I was convinced...that certain secretive parts of the American government intelligence agencies did have access to crashed extra-terrestrial technology which could...save us in the form of a free, clean, pollution-free energy” Gary McKinnon
Gary McKinnon says he hacked into US military computer systems looking for information about UFOs
The Home Secretary Theresa
May has blocked the extradition of British computer hacker Gary
McKinnon to the United States for breaking into American military
computer systems. But who is Mr McKinnon?
In March 2002 Glasgow-born Mr McKinnon was arrested by police at his dingy flat in Wood Green, north London.Scotland Yard detectives were acting on allegations from the Americans that he had hacked into US military computer systems in an attempt to bring them down.
He allegedly immobilised sensitive systems in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
Mr McKinnon, now 46, admits hacking into US computers but says he had been on a "moral crusade" to find classified documents about Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).
GARY MCKINNON'S LEGAL BATTLE
- Mar 2002: Gary McKinnon is arrested by British police
- 2002: Mr McKinnon is indicted in the US states of Virginia and New Jersey on eight counts of computer-related crimes
- 2005: US authorities begin extradition proceedings
- May 2006: Judge at Bow Street Magistrates' Court rules Mr McKinnon should be extradited
- Jul 2006: Home Secretary John Reid signs order allowing for Mr McKinnon's extradition to the US
- Apr 2007: High Court dismisses Mr McKinnon's legal challenge against extradition
- Jul 2008: Mr McKinnon loses Law Lords appeal against being extradited
- Aug 2008: European Court of Human Rights says it will not prevent his extradition
- Aug 2008: Mr McKinnon is diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome
- Oct 2008: Home Secretary Jacqui Smith gives go-ahead for extradition
- Feb 2009: Crown Prosecution Service refuses to bring charges against Mr McKinnon in UK as an alternative to US prosecution
- Oct 2009: Home Secretary Alan Johnson said he would study new medical evidence
- May 2010: Coalition is elected and new Home Secretary Theresa May promises to look afresh at his case
- May 2011: Barack Obama, on a state visit to the UK, said he would "respect" the British legal process.
- Jul 2012: Mr McKinnon refuses fresh medical tests
Gary McKinnon Computer hacker
They describe Mr McKinnon's
hacking as "intentional and calculated to influence and affect the US
government by intimidation and coercion".
But Mr McKinnon, or Solo as he was known online, has always
said he is no web vandal, nor virus writer, and he never acted with
malicious intent.In a BBC interview in 2005 he said: "I found out that the US military use Windows and having realised this, I assumed it would probably be an easy hack if they hadn't secured it properly."
Using commercially available software, Mr McKinnon probed dozens of US military and government networks. He found many machines without adequate password or firewall protection. So he simply hacked into them, he said.
'Crashed UFOs' In 2009 he told the BBC: "I am not blind to criminality, but I was on a moral crusade.
"I was convinced, and there was good evidence to show, that certain secretive parts of the American government intelligence agencies did have access to crashed extra-terrestrial technology which could, in these days, save us in the form of a free, clean, pollution-free energy."
He added: "I thought if someone is holding onto that, that is unconstitutional under American law. I didn't think about jail sentences at the time."
"I'd stopped washing at one point. I wasn't looking after myself. I wasn't eating properly. I was sitting around the house in my dressing gown, doing this all night," he said.
David Blunkett and US Attorney General John Ashcroft signed the extradition treaty in 2003
Mr McKinnon did not try very hard to cover his tracks, even
using his own e-mail address. When Britain's hi-tech crime unit finally
came for him in 2002, Mr McKinnon was not surprised.He told the BBC: "I almost wanted to be caught, because it was ruining me. I had this classic thing of wanting to be caught so there would be an end to it."
He thought he would be tried in Britain, and that he might get, at the most, three to four years in prison.
The Gary McKinnon saga has dragged on for 10 years and in that time there have been seven home secretaries.
He has appealed unsuccessfully to the House of Lords and the European Court of Human Rights.
One of his major arguments against extradition is that he believes he will not get a fair trial in the US and will be punished much more severely because he has contested the extradition process.
In a House of Commons debate in December, Conservative MP Dominic Raab said: "Gary McKinnon should not be treated like some gangland mobster or al-Qaeda mastermind."
The case has been in Theresa May's in-tray since she became Home Secretary in May 2010 and on Wednesday she finally ruled that he should not be extradited.
She said there was no doubt Mr McKinnon was "seriously ill" and said: "Mr McKinnon's extradition would give rise to such a high risk of him ending his life that a decision to extradite would be incompatible with Mr McKinnon's human rights."
But Mrs May said it was up to the director of public prosecutions to decide if he should be prosecuted in the UK.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19946902
