Alpha to Omega, Gareth Williams & deja vu

I see that one of the lawyers at today's session of the inquest into Gareth Williams extraordinary death is suggesting that 'dark arts' may have been at the core of his killing. Was it intelligence officers from another country (remember my point in an earlier post about Russians being caught on cctv!) or, he asked, MI6 itself?

Now the latter suggestion may seem extraordinary, but is not as crazy as it seems. I am not for a minute suggesting someone from MI6 murdered one of their own, but it is not beyond the bounds of possibility. Let me explain.

Many years ago Peter Wright, in his book Spycatcher, talked about groups within the security services who were a law unto themselves. In short, they had their own agendas. One of the people who began to open my eyes into what goes on (himself an officer in the security services) told me in some detail about his own experience of this.

He returned late one evening to his house in Oxford, made himself a drink and then took himself off to bed. He was not scheduled to return until the next day, but had managed to get a late flight back to Heathrow, rather than stay another night in France.  He was woken during the night by the creak of floorboards on the landing outside his bedroom. (These he had deliberately loosened himself, for obvious reasons) He got out of bed, grabbed a torch from the bedside table and opened the bedroom door. There, facing him, were three men wearing balaclava helmets. As he moved towards them, they turned and fled.

Now, you might ask why? If they were common burglars, three of them would have been more than a match for one man and would have dealt with him in some way, then carried on with their night's work. But suppose these three men expected the house to be empty and were also aware that the man they were now facing had  martial arts skills? 

His 'itinerary' would have been accessible to certain people within the security services and that would have said he was not booked to come back until the next day. Add to this the fact that he had 'upset' a few people  in recent months and the picture begins to emerge. Whatever view you or I may have, he was convinced it was his own people (or rather those who worked in the same service) who had broken in. Why? I've no idea. 

He and others, however, helped inform my knowledge and provide the 'backbone' for what became Alpha to Omega.