Alleged NASA hacker gets temporary reprieve
Gary McKinnon, a British man accused of hacking into U.S. military systems, has been granted a short stay of his extradition.
Last month, McKinnon lost his battle in the House of Lords against extradition to the U.S. to face charges of hacking various military systems. His final recourse now will be if the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) agrees to hear his appeal.
The London law firm representing McKinnon, Kaim Todner, stated on Tuesday that the ECHR will consider as soon as August 28 whether McKinnon can appeal.
"The presidents of the European Court (of) Human Rights have granted interim relief to Gary McKinnon for a period of two weeks, until 28 August, 2008, for the application to be heard before the full chamber," attorney Karen Todner said in a statement.
Gary McKinnon
(Credit: ZDNet UK)Todner was not available for comment at the time of writing. However, her colleague David Dinkeldein told ZDNet UK that because the ECHR will be considering the application, the U.K. government will not be able to extradite McKinnon for two weeks. The ECHR will be McKinnon's final chance to avoid extradition, if it agrees to hear his appeal.
"After the House of Lords, the European Court (of) Human Rights is the last court," Dinkeldein said.
McKinnon claims that he broke into Department of Defense and NASA systems up until 2001 in search of data on UFOs. However, if convicted of the charges leveled against him by the U.S., which include deliberately deleting sensitive military information, McKinnon could face up to 60 years in jail.
Tom Espiner of ZDNet UK reported from London.
UK joined the European Council by free will and signed the European Convention on Human Rights also by free will. And actually, is good that signed it, because you have an extra layer of protection regarding human rights in Europe.
The court has already proved is usefulness through the years in many countries, protecting the European citizens from some very wrong decisions and even dangerous laws (for our freedoms) approved by national parliaments.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&pwst=1&defl=en&q=define:negligence&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title
Maybe some of the information I've read that there is a direct relationship between UFOs and psychic phenomena is true? The objects and apparitions do not necessarily originate on another planet and may not even exist as permanent constructions of matter.
The real criminals will be laughing at this guy.
Feel sorry for him.
He should not go.
UFO hunting he was...
NOT!
Here's some other publicly available data about his crimes:
"U.S. prosecutors allege McKinnon's probing knocked 2,000 computers offline and that he deleted 2,455 user accounts as well as logs on computers at U.S. Naval Weapons Station Earle, a New Jersey facility used to track U.S. Navy ships. McKinnon also copied data from U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and NASA computers. Damage was estimated at $700,000.
"McKinnon admitted to hacking with a program called RemotelyAnywhere, a remote access tool used by system administrator to fix PCs. He said he was looking for evidence of UFOs. U.S. military networks often used default passwords and generally had weak security, he has said.
"But he also left other damning evidence, including one note on a hacked PC that said: "U.S. foreign policy is akin to government-sponsored terrorism these days. It was not a mistake that there was a huge security stand down on September 11 last year. I am SOLO. I will continue to disrupt at the highest levels."
The idiot thought he could get away with hate-motivated vandalism and not get hammered? Now he's crying for mommy to save him from the consequences.
The more he delays, the worse its going to be: he was offered a plea-bargain that could've landed him probation after less than two years. Now he's in line for forty.
Idiot.
I'm saying the military is guilty of negligence,
at no point did I say let Mckinnon go free.
On point (1), I have an ever-growing concern that the US government is reaching its hands into places it ought not. Let's say a country has a silly law that says every person must wear a hat on Friday. Let's say you post a video on the Internet on Friday and you're clearly not wearing your hat. Should that foreign country have the right to prosecute you? I am having a hard time differentiating between the two laws. A law is a law, no? As I said... this is very dangerous territory the US is playing in.
- by dconlee August 15, 2008 11:19 PM PDT
- That has to be one of the more ignorant comments I have ever heard. So according to you thinking, if I decide not to lock my door at night when I go to bed and some ******* breaks into my house, its my fault and not his? Please, give me a break!
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