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Subscribe to RSSAfter ten years of campaigning, a British computer hacker is told he will not be extradited to the US. ITN's Libby Wiener reports on the landmark decision for Gary McKinnon.
LONDON - A British computer hacker has won his 10-year fight against extradition to the U.S. with the U.K. government saying he was unfit to face the charges against him.
In a statement to the House of Commons on Tuesday, Britain’s Home Secretary Theresa May said that the extradition of Gary McKinnon, a 46-year-old computer administrator from London, "would give rise to such a high risk of him ending his life that extradition would be incompatible with Mr. McKinnon’s human rights.”
“There is no doubt that Mr. McKinnon is accused of serious crimes, but there is also no doubt he is seriously ill," she said.
McKinnon, who suffers from Asperger’s syndrome – a high-functioning form of autism – admits hacking into U.S. military computers, but claims he was looking for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Warrants for his arrest were issued in New Jersey and Virginia in late 2002, amid allegations by U.S. officials that the former computer systems administrator accessed 97 military and NASA computers between 2001 and 2002, disabling key naval systems and causing more than $700,000 of damage.
One U.S. prosecutor called his activities “the biggest military computer hack of all time.”
Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images, file
Gary McKinnon won a 10-year fight on Tuesday against extradition to the U.S. He is seen here making his way into a London courthouse in July 2005.
Complete Europe coverage on NBCNews.com
Legal proceedings to have McKinnon extradited to the U.S. stepped up a gear in 2005, when he was re-arrested by officers from Scotland Yard’s extradition unit at his home in north London. What followed was a saga of appeals, reviews and adjournments, centering on McKinnon’s mental health and the fairness of the extradition request. This culminated in a decision in May 2010 by the Home Secretary that the case should be adjourned while further medical evidence was considered.
Facundo Arrizabalaga / EPA
British Home Secretary Theresa May, seen here leaving a meeting at 10 Downing Street, announced on Tuesday that accused British computer hacker Gary McKinnon will not be extradited to the United States after a 10-year battle.
Two independent psychological reviews suggested that McKinnon was likely to commit suicide if he was extradited.
It is now up to British prosecutors to decide whether McKinnon must face charges in Britain, May added.
His mother, Janis Sharp, said on the eve of Tuesday’s announcement, that the ups and downs of the legal process have been so cruel they amount to "waterboarding of the mind.”
Among the diplomatic maneuvering the case provoked were discussions between Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama. Leaked documents also revealed how Cameron’s predecessor, Gordon Brown, had unsuccessfully proposed a deal to allow McKinnon to serve any prison sentence in a British jail.
McKinnon’s supporters say he acted through "naivety" as a result of his condition, and should not be considered a criminal.
U.K. hacker's latest U.S. extradition appeal fails
"Gary is a classic computer nerd, he was looking for UFOs, that was what he was searching for," McKinnon's lawyer Karen Todner told BBC Radio on Tuesday morning.
McKinnon was 14-years-old when he started developing computer software on his home computer. He started hacking after watching the 1983 movie War Games, in which a teenager brings the world to the brink of war by hacking into the Pentagon computer network.
ITV News contributed to this report.
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As a parent of a child with Asperger's, I'm torn about this.
There are times when I think my son (who is 9) knows what he's doing; then there are times when I'm pretty sure he doesn't. He's very very bright--at the age of four we would walk down the sidewalk and he would name the make of every single car we walked past on the sidewalk and he would get them right 9 times out of 10. He can look at a car part and say 'that's a manifold' when even I don't know what it is!
But he says things like 'I want to kill my brother' (who is 10) without thinking through the long-term consequences--he says he'll miss his brother if his brother were gone but doesn't understand that killing his brother would make his brother disappear permanently. He doesn't understand short-term actions have long-term effects and he doesn't understand that what he does affects more people than just those around him. He doesn't understand that downloading a virus-infected computer game on his computer can lead to Mommy's work laptop being affected with a virus, which leads to my not being able to work and a reduction in pay which leads to him not being able to get that new Lego set he wants.
Just like this guy, he saw the movie War Games and tried to copy it, but didn't understand that what he did affected hundreds of millions of people and cost a lot of money. He doesn't see the line between reality and fantasy--for him, there isn't one.
How do you punish someone when they don't understand what they did was wrong?
(And on another note--if one autistic guy can hack into our military's computer systems then the guys responsible for their system security back in 2001 and 2002 better be out of a job. And Homeland Security's National CyberSecurity Center had better have figured out how this hacker did it and have put security in place to make sure it never happens again!!!)
I think in this case, it is just a crock of you-know-what. So now, you just say, "if you punish me, I will kill myself", and you get off? I don't think so.
I don't believe for one millisecond, that he did not know what he was doing was wrong.
In the UK, just threaten to kill yourself and apparently all crimes will be pardoned.
What a pack of ingoramouses. The guy is mentally ill. If he's fit to stand trail then he should stand trial. If he's not--and it sounds like he is not!--then he should be receiving apropriate mental care in a facility that will prevent him from screwing up like this again.
@Rebecca-302136, then why is he not in an institution? If he is not fit for a trial, surely he is not fit to be roaming around with the potential to hurt himself. In fact, he is clearly suicidal according to this ruling.
How gullible are you?
For all those who would like Mr. McKinnon to stand trial here in the U.S. and get up on the stand, under oath and publicly testify to what he actually witnessed on those computers as to what our government knows about UFO's, so would I.
Unfortunately, our government would never allow that to happen.
BS. My eldest is a computer whiz with aspergers. He knows hacking computers belonging to our government or another countries government is wrong. Gary knew what he did was wrong and is hiding behind his convenient (acquired after extradition was requested) diagnosis of aspergers.
No. The U.S. government is the one who is actually hiding the truth. Aspberger's or not, Gary didn't make the decision not to extradite, the government did.
Hm.
I told my son not to download computer games from the internet. He does so anyway. Does he know that was wrong? Yes.
I tell him he's in trouble because Mommy's computer has a virus from the game he downloaded. He has no idea how he managed to do that, doesn't have any understanding of the cause and effect relationship that led to my computer getting sick. Does he know that was wrong? No.
A punishment is only effective if the person you're punishing understand what they did was wrong and understands that actions have consequences. For someone with Asperger's like my son, if he doesn't understand that there's no point in trying to punish him; he just gets more frustrated and end up hurting himself by banging his head against a wall. For that reason, although my husband and I do own a gun, he has never seen it and it is somewhere where he will never get it--he is likely to hurt himself or someone else with no understanding that he was actually hurting someone, and my swords are far up a wall where he can't reach it (and I am considering a locked cabinet for them too.)
Now, I don't know for sure just how impaired this guy is. You may be right and he DOES know what he did was wrong. But if this guy were my son he would have no idea what he did was wrong and if he was subjected to what he feels is 'unfair' punishment he could hurt himself.
As neither you nor I actually lives with him, observes him daily and has a clear idea what he is and is not capable of, I will reserve judgement and rely on the court's decision.
He didn't 'get off'. All he did was just manage not to get himself extradited to the US to stand trial. Per the article:
It is now up to British prosecutors to decide whether McKinnon must face charges in Britain
I'm pretty sure he's still going to face some sort of punishment in the UK. Depending on how you want to look at it, prosecutors could claim that he, as a private citizen, helped a foreign power, which would be treason (he exposed holes in our computer security) or they could alternatively claim that he waged a private war on an ally of the British government--also treason. And he'd thus spend the rest of his life either in jail/prison or mental institution, and either way, he's never ever going to have access to a computer again.
this is such a complete load of BULL@!$%#!
while having problems interacting socially, Asperger Syndrome patients DO know right from wrong. Being socially inept is NOT an excuse for committing crimes.
and why is it that it's always White criminals that have the kinds of mental disorders that somehow lead them to crimes or preventing them from serving their full, deserving prison sentence? have you ever heard of a Black or Asian criminal with Autism or Asperger syndrome?
I guess when minority commit crimes we are simply criminals but when Whites commit crimes, somehow there is more to the story?
What nobody seems to realize is he's had the threat of being extradited to the U.S. and facing 60 years in prison hanging over his head for over ten years.
He's been in and out of courts fighting the extradition and has accumulated heavy financial liabilities in the process.
Anybody who doesn't see that as punishment enough for searching for proof of UFO's and forcing the government to tighten their low, non-functional security system, is a sadist.
Three comments:
1. So this is more proof that people with aspergers should be incarcerated forever. Lock them up in a nut-house and throw away the key. After all - now there is international precedent that they are not responsible for their actions. This means that they should not be allowed in society.
2. Someone should slip this criminal a bit of polonium to help end his misery.
3. The USA should now leak a few hundred secrets about Cheltenham. We have enough info about the horrible things that the UK government has done to Irish Terrorists and others. Time to leak them. After all - it is ok for a Brit to do that to the USA, and turn about is fair play.
You do the crime you do the time!
Come on, Asperger's as an excuse? Give me a break.
Michael Corleone.
KevinC: Shall we then institutionalize every autistic child in America so your vicious, wrathful nature will be satiated!? What the hell is wrong with you!? Who are you to say he hurt someone when he didn't? He hurt no one! If our boys were SMART, they would tell his family/guardian that we need him working for Homeland Security using different attacks against our systems so we can find them and protect our systems, but prosecute him? What are you, a moron?
Amanda - your son is a child, McKinnon is a grown man. Your premise is incorrect - people with asperger's are fully able to understand cause and effect, and right vs. wrong. This is why aspie's are considered "high functioning." Children, on the other hand, often do not understand these things. You are saying that because your son doesn't understand that accidentally downloading a virus and infecting your work computer means that this grown man didn't understand that hacking into military computers was wrong and would get him into a lot of trouble? I don't buy it for a second - asperger's causes social ineptitude and an inability to empathize, not a lack of understanding of cause and effect.
GBaby -
Yeah, why would we want to prosecute somebody for hacking into military computers?
The same way we would want to prosecute our government for hacking into our personal communications.
Red herring, try again.
Not when you live under a government "of the people, by the people and for the people".
The issue we are discussing is the prosecution (or lack thereof) of a man accused of hacking into military computers. Your statement about government intrusions into citizens' personal communications is a separate issue, and trying to conflate the two is indeed a red herring.
RUSHMAN
You are aware that this article is not about a prosecution, it’s about a battle for extradition this guy has still not gone to trial for what he did because he’s been busy trying to make sure he could go to trial in the UK and not the US. Personally I cannot blame him as it has been very obvious that since he embarrassed the US (by hacking their top security system) they wanted to make an example of him (rumour has it they want GITMO as a possible sentence) which means that the very possibility of a fair trial would be called into question if he had been tried in the US. Either way he’ll be tried in the UK now, which is better for all involved.
Of course. And you are aware of the purpose of extradition? To prosecute a foreign national accused of crimes against another country. Whether or not he would have received a fair trial in the U.S. is certainly up for debate, but even according to this article it's far from certain whether he'll face further charges in the U.K. They do appear to be too concerned with his "mental state," sounds more like they'll give him "counselling" and let him go.
“Of course. And you are aware of the purpose of extradition? To prosecute a foreign national accused of crimes against another country”
Which could just as easily been done in a UK or international court, sorry but from what I’ve been reading of this case the only reason the US wanted to extradite him was to make an example of him, to give him a particularly harsh sentence just because he embarrassed them, which would not happen in a international or UK court, personally I’m betting they give him a light sentence and maybe re-ban him from using a computer something like that, either way I doubt a life in prison sentence is on the cards
I'm curious where you read this. Or is this just typical European anti-U.S. sentiment?
Typical European anti-US sentiment? Okay, it’s always been my experience that when it comes to anti-sentiment Europeans give as good as they get from Americans, but whatever. As for where I’ve read it, just a collection of UK tabloids, blogs and so forth, so you can make of that what you want, either way it’ll be up to a UK court to decide what to do with him now, which is as it should be in my opinion
Try travelling through Europe as an American and you'll see what I'm talking about. It hasn't been as bad since Obama took office, but during the Bush years being refused service at restaurants, insulted, and in some cases spit at/on were, if not quite the norm, at least common enough that many of us started claiming we were Canadians while travelling abroad, as most of you can not tell our accents apart.
Well I cannot travel through Europe as an American as I’m British, I could travel through the US as a Brit though and from what I’ve heard there are plenty of places I’d be received with hostility (Boston comes to mind) personally most of my encounters with Americans have been online (online gaming being the vast majority of those) and even there I have encountered hostility, like being called a Limey, a tea-drinking sucmbag and other such lovely names, of course the ones I really like is when I’ve been told that I own my unquestioning allegiance to America for WW2 (well not those words but that sentiment) and when I’ve been asked which state England is. So in all since this has been the majority of my experience of Americans (many of my friends too) I could say this is typical American behaviour or I could say that context amounts for a lot and such actions are not representative of Americans as a whole. Personally I vote for the 2nd option.
PS I can see why things were so bad during the Bush years as he was very unpopular in Europe because alot of his policies effected Europeans too (and he didn't care about that) and well since he was elected by the US people he did (and oftern claimed too) represent the views of the avarage US citizen too.
Well, I wouldn't necessarily put online encounters, especially gaming encounters, on the same level as actually travelling through the country/continent. Online communities are notoriously toxic, regardless of nationality.
Well those are my main encounters with people from the US, as I currently lack the funds to visit the US in person (although I am hoping to go in May) I would say that so far the ones I have met in person have been pretty nice (being exchange students at my university) ironically enough most of them are in my American history class. But anyway I agree with you that online communities are well known for being toxic which is what I partly meant by context
Not really Rushman. What's good for the goose should be good for the gander.
Haven't you ever asked yourself why the government is allowed to hack into personal communications without repercussion, while citizens are prosecuted for hacking into government communications?
Thus my statement "we are supposed to be a government of the people, by the people and for the people". Since when has the government become bettors of the people?
I say pardon him if he accepts a deal to teach our guys everything he knows.
I have been watching this case with interest for many years. It's odd how there wasn't much news here about it in the U.S. when it was supposed to be one of the biggest hacking cases ever performed on the DoD, NASA, etc.
Mr. McKinnon suffers from Asperger's, a form of autism. He was looking for what the DoD, NASA and others had on UFO's. He wanted proof that the military is aware UFO's are here mining a free source of energy which could be used to provide heat for the poor and elderly who can't afford it. He actually found information and while attempting to download a picture of a mining craft in the sky from NASA using a slow dial up modem (before they scrubbed it for release to the public), he was caught.
He was easily able to get into those computers because the security was so low. He actually did them a favor. He did no damage other than to leave notes such as "I was here".
I'm sure the U.S. government decided not to extradite him for risk of having him on the stand and talking publicly, under oath, about what he knows.
You seem to have the facts confused: he wasn't "diagnosed" with Aspeberger's until the US requested extradition; The US still wants to extradite - it's England that refuses to do it.
No, you seem to have the facts confused. I never stated "when" he was diagnosed because his Asperger's is not an important part of the issue; although, others are trying to make it out to be in order to deviate from the real importance, which is what he witnessed.
Who are you kidding? It's well known to the world the U.S. runs the show. The U.S. gets what the U.S. wants. If the U.S. truly wanted to put him on public trial and have him testify to what he saw on those computers, it would have happened. England was only the U.S.'s mouthpiece.
Debi, If the U.S. didn't want to pursue the case, the U.S. wouldn't have asked that he be extraditied. Use some logic please. It didn't find anything related to UFOs anyway, because there isn't anything to find. At least not in the sense of extraterrestrial visitation. Again, use some logic. The U.S. government can't keep a secret for a year, let alone multiple secrets over 60 years. Even if you assume that the U.S. government is keeping these UFOs secret, they wouldn't have been on the systems that this joker hacked. Get back on the meds, you'll feel better.
Was the mining craft parked next to the Flying Saucer X-2 loaded with the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator?
Debi, your foil is showing.
For the many military, law enforcement, president, governors and civilians who have either witnessed or have direct knowledge, it's not a "secret"; the government is just choosing to deny.
It's very easy. As long as the government continues to deny, then it must not be true. Rolls eyes.
Thank god some of us have something taking up space in there.
No damage, really? He shut down defense systems for as long as 24 hours. This is pretty serious. The files he damaged cost $700,000 to repair. What he did was cause a serious security risk for the U.S. From what I have read the messages he left also made it perfectly clear he knew exactly what he was doing and it asn't looking for data on UFOs.
People with Gary's talent and skills are the very guys we should be hiring..
And some of us would prefer to have empty heads and stay silent, allowing people to wonder if we are dimwitted and gullible, rather than cover it in foil and prove to everyone that we truly actually are.
Did a magical Liopleurodon tell you this?
There is no wondering. Stick with your empty head and silence as it obviously has worked well for you.
Unlike yourself, I don't believe in magic.
no she just believes in little mythical green men from outer space and a giant conspiracy stretching over 70 years to hide them from the public.
ignore debi, she needs to take her meds and keeps forgetting
Go after Wall St. and the serious criminals.
FREE BRAD MANNING !!!!!
The dude searched for government computers without passwords or computers that still had the default password setting. The US tried to make he look like a criminal mastermind to hide the fact that a socially inept guy could access a government computer with so-called 'secrets' on the hard drive all because some lazy, overpaid IT guy didn't do his job.
He was possibly one of the better things to happen to the government. He highlighted existing flaws and showed a need to update security protocols. Those updates are where the $700k comes into play.
/propaganda
Don't think so. He caused actual harm and real terror in post sept 11 2001 america.
The US authorities claim he deleted critical files from operating systems, which shut down the US Army’s Military District of Washington network of 2,000 computers for 24 hours. McKinnon also posted a notice on the military's website: "Your security is crap". After the September 11 attacks, he deleted weapons logs at the Earle Naval Weapons Station, rendering its network of 300 computers inoperable and paralyzing munitions supply deliveries for the US Navy's Atlantic Fleet. McKinnon is also accused of copying data, account files and passwords onto his own computer. US authorities claim the cost of tracking and correcting the problems he caused was over $700,000.[5]
While not admitting that it constituted evidence of destruction, McKinnon did admit leaving a threat on one computer:
US authorities claim that McKinnon is trying to downplay his own actions. A senior military officer at the Pentagon told The Sunday Telegraph: "US policy is to fight these attacks as strongly as possible. As a result of Mr McKinnon's actions, we suffered serious damage. This was not some harmless incident. He did very serious and deliberate damage to military and Nasa computers and left silly and anti-America messages. All the evidence was that someone was staging a very serious attack on US computer systems."[7]
If McKinnon did such "serious damage" to all those systems, why wasn't it made widely known in the U.S. after their insufficient and low security problem was fixed?
He's not a terrorist. He was looking for friggin' proof of UFO's. He found it. That's why there has not been much news about it here for the last 10 years and why the government refuses to put him on public trial.
I never claimed the end justified the means.
In fact, the best thing that could have happened would be to put McKinnon on public trial, under oath and testify to what he actually witnessed and documented from those computers.
Then it would be the U.S. government's turn to answer to the American public.
I agree Debi, This is not a "terrorist" to be thrown in GITMO or some other solitary dungun like Manning. I think America is getting a Worldwide reputation similar to Mubarak in Egypt.
Debi, you ask why wasn't it made known? Do you really think they want to expose their own security weaknesses? I'm sure he most likely did exactly what they accuse him of. But I'm sure they don't want others to know there are weaknesses, or how to exploit them. What makes you think the security weakness was fixed, anyway?
If it wasn't, then the government is dumber than they are given credit for.
Shouldn't give the government any credit. After all Bush was President for 8 years. And congress thinks the earth is 6000 years old and that evolution is a ploy by satan, some mythical red giant with horns and goat legs, to cause us to lose faith in god.
Schoenhole,I agree with your comments that he actually did our government a favor by exposing our lack of security.We're broke so it's best to leave him in England.
Yet UK government is flat out RUTHLESS when it comes to going after Mr. Assange of Wikileaks, accused of a rather minor crime... imagine that...
No, it's not the UK going after Assange. They allowed him bail while they debated on his extradition. He lost and then he ran toa South American country's embasy to hide some more. If he's a innocent of those rape charges as he claims he is, then he should maybe see about getting it settled, not see about hinding from everyone.
@Rebecca His argument is that those charges were crafted so that he could be tied down until the US could pick him up. He offered to stand trial via teleconference and was refused. Whether or not you think he is guilty of that crime is entirely up to you, and whether or not you think he should be punished for Wikileaks is up to you, but "he's guilty because he's hiding" is not an air-tight argument.
@Rebecca - If Bush and Cheney were innocent of war crimes in Iraq they should have submitted to this trial: https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/13
I am picturing a bank without walls. A guy strolls in, leaves a note saying ' I was here' and leaves. They charge him with $700,000 worth of damage for the walls they need to build. Not walls he knocked down, mind, but for pointing out that there weren't any.
Lets try more like walking in, leaving bomb threats and taking adding machines, computers, and other equipment they need to function as a bank and them walking out.
The US authorities claim he deleted critical files from operating systems, which shut down the US Army’s Military District of Washington network of 2,000 computers for 24 hours. McKinnon also posted a notice on the military's website: "Your security is crap". After the September 11 attacks, he deleted weapons logs at the Earle Naval Weapons Station, rendering its network of 300 computers inoperable and paralyzing munitions supply deliveries for the US Navy's Atlantic Fleet. McKinnon is also accused of copying data, account files and passwords onto his own computer. US authorities claim the cost of tracking and correcting the problems he caused was over $700,000.[5]
While not admitting that it constituted evidence of destruction, McKinnon did admit leaving a threat on one computer:
US authorities claim that McKinnon is trying to downplay his own actions. A senior military officer at the Pentagon told The Sunday Telegraph: "US policy is to fight these attacks as strongly as possible. As a result of Mr McKinnon's actions, we suffered serious damage. This was not some harmless incident. He did very serious and deliberate damage to military and Nasa computers and left silly and anti-America messages. All the evidence was that someone was staging a very serious attack on US computer systems."[7]
Genenut:
Bomb threats? Is there something wrong with you?
Nothing wrong with me. Maybe you. Did you miss the part where he threatned to cause disruption to the US government? "US 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"
Starting with "The US authorities claim" is generally not a confidence-booster. The US authorities have a pretty abysmal track record when it comes to integrity about the fantastic claims they made ten years ago.
Genenut, The Tea Party has been threatening disruption to the Government for years. Should they be rounded up and confined?
they didnt hack into government computers and leave threats on them. criminal trespass trumps free speech.
Uh, threats to do harm does not fall under free speech.
Give it up folks. Discussing anything with Debi is like talking to someone with Asperger's.
Terroristic threats is a crime anywhere you go in the US.
Chris, those with aspergers are often highly intelligent (Debi is not) and actually prefer concrete ideas, etc rather than mythical and imaginary things like little green men from outer space. As the mother of a child with mensa level intelligence with aspergers that comment was HIGHLY offensive. My intelligent son is NOTHING like Debi.
Most aspies wouldn't be caught dead believing in a giant conspiracy to hide aliens from us. that's far more the realm of the extremely paranoid and those with mental health issues ... like Debi.
Genenut:
So you admonish those who make derogatory remarks regarding the mental state of those with Asperger's...
But then you claim a sufferer of Asperger's must be either "extremely paranoid" or has "mental health issues" because he does believe in a giant conspiracy...
Please paste and view the video of Asperger's diagnosed Gary McKinnon discussing his belief in the conspiracy to hide UFO information:
Meet Gary McKinnon...Hero To UFO Researches World Over, UFO Sighting News.
Are you a hypocrite?
He actually found pics of unknown craft from the very same Hampton , VA NASA/ site, (Langeley AFB / Johnson Space Center ) that is listed in Dr. Steven Greer's "Disclosure Project" as the site where NASA and DoD pics are scrubbed before release. This is also the site of NASA's advanced propulsion lab. They were described as massive, and completely smooth with no joints or rivets, and shown in high orbit above the earth. Below is a direct quote of a BBC interview with Gary McKinnon..
"As part of the Disclosure Project, Donna Hare - a NASA photographic scientist who had a Top Secret clearance and was in Building 8 at Johnson Space Center - she says in her testimony that one of her colleagues who was doing some photographic work invited her over to look at it. And she saw high-res satellite images of half a k[ilometer] above the treetops - I think it was like a white disk.
And she at first thought: Oh; it's a blob in the emulsion, you know, some kind of fault with the photographic process. And he said: well, look, you know, blobs in the emulsion don't have perfectly formed shadows going in the same direction as the trees? Etcetera, etcetera. All the detail was there. And she basically was saying that they had this whole base in Building 8 for airbrushing out UFOs on a regular basis, because they then sell on their images to universities and the like.
And having been all over other NASA installations already - I asumed the blank password scanning method will work the same at Johnson Space Center - and it did. Once I was in there, I used various network commands to strip out the machines that were in Building 8. And I got on to those. And the very first one I was on literally had what she said. I can't remember if it was "Filtered" and "Raw", Processed" and "Unprocessed," but there were definitely folders whereby there was a transformation in the data taking place between one and the other.
These folders were full of images in a proprietary NASA format, or in a format I'd never seen before: no jpegs or gifs. They were also 200 to 300 megabytes in size. And being on a 56K dial-up modem, there was no way I was going to download that at five minutes per megabyte.
So what I did... The remote control program that gives you graphical control of the machine - I turned the resolution right down to, I think, 4-bit color and then on the desktop on the NASA machine, navigated to the folder, double-clicked on the first image. The application launches. The image comes up on the screen, but it's still very, very slow.
And what I saw, or was hoping to see, was what she was describing as a saucer, very definite imagery. And what instead I saw I assume was the Earth. This was in shades of gray. You had the Earth's hemisphere taking up about 2/3 of the screen and then halfway between the top of the hemisphere and the bottom of the picture there was a classic sort of cigar-shaped object, but with golf-ball domes, geodesic domes, above, below, and this side [gesturing to the right], and I assume the other side as well. It had very slightly flattened cigar ends. No seams. No rivets. No telemetry antennae or anything like that. It looked... it just had a feeling of not being man-made. There was none of the signs of human manufacturing."
Thank you Godisreal, for someone finally relaying the truth.
Ah the tin foil hat brigade is out on parade ...
...As are the dunce caps.
Debi, do us all a huge favor and go back over to the Nickelodeon forums where you belong.
What a BUNCH OF BS!!!!!!. Asperger's syndrome is a REAL condition but the media that SERIOUSLY influences the people, potential jurors and judges, plays this out like this guy is mentally incompentent to stand trial. He is manipulating the sympathies of the people-via the media- and allegding that he would kill himself if turned over to US authorities. Hey bottom line: THIS GUY NOW RIGHT FROM WRONG!!!. He is intelligent enough to develop his own software at age 14 then later hacks the Pentagons computers and causes $700,000 worth of damage. In cases like this when there is an EXTRADITION TREATY with the the country that a citizen of one country commits a serious obvious crime against the other country, have the allegded tried in his country with the evidence obtained by the other country. I know that laws are different in other countries but murder is murder in most countries that the USA has a treaty with, and so is computer hacking. See if this guy would still claim to want to commit suicide if he knows he is facing 20-30 years in prison for a laundry list of international violatons.
If this guy still wants to kill himself, then put him on a SUICIDE WATCH so his chances are remote that he does commit this act. This guy AND HIS ATTORNEY KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE DOING AND HOW TO MANIPULATE THE MEDIA. Nex thing you know, some one will commit a triple homicide in the USA, flee to Britian and then stae "I have Bi-polar disorder, I wasn't taking my medications, and I am not responsible for my actions.
There is a serious lack of personal responsibility going on in the US society as well as other countries around the world. Everyone wants to blame something, someone, somebody, for the problems they cause, for their irresponsible, criminal behavior, on some PERSONALITY DISORDER which means NOTHING regarding knowing right from wrong; people with certain kinds of personality d/o CHOICE not to follow socities rules and norms, THEY DON'T CARE WHAT THEY DO and when caught they act like they didn't know the consequences of their actions.
Now in the Middle East, most "civilized western countries" consider their forms of law as "barbaric, cruel, primitive, and unjust". You get caught stealing, they cut off your hand; if you murder someone and it is obvious that you did commit this crime ( such as the "Batman Shottings: VA Tech shootings: Sen Gifford shootings; Fort Hood shootings....am I missing any other MASS INTENTIONAL SHOOTING COMMITTED IN THE USA RECENTLY??????) the death sentence is carried out within 30 days of being sentenced. For example: Saddam Hussan and every single main party or military figure that had been captured. Do you think Saddam had a socipathic personality??????, including his sons???? That sure as hell didn't save hime from the gallows. If people where held more accountable for their crimes, if the laws were more severe for the crimes they commit, then the USA would not have the problems they do with gun and gang violence. For example; ask a convicted car thief how many time he/she got away with "boosting" a car before they finally got caught.
The US is the most VINDICTIVE place on the earth. They are hell bent on punishment. If you didn't break a law, they will make up one. It's like painting the target around the arrow.
Good point, I have not seen or heard of any evidence that he damaged anything. The US is saying his access caused damage? Then what is that damage? I suspect what they are really saying is that it costs them $700k to determine/verify no damage was done.
Abbott -
The US authorities claim he deleted critical files from operating systems, which shut down the US Army’s Military District of Washington network of 2,000 computers for 24 hours. McKinnon also posted a notice on the military's website: "Your security is crap". After the September 11 attacks, he deleted weapons logs at the Earle Naval Weapons Station, rendering its network of 300 computers inoperable and paralyzing munitions supply deliveries for the US Navy's Atlantic Fleet. McKinnon is also accused of copying data, account files and passwords onto his own computer. US authorities claim the cost of tracking and correcting the problems he caused was over $700,000.[5]
While not admitting that it constituted evidence of destruction, McKinnon did admit leaving a threat on one computer:
US authorities claim that McKinnon is trying to downplay his own actions. A senior military officer at the Pentagon told The Sunday Telegraph: "US policy is to fight these attacks as strongly as possible. As a result of Mr McKinnon's actions, we suffered serious damage. This was not some harmless incident. He did very serious and deliberate damage to military and Nasa computers and left silly and anti-America messages. All the evidence was that someone was staging a very serious attack on US computer systems."[7]
Genenut:
Are you that gullible and naive to believe everything you are spoon fed by your bettors?
did you forget to take your meds today and the voices in your head are screaming at you?
Vindictive against "Our right to Know" but not against Banksters/Wall Street who bring down the entire Global Economics system or Morgatgage racketeers who finagle homes away from the Public in really illegal ways or Oil companies who fix prices or Corporations who Outsource and put America in poverty. Crimes go unpunished but Our Right to Know whats going on is shoved into dark holes.
If someone maliciously deleted a file on our network (it would have to be via physical intrusion), we would simply roll it back in from backup tape and be back operating in a matter of minutes at the same point as we were yesterday when the last backup ran. Two things about these stories strike me. The first is that military computers would be allowed anywhere near the internet. We don't allow any outside network connections to our critical business computers. The military should be AT LEAST as security conscious. The second is the total incompetence of the IT people responsible for keeping the network up and running. The fact it took them 24 hours to restore a file from backup is inexcusable.
Oh Debi, please show us the source of your information. Or is this one of the things you JUST know?
Guess you were one of the gullible ones who believed Bush/Cheney that it was necessary to go after Iraq because they had those never discovered WMD's instead of going after the architect of 9/11, bin Laden.
Deducing from your adolescent and ignorant comments, Chris, you're proving yourself to be just a lost babe in the woods and I'm done with you.
Good, I'm sure I'm not the only one who would be thankful if you'd just stfu.
I've no issue extraditing foreigners like captain hook but an English person should never be extradited from England. If there is evidence then show it and they will prosecuted here.
Fine next time Germany decides that they want to annex England we will let them....
Wow curve ball, what's that to do with this case. The principle should be for any country and it does for many such as France and Russia, they are unable to extradite their citizens.
Ah yes France the great hider of pedophiles and rapists... Is that really who England wants to be compared to?
in response to MANY uninformed posts above
a) those with aspergers do know right from wrong. Its is a neurological condition, not a mental illness. He was not diagnosed with this until AFTER the US requested extradition and then rather conveniently.
b) He wasnt looking for aliens, he caused REAL destruction and harm to the us security systems.
"The US authorities claim he deleted critical files from operating systems, which shut down the US Army’s Military District of Washington network of 2,000 computers for 24 hours. McKinnon also posted a notice on the military's website: "Your security is crap". After the September 11 attacks, he deleted weapons logs at the Earle Naval Weapons Station, rendering its network of 300 computers inoperable and paralyzing munitions supply deliveries for the US Navy's Atlantic Fleet. McKinnon is also accused of copying data, account files and passwords onto his own computer. US authorities claim the cost of tracking and correcting the problems he caused was over $700,000.[5]
While not admitting that it constituted evidence of destruction, McKinnon did admit leaving a threat on one computer:
US authorities claim that McKinnon is trying to downplay his own actions. A senior military officer at the Pentagon told The Sunday Telegraph: "US policy is to fight these attacks as strongly as possible. As a result of Mr McKinnon's actions, we suffered serious damage. This was not some harmless incident. He did very serious and deliberate damage to military and Nasa computers and left silly and anti-America messages. All the evidence was that someone was staging a very serious attack on US computer systems."[7]" "
He deserves his day in court and what ever judgement a jury of his peers renders to him. Not this get out of jail free card he got. A US aspie wouldnt get off this easily.
And before you start, my eldest has aspergers and is a computer whiz on Gary's level. He knows what Gary did was wrong and agrees he should be punished by our courts of law.
I think this is what will happen next but it will all happen in England which is what should have happened ten years ago.
No, the crime was committed in the US , the trial and punishment should happen in the US.
Genenut:
You're full of it! That's exactly what he was looking for, proof.
Where do you get your "facts" from? The government?
The trail by jury system states that you should be judged by twelve of your peers. He is English so he needs to be judged by twelve English people not twelve American's as they are not his peers.
Debi - Obviously you get your "facts" from the voices in your head ...
And Tim, the crime was committed over here the trial needs to be over here. He broke US law. How can English law punish him for a US crime? It cant.
Genenut, you seem to be hell bent in this thread to sway everyone your way and believe only YOU have the right opinion:
1. You state
Are you a doctor? If not how can you state that? Do you have Aspergers? If not again, you cannot comment. There are plenty of scholarly articles that should have popped up when you hit that magic google search that would have informed you the line is not so easily drawn.
2. OK let's move to this one:
So now you've gone from being a psychiatrist to what? You work for the government? How do you know what kind of damage he did? Where's the list? Just because the government says he did $700K in damage, I've yet to see a published list of what he did. Maybe they incurred $700K in bills to see if he did any damage to files but then we should be blaming the lack of security in the government's computers and their coders,
3. On to your lawyering ability:
Dangit you must have spent eons in school. You're a doc, some high-falutin government official AND a lawyer... but here goes. He's had his day in court: in a British court where he resides. And he faced the American government there. They lost. Period. End of discussion. Just because the USA doesn't like the decision reached doesn't mean they should get another crack and it. America plays the bully internationally. It's time more nations, like Spain did last year with some old extradition case, turn around and tell the USA "NO". Our legal system is screwed and people in other nations are fully aware of that.
Apparently "voter in LA" you missed the part in my posts where I clearly state that my son has aspergers and agrees Gary knew what he was doing was wrong and should face a judge here in the states.
Gary has NOT had his day in court over his crimes. He has had an elongated extradition hearing. But apparently reading comprehension is not your strong suit.
Uh, he didn't get a 'get out of jail free' card. All this decision did was not extradite him to the US. He still might have to face charges in the UK. Per the article:
It is now up to British prosecutors to decide whether McKinnon must face charges in Britain, May added.
Genenut, exactly when was he in the United States? As best I can determine, he has never left England. He can't have committed a crime in the United States when he has never been in the United States.
It isn't his fault that the US put its computers on a worldwide open network, accessible from anywhere on the planet. That bit of stupidity belongs to the United States government. McKinnon may have broken some UK law with respect to computer hacking, but US sovereignty ends at the US border. McKinnon never crossed that border.
JohnCarter:
It's obvious from his lack of knowledge and attempt to spread disinformation, Genenut is a shill.
Debi - go take your meds. You're an idiot.
You've hit rock bottom, shot your last cretinous wad and have run out of misinformation, as all equivocators do.
Hmmm. Not only is the mother a self annointed psychiatrist, government official and lawyer, but the son, according to the mother, is now a mind reader.
what ipocrosy why send the cleric back to us and now you wont send gary mck to be tried he commit a crime the cleric only make some remarks which other use to do wrongs
Captain hook was not English.
My son has Asperger's and they are totally naive of situations! My 15 year old is brilliant with a computer and has been since 18 months old, so much so that we have had to block and security lock his access to many things. He has no concept of illegal downloads, credit cards etc.. if a web site says "free" in his mind that's what it is! he doesn't look for the catch. He is completely literal and they have no boundaries of property, if they can access it then it is ok to look. He is unaware of "cause and effect" and it is an ongoing problem that has to be taught as each situation arises, he does not transfer the lessons learned from on situation to another. So, this is not a "Mental illness" nor is it something that can be "cured" it is not something that spending time in prison will help either as someone with Asperger's would not understand what they had done wrong. It would help to have spent the last 10 years providing him with therapy to try to teach him why he shouldn't have done it and not to do it again! That would most probably have been a better use of Tax Payers money, for at the moment he has learnt nothing and understands even less..
Britchick:
I too have a child with Asperger's. He's pretty much they way you describe yours; I can't even connect my credit card to our favorite pizza place because if he gets it in his head to order a pizza he'd be able to do so!
Prison is either for rehabiliation (which is doesn't do in the slightest) or to protect society from someone. In this case the world needs to be protected from someone who can do damage, even without knowing it.
To be Honest I would not support extraditing any US Citizen to any foreign Country. I wouls support Him or Her being tried in this country and subject to our Laws only.
Becasuse his might kill himself ? so, what's the problem !
The U.S. affords generous due process to the accused.
He's not accused of damaging anything. He illegally gained entry to classified information.
He cause $700,000 in damages.... just in case you missed that part of the article.
That's the lie the government has been pushing. It is an obvious lie, of course. Only a total idiot would believe it.
Oh let it go...it's more than ten years ago, the time and effort isn't worth it. Having said that...the US should keep a count of the number of times the UK refuses to extradite and make sure we help them out with equal proportions.
I am someone who was one of the first in the US diagnosed with Asperger's in the 1980's. This guys defense is a crock of crap!!!!!
First of all, leading research has stated that AS is an "autism-like" disorder, not autism. It has not been called High-Functioning Autism for over a decade. Secondly, AS does not pevent someone from knowing right and wrong; to the contrary (speaking from both research and experience), those of us with AS have a stronger sense of right and wrong. Depending on the Severity of AS, there is little to no "grey area" in our moral code, things are right or wrong, black or white without consideration for the circumstance or person.
Finally, This author, and this guy's defense makes it seem like AS is a disability. While in younger life it may take longer for us to make friends or develop relationships, most of us with AS grow up to be healthy, productive citizens and raise good families. Not only are we fixing your computer when you cant find the "any key", we are protecting you, your homes, and property on police and fire departments, we are saving your life as paramedics and doctors in ambulances and the ER, and we are designing your homes and teaching your kids in schools. other than having to learn the occasional emotional response, for the most part we are not much different than nuerotypicals.
But as you said, there are differing levels of disability in the Asperger's diagnosis, and your experience may not be typical. I look at my youngest, who is 9, and I can't see him as being able to get a high-paying job or being successful in college. He could be functional in society and I could see him doing great as a mechanic--he has a knack for machines and taking things apart (and putting them back together) but he's never going to be a CEO or someone like that.
Most people don't have what it takes to be a CEO. The world needs all kinds of mechanics too. It's hardly something to be ashamed of. J Schil is just suggesting personal responsibility, something I see very little of in today's society.
I've never said I was ashamed of my son. I acknowledge where his limitations are, admit there are things he's never going to be able to do, and then try to help him find direction within the limits of what he can do. All his teachers say that while he has trouble with intangible concepts, he is friendly, polite, cheerful, helpful and sweet within the limits of his disability. His teacher said he's the one kid in his third grade class who can be counted on to do exactly what he's supposed to be doing at any given point in his schedule even when there is a substitute teacher in the classroom.
Absolutely. I don' see enough of it today either.
If my youngest has done something that he knows is wrong, he admits it right away (my oldest will lie like a rug to try and get himself out of trouble) but my youngest seems to be incapable of lying. You tell him to keep something secret, he'll keep it a secret. J Schil is right in that the world seems to be black and white for people with this mental disability.
Just shoot him.
Lol.
"He started hacking after watching the 1983 movie War Games, in which a teenager brings the world to the brink of war by hacking into the Pentagon computer network."
Inaccurate. The movie starring Matthew Broderick did not have him hacking into the Pentagon's computer network. A network controlled by SAC that replaced all the men in the missile silos, operated by the Department of Defense. I don't recall the Pentagon even being mentioned in the movie. It spurred many into getting into computers and hacking.
Which is most of what we are being fed.
good eve govna i say save me from these yankees an me live is yours ....
what he did was prove how vulnerable the USA military comp system was/is....he should get a medal for that.maybe the improvements they made will keep the really BAD people out...ie..the taliban...think about it..
And the hackers breaking into your bank's computers and downloading account details do you want to give them medals too???
You keep money in a BANK??? You are an idiot.
He just wanted to find the aliems.
In all seriousness though I am not sure if he should go to trial or not. What did that say about the US military's cyber security in 2002 if just one guy interested in UFOs was able to break in? What he did was not right, but if he didn't do it how long would that security hole sitting there have to wait until it was exploited by a hostile country...say Iran?
Then why did he posts threat like this "US 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"
I obviously don't know enough about him to make an accurate judgement then if that is true.
how this portrays the secutity status of the us is immaterial. maybe this one of few we should be able to hold accountable [ we can't get to the iranians to jail the perps. ]. considering his skill level , he still poses a threat. any hacker knows any government will get them if they break into their computers no matter the reason [ if it is within their reach ].
"US foreign policy is akin to Government-sponsored terrorism these days …"
That's not a threat. It is a statement of fact.
What about the fact that our military comp was hacked by a retarded person. Maybe the pentagon needs to get their crap together
people with aspergers are not retarded. In addition that is a VERY offensive word.
Genenut:
THANK YOU!!!I too find that offensive!
So, leave him be but tell him all the really good UFO information is found in the military computer systems of Iran, North Korea and China and let him go at it.
i suppose this means anyone convincing mental health care folks , that when involved in clearly illegal acts, they are fearful of suicide they will not be prosecuted . had this taken place in the uk , would he be free from any punishment?? regardless, as an example reagan's shooter was confined to a government facility and remains there. the uk should do no less their securty was compromised as well we do share data . NOW THE QUESTION IS WHAT WILL THE UK DO WITH HIM?
It appears absolutely nothing. If he was being punished anywhere there wouldn't be all this ruckus...
I think the English government should offer him a job testing out the security on our military systems. He would seem to be uniquely well qualified for that role.