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What they are saying about Gary McKinnon
The High Court will decide this week on whether computer hacker Gary McKinnon should be extradited to the US to face trial
The controversial extradition case against computer hacker Gary McKinnon comes to a head this week, with the High Court due to give its judgment on Friday on his appeal against being sent to the United States for trial. If the appeal is rejected, his lawyer, Karen Todner, plans to take the case to the House of Lords and/or the European Court of Human Rights.
McKinnon, a 43-year-old unemployed computer programmer who has been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, does not deny that he hacked into Pentagon and Nasa computer networks in 2001 and 2002. But he and his lawyers insist that the purpose was not sinister: he was searching for evidence to prove his belief in UFOs and alien life. He made little effort to cover his tracks.
But his actions, however naïve, have been taken very seriously in the United States and, if he is extradited, he could be jailed for up to 60 years. He is due to be tried in the Eastern District of Virginia, a jurisdiction which, according to a report in the Sunday Telegraph, has "a reputation for tough judges and sentencing policies".
The charge against him is that he deleted thousands of files in the military and Nasa computer systems he hacked into, and copied account information. In all, he is said to have caused $600,000 worth of damage.
McKinnon's mother, Janis Sharp, has told the Daily Mail that her request for a face-to-face meeting with the Home Secretary Alan Johnson has been refused. While senior lawyers believe Johnson has the power to intervene because of McKinnon's autism, Johnson himself claims he has no such power. He wrote to Mrs Sharp: "Since I do not possess the discretion which I am said to have, it would be inappropriate to arrange the personal meeting which you seek."
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING:Gary McKinnon, defending himself on BBC Radio 5's Victoria Derbyshire show: "I'm not blind to criminality but I was on a moral crusade at the time. There was good evidence to show that certain secretive parts of the American government intelligence agencies did have access to crashed extra terrestrial technology which could... save us as a form of free, clean, pollution-free energy. I thought if someone was holding on to that, that was actually unconstitutional under American law."
Andrew MacKinlay, Labour MP for Thurrock, who has vowed to quit the Commons at the next election in protest at the recent Commons vote supporting McKinnon's extradition: "I believe it's the role of backbenchers to probe and criticise. In instances like the McKinnon case, which relate to people's rights and liberties as well as commonsense, you should just spurn the diktats and the Whips. I was really frustrated by the vote. Many of my colleagues had expressed their sympathy for Gary McKinnon. But when the crunch came, they just went tribal and followed the diktats of the party."
Mayor of London Boris Johnson: "There are a number of serious flaws in the Extradition Act in its current form. In the case of Gary McKinnon it is brutal, mad and wrong to consider sending him to the US. Gary's case is just one high-profile case we are aware of, but a number of other UK citizens are also in similar positions and are currently awaiting their fate."
An anonymous military officer at the US Pentagon, interviewed by the Sunday Telegraph: "US policy is to fight these attacks as strongly as possible. As a result of Mr McKinnon's actions, we suffered serious damage and lost a lot of time and money. This was not some harmless incident. He did very serious and deliberate damage to military and Nasa computers and left silly and anti-American messages. All the evidence was that someone was staging a very serious attack on US systems."
Anita Coles of Liberty, in the Guardian: "Gary McKinnon's fight to be prosecuted in the UK casts a stark light on our extradition arrangements with America. US prosecutors are threatening him with up to 70 years in a "supermax" prison and this a man with Asperger's syndrome who could hardly be less suited to such punishment." ·
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I wonder what some of these people would say if the security of UK had been breached by an American. Baying for blood comes to mind. I am English.
Anyone with IT knowledge can see that Gary McKinnon is lying in his BBC "Click" interview about how he "hacked" into military and government installations. He says he scanned for the IP's of PC's that had no password.
This is impossible. PC's in a network such as exists in every organisation have NO PUBLIC IP, only local addresses (like 192.168.0.50). Only the server has a connection to a publicly accessible IP. And that WILL NOT EVEN INSTALL without first inputting a password. It is written in the installation code. You also cannot remove the password afterwards. Brevity forbids me from writing pages on the details. Just ask any IT Engineer.
The conclusion is: he is obviously a patsy. An outer "wannabe" member of a gang taking the rap for others and unwilling to give them up out of a misplaced sense of loyalty, a feeling of grandiosity and a Joan of Arc complex. This is obvious from the fact he was not even clued in enough to use a simple anonymous proxy and avoid detection.
Why is it when the British commit crimes abroad there are always cries of foul and injustice when they are made to face up to what millions of others are made to in countries around the world? I would not mind, but the British justice system is especially harsh on other nationalities. How do they explain away the thousands in their prisons for relatively minor crimes? Come on, practice what you preach. The US justice system, largely based on your own, is no harsher nor unfair, compared with yours. The fellow has committed a serious crime, and I just wonder whether the immature London mayor, Boris Johnson, would be spouting the same nonsense had a US citizen done the same thing in the UK. You bet not.
This is merely a further demonstration of the myopic nature of the U.S.
Were I the Pentagon, Mr. McKinnon would have been offered employment at the highest level post haste. But no. The system must be seen to be in charge no matter if it is controlled by fools!
I find it very impressive that Lord Excellent and suzann (sic) Dodd are able to remotely diagnose Gary's mental condition and dismiss it with a few sarky comments. Perhaps we could recruit them to the NHS and have them clear the hospitals of all the sick people?
The American government does not want people to know they have contact with "aliens" and "UFO's". That is what the truth is. NASA also does not want you to know how much money the US government gives to fund these projects. Trillions of dollars are secretly siphoned off and hidden from the public. McKinnon merely uncovered this in his search, and now NASA and the government are using him as the bad guy. Do we notice they don't say exactly what damage he really did? This is just a smoke screen to cover up the truth. If America has a mission to Mars, it will be assisted by extra-terrestials. Edgar Mitchell has come out about their being on the moon when our Apollo missions were up there. Ham operators heard the convesations that were "censored" between the astronauts and Houston. Did he really "hack" into the computer, or was he just able to get through to other areas Nasa didn't expect anyone to look for and get to, therefore it was not as secured as it should have been? It is time for NASA and the American government to come clean and disclose the truth. We are not alone, up there and down here. WE use UFO technology for our military, and so have the Russians, and Germans, and others.....Un Funded Opportunities!!
On one hand, I virtually cheer McKinnon's skill and do believe that the fact he was able to crack the systems indicates that probably others have been there before or since.
The attempt to use another of the artsy-craftsy mental cracksy defenses makes me puke. He knew damn well what he was doing, which is why he was able to do it.
Just because I think you're possessed by a Body Snatcher doesn't mean I get a wrist slap when I kill you...
Or is that the law in the UK?
If the treaty agrees to extradition so be it .. Parliament might learn to scutinise bills more carefully in future.
Like all bullies the US picks on an easy target. If a lone hacker can break into NASA and Pentagon systems think what organised state sponsored groups in Eastern Europe, Middle East, Israel, China, North Korea etc. can achieve.
I think is is more about protecting those security "experts" who have been caught out not doing their job and maintaining the illusion of US security than anything else.
Having Asperger's Syndrome myself, it is easy to see how the facts can make it appear that Gary has done something serious which might have resulted in some kind of disaster. However human beings are not just a bunch of facts. They have brains that develop and work in different ways. For those of us on the autistic spectrum, particularly with Asperger's, in my experience, it's the social understanding of things that presents a challenge especially when we are younger. Gary simply did not understand the implications of what he was doing, he might do now having had it explained, but I cannot believe he did at the time.
A criminal who is someone who knows they are doing wrong and does that with full intent of doing it and usually trying to cover it up. Gary has not once tried to cover it up because he didn't understand the full implications of what he was doing.
It was a spiteful and serious stupid thing that he did, it could have created a disaster maybe an international incident, could you imagine if a similar event had happened in the Middle East, and been taken seriously, and acted upon, he must be punished to prevent anyone else doing the same.
This case is the contest of the supremity between 'national' government and self determination (aka 'the past') and 'supra government' (aka 'the future') or the way the world has been heading for nearly a century. One-world government is going to win until there is a serious enough challenge mounted by the establishment - the very people who want one-world government - which this crisis will not stir.
Why shouldn't he be subject to justice? Too many syndromes are used to shield guilty people from facing up to their actions. He destroyed property, hacked into private systems and just because Liberty - an organisation with few members and no mandate to speak for the UK's residents - says it's a breach of his human rights. The man is a criminal. Should he be allowed to walk free? I shall be acquiring one of these syndromes, before breaking into my local bank, taking all the cash and running off home. If caught - I will say I was merelyl looking for aliens and therefore did nothing wrong. Also, with my syndrome, going to prison would not be a very nice experience for me. Oh - sorry, isn't that the point?
This is nothing but spite, all the US is good for. If they think their military computers are secure against an enemy, McKinnon has done them a favour by showing they aren't. The US is showing itself up as the unreconstructed bully it is; vicious military no-brains caught out with their big military machine shown to be less than secure, full of pompous, posturing hate-mongers who can't even defeat a bunch of tribal fighters in Afghanistan despite their overwhelming firepower. What a pathetic bully.