UK hacker appeals for pardon

[ubuntu-freak]

Seeing as the all-star a****** kissing Labour government seem determined to extradite their own citizens on bogus charges, Gary McKinnon has now appealed to George W. Bush for a pardon (http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39593272,00.htm). Thing is, he isn't American, so he can't receive a pardon.

By bogus charges, I mean the ludicrous claim by the US that he hacked into 70,000 computers between 2001-2002, and the fact they conveniently claim he deleted thousands of valuable files, when to me that just sounds like they are trying to beef-up the case against him because of their own embarrassment.

I know, I know, some of you will say, "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime", but the thing is, few of us expect that our government would so happily and submissively agree to extradite us, plus the fact that Gary is just a weirdo who thought the US military had some juicy evidence of UFOs stored on their hard drives.

[ubuntu-freak]

I imagined this thread would garner more interest than it has. I guess I've got the lurgies.

Anyway, here's a video (http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39593281,00.htm) of the UK shadow justice minister David Burrowes talking about Gary.

[MikeTheC]

Anyway, here's a video (http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39593281,00.htm) of the UK shadow justice minister David Burrowes talking about Gary.

Why is it the first thing which pops into my head when I hear "shadow minister" I think of some kind of covert, "shadowy" secret organization?

I think your shadow minister should have done this backlit behind a white, sheer curtain. :)

[ubuntu-freak]

Why is it the first thing which pops into my head when I hear "shadow minister" I think of some kind of covert, "shadowy" secret organization?

I think your shadow minister should have done this backlit behind a white, sheer curtain. :)


Haha, yeah. :)

I wanna be a superhero called Shadow Justice Minister - I would kick ***. My special power would be to make people instantly orgasm, then whilst in their weakened state I would tie them up and leave them for the cops to deal with.

[uberdonkey5]

You wonder, what type of jail sentence does the idiot who allowed this to happen get? Makes you wonder how secure computer systems are from terrorist groups.

Difficult situation. I'd guess he did no damage (surely there needs to be proof that he did damage in our courts?????). But obviously people don't want to send a message that hacking into government computers won't result in a severe penalty.

[MikeTheC]

Difficult situation. I'd guess he did no damage (surely there needs to be proof that he did damage in our courts?????). But obviously people don't want to send a message that hacking into government computers won't result in a severe penalty.

Well, at least it beats having a bit of "wet work", which is probably would would have happened had this been some other country.

[xpod]

NASA seems to have more (http://www.examiner.com/x-2024-Denver-UFO-Examiner~y2009m1d15-Whistleblowers-evidence-of-NASA-UFO-fraud-might-kill-UK-hacker-case) questions to answer to than Mr McKinnon himself.

[t0p]

You wonder, what type of jail sentence does the idiot who allowed this to happen get? Makes you wonder how secure computer systems are from terrorist groups.


Secure? Secure??!! The computers he broke into were not password-protected!

The US government is making a big thing out of this because McKinnon has made them look bad at a time when the military etc should have been on a high security alert (ie after 9/11 etc). Bunch of slack idiots.

The saddest thing (to me as a Brit) is that the UK government is just submitting like a puppy to the US extradition request. There is absolutely no way that the USA would extradite one of its citizens to the UK in such circumstances.

[sydbat]

Haha, yeah. :)

I wanna be a superhero called Shadow Justice Minister - I would kick ***. My special power would be to make people instantly orgasm, then whilst in their weakened state I would tie them up and leave them for the cops to deal with.It's been done (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgazmo)...