Ministers agree Gary McKinnon hacker case adjournment. (Extradition to US)

[Yorkshireman]

Home Secretary Theresa May has agreed to an adjournment in the extradition case of computer hacker Gary McKinnon.

A judge was due to rule on whether her predecessor Alan Johnson was wrong to grant the request by the US.

Lawyers for Mr McKinnon, 44, from north London, made representations to the new government as part of a long campaign to prevent an American trial.

Mrs May "considered the proposal" and a Home Office application to delay the High Court decision is to be made.

Mr McKinnon's lawyer Karen Todner said: "The secretary of state, having recently taken office and having received further representations from the claimant's representatives, wishes to have appropriate time fully to consider the issues in the case."

She added: "We are hoping Theresa May will look at our representations and agree Gary should not be extradited."

The adjournment comes as the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition promised a fresh look at extradition arrangements between the countries.

In its policy programme document, the parties say the government is to "review the operation" of the Extradition Act and the 2003 US/UK extradition treaty "to make sure it is even-handed".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8694210.stm

The move will allow May to begin formal consideration of the medical evidence to see whether McKinnon is fit to be extradited. If it is established that he cannot be allowed to go, it paves the way for a prosecution in the UK.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "The home secretary has considered the proposal from Gary McKinnon's legal team and has agreed an adjournment should be sought. An application to the court is being made today."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010...dition-on-hold

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/7745...o-America.html

Good news in my opinion that an adjournment has been made on his judicial review and perhaps he will be deemed medically unfit to be extradited to the US.. I'm not sure how much weight though the Home Sec can or will bring to bear on the courts especially as we have an existing extradition treaty with the US.

I fully support whisking off major criminals or terrorists across the Atlantic whenever necessary but I think in the case of this slightly eccentric, slightly batty alien spotter our own courts are more than capable of dealing with him.

[Kanaric]

IMO computer hackers should be hired by the government.

The military in the US for example has probably the most mismanaged and idiotic outdated policies i've seen. Its hilarious that German 16 year old hackers can hack into servers on ships like the USS Abraham Lincoln yet the government doesn't seem to want to prevent it. Their total lack of commitment pretty much invited this behavior.

People say our borders are unguarded by criminals but for hackers out nations network is still guarded like its 1998.


You know the Air Force has the genius policy of centralizing all its IT infrastructure in Langley Virginia? All our servers are managed by them. ALL of them. Its the same for most of the bases in the nation. If a hacker/terrorist brings down that network were pretty much crippled as a nation. If a bomb drops there, we are also screwed. Yet someone probably got an extra star for this idea of centralizing the Air Force and Army network instead of making it decentralized as it was and should be.

There are many servers that if they are down we have to go through a process with these people to get it fixed like were working with comcast to get my network online. We have no professionals with experience locally and no ability to fix problems locally. We rely completely and totally on Langley. We pretty much need to hire hackers like this and actually listen to them so they can inform us of this kind of stupidity.



What exactly did this hacker do?

[Yorkshireman]

Glasgow-born Mr McKinnon, who has Asperger's syndrome, is accused of hacking into sensitive US military computers causing £425,000 ($700,000) damage. He admits breaking into the system but says he was seeking evidence of UFOs.

Mr McKinnon admits hacking into military and Nasa computers but says he was on a "moral crusade" to find classified documents about Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), not a malicious individual bent on bringing down US military systems. This is not a view shared by the American authorities, who say his actions in 2001 and 2002 caused $800,000 (£487,000) damage - something he disputes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7839338.stm

Theres a dispute ongoing between his defence and US authorities about how much damage was caused (obviously!).

[Kanaric]

Oh, i've heard of this guy i believe a LONG time ago, maybe even up to a year ago. I can't believe this is going on.

I bet much of the so called damages is the fact that they were forced to buy modern firewalls and hire people who are not idiots to manage their IT security.

They DO however have to have an investigation and it can require having civilian contractors working extra hours. So I can see how he should be liable for some payments. $800k seems excessive, they should break out the books and show how many extra hours people had to work and what they had to pay them. If that is 800k he should pay it. IMO if he forced them to buy modern security equipment and software they should not charge him for it in fact if they were so negligent he shouldn't have to pay a dime.

[Каие]

Screw the American courts. They are just butt hurt that a social recluse with no training or experience hacked into their most secure system, and extracted amusing information such as NASA's dealings with UFO cases, something which was released to the public by the UK MOD, and a further bizarre plan to send Marines into space.

That and the Extradition treaty is a joke, completely one sided to the Americans, like the so called ''Special Relationship'' I suppose, which means the Americans don't even have to do that much to gain extradition. Furthermore the Americans have been tampering with this case from the beginning, at first little to no damages were reported, than as if by magic, the harder the McKinnon family made it for them the more damages were discovered. Lastly, he is medically unable to actually go state side, and illness which actually explains textbook to textbook exactly why he is so obsessed with UFOs and did what he did.

Hire McKinnon to work for GCHQ. Problem solved.

[GreyFox]

He's a criminal and should face the courts.

And how stupid do you have to be to hack the military?

[Каие]

And how stupid do you have to be to hack the military?

Erm... not stupid at all? I'd say stupidity is the very last personality trait that would who can hack secure Military databases would possess.

Besides he did not hack the Military. He hacked NASA.

[justicar5]

He's a criminal and should face the courts.

And how stupid do you have to be to hack the military?

How useful to GCHQ are you if you can? Sod off americans he's our new intelligence assest, not yours.

[Yorkshireman]

He's a criminal and should face the courts.

He's not trying to avoid the courts, just extradition to the US. He was in the UK when he committed the crime, so we can try him here.

[Phier]

Not sure why this guys become the poster child of internet nerd rage, I'm guessing the thought of extradition for their own piracy is in the back of their minds.

He's not trying to avoid the courts, just extradition to the US. He was in the UK when he committed the crime, so we can try him here.

Do a better job than that whole 'Lockerbie bomber on deaths bead' thing?

[Yorkshireman]

Do a better job than that whole 'Lockerbie bomber on deaths bead' thing

I'm English, that one's down to the porridge gobblers to the north. (Seperate legal system)

[Dr. Croccer]

Do a better job than that whole 'Lockerbie bomber on deaths bead' thing?

It's probably gonna end up the same, with Americans throwing a hissy fit while the Brits ignore them.

[Phier]

It's probably gonna end up the same, with Americans throwing a hissy fit while the Brits ignore them.

At least this guy didn't mass murder like the last one.

[Fluttershy]

should definitely be tryed in the US

[justicar5]

should definitely be tryed in the US

so you can sentence him to life working for the NSA?

[Kanaric]

so you can sentence him to life working for the NSA?

Sounds like a plan.


Hackers/hacking and computer security isn't taken as seriously as it should be even today.

[s.rwitt]

He committed the act against the US, he should be tried here.

[justicar5]

He committed the act against the US, he should be tried here.

ok, hand over all the CIA agents who flew rendition flights landing at UK airports and there superiors and the pilots and the prisoners, all the way up to G W Bush for commiting illegal imprisonment and torture on UK soil, then we can talk, oh and all the spies we know you have spying on us. Oh and give us as many Military bases on US soil as you have on ours.

In short, he's ours hands off, unless you give up every US citizen who has ever hurt UK interests, and every Facist dictator you suppported who has hurt us, and every isreali terrorist who has hurt us.

[Kanaric]

If someone robbed a bank in the US then left the country would he be tried here? Yes.

If someone was running a cartel where criminals were here doing crimes and he was in a foreign nation would he try him here? Yes.

So should he be tried here? Yes.

Committing a crime overseas on a computer against a nation is still a crime against that nation. Internet crime or not.

I'm sure people are afraid this will mean the MPAA and RIAA can bring you to US court for pirating their music while living in Sweden. Only reason why I think someone could be against extradition in this case.

[Amry]

I'm with the Yanks on this one. There's no strong reason why they don't have rights to get their hands on the hacker. It'll be another thing if the requesting country is North Korea, for example, or any other country with less-than-kosher judiciary.