Court allows extradition of AS hacker to US

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Court allows extradition of hacker to US
By JENNIFER QUINN – 3 hours ago

LONDON (AP) — The European Court of Human Rights has cleared the way for the extradition of a British man who allegedly hacked into secret U.S. military computers, his lawyer said Thursday.

The court refused to delay Gary McKinnon's extradition to the United States, which he says would violate his human rights. McKinnon's lawyer, Karen Todner, said his extradition could come within the next two weeks.

"He is terrified by the prospect of going to America," Todner said, adding that McKinnon has recently been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism. "Our client now faces the prospect of prosecution and imprisonment thousands of miles away from his family in a country in which he has never set foot."

U.S. prosecutors want to try McKinnon, 42, for allegedly hacking into 97 computers belonging to NASA, the Department of Defense and several branches of the military from a bedroom in a north London home. His lawyers say any alleged offense that took place in Britain should be tried in Britain.

McKinnon's alleged attacks — which took place soon after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States — shut down the U.S. Army district responsible for protecting Washington, D.C., and cleared logs from computers at the Naval Weapons Station Earle in New Jersey, which tracks the location and battle-readiness of U.S. Navy ships.

McKinnon was caught in 2002 when investigators traced software used in the attacks to his girlfriend's e-mail account. He opposed extradition, claiming he could face prosecution under U.S. anti-terror laws.

If he is extradited to the United States, he would face trial on eight charges of computer fraud. Each count could see him sentenced to 10 years in jail and a $250,000 fine, but it's likely he would receive a much lighter sentence. It is up to officials in New Jersey and Virginia to decide where McKinnon will be tried.

Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey, said authorities there awaited McKinnon's extradition and "intend to prosecute him."

In Washington, Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney declined comment until McKinnon is in the United States.

"The department doesn't comment on matters of extradition unless and until an individual is extradited and on U.S. soil," Sweeney said in a statement.

McKinnon's lawyers had earlier asked Britain's High Court and the House of Lords to prevent his extradition. Both requests were denied.

They say they will ask Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's help in preventing the extradition, but it was not immediately clear what specifically she might do.

Associated Press Writers David Porter in Newark and Lara Jakes Jordan in Washington contributed to this report.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jpy3 ... gD92RDJC82

he broke the law what does this hav to do with autism?

If you break the law and ur autistic that doesn't make it ok the guy should still be brought to justice aspergers or not it doesn't matter the guy obviously knew what he was doing an shouldn't have been doing it

I have no sympathy for this guy. None. Hackers of this magnitude are not to be permitted use of Internet computers for the rest of their lives. They are to be marked, branded, and monitored. Just as a multi-offending pedophile must never be allowed near children, cyber-geeks must never be given the opportunity to re-offend. I also call for harsher penalties in the case of computer-crime.

Am I overreacting, you ask? Not really.

I want a message sent to all would-be cybergeeks out there.

If he knew that much about government computers, he had to have known there would be a serious international incident stretching far beyond the UK and US if Britain didn't extradite him.


Where was his fear of the US when he was knowingly endangering the lives of Americans?

He must have thought he was safe under the cloak of Internet anonymity. He must have thought he was untouchable. He must have thought the designers of the networks he was hacking were a bunch of numbskulls.

I imagine some of you secretly admire his work ...

So, what's the point ? Should he be treated differently because he has AS ?

AS cannot excuse a person from committing a crime. After all, if he's found guilty he'd probably be imprisoned and you can hardly use AS as justification of not going to prison (which is a radical change in environment).

They call him a hacker but he was breaking into american military systems that had no passwords. There is nothing hacker or cracker about that, its the burglery equivalent of wandering through open doors.

I cant understand why the military trial, he should be tried here, given a slap on the wrist and that's it. The American military however should be sat worrying about who else was wandering around their networks at those times. If it was easy enough for this guy to get in then I doubt Russia,Korea,Al Qaeda etc etc had any problems at the time either.

If this was really such a massive issue there should have been a series of high profile demotions aftwards.

Slowmutant - this is purely down to viewpoint. If he hadnt been hacking American systems and had personally hacked Osama Bin Laden's email he would be a hero. Curiosity is not a crime,but once you step beyond the "this system is protected by.....prosecution...blahblah" notice you have comitted the crime.

As you say, it's purely down to viewpoint. And interpretation.

My only personal stake in this is to see justice served and a serious crime punished.

Don't insult my intelligence by telling me that American military systems are without passwords. Say what you will but do not take me for a fool.

"UK Hacker Gary McKinnon Plays the Asperger's Card"
"Asperger’s Added to British Hacker’s Defense"
"US hacker reveals he has Asperger's syndrome"

So now unclassified means not password protected? The leaps and bounds people will stretch the truth to add support to their arguments never ceases to amaze me

He deserves to be punished somehow but I cant help thinking how vulnerable he will be in any kind of prison. I would want to be locked up in isolation 24/7.

All these presumptions here. The real question is:

Did he know what he was doing was illegal?

Rather than us presuming that he MUST know that it was illegal. It is possible for someone to commit a crime that they are unaware that it IS a crime. I can go on and on, but I will leave it here.

I personally am repelled by people judging on the information they are given rather than what they know. If someone is arrested then they must be guilty, doesn't matter if they did it or not, they ARE guilty ...