Is this guy still around?

Why can't he just hop on the plane and go - he's getting very annoying.

And since "UFO" was mentioned again...

...here a link that should make you think:

http://scribd.com/doc/2331671

https://thepiratebay.org/tor/3231674

retrospective laws

Don't you love this planet?

Not again...

"..extradition friendly.."?

How about "supine", or "desperate to be screwed in the ass" as a better description of NuLab's terrific extradition policy with the Rumsfelds of this world?

I don't remember Uncle Sam being so hot on "Terror" when our Fenian friends were blowing up civilians, or murdering off-duty squaddies, and then skulking off to the Home of the Brave to hide...

The US legals all became misty-eyed sons of Erin, supporting their noble "freedom fighters" like extras in a 3rd-rate Caffrey's commercial.

Couldn't be because they were scared to offend the Paddy vote in the US, could it? Surely they would never be that cynical?

Pah! A plague on their houses - especially the White one on Pennsylvania Avenue.

(I'll be back in 42 days...)

Just tio add my two cents worth...

Try him in the UK, and if any punishment is metered out - then he serves it in the UK.

The Yanks can just fuck off. If this was the other way around, they'd tell us to whistle Dixie.

The US military should be highly embarrassed at the state of its computer security. If I was the Defense Secretary, I'd concentrate more on ensuring this doesn't happen again by imporving security - and by sacking those in charge if it does.

Where is he now?

What is Mr McKinnon doing these days?

Is he a waster using his benefit money to buy more drugs?

Or does he have a proper job, perhaps following in the footsteps of some of the other famed hackers and being ethical with his skillz?

I don't agree with the extradition thing, but if he's just louting around on my hard earned taxes, then maybe he should be a burden to the US rather.

The aliens are running the USA

Have been for years, that's why they need to get the foreigners into their labs where they can chip them.

Proof is at http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0808/0808obamaalien.htm

Paris because she's an alien.

they have to

The US government has to make him out to be some ultra dangerous super-hacker otherwise they have to admit that he hacked into their network using techniques a 10 year old child could have learned from the 25 year old Wargames movie.

Sounds about right

More or less what I have said all along, this is simply a chance to make an example of McKinnon, a nice show trial and banged up the slammer in a cosy 8x10, stateside. 10 years ago, if this had gone through he might get 5-6 years, however with all this fuss over non-existent terrorists and Gitmo, he'll be lucky if he sees freedom before 2025.

I do feel it's a little unfair to make an example of the poor sod, however if you go poking your nose in where you know it's wrong, don't be surprised if something nasty tries to bite it off. I wish him well, but somehow I can't see much stopping him being loaded onto a plane bound for the US, I certainly can't see dear Jacqui giving a rat's!

@ The other Steve

Steve,

Please report for duty as Home Secretary at once. You have succinctly, if colloquially, put the salient points.

As I assume you could do the gorgeous, pouting Jacqui's job twice as well in half the time, would you be interested in taking over from the boy Milliband as well?

Abuse

> "high chances of abuse, torture, rape and drug abuse" in US prisons.

So this counts as extraordinary rendition, no? I thought we didn't do that...

As for : "louting around on my hard earned taxes", I think the US will be sending us the bill, and our government will be stupid enough to pay it.

NWO Smackdown

McKinnon vs Childs!

Reciprocity

I think we should afford the US of A the same sort of assistance and cooperation they provide the UK when seeking to investigate the performance of their military with regard to 'friendly fire' in Iraq and Afghanistan, i.e. precisely ZERO.

US born malware

I have had my computer infected by US born malware more times that I care to mention. Whether having my screen abused by Popups, having my privacy invaded by companies such as Double Click. To me companies such as DoubleClick (but not necessarily Doubleclick) and those like it have hacked my life and invaded my privacy without my permission. I actually charge money for things like spyware installs and tracking cookies. By my counts I am owed a lot of money by certain US Companies who are wholly unscrupulous and act without morals. Can I demand all the information they hold on me? Can I heck - well that is what our Home Secretary should be doing on our behalf - especially as if they manage to buy a dodgy copy of some of the data our government has lost - which would add much more context to data they have collected.

Also, anyone who supports McKinnon should boycott American products and vote against UK governments who consistantly support america war mongerers and then send our own citizens on a whim.

Great Britain - not. Do you honestly think the French would have one of their own sent to America for the public flogging that McKinnon is obviously going to receive. I think not. This country is fast become a disgrace to it's people and history - and this is just another example to myself of why I plan to leave Great Blighted, take my business with me and live somewhere that doesn't feel like a Facist Dictatorship. I know a lot of people in the computer business who are doing the same. I mean honestly - citizens of liberal countries laugh at us - we are not called 'Prisoners Of Mother England' for nothing you know.

If our government doesn't stand up for it's own citizens - collective we should say enough is enough and hold the government to account for data it has lost under it's watch. We should demand that the likes of the home secretary are put in prison - because they don't have the excuse of being a stoner and claim to be professional people. Perhaps the british people can sue the government in the EU caughts for gross misconduct. I think there are millions of people who would have a case.

Sad, because week by week, I seem to hear nothing positive about anything that the government is involved with. Sad, because I like the humour - but I'm fed up with this piss taking bunch of charlatans that people actually voted for (I didn't - I didn't vote for Blair, and I certainly wouldn't vote for Brown).

Enough of this shite

A state should protect it's citizens, even criminal ones. The idea that you give up your rights for stepping on the cracks on the pavement is a disease clearly imported from the smallpox-blanketeers over the water.

Errrr

"The US system does seem to be a mite different to ours; according to a program

on the Beeb they get something like a 90% conviction rate, thanks largely to their very aggressive approach to plea bargaining (e.g. 2 years for a guily plea vs 10 years without).

Also its not generally possible to overturn a conviction unless you can show a legal fault in the original trial - i.e. being able to prove your innocence later will have no effect on your sentence etc. Still, I guess that saves on compensation claims.

Um try more like 50-70% I dont know were they got that stats from.

Oh yeah being innocent does show legal fault. You are allowed to introduce new evidence after you ar convicted, so long as as it would of swayed the jury. Such as a new witness,. a video tape showing you were no were near the crime.

"securing extra funding"

But for what? The logical answer is to close the holes that McKinnon exposed. Here's an idea: screw extra funding and force sysadmins and beancounters in charge of affected systems to follow the bare minimum security standards that they are no doubt already mandated to follow. In other words, send word down the line that leaving default passwords on 'net-connected systems is not acceptable practice. If they start whingeing about extra funding, just tell them to suck it up and get the job done. End of story. If the custodians still don't get their acts together, send in the Tiger Teams. Or leave it to the crackers (of whatever hat colo(u)r) to give them some basic schooling in password management. Let the beancounters learn that while the second option appears to cost nothing, it's actually more costly in the long run.

Of course, the logical answer is probably not what is happening here. As the article suggests, any extra funding would not go towards plugging basic holes in the system, but rather some flag-draped, gee-whiz, bells-n-whistles "initiative" whose primary goal will be to convince the general public that the administration is tough on cybercrime, while in reality having nothing going on behind the curtain.

<--- because my ride's here

That old chestnut indeed

"The internet effectively placed him in the US. His "crime" was comitted on computers on US soil, albeit remotely"

And I thought El Reg readership was of the IT kind...

I wish you were right though. That would make life quite hard for ambulance-chasing lawyers acting on behalf of the MPAA, RIAA or whoever. After all, the offence takes place in Dog knows which distant country -albeit remotely-, in which copyright legislation might be a tad less retarded... or does it?

If I'm watching kiddie porn hosted in Russia and paying my subscription through a US-based money transfer company, where should I be extradited to?

For the conspiracy theorists

And this article seems to have relied heavily on one... I'd just like to point out that here in the States there is nothing to cover up... I'm going to go out on a limb and represent the American population at large by saying we don't give a fuck that McKinnon broke into some crap computers (I say crap because I've seen no mention that he actually made it onto a .smil network) If you were to ask 1000 Americans at random who Gary McKinnon is, I bet over 99% would tell you they didn't know. For those thinking the military needs this as a means to get more funding - erm, we already have the likes of Russia launching cyber attacks - much more effective than some kid for scaring up money...

I'm not saying to not have fun and think of lots of nice conspiracy theories to waste your days with - just come up with some decent ones please. -_-;

100% dangerous

I guess he must be more dangerous and more wanted than Abu Hamza, since his extradition to the US was blocked.

And another thing

This all opens the door to US laws and legal processes superseding UK (and even EU) laws and legal processes.

Is this what we want, Is this where we want to go?

The British government and legal systems have been weak and short sighted and, no doubt, improperly expedient.

I'm sure independant legal analysis would conclude differently and would not hand over UK citizens to the US and wash their hands of the consequences both to the individual and the bigger picture.

A good article!

‘McKinnon a 'scapegoat for Pentagon insecurity'’

The Yanks are going to burn McKinnon, Aspergers and/or skunk or not.

Remember they fry mental defectives and used to fry teenagers. Uncle Sam isn't interested in justice, Uncle Sam wants revenge for being shown up by foreigners - look at Guantanamo.

Paris, because she didn't show that much - but it was a bloody sight more interesting.

@Why doesn't the US get some evidence to support their allegations

First off, it's: retroACTIVE (ex post facto), not retroSPECTIVE, and the U.S. can't do that with laws. They can only have any effect from the point of establishment onward. I don't know how things work in the U.K., but whatever he could have been charged with when he was detained is all he can be charged with, now ... same penalties, same classification.

Second, the United States is not a Democracy, it's a Republic.

Um, back to the question of evidence ... let's see ... because the U.S. doesn't need any?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but McKinnon admitted his guilt, right? Therefore there is no need for a trial, at all. The guy is verifiably guilty. No evidence required.

There are only two things to be decided:

1) Which country gets to pick his punishment, and

2) Which country gets to effect said punishment

These wouldn't even be an issue if YOUR government hadn't already agreed to some form of extradition arrangement with the U.S. Bitch at your representatives, if you don't like it. See, that's what "extradition" is all about. And we don't have an extradition agreement with China, so if it's a Chinese hacker, they get to be dealt with under Chinese law with no argument from us. If your country wasn't such a blissful utopia for criminals of all kinds, we wouldn't even care.

And there's no need for torture, in this case. We only use that on people who haven't confessed enough or who we figure won't confess unless we waterboard them. And then, we only waterboard them a little bit, so it's not like old school thumb-screw torture. Didn't you read the (now-disgraced) Justice Department's memo? Jeez ... and the rumors were that the British are such courageous folk. Wusses.

Yanks Go Home ....... Your Time is Up.

"Second, the United States is not a Democracy, it's a Republic".

In that case, why is it spending trillions of dollars and killing millions of Asians to "spread democracy"?" .... By Tom Welsh Posted Thursday 4th September 2008 07:04 GMT

Because it is a Pariah Virtualised Administration with Lead Players, Bit Part Actors to the Root of All Evil hiding in the Undergrowth/Background/Vaults/Clubs ....... and printing dollars is Easy to make one Rich but Spending them whenever they become Worthless as a Simple Way to Teach the Idiot a Lesson they will never forget, is also Easy and will stop Aggession and Armed Traffic Immediately in ITs Tracks.

$1bn to Georgia ..... a worthless bribe to enslave and embed the Root of all Evil?

Time for some Eastern Dreamers to Do Their Thing ...... and with their Benefit of Millenia of Hindsight to your Century of Pig Iron Pre-Eminence and Bitter Bastard Stewardship....... and now, Complete Lack of Fruitful Future Global Intelligence.

And if that is GCHQ speaking out of Turn, Sit on IT and Spin ...... for that is the Future in ITs AIReality.

A Junk Yard Dog has no Place in a Virtualised World Order with Binary Control of Digital Signalling ........ Semantic Communications Feeds.

Or is that a False View which you have Created/not Removed ...... and thus an Abject Failing of the Perceptions Management Team Manager?