By: Yolanda Leigh
Date: 2012-04-25
Political Assassination & The ‘Dark Arts’
More
proof, if proof were needed, of the dark heart of the secret services.
In what looks like a classic ‘wet’ operation, person or persons unknown
are believed to be behind the murder of mathematic genius and secret
intelligence worker Gareth Williams. In a case that is threatening to
expose the workings of secret service agencies, the current inquest
seems to be doing a reasonable job of exploring the facts behind the
case, but it is unlikely the truth will ever be fully revealed. Mr
Williams’ family want answers, and the bizarre nature of his death,
after a blameless life, have caused much uneasiness. Is he a victim of a
classic smear campaign, an assassination and clean up of the most
professional kind? And what is it he could have seen to make agents wish
to kill him? Assassination has always been a tool of government that
they are naturally unwilling to discuss. Perhaps this time they will
have no choice.
Mathematical Genius
Gareth
Williams was an exceptional child, who took higher level exams whilst
still at primary school. Going to University early, he graduated as he
peers were just arriving, and went on to study for an advanced
mathematics PhD at Cambridge University, which he eventually left
because ‘he felt he had learned all he could’. An extraordinary mind,
then. Already spotted as having huge potential to the intelligence
agencies he was recruited to work as a code expert for GCHQ in
Gloucestershire, the British government communications surveillance
organisation. He was happy here, working with other gifted
mathematicians, cryptologists and analysts and developed faster ways of
encrypting information which were of great use. After a period of work
there he was seconded to MI6, the secret intelligence service, where he
qualified for “operational deployment” in the field. In 2003 he was sent
to Menwith Hill RAF base in Yorkshire, and in 2006 he was sent for
training at the head of the US NSA in Fort Meade, Maryland. He is known
to have clocked up further air miles when
made trips to Afghanistan. He was clearly a highly valuable asset to
the intelligence services, and six months prior to his death he was
seconded to the London headquarters of MI6. He was put in a MI6
safehouse, at 36 Alderney Street, Pimlico – a prestigious area, which
one imagines, would have been kept under surveillance for security
reasons. What is known is that Gareth Williams was due to take up a
position in the Cyber Security Operations Centre at GCHQ, but he never
made it.
The Hit
Gareth
Williams’ death is a total mystery. He failed to appear for a meeting
he was supposed to be chairing, in August 2012, but was not reported
missing for a week. His sister became concerned and his employers to
investigate on 23rd August 2010. When police arrived at his
flat it seemed totally undisturbed except for a red holdall in the bath,
which was padlocked from the outside. In the bag was Gareth Williams’
naked and decomposing body. The flat showed no signs of forced entry and
was clean of prints. But it was soon proved that it would have been
impossible for Williams to have locked himself into the holdall. It all
pointed to a dark arts operation. By why, and by whom?
Investigation
At
the inquest this week some interesting new evidence has emerged. Early
on in the investigation police had pointed out a collection of women’s
clothing at Williams’ flat. His family denied that he had been a
cross-dresser. Were the clothes planted there in an attempt to damage
his reputation? It is a classic ploy, but police turned up more
information after further detective work. They believe Williams’ lived a
double life, visiting drag clubs and bondage websites. But they were
unable to trace any sexual partners at all, either male or female.
Williams was said to be awkward socially, enjoying solitude, cycling and
the countryside over socialising and ostentation. For this reason he
was not happy in London, and was keen to get back to Gloucestershire
where life was a little less flashy and hard-edged.
The Mystery Deepens
The
mystery surrounding his death deepened. Murder detectives stated they
were looking into the possibility that Gareth Williams may have been
killed by a foreign intelligence agency seeking to stop his work on
intercepting messages, code-breaking and encryption. He is known to have
returned from a foreign trip on the 11th August, but
government officials have refused to discuss his work. Four witnesses
from the security services, identified only as K, F, G and SIS F, will
all give evidence from behind a screen at the inquest and it is unsure
how much of their evidence will be reported. One issue raising questions
is the inability to establish a cause of death. The first post-mortem
was inconclusive, with no sign of drugs, alcohol. There were no marks on
his body and he appeared to have a calm expression on discovery. There
were no signed that he struggled to escape from the bag, which suggests
he was dead when placed in there – possibly with a view to the body
being moved to another location. There was no property missing from the
flat. Toxicologists are still struggling to find out what killed Gareth
Williams, who was extremely fit and strong. The only clue is the
sighting of a ‘Mediterranean couple’ who were known to have visited Mr
Williams in the weeks running up to his death. He is known to have
mentioned that he believed he was under ‘hostile surveillance’ a short
while before his death.
Unanswered Questions
As
the inquest into ‘gentle and solitary’ Gareth Williams’ death
continues, one is again left with the sense that the truth will never be
fully revealed. It is unthinkable that a top intelligence code breaker
could be murdered in an MI6 safe house, and the government know nothing
about it. Did his handlers find out more about his double life and want
him silenced? Was he just too good at his job for foreign agent to be
allow him to continue it? There have been rumours that he was working on
equipment that tracked the flow of money from Russia to Europe. We know
the Russians are quite comfortable with striking at agents right in the
heart of London. Crispin Black, a former intelligence officer, adviser
to the Government and the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), is
convinced Mr Williams was murdered by foreign agents, and is not afraid
to go on record saying so. He says that all the evidence points to a
foreign hit and a government cover up. There were virtually no signs of
anyone having been in Williams’ flat. It had been ‘dry-cleaned’ by MI6
before the police arrived, to hide evidence of a sexual relationship
between Williams and a senior colleague? Or to cover their embarrassment
that foreign agents had taken out one of their top men in an MI6
safehouse? They took five hours to contact the police after his sister
reported him missing, plenty of time to ‘dry clean’ the flat.
Government Secrecy
Just
as with the political assassination of the weapons inspector Dr David
Kelly, there will always be assassinations that are covered up and
evidence ‘lost’. It has happened before and it has been proved to have
happened. We should not be surprised at the lengths government agencies
will go to in order to protect themselves. There are forces at work
within every government which will act to protect the power structures
with extreme prejudice, and they get away with it time and time again.
We should not be surprised, just outraged that the family of Gareth
Williams will probably never know the truth of how he died. He was a
small cog in a very large machine, and possibly an inconvenience that
someone wanted to remove.
The hearing continues.
Gareth Williams – Photo courtesy of Associated Press
The ‘Mediterranean Couple’ Police want to trace - Photo courtesy of This is London
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