UFO hacker Gary McKinnon admits guilt
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Would you admit to something you didn’t do to get the heavies off your back?
RIAA victims do it all the time. But now British hacker Gary McKinnon, who last year briefly won a stay of execution, so to speak, over his extradition to the US, has done exactly that avoid being forcibly exported to America as what amounts to a scapegoat for US security system failings.
“The Crown Prosecution Service is considering a request from McKinnon’s lawyers in which they have said their client would plead guilty to an offence under the Misuse of Computers Act,” says The Guardian.
“If McKinnon were to be prosecuted and punished in Britain, it would make any extradition to the US unlikely. McKinnon, 42, who has Asperger’s syndrome, has resisted attempts to extradite him to the US on the grounds that the offence was committed in the UK.”
Can people be extradited from the US to Britain? If not, why not?
The US called McKinnon “the world’s most dangerous hacker” after he penetrated almost 100 US military systems from his bedroom in North London, “crashing the US Army’s Washington network of 2,000 computers for 24 hours,” as Times Online once described it.
He lost his House of Lords appeal against the extradition last month, but appealed to the European court of human rights, which granted the extension.
McKinnon said he’d surfed into the American military computers because he was looking for evidence of a UFO cover-up.
But he wasn’t caught because of sterling work by American security experts.
He’d left his real email address.
“Mr McKinnon who was born in Glasgow but lives in London, faces up to 70 years in prison if found guilty in the US of breaking into military computers,” says the BBC, adding:
“His lawyer Karen Todner said he still denies causing damage, which the US authorities put at $800,000 dollars (£532,500), but signed a statement offering to plead guilty to a different charge under the Misuse of Computers Act in a bid to remain in the UK.” Stay Tuned.
stay of execution – Gary McKinnon wins two-week stay, August 13, 2008
The Guardian – British prosecution could save hacker from extradition to US, January 12, 2009
The Times Online -Gary McKinnon, British computer hacker, loses appeal over US extradition, July 30, 2008
court of human rights – Gary McKinnon faces extradition to US, July 30, 2008
BBC – Hacker ‘confesses’ to stay in UK, January 12, 2009
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January 13th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Yeah, he hacked into it with a dailup modem. (and downloaded bmp’s… …) Now, the resulting scare and secruity trying to fix shit probably caused that $800k claim.
January 13th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
my only words on this is.
don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time…
or if you didn’t do the crime ….. your fucked
January 13th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
i’ll let u in on something:
he went in? yes. because it was WIDE OPEN
he got pics? yes
he did damage? NO
US military is full of shit since many have gone in without even wanting to. It’s a trap to escalate lock down of our net and promote military rule. This goes along with their plans of increasing prisons and making more slaves … dig it?
if they extradite him to US then sure as shit we can expect more of the same for everyone and everywhere
January 13th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
It’s a law that needs changing because it entitles the US to extradite a UK citizen without showing any proof at all. They just have to claim damage and we roll over and take it. When it’s the other way around, the UK have to provide proof.
I can’t believe more of this hasn’t been made by the opposition in the UK.
January 14th, 2009 at 12:11 am
if information ‘kinnon obtained is so secret, – why security department’ responsible to protect it is not in jail??? I think McKinnon deserves medal for exposing security holes probably used by other countires with thousands of cyber force solders to see these “secrets”.