Wuss

Sounds like the coward can't accept responsibility for his actions.

as an aussie I say...

F the yanks. If he needs to have jail time - not proven - let him do it at home. Apart from anything else, if the security was so slack that a "UFO searcher" hacker could get in then then they deserve to be hacked. What were they using?....Windows? - again they deserve to be hacked. Effin morons who think that the world revolves around what is good for them.

Paris cos I've heard that she like being hacked.

Are you sure?

I was so shocked when I read this that I had to check a few other news sources to make sure it was true. Sincere apologies to El Reg for not trusting you straight away, it's just that this story seems to be about a politician doing something that huge numbers of people want and looking after a citizens interests and standing up against American interests. I hope the right honourable home secretary has found a way to make money out of this, otherwise I might have to reassess my opinion of politicians.

What is up with this?

The guy is guilty by his own admission. Why are we wasting taxpayers money having people deal with this. Agree the extradition and let him have his day in court. If he's not guilty then good on him, if he is then let him fight a lengthy appeal case through the US courts as it is US law he has violated.

Why there is such public support for the UK to try and keep this criminal here I'll never understand.

The laws are there for a reason and cybercrime may not seem as important to some as other, more physical crimes but the law has been broken and he needs to go and deal with that.

Lets cut him off.

While I don't agree with a one sided extradition agreement with America, why is this guy not in prison already ?

If I forgot to lock my front door would any random UFO nut be allowed to give my house a going over looking for evidence of UFOs NO!

Gary knew he was breaking the law and admits he did so why is he still wasting our tax money on his legal aid.

Asperger's syndrome is never diagnosed in adults because there is no point, it cannot be treated and it is effectively just a collection of social problems that most adults should be able to cope with. People are acting like he has a mental illness, which he doesn't I'm just sick of reading about it, stop the export to America and just throw him in jail here already.

None of us would feel sorry for him if he'd hacked into our banking system instead.

Surely Gitmo is being closed..

The vendetta against McK has always been a bit of a drama, but surely with Obama cleaning up the shop he doesn't risk being sent down to Gitmo?

Plus - normal civilised countries have duel extradition treaties which imply that a convicted 'felon' can be repatriated for sentencing..

I am curious to know if any steps have been taken to uncover the identity of the other 5 thousand "hackers" (barf) who also made use of the blue-tak and sellotape security fence around the Pentangle's datacentre... ;)

Americans eh?

What a bunch of deity-fearing cow-herders!

Another Vote Winning Move

Another Vote winning move from the party that brought you.....

War in IRAQ

War in Afghanistan

Expenses

Tax Avoidance

The ID Card

Oopps I've lost my Database.

Any I may have missed out.

Funny how things start to happen now when they are scrabbling around looking for somebody that likes them. All the opportunities they have had in the past to bury this and failed because they didn't care

End see-saw politics - Vote for the Lib Dems

Send him to the US!

Of course the extradition should go ahead.

No amount of bleedin' heart rubbish about medical conditions alters the fact that the situation is criminal.

And after Johnson has been extradited, that pratt Blunkett should be shipped over there, too.

Let's hear it for America!

I doubt

that the spineless labour government will ever have the guts to stand up to the Americans. The one-sided extradition agreement should be torn up, and a fair and equal one be negotiated. This case is not just about McKinnon, it's also about an unequal treaty and it's inadequacies. Americans are quite happy to send in the Seals to save one of it's citizens from getting a parking ticket, why is our government (sic) so ready to give it's citizens up?

Yes, McKinnon broke the law, but the reaction of the Americans has been disproportionate, misleading and down right dishonest.

And to David, who wrote "If I forgot to lock my front door would any random UFO nut be allowed to give my house a going over looking for evidence of UFOs NO!", just remember that McKinnon used a program that scans systems for administrator accounts with no passwords! Every machine that Mckinnon broke into had no password at all protecting it. To use your analogy, that's like you not having a front door at all - just a open hole. If that was the case in your house, that you had no front door at all, would you be suprised if you where burgled?

And what of the other 5000 hackers that managed to amble through the open door? You don't hear the American politicians calling for the ones from China, Nth Korea, Iran etc. to be executed? Yet, because this is Britain, and a bunch of greedy, house-flipping, self-centred ***** are in power, its citizens are a "soft" target.

If anything, I think McKinnon has done a service to the Americans, by highlighting just how poor their security was. Come on - no passwords at all? That's just a joke.

Paris? Because even she knows what a password is used for....

Unbelievable

You oddities who believe that because some foreign country claims a UK or any other non-USA citizen living in his/her own country has broken some US law that person should be sent there. Tell me what say we had in the making of such laws. Or do you believe that we are subordinate to USA and therefore to its laws? Wonder if we can try all those USA types carrying guns, or who contributed to the IRA, in London. So now, we have to know the laws of every country in the world in case we break them at home even if not against our own laws. Wonder why so many other countries do not accept that unless the treaty is bidirectional.

If a demonstrator in London "insults" the USA flag, off to the USA?

For those who follow that line of thought, I suggest that you move there. If you want to stay here, take a lesson from the French and even the Americans: loyalty to your own land.and fellow citizens, mentally ill or not.

And for you medical experts: who are you to judge whether somebody is mentally ill or not? Or are you Psychiatrists who masquerade as IT experts?

By special relationship do they mean like between a husband and battered wife??

and where's the IT angle... this is nothing to do with Hacking and all to do with knobchuck politicians........ being... well... knobchunks...

@AC 09:35 GMT

Who says the govnmint runs the country - didn´t Brown sign away the county´s rights to self-government when he sneakily endorsed the Lisbon treaty without the promised referendum.

What I cannot understand is how they now justify the continuing existence and expense of a parliament and civil service.

Definitely time for an escape.

People think it's actully right that this is happening?

Come on I know he should be punished for what he did. But I think the US is taking things a bit overboard, Sure he 'hacked' into their systems. But the fact that he isn't especially good at hacking as it was reported all he did was use scripts to brute force usernames and passwords is plain stupidity.

The people who should also be charged with a crime is the people who thought that their security was any good and didn't need updating. They need people like him to test their security. They should be thankful that is was him that exposed a hole in their security and and not someone else.

Why not just give him 6 months inside and a fine and let him reflect on why hacking is not a good idea. Flying him to US and putting him away for an indefinite amount time I can see really fits the crime... People do far worse stuff and don't get such harsh punishment.

Hope+Change=Suckers!

@cor

"Do you want a waterboarding with that", sir?

"""

The vendetta against McK has always been a bit of a drama, but surely with Obama cleaning up the shop he doesn't risk being sent down to Gitmo?

"""

What, exactly, has Obama DONE apart from Embrace & Embellish on Bush & Cheney's corrupt and evil policies? Nothing at all!!

Mens Rea

One thing everyone is forgetting is Mens Rea.

And just because he admits 'he did it', doesn't mean, in terms of Law, that he did 'do it' or that 'it' was actually a crime.

Unfortunately the treaty ( laughingly called bi-lateral ), like the European Arrest Warrant, has largely turned former due process into a simple case of 'you demand, we'll hand over, no questions asked'.

Be very afraid.

Oh come on.

How long has it been now, 7 years? pointless bickering over a non-issue by government airheads whom themselves are barely able to remember their own mobile phone PIN. Let McKinnon go already, 7 years of being the centre of a silly game of semantics tug of war with the promise of more hurt is more than long enough torture for any human being.