Gary McKinnon Loses Plea Against Extradition to the US
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Seven years ago Gary McKinnon was arrested in the UK for hacking into computers belonging to the US Army, US Navy, US Air Force, Department of Defense and NASA, all from London. At that time he had claimed that he had been looking for information about aliens and anti-gravity propulsion systems which the US government was purportedly hiding from the public.
Arrested on serious charges of causing at least million dollars of worth of damage, he has been fighting an ongoing legal battle in the UK to avoid being extradited to the US and be tried in UK instead. Despite the fact that he has had tremendous support from the IT community, including hackers and even ordinary people, McKinnon, suffering from Asperger’s syndrome lost out on the legal front.
A relentless media campaign and several extradition appeals in the House of Lords and the European Court of Human Rights have not borne fruit. The decision by Lord Justice Stanley Burnton and Mr Justice Wilkie could leave McKinnon facing up to 60 years imprisonment in a ’supermax’ facility in the US where he will be tried.
Meanwhile his mother made an emotional and very public appeal to President Obama on television to stop his extradition. His lawyer is going to appeal further.
August 3rd, 2009 at 8:37 am
I know someone who worked with Gary early in his career. This guy is no Genius (far from it), and if he got into US military computers it was only due to the total incompetence of the US authorities in securing their systems.
Yes, what he did was technically wrong – but the reaction of the US government is way way overboard. I’m very disappointed in our own government too in how they are handling this case.
It seems that our civil liberties are just being trod over by a government quite happy to bend over and take it from the USA.
August 3rd, 2009 at 11:19 pm
I agree. I think way too much fuss has been made of this case. There was nothing malicious in his intent really. Lets hope they go easy on the guy.
August 12th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
The Amis want him, because he knows something, so they want to control him.
Or the give him a Job at the CIA or NSA…
September 1st, 2009 at 10:29 am
After this Libya business with Scotland, I think McKinnon is pretty much screwed if he is extradited.
September 6th, 2010 at 6:41 pm
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