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UK Gives Go-Ahead to Gary McKinnon Extradition
Posted by
Zonk
on Thu Jul 06, 2006 06:36 PM
from the normal-dition-not-enough dept.
from the normal-dition-not-enough dept.
robzster1977 writes "Judges in the UK have given the go-ahead to the extradition of UK hacker Gary McKinnon. McKinnon is accused of breaking into US Navy, Army and Department of Defense computers in 2001 and 2002." From the article: "On 4 July the secretary of state signed an order for Mr McKinnon's extradition to the United States for charges connected with computer hacking. Mr McKinnon had exercised his right to submit representations against return but the secretary of state did not consider the issues raised availed Mr McKinnon."
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SnakeOil Steve writes to tell us that Gary McKinnon, the alleged hacker who broke into Army, Air Force, Navy, and NASA systems, has just lost his extradition case. From the article: "'My intention was never to disrupt security. The fact that I logged on and there were no passwords means that there was no security,' McKinnon said, outside the hearing at London's Bow Street Magistrates Court. 'I was looking for UFOs.'"
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IT: 'UK Hackers' Condemn McKinnon? 214 comments
An anonymous reader writes "Whitedust has some interesting commentary on this BBC article which claims that 'UK hackers' have condemned Gary Mckinnon's trial. From the article: 'Another example of some truly awful and misinformed mainstream tech reporting here. The article claims that UK hackers are almost all in support of Mr Mckinnon when in truth as we all know the entire tech community has agreed that Mr Mckinnon is not only an idiot but a deluded attention seeker.'"
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Your Rights Online: UK Judge Grants Extradition Review To Cracker Gary McKinnon 107 comments
JobsEnding writes with this quote from IBTimes:
"A British court ruled on Friday that a man who hacked into US military computers will be given permission for a judicial review against his extradition to the United States. Hacker Gary McKinnon, 42, who had been diagnosed recently with Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, has admitted hacking into the military computers. His lawyers had said McKinnon was at risk of suicide if he were extradited."
We discussed the granting of McKinnon's extradition in 2006 when it was first granted, as well as a profile of the man more recently.
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Date? (Score:4, Interesting)
Freedom (Score:5, Funny)
Whoever they are.
Re:Freedom (Score:3, Funny)
> When they locked up the Social Democrats, I said nothing; after all, I was not a Social Democrat.
> When they arrested the trade unionists, I said nothing; after all, I was not a trade unionist.
> When they arrested the Jews, I said nothing; after all, I was not a Jew. When they arrested me, there was no longer anyone who could protest.
Now if only they'd come for the trite.
But I'll settle for
Re:Freedom (Score:4, Insightful)
A.)The DOD still owns it
B.)Unauthorized access of a federal government computer is still a federal crime?
Parent
Re:Freedom (Score:5, Interesting)
I said nothing; after all, I was not a child rapist.
When they locked up the serial killers,
I said nothing; after all, I was not a serial killer.
When they arrested the armed robbers,
I said nothing; after all, I was not an armed robber.
When they arrested the spammers,
I celebrated, because I'm a hypocrite about computer crimes.
When they arrested me for breaking into a computer network, there was no longer anyone who could protest.
- Stickerboy
Parent
Please (Score:5, Insightful)
Every hacker that has every been arrested has always claimed that he was only curious and looking around. Let me tell you something, if you walk into my front door, locked or not, that is still trespass, I don't care if you just wanted to get a look at my collection of potato chips resembling presidents.
This isn't a witch hunt. If you even use a phrase like "I broke in", then you know what side of the law that you are on. These guys are just angry because they know they are criminals, they got caught, and now they are facing the full force of the law. When are all of the Mitnick humpers going to get a clue and maybe not do things tha are illegal?
Parent
Re:Please (Score:5, Insightful)
i am sorry but when the virtual world hits reality it doesn't seem that punishment fits the crime.
Parent
Re:Please (Score:5, Insightful)
How soon we forget this story from the 4th:
Cambridge Breached the Great Firewall of China [slashdot.org]
Any ideas when Richard Clayton will be extradicted to China [from the UK]?
And based upon this statedment:
Clayton, speaking at the Sixth Workshop on Privacy Enhancing Technologies in Cambridge last week, said that the researchers had reported their findings to the Chinese Computer Emergency Response Team.
It appears acceptable when testing a government's resources if it's from an academic perspective and you report any findings.
I'm not trolling or tossing flamebait out here. I'd like to know why these jokers are any different, other than it'll be China's choice whether to pursue them, or not, and I'm guessing not will happen because they were nice about reporting their results in the interest of benefiting the object of their efforts. But who gets to decide the intent of the party performing the actions, and after the fact, no less?
I can see an exception if Cambridge volunteered to do this with China's approval or if China commissioned the activities, either of those in advance.
Otherwise, what's the difference?
Parent
Re:Please (Score:5, Insightful)
If you'd bothered to follow the case from the beginning, you'd understand why so many people are protesting against this series of outrageous decisions.
The United States have, through massive exaggeration and dishonesty, virtually abducted a British citizen in order to make him a scapegoat on which to blame the exceptional lack of security in their government computer systems.
Parent
Re:Please (Score:5, Insightful)
Think of it this way. Someone breaks into my house. Sucks to be me, and the guy is still a criminal, even if no damage or harm was done. That same guy breaks into the Pentagon. Sucks to be the Pentagon, and the guy is still a criminal, even if no damage or harm was done. The issue at hand is that the metaphorical pentagon had a wooden front door with a $25 lock from Home Depot like my house, not the $millions steel-reenforced foot-thick armored god-stopper that can withstand a missile that it should have had. What the guy did was wrong and inexcusable, but not nearly as inexcusable as these government entities having absolutely shitty securiy - they're upplaying his role and intentions to make him a scapegoat for their own shortcomings.
The least we can hope that comes out of this is that they fix the security before some no-talent script kiddie that's a part of a terrorist organization or has other intents to do serious harm comes along and exploits the same wheel of swiss cheese.
Parent
Re:Please (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
The trick is... (Score:3, Funny)
Conjugal visits? Mmmm. Not that I know of. Y'know, minimum-security prison is no picnic. I have a client in there right now. He says the trick is: kick someone's ass the first day, or become someone's bitch. Then everything will be all right.
Re:The trick is... (Score:5, Insightful)
That's what passes for law and order here. Being raped for all crimes no matter how minor.
Parent
good (Score:5, Informative)
Re:good (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm proud to be a subject of Her Majesty, and accept my responsibilities under her laws - but how come I have to accept rulings from a judge in Brussels or the US? I'm sure they're all very nice people, but they're nto the boss of me. Or at least they shouldn't be.
Parent
Re:good (Score:5, Insightful)
how come I have to accept rulings from a judge in the US?
[1] Because you hacked into a computer in the US. Don't commit crimes in other countries, and you won't have to answer to their legal system.
[2] Because the elected government in your own country decided to ship your sorry ass over here to answer for your crime.
Parent
Re:good (Score:5, Insightful)
The Chinese government hereby requests your extradition for execution and subsequent trial for voicing opinions in direct oposition to the Party's doctrine on the Internet acessible (by mistake) from China. That is if Iranians do not manage to get you first for daring to speak ill of Islam (evidence of which was secretly presented in a secret prioceeding of a secret court). And so on...
Newsflash: the whole point is that one, by definition, cannot be held liable for crimes abroad if he/she was not physically there while commiting them.
An accusation of "computer" or "internet" crime does not magically change the basic logic of this, it would be equally silly if he had made prank calls to the Iranian Mullahs (severely punishable in Iran, I am sure) or sent booze by mail to the Saudi Crown Prince (which would probably get someone from Saudi Arabia beheaded if he had done so). The foreign laws simply do not apply to activities commitied while in UK.
Which of course is the apex of the stupidity on the part of the UK government and an extemely dangerous precedent. In essence, the UK has acknowledged supremacy of US law and courts over its own by doing this. It is a stance of a poodle beaten into sulking submition, not a proud, independent nation.
Parent
guantanemo for pushing the big red button (Score:5, Insightful)
Hail the new american slogan, "It isn't fascism when we do it!"
I've seen this guy in interviews. A clever man, who obviously has a lot more to give to the world. Shame he's going to get disappeared.
Truth, Justice and The American Way (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Truth, Justice and The American Way (Score:4, Interesting)
I used to feel like the Americans (myself included) always wore the "white hat." Looking back, I'm just not qite so certain of that.
So yes, it now makes more sense to me that those three items are listed separately... The American Way does not include truth or justice.
Parent
"Poor Dumb Son Of a Bitch" (Score:5, Insightful)
Gary McKinnon is another poor dumb son of a bitch. He may well be mentally ill. There's a saying among criminals, don't do the crime if you can't do the time. I think McKinnon will get eaten alive, served up as a reminder that big brother cuts you no slack when it comes to stealing their information.
Master criminals execute plans, most convicts commit crimes. Convicts get caught up in committing a crime, they're their own drug dealers and they're junkies. Their brains serve them up a high that comes from breaking the law. Convicts fill our prisons and take their cred from the hard time they do. McKinnon is his own junkie, a convict juiced on committing a crime. His delusions will probablly cost him his life whether he gets to go on living or not.
just my loose change
Extradite == make an example of (Score:5, Insightful)
McKinnon committed a crime here too and, as a UK citizen, he should be tried here. Of course, the USUK 'special relationship' is the most important factor here so the extradition order was signed without so much as a second glance.
"Britons never shall be slaves?"
Not in this day and age.
Re:Extradite == make an example of (Score:3, Interesting)
"Defense" will be his "defence" (Score:5, Funny)
What happened to nationality? (Score:4, Insightful)
Another case is Richard Read - the "shoe bomber" from a few years back. He was a British subject (admittedly they didn't want him) and is held prisoner somewhere in the US (or you-know-where in Cuba).
Does holding a passport, or nationality mean nothing? No matter what your nationality when you do a crime against the US, they get to do what they want with you.