Saturday, August 1, 2009

Most damaging hacker to be extradited to the US

A UK court has approved the extradition to the US of Gary McKinnon, who admits hacking into 97 computers belonging to the US Defence Department, Navy, Army, Air Force and after September 11, 2001. McKinnon is claimed to be most prolific and damaging computer hacker in US military history. One message he allegedly left on a Pentagon computer stated, “U.S. foreign policy is akin to government-sponsored terrorism. I will continue to disrupt at the highest possible level.”

McKinnon and family say his actions were influenced by Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism. McKinnon, admitting the charges, says that rather than harming the United States, his goal was to expose evidence that "secretive parts of the American government intelligence agencies did have access to crashed extra terrestrial technology which could… save us as a form of free, clean, pollution-free energy." But prosecutors seeking his extradition have said his actions were not benign and the diagnosis was made long after the computer hacking occurred and the case against him was under way.

See, "Hacker’s Extradition to U.S. More Likely," New York Times, July 31, 2009, at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/01/world/europe/01britain.html?ref=todayspaper; "Autistic Genius Hacked Military Computers in Search of Alien Eco Tech," CBS News, July 31, 2009, at http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/07/31/crimesider/entry5202308.shtml; "New legal blow for hacker fighting extradition to US," Independent, August 1, 2009, at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/new-legal-blow-for-hacker-fighting-extradition-to-us-1765884.html ;http://freegary.org.uk/.

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