Hacker step closer to extradition

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Hacker step closer to extradition

I think he deserves to be punished severely for what he did however I don't think that it would be proper for him to be tried in the US or thrown in a US prison if convicted. It is my belief that he should be tried in the UK where he can get a fair trial and if convicted he would be near family, and be treated with at least some respect while serving his time.

Yes. Lets let the US prison system kill this man, because that would be justice for them being incapable of correctly securing sensitive material...... that's a fair and just response.

Of course he must be tried in the US, because in order to send evidence here, they would have to send it electronically, and as we well know, they're OUTSTANDING at keeping that secure....

Scapegoat. Thats about all I have left to say. Other threads have filled with vitriol about this, and my opinions are there.

Poor little aspie, hims didn't know breaking into other people's computers was wrong. Sucks to be him, doesn't it?

These threads usually degenerate into 'string him up' virtual lynch mobs by people so brainwashed into fearing terrorism as opposed to the loss of their civil liberties, that they usually just end up with the very people who are arguing for locking him up and throwing away the key i.e. presumed guilty, proving that McKinnon wouldn't get a fair trial i.e. be presumed innocent until proven guilty in their country.

Missing the point slightly there. It is quite feasible for obsession to overcome common sense.

Also... would you yourself not defy a law you thought unjust? Would you not think that the rights of humanity mean more than the poxy laws of your own nation.. or even less the laws of another nation?

Besides, the AS is more relevant in the punishment than the crime...

I'm not missing any point Macbeth. So do you believe the rights of humanity include breaking into other people's computers? How about your own computer Macbeth? Would you as quickly dismiss McKinnon's behavior if it was your ox being gored? How about Burglary, is that also a right of humanity? I don't consider the AS to be significant here with regards to the punishment, but I do believe that his prior behavior will be factored into the Judge's decision if he goes to trial and gets convicted. I have not seen any evidence of prior criminal convictions so his clean record would mitigate against anything close to a maximum sentence.

Have you actually seen some of the sentences being suggested for this man? You get less time for robbing banks. Consider what he was actually trying to do. It certainly wasn't exposing the US military to attack, or finding out top secret information of a dangerous type, or even relevant. He was looking for UFO stuff. That's it. These claims that he "damaged computers" just before 9/11 are just that.. claims. Are we really so sure that it isn't just the US gov. trying to cover up its own inadequacies? (Both over pre 9/11 situations, and its own piss-poor security.)

Also, it certainly is relevant to the punishment, if the punishment is incarceration in your prison system.. a cruel and unusual punishment for a white-collar crime anyway, but even more so for an Aspie. What he has done is at best on par with tax evasion.

And still.. if he had worked for our government it would have been espionage. Want to bet that we dont have people looking in your networks? Difference is, hes a private individual who got caught, and is now getting hung out to dry because our leadership is bed-wettingly desperate to cosy up to yours, even though yours is moving further away.

Your corrupt, morally-bankrupt and over-politicised excuse for a legal system has no business judging or punishing a British citizen whose alleged crime didn't even involve him leaving a bedroom of his mother's house here in Britain. He's not a Yank citizen, so not bound by your law. If you can't secure your military systems from unauthorised access by amateurs that's your problem.

Apparently it's McKinnons problem as well. Keep whining about it and it may just go away. How pristine and free of political influence is the limey legal system?

Our judges are notorious for doing what they like, when they like. If anything we have an issue with EU diktats disrupting our justice. Our politicians have very little real influence over most legal cases. But then we've been working on our system of government and justice system for quite some time.

As an added thought.. noticeably we don't make half as much fuss when US script-kiddies try to f**k with our government networks.

To add to Macbeth's comments, however flawed our system may be, it is our system, and one which British citizens have the ability (at least in theory) to change through the democratic process. Moreover, a defining feature of western democracies is that a citizen is given the opportunity to have their innocence or guilt assessed by a jury of their peers -- in this case not a bunch of hang-em high, trailer-park Yanks. So, you see, the land of the free and home of the brave is forcing the citizen of an allied country to be put before a jury of people who probably can't even find Britain on a map, and who'll decide his "guilt" within a legal framework that he has no control over through democratic process. It stinks.

As someone with ties to Britain, I find it shameful that the terms of the extradition treaty with the United States are so demeaning for the UK. There are those who still think that Britain must be great with Trident nuclear missiles and touring the Persian Gulf like during the good old days of Empire though just tagging along with the Americans... they tie that supposed greatness with obeying the Americans... including subordinating its people shamelessly to American demands and desires... For shame. Britain is no more than a subsidiary, as Zanzibar was to the British Empire!