job at the time of his death was creating computer defences in the City of London. Williams would have had access to information which other countries would want to obtain. The intelligence source said: "His job was to defend the banking system on which Britain's banking, commerce and all our public services depend. It was the kind of work that would have made him prime target for recruitment..... "He was also in a position to know about huge money transfers out of the Middle East which were linked to terror groups. It would be priceless data."

Williams' involvement in Afghanistan SIGINT work are also repeated in this article, as are his frequent visits to The USA.

Speculation 5 - from Aangirfan

A must read compendium of links and theories about the case.

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Wikispooks entirely discounts the possibility of the murder being sexual or lifestyle related but expects the outcome of the investigation to conclude - for public consumption - that it was. The reason behind this is simply that we catagorically stated it was not sexual or lifestyle related right from the start and, regardless of whether it is proved to be so, we are a bit too arrogant to admit we were wrong.

Representative MSM Coverage

• MI6 worker found murdered in London flat - The Guardian 25 August 2010
• Spy last seen alive eight days before body was found in bag - The Guardian 25 August 2010
• FLAT OWNED BY FIRM NAMED AFTER ‘RUSSIAN MOTHERLAND’ Daily Express 26 August 2010
• Race to solve secret of grisly murder in an MI6 'safehouse' - The Scotsman 26 August 2010. With comment by Prof Glees of The Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at the University of Buckingham
• MURDERED SPY MAY HAVE MET HIS KILLER ON MISSIONS TO USA Daily Express 27 August 2010
• MI6 bondage claims untrue - The Guardian 29 August 2010
• MI6 death: Murder most strange - The Independent 29 August 2010. Interesting takes on the matter from lots of SIS-connected people.
• Bondage claims over dead MI6 officer untrue, say police - The Guardia 29 August 2010. This article also contains information about Williams' visits to the Fort Meade NSA HQ and to Kabul. - Richard Norton Taylor
• Spy murder case could be too sensitive for court Telegraph 31 August 2010
• 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? - Mail online 4 September 2010
• MI6 spy Gareth Williams murder: police hunt for Mediterranean couple - The Telegraph 6 September 2010
• Police issue CCTV footage of dead MI6 worker - Guardian 6 September 2010
• Was it poison? Two weeks after murdered spy was found in his bath, baffled police release CCTV of victim as they probe radiation theory - Daily Mail 7 September 2010
• MURDERED SPY GARETH WILLIAMS ‘WAS BEING TAILED’ - Express 9 September 2010.
• Detectives believes dead MI6 spy may have zipped HIMSELF in bag in bizarre sex game that went wrong - Mail Online 12 September 2010
• Concern grows over foreign involvement in spy's death - Telegraph 11 September 2010