Murdered Spy Helped Foil al-Qaeda Plot

The British spy found stuffed into a duffel bag in his London apartment last week was a math genius codebreaker who worked with the American NSA as well as UK intelligence, in part helping to decode emails that were used to convict three men connected to an al-Qaeda bigwig who plotted to bomb transcontinental flights. Gareth Williams, who also helped break coded Taliban communications, flew to the US three to four times a year to visit NSA headquarters, Wired reports.

Adding to the mystery of Williams' murder, there were no signs of forced entry into his apartment, nor of a struggle; his cell phone and various SIM cards were neatly laid out on a table near his body. And police have nixed earlier tabloid reports that Williams was a transvestite and bondage equipment was found in his flat—nothing in his personal life, investigators say, offers a motive for the murder. A toxicology report should be released today.