Story is worthy of a movie plot
replies(1):
I don't think it's surprising that MI6 / GCHQ CESG / NSA / etc send people to conferences like Black Hat.
Williams was unhappy with his work environment at MI6 and felt he didn't fit in with his colleagues. During the inquest, testimony revealed that the coder had conducted unauthorised searches of an MI6 database
also: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/08/codebreaker-death/
"The source indicated that Williams' work to disrupt the Russian mafia could have put him at risk".
"Some of these powerful criminal networks have links with, and employ, former KGB agents who can track down people like Williams," the source said.
Seriously, this is (yet another) bit of irresponsible journalism headlines (titulars = British?) from Wired. They're trying hard to be "the finger on the pulse of the wild west world of cyberspace." facepalm.wav
If you assume the British government chooses to murder people, it also perfectly reasonable to assume that it does it using someone else style to cover its crime e.g. russian mafia style.
I didn't know any details of the case at the time but it just struck me as odd.
For government use of force to keep people inline to act as a deterrent you have to have concrete examples of a governments use of force.
"MI6 did not report him missing, however, until 23 August, at which point his body had decomposed, thwarting attempts to determine the precise cause of death."
His own spy agency failed to report him missing which is pretty suspicious all by itself. To me, this would indicate they're most likely involved. They also left out the fact the heat in the flat was turned up to speed decomposition and the reason the bag was in the bathtub was to make it easy for body fluids to drain.
Lots more details which indicate a professional hit:
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/blog/2013/01/04/gareth-wi...
Of course, all Brits might all be perverted loners!
Nicholas Anderson, former MI6 officer turned author, told
The Independent on Sunday: "I am on verbal record to my
own family, close friends and select lawyers that if
anything ever happened to me – a straight man and a
positive thinker – it would likely be made to look either
like a suicide or that I died dressed like a woman.
"Over the years, it seems to me a favourite way of
presentation. I, of course, am not suicidal in any remote
way nor do I like to dress so. When I read in the press
about Gareth Williams, women's clothes, and a wig, it all
fits the usual scenario."
Other suspicious UK deaths:
- http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mi6-dirty-secrets-why-d...:
- In 1983, 25-year-old Stephen Drinkwater, who worked as a clerk at GCHQ, was found dead at his home with a plastic bag over his head.
- In 1997 another worker, Nicholas Husband, 46, was found dead at home dressed in a bra and panties – with a plastic bag over his head.
- Two years later, Kevin Allen, 31, a language expert at GCHQ, was found dead in his bed at home with a plastic bag over his head and a dust mask over his mouth.
And a few more British perverts and loners:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Milligan
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Gareth_Williams
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Mossman
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Moyle
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Rusbridger
Plus a couple of other deaths that were linked to the state:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilda_Murrell
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kelly
- Dr. Richard Holmes (Dr. David Kelly's co-worker) - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2133201/Dr-Richard-H...
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_MacRae
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Mannakee
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindi_St_Clair
Apologies about the "source" but: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2139799/Sex-spies-se...
In summary, many of these deaths were suspicious. None of them have been proved to be attributed to the British security services, but is interesting that the link (however tenuous) is there.
Look at it another way. If you are the security services and you need to get rid of someone, making a murder look like a suicide is a good move. However, a suicide normally requires depression or some linked emotional trauma. Without that, the suicide is suspicious. If the suicide is linked to an accidental sexual game then the victim looks like a pervert, is shamed publicly and the "suicide" is much difficult to question. QED, murders through sexual misadventures are much easier to pass off than depressive suicides or straight up murders.
Its not the masses that are meant to be kept inline by this murder of a MI6 agent, its the people close to the victim - his colleagues and sympathizers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Milligan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kelly
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Gareth_Williams
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Moyle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Rusbridger
At the very least acknowledge the possibility, instead of parroting whatever some anonymous source - who decided to surface two years after the fact, at a very strategic time at that - is saying.
AND as a matter of fact, I just went back to triple-check the Guardian article and guess what? They changed it AGAIN. They replaced the word "molested" with "endured sexual assault."
Are they A/B testing? What is going on?! (wake up sheeple...)
[1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6374829 [2]http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/08/beeban-kidron-in...
Oh really? Of course, you're a career criminal investigator with a history of solving crimes committed and covered up by nefarious government entities?
Christ, the completely unsubstantiated hyperbolic rush to conclusions in this thread is absolutely mind-numbing.
Of course, that what a paid astroturfer for the government WOULD say, so I am probably one and can easily be ignored. Carry on.
dum dum dum
... The Icelandic Government.
That's right folks. Due to his persistent mockery of eating rotten shark, those heartless Icelanders decided to shut him up for good. The method of dispatch leaving his body in a similarly putrescent state as their favourite delicacy.
However, there just seems to be worrying number of people who are linked to the British security services.
Other notable names (non-security services related) include:
- David Carradine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Carradine
- Kristian Digby: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristian_Digby
- Kevin Glibert: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Gilbert
>An escapology expert tried and failed 300 times to lock himself into an identical bag after being hired to try to crack the mystery of Gareth Williams' death.
...
He said: 'I just cannot do it. This case, I just cannot get it off my mind. It is very difficult. I am an escapologist, I am thinking outside the box here and trying everything I can to find a way.'
Dr Wilcox added: 'With all your trials and failures do you think it would be impossible to padlock this bag from the inside?'
Mr Faulding replied: 'I cannot say it was impossible, but even Houdini would struggle.'
He said Mr Williams could not have survived for more than 30 minutes as the temperature quickly rose and oxygen levels dropped. Mr Faulding said he only lasted five minutes before becoming 'delirious' after zipping himself inside with emergency oxygen and a paramedic outside.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2136118/Gareth-Willi...
For it to be a message to others it has to be visible and it has to be obvious who did it without it actually holding up in court.
The Litvinenko case comes to mind. He didn't "trip" down the stairs, the way he was killed made it clear who killed him and sent a message out.
EDIT: To expand on this now that I'm not mobile: This notion of the "style" of security agencies might be what you get from Hollywood and spy novels, but you could only arrive upon this conclusion if you are selectively excluding examples from reality. Yeah, we know of the US's "heart attack gun", but we also know they are rather fond of "assassination via drone" and don't give a shit who knows it. The Russians tried to sneak the Georgi Markov assassination under the radar, but killed Alexander Litvinenko in one of the more flamboyant ways imaginable. Mossad tried to be sly with Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, but they've blown other peoples' heads off with telephone bombs on more than one occasion.
The conclusion that should be drawn from real-world examples of state assassinations should not be one that you find surprising: they do whatever they think will work best in any particular situation. That is their style.
It's the British government, one of the most bureaucratic agencies in the world. The fact that the form to notify the police wasn't lost while bouncing around is the only surprising thing to me in that sentence.
Or, you know, people do just kill themselves in large numbers in the UK. Men aged between 15 and 44 have the highest rates of completed suicide. While GCHQ is an Equal Opportunities employer it's likely that they employ many men because of the electronic and computing work.
(http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/subnational-health4/suicides-i...)
Mental health services in Gloucestershire are provided by 2gether NHS Foundation Trust. But there have been changes over this time - the 3 primary care trusts merged into a single trust; money from the budget of 2gether was taken to bail out one of the financially failing trusts; IAPT and PCAT have started; 2gether have done a lot of work to improve times for specialist community based psychotherapy (the wait used to be well over two years, it's much quicker now but they're still working on it). Suicide prevention hasn't been a national priority for very long.
> In summary, many of these deaths were suspicious
Really? Why? People die depressingly often by suicide. There is a known mechanism of "contagion" with DSH and suicide, and so we expect to find clusters of suicides.
I'd suggest the Marconi suicides (which used a number of bizarre methods) are much more suspicious than a death including suffocation. (Bags are sometimes used to preserve "dignity"; or to prevent need for cleanup of vomit.)