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NASA hacker loses bid to avoid extradition
Gary McKinnon has lost his high court bid in the U.K. to avoid extradition to the U.S. for hacking into military systems.
McKinnon had tried to argue that former home secretary, Jacqui Smith, was legally wrong to push for the extradition despite his diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome and that the director of public prosecutions was also wrong to opt for extradition despite having sufficient evidence to prosecute McKinnon in the U.K.
Gary McKinnon
(Credit: ZDNet UK)However, Lord Justice Stanley Burnton and Justice Alan Wilkie dismissed both claims on Friday. McKinnon now has 28 days to launch an appeal at the Royal Courts of Justice. According to his solicitor, Karen Todner, McKinnon and his legal team will also appeal to the Law Lords, and Todner has made a fresh approach to President Obama.
"I have today sent a letter to President Barack Obama signed by 40 members of a cross parliamentary group of MPs asking him to step in to bring this shameful episode to an end," Todner said in a statement on Friday. "It is a sad state of affairs if this government cannot protect our most vulnerable of citizens."
In her statement, Todner also referred to the judges' decision as "inhumane" and "an affront to British justice."
The decision comes almost seven years after McKinnon, from North London, was indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice in November 2002. He was charged with intentionally damaging a federal computer system, and with breaking into 97 computers belonging to the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Department of Defense, and NASA.
McKinnon has never denied the hacks, although his legal team has disputed the cost of the damage he allegedly caused--around $700,000, according to U.S. authorities. The Londoner said he had been looking for suppressed evidence of extraterrestrial life and pointed out the poor security that had been applied to the affected systems.
The case has had ramifications beyond the hacks themselves, as it has drawn attention to the extradition treaty that exists between the U.K. and the U.S. The U.S. can demand a suspect be extradited from the U.K. without providing prima facie evidence, which McKinnon's defense team have argued is not reciprocal.
McKinnon has also been diagnosed by the autism expert Simon Baron-Cohen with Asperger's syndrome, a disorder on the autism spectrum.
If he is convicted in the U.S., McKinnon faces up to 70 years in a maximum security federal prison. Legal team has argued that, given his condition, the situation would put him at risk of psychosis or even suicide.
Politicians and celebrities have rallied behind McKinnon, arguing that he should serve any potential sentence in the U.K., rather than in the U.S.
Correction at 8:25 a.m. PDT: The details of the extradition treaty between the U.S. and the U.K. have been tweaked.
David Meyer and Tom Espiner of ZDNet UK reported from London.
This guy's a gutless wonder. Just for all the roadblocks he's tried to put up he should be locked up for being the fool that he is.
He's a citizen of the UK who committed the crime in the UK. Therefore he should be tried in the UK using the UK's system of laws and punishment. It is that plain and simple.
How would you like it if you broke some law in Saudi Arabia or Iran and they were going to have you extradited to face the charges there?
The "remote" nature of the crime doesn't matter. He willingly accessed US computers without authorization knowing that he is accessing computers in the US. He should have stood trial for this years ago, his slight to moderate disability notwithstanding.
My analogy was in reference to make_or_break breaking a law in SA or Iran while not on Saudi or Iranian soil.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism
My son has it. Asperger is not as extreme as my son's condition, but they do not have the same understanding of norms we do. He may has simply not seen this as a serious act or understood what the consequences could have been.
He should stand trial, but extradition is not necessary. They can do this in the UK.
Easy to understand once you put the psychology of the people in power.
He performed a valuable service as the incompetent feds were forced to lock up their systems.
So you think that getting a trojan on your computer is the same level as rape or murder? If so, you are simply retarded.
As for a hacker give me a break this guy is useless, not very good at it, considering he did not hide what he was doing or go thru a bunch of proxy systems to hide his real identity.
I doubt very much that information on military computers would be categorized by ANYONE as PUBLIC information.
if our military secrets are public then why have a military and militatry intelligence programs...........
let's use those funds to build water parks on every street...
1. He hacked into US government and US Military Systems. How and why and what he was doing with his left hand at the time notwithstanding. Just because he got in with UID: Administrator PWD: Blank doesn't mean squat - heck, it could have even been a setup?
2. He got caught. Notwithstanding his mild case of Asberger's, he was indeed found to have his hand in the cookie jar. Should he have just been let off the hook and try for best 2 out of 3? He committed a crime on US systems - not just my neighbors or the Post Office - military and space systems. He was tried and convicted in the US in abstentia. The US and the UK have extredition treaties. Game over, send him forward to face the music. If the situation were reversed, the result would and should still be the same. Little Danny Darling American boy (of legal age) gets caught infiltrating the MOD, what - you don't want him?
3. All you UK defenders of this guy - I know us colonists don't really mount up to a hill of beans in your books, heck - most of you guys hate the French and Germans too - yep, that's right - I worked with and for a UK firm that conducted business in the US, the UK, Germany and France and all the UK employees were most continually talking trash about everyone else. I can't believe how you (almost all) spoke about the French and Germans and even us - I guess it must be a size envy thing, eh? Little UK, big Germany, France and US? Anyhow, guess what? Nobody cares this time - the boy did the deed and got caught, so stop trying to use the "oh, pity the poor mate with Aberger's routine" - nobody's buying it, not even the judiciary in your own government. Getting 40 MP's to sign something together is not all that difficult and quite frankly, were the number higher, it would be perhaps a bit more significant, but 40? nah.
4. Nations have laws for very good reasons; the law is still working its way forward for this young man in the UK - it's not a done deal yet, he may never get to the states - but he should. You may have strong feelings one way or another about the case, but at the very least, the laws should not be broken again to avoid justice and as an American feel the only way for justice to be met in this case is for him to come here, face the music, and start the appeals process - who knows? Maybe, just maybe, the laws of our land will work.
Television has made people expect big conspiracies and aliens who lurk around the corner. The internet doesn't help, either. This guy's disability and lack of judgment caused him to commit a crime. He should stand trial in the country where he committed the crime (US).
How about hiring competent admins who don't leave the door wide open? I bet the morons who didn't even bother to configure these systems aren't in jail or at least banned from ever touching a computer again like they should be.
Now comes the fair and just part. The punishment should fit the crime. He was not using it to gain money, or physically harm anyone, or bring down a corporation. He was looking for UFO information. He really should get a minimum sentence, and have it suspended, and be released.
Shi*, you have corporate execs raking in millions in bonuses at banks for performance bonuses when the banks have lost billions, had bailout money in the billions. You have oil companies setting prices costing citizens millions everyday. You have mayors of major cities stealing. Locally we've spent 75 million on a downtown renovation whereby no real benefit occurs, other than the city making tens of thousands in parking fines. You have cops working as revenue generators screwing drivers with their speeding tickets, you have a company in Scotsdale doling out cameras to the government so they get a big share of the fines. You have illegal immigrants crossing over and getting free health care while the rest of us have to work for it!
And we're worried about some guy in the UK reading about UFOs? You want to punish him? Make him a US citizen and pay him minimum wage!
Where's NetForce when you need them?
Seems too incredible to be true, but by the way the Pentagon is acting, could it be true?
So they now have Sharia law and soon they will extradite UK citizens to Muslim country for prosecution, sad day for UK.
I dont know Gary but I care very much for him
We as a society should as well
The government need to get their act together on this one
Gordon Brown has the ability to give this guy a pardon, this should be done if legal channels fail
He doesn't deserve to goto United States, it will screw him up because of his disorder
Anyone who doesn't realise that this guys excuse is genuine needs to take a long hard look at themselves
- by rynobu August 2, 2009 6:31 AM PDT
- Ok, so I'm not saying whether i think what this guy did is right or wrong, but a couple of questions I would like to ask are:
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(41 Comments)1) If he is clever enough to hack into systems that are apparently secure, should the governments not be employing him, or at least asking his assistance to make their networks even more secure, or gain access to other systems?
and
2) Why are these networks on a system that can be accessed by an outsider, in another country? Should the information not be stored on internal networks such as an intranet?