Spy death 'may have been professional hit'
Meet Edward Snowden: NSA PRISM Whistleblower
“Gareth Williams (26 September 1978 – c. 16 August 2010) was an employee of GCHQ seconded to the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6) who was found dead in suspicious circumstances at a Security Service safe house flat in Pimlico, London, on 23 August 2010.[1] The inquest found that his death was "unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated". The police investigation is continuing.[2]
…
The lawyer for the family, Anthony O'Toole, at the Coroner's inquest in March 2012, said that a second person was either present when Williams died, or someone broke in afterwards and stole items. There is no forensic evidence to support this view. No sign of forced entry could be found, but it was also noted that the door and locks had been removed by the time police experts had become involved.
DNA found on the hand of Williams turned out to be contamination from one of the forensic scientists and the Mediterranean couple sought by police had nothing to do with the inquiry.[22] LGC, the forensic company, apologized that the error had caused the family such pain, caused by the incorrect data entry of a numerical code.[1]
Evidence at the inquest showed that it would have been virtually impossible for Williams to have locked himself in the bag.[23] Williams' family said they believed that a secret service agency was involved in his death.[24]
Dr Fiona Wilcox, the Coroner, said that she would "follow the evidence" wherever it led.[1]
Evidence given by Williams' former landlady in Cheltenham showed how one night he had awoken her and her husband, screaming for help. Apparently he had managed to tie himself to his bed, and required assistance in releasing himself. The testimony was that Williams had claimed at the time that he had done it just to see if he could free himself and that he promised not to try this again. Nothing further had been said about the incident since, between Williams and his landlady.[25]
Evidence was given of £20,000's worth of women's clothing being found in the flat.[26]
The journalist Duncan Campbell reported that the inquest evidence indicated Williams was one of a team of intelligence officers sent to penetrate US and UK hacking networks. He had attended the 2010 Black Hat Briefings and DEF CON conferences. He had started with SIS in London in spring 2009, and after taking a number of training courses started on "active operational work".[6] A few months before his death, he asked to return to GCHQ as he disliked the "rat race, flash car competitions and post-work drinking culture" at SIS and as a keen cyclist and walker wanted to go back to the countryside, and was due to return in September.”
“Evening Standard … Cameron: I’m satisfied GCHQ didn’t break law 10 June 2013
The Prime Minister said that he was “satisfied” that the listening post GCHQ and other agencies operated “within the law” following claims they sidestepped privacy laws.
….
Sir Malcolm, who chairs the Intelligence and Security Committee, said any requests by GCHQ for access to British citizens’ emails would have to go through a proper procedure to be lawful. Although he said “some intrusion on privacy” was necessary to protect the public, he said the personal approval of a minister could be needed.
Prism is said to give America’s NSA and FBI agencies easy access to the systems of nine of the world’s top internet companies, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo and Skype.
Documents emerged suggesting GCHQ had access to the system since at least June 2010.
Speaking on the BBC yesterday, Foreign Secretary William Hague said law-abiding Britons had “nothing to fear”. He went on: “The idea that in GCHQ people are sitting working out how to circumvent a UK law with ... another country is fanciful.””
“The Independent .. MoD civil servant pocketed '£100k from The Sun': Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson charged with plotting to bribe public officials
TUESDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2012
A senior civil servant at the Ministry of Defence was on the payroll of the Sun for almost a decade, prosecutors claimed as they charged the former editor of Britain’s best-selling newspaper, Rebekah Brooks, and its chief reporter with plotting to bribe public officials.
Bettina Jordan Barber, a strategy officer at the MoD in London with responsibility for Afghanistan, allegedly passed information for stories to Rupert Murdoch’s redtop tabloidbetween 2004 and 2012 in return for £100,000.
The Crown Prosecution Service today revealed that charges of conspiracy to commit misconduct were being laid against Ms Brooks, the Sun’s long-standing chief reporter John Kay and Ms Barber, following a police inquiry into newspaper payments to public officials.
They are said to have committed the offence during an eight-year period between January 1 2004 and January 31 2012.”
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