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A note on Gary Mckinnon

August 1, 2009 - 1:27am — varun

This is just a quick post about a person named Gary Mckinnon. He's a British Computer Hacker diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome. The Wikipedia article will give you a much better idea of what exactly is Asperger's syndrome is but to put it in a nutshell, Asperger syndrome is a form of autism that often causes an obsessive interests.

The reason that Gary caught my attention is that he is described by the US as being behind "the biggest military hack of all time". Gary has admitted to hacking into US military systems, but claims to have done so in search of information on UFO's. Gary is a UFO researcher, and is diagnosed with a medical condition that compels him to find information confirming the existence of UFO's.

The offense was committed seven years ago, from Gary's home in the UK. If Gary were to be prosecuted under British law, he would be liable to serve a maximum sentence of one year, and may get off with only community service time. However, American authorities are attempting to secure his extradition to the US, where they wish to prosecute him. If Gary were to be prosecuted there, he could serve up to 70 years in prison, and is likely to be put in a maximum security jail. All this because he would be tried as a terrorist, something which I can not believe that the guy is.

I've listened to the man on youtube, I've read about him on the internet, followed news about him on the TV, and from what I've seen this guy does not appear to fit my conception of a terrorist. A medical condition caused him to seek information, and he stumbled upon some military computers along the way. I've read up on the methods he used to break into the military computers, and the methods are hardly sophisticated. Simply put, he just searched for computers where the password was blank, a mistake that a professional security agency (which I assume the US air force is) should not be making.

Gary's condition could result in him committing suicide if he were to be extradited, and his mother fears that she would never see him again. Gary is not asking that the charges be dropped, he is merely requesting that his trial is held in the UK, and that he serves his sentence in a British Jail. Gary's plea to be tried in the UK, was most recently rejected by the British High Court, and Gary intends to appeal the decision.

Gary posed no threat to the US, he deliberately left messages pointing out the weakness in the systems, for American officials to read. He was simply trying to find information on flying saucers, and a form of renewable energy called free energy. The guy's a geek, not a terrorist, and therefore I find it unjust for him to be extradited to the US.

Here are some links I thought I'd share that relate to the issue.

The song at the end of the youtube video is called Chicago by Graham Nash. The song has been given new lyrics by Gary's mom, and Graham Nash has approved the new lyrics. Sir Bob Geldof (from Pink Floyd), Chrissie Hynde, and David Gilmour are being the voice of the new song, and the song is intended as a plea to US President Obama to step in and get this ridiculous case dropped.

Listen to the song, I think it's great.