He may be innocent in his eyes and his actions may not warrant the US allegations, but he did admit to hacking the systems. Maybe they can just use him as a consultant?
They have done it in the past. I dont see him as a terrorist, if thats what they are saying. To me, someone who really wants to do damage on a system, once they are in, its up to them to kill it or use it. He clearly didnt destroy anything. Maybe the outages are just because of the militaries desire to ensure the systems were clean?
Well since the UK is essentially socialist now... maybe he can just pay money he doesnt have and make it all go away. Should be much easier to buy the US off now.
Court hears NASA hacker 'at risk of psychosis'
Summary
A judicial review of Gary McKinnon's extradition to the U.S. has begun in the high court in London, with questions of his health being raised.
Topics
Lawyers acting for Gary McKinnon say the self-confessed Nasa hacker runs the risk of becoming psychotic and suicidal if his extradition to the U.S. goes ahead.
Edward Fitzgerald, QC, described the risk during a hearing on Tuesday at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. Judges Lord Justice Stanley Burton and Mr Justice Wilkie are reviewing a decision by former home secretary Jacqui Smith to allow extradition proceedings against McKinnon to go ahead, despite his being diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome.
"There is a risk of psychotic disruption, which may range on a path from anxiety through to psychosis," Fitzgerald told the court, as he presented arguments against the extradition. "There is a risk [McKinnon] may take his own life."
Fitzgerald said the home secretary reached a flawed decision in response to the medical evidence. "She underestimated and misrepresented the gravity of the situation."
Fitzgerald went on to point out that Smith had not asked the US authorities to repatriate McKinnon should he be found guilty by a U.S. court.
McKinnon has been accused by US prosecutors of hacking into US military systems between February 2001 and March 2002, using his home computer in North London. They allege that McKinnon accessed 97 US government computers, including US army, navy and NASA computers responsible for national defense and security, and naval munitions supply.
Moreover, the U.S. authorities claim McKinnon deleted critical operating-system files, leading to the shutdown of the entire U.S. army network of over 2,000 computers in the District of Washington. The deletion also took down a U.S. Naval Weapons Station computer system, causing $700,000 (£430,000) damage, prosecutors allege.
McKinnon has admitted deleting logs in an attempt to cover his movements, but has denied causing any damage. He claims to have been hunting for evidence of UFOs.
"The issue of damage has been overblown all along," said Fitzgerald. "[McKinnon] does not accept he deleted materials, aside from his own."
On Tuesday morning, the judges expressed their intention to reserve judgement, which means their decision might not be made public for up to two weeks.
McKinnon's attorney, Karen Todner, told ZDNet UK that the court's decision could go a number of ways other than in favor of the extradition as it stands. For example, the judges may say they will not order the extradition until the home secretary has asked for, and received, formal assurances that McKinnon will serve any U.S. prison sentence in the UK. Or the judges may decide against extradition, in which case McKinnon may still be prosecuted in the UK.
If the extradition is given the go-ahead, then the defense will attempt to appeal to the House of Lords, Todner said. In addition, the defense will seek a judicial review of the decision by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) not to prosecute McKinnon in the UK.
McKinnon's mother, Janis Sharp, told ZDNet UK that McKinnon's health had suffered as a result of the stress of the trial.
"He's just had an operation on his eye, he had a lump removed and sent for biopsy," said Sharp. " There's a lump growing on his shoulder. It's the stress — he's stressed out of his mind."
This article was first published on ZDNet UK.
Talkback Most Recent of 15 Talkback(s)
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Been_Done_Before9th Jun 2009 -
RE: Court hears NASA hacker 'at risk of psychosis'
How unfair of the US to prosecute this guy... Don't they know that they are making him ill... Cry me a river...
sdwilliams20099th Jun 2009 -
Jail Isn't a Resort Spa
So put him on suicide watch. They do that with other criminals that are stressed out about being caught. If he is innocent, he should quit fighting extradition and get this all over with.
MichP9th Jun 2009 -
Not really
MichP, innocent people should fight at every step of the way, not giving a single inch of ground.
The prosecution doesn't have the intent of finding out if he's innocent or not, they have the intent of putting him in jail.
Many innocent people are in jail, that are later released through DNA evidence. And others, the majority, have no DNA evidence so they just rot in jail.
You kind of have a utopian notion that the justice process is perfect, when its not, and that its based on cooperation, when in fact its based on competition (prosecutor vs. defense).
Innocent people should fight like mad, thats the proper advice.
rdupuy1110th Jun 2009 -
suicide watch
((So put him on suicide watch))
**I was in the Navy Brig in San Diego in 1957 and conditions were so tough: standing attention all day, and three hours of calesthentics a day, verbal and physical abuse by the Marine guards, etc... that some guy tried to commit suicide, but just bled a little. The sargent of the guard came by his cell and threw a packet of razor blades into his cell and told him to stop whining and just do it.
I hear that they actually get TV in jail now a days.. yeah.. must be tough in there. lol.
froggy5718th Jun 2009 -
RE: Court hears NASA hacker 'at risk of psychosis'
they hire him after the jail time, unfortunately. It
also might be a private company that would hire him.
Until he's acquitted or thrown in prison, he's too
dangerous to touch.
I agree with the terrorism stuff. Doubt he could buy
the us gov off though, they'll want to make an example
of him and show the world they'll send anyone who
meddles to prison for as long as possible. Anyway, the
military doesnt really care about saving money etc so
unless there's a corrupt judge involved (well,
probably would have been bought by the military first)
or they keep him in the UK he's going away for quite a
while, mental retardation or no.
s0crates
btw zdnet anonymous posts would be cooler and why the
f**k aren't comments/talkbacks expanded on the story's
page???
jmizzy9th Jun 2009 -
RE: Court hears NASA hacker 'at risk of psychosis'
He has to be in jail, but does not necessary in US.
binyo669th Jun 2009 -
Good news for Mr. McKinnon
Lawyers acting for Gary McKinnon say the self-confessed Nasa hacker runs the risk of becoming psychotic and suicidal if his extradition to the U.S. goes ahead.
They say we have the best health care in the world. He probably won't have to wait as long for treatment as he would at home.
MGP29th Jun 2009 -
RE: Court hears NASA hacker 'at risk of psychosis'
Jesus, hire the guy as a security consultant. It's obvious he found massive flaws in whatever protection these "top secret" systems had in place and if a guy with Asperger's can do it, I'll just bet a few smart Chinese have already downloaded the entire .gov holdings. Leave the poor guy alone and give him a medal for helping us get our act together!
gjwheeler@...9th Jun 2009 -
On the plus side
By the time he does get to jail, he'll already have served his sentence waiting. :P
Although 700K damage is a bit rich. Maybe if he deleted every database he could find? But modding logs (which is the only thing most self respecting hackers do) is so not 700K worth.
Chrissd9th Jun 2009 -
You knowns.
For NASA, if a lousy hammer cost over $5k, then you can expect that a automatic log is anything but a bargain.
magallanes11th Jun 2009 -
RE: Court hears NASA hacker 'at risk of psychosis'
we all know what he's really at risk for, which is being gang !@#$$@# 20 times a day once he goes to prison.
Frankly, I feel not sorry one bit for NASA, and do feel sorry for the vastly overblown, out of reason response to his offense, his offense being similar to speeding, or forgetting to register your license plates.
Contrary to popular belief, unless you set your computer up to allow remote connections, noone can sit in their bedroom in London and cause connections to your comptuers that don't exist.
Hacking is almost always the same.
NASA left their computers wide open.
Someone went through the wide open doors.
Shame on you NASA...solving a problem through fear, that you could easily solve by simply not being negligent about security.rdupuy1110th Jun 2009 -
RE: Court hears NASA hacker 'at risk of psychosis'
I say Let him stay there Prosecute him via proxy and let him rot in a UK prison let them pay for his upkeep
IMHO Gaxxis
GAXXIS10th Jun 2009 -
RE: Court hears NASA hacker 'at risk of psychosis'
Poor kid--just leave him alone; he's already suffered enough with the stress he's experienced. I mean, can you imagine how much stress is required to cause a lump to grow over one's eye and one's shoulder? That's ******* nuts. This kid probably hasn't slept at all and is praying for death every second of the day. Isn't that punishment enough?
NWOcanSUCKit10th Jun 2009 -
Three conversations with NASA Operator
On no less than three occasions did Gary actually converse with a NASA operative whilst he was in the system and advised them of the lack of passwords and yet no alarm was raised???
Parassassin11th Jun 2009
Talkback - Tell Us What You Think
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