back to article McKinnon faithful to stage further US embassy demo

Supporters of Gary McKinnon are planning a further demo outside the US embassy next Friday as time runs out to prevent the hacker's extradition to the US. Protesters hope to present a letter for US president-elect Barack Obama to embassy officials during the demo, which kicks off at 5pm on 5 December. They also hope to present …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Oh dear god, people

    He is accused of committing a crime on US soil, breaking US laws and the US has a treaty of extradition. He should face the courts of the country he is accused of wronging.

    Just because this is a white collar crime people get all uppity and defensive. At least the USA will prosecute white collar criminals (e.g. Nat West Three) unlike the UK which is more likely to give them a peerage or something.

    Please, enough of this pro-McKinnon bull-crap.

  2. David
    Joke

    Meh

    Can't do the time, don't get caught

  3. Ian Johnston Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    Asperger's Is Not A Disability

    It's a slightly odd way of seeing the world, but one which is - by original definition - within the range of normal behaviour. Relying on an Asperger's diagnosis in this case is silly and unconvincing, even when it comes from as eminent an expert as Baron-Cohen.

    McKinnon is fighting extradition with great tenacity and imagination: ample proof that he knew what he was doing at the time of the (alleged) offences.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Yawn..

    Just deport him already!

    If he just went quietly, he would have been given a light sentence and have been freed long ago... now he's just wasting my money as a tax payer.

  5. richard
    Alien

    frying tonite

    i'm surprised about about these comments coming from 'techie' folk, but i agree, it's gone on too long, he knew what he was doing and it's costing UK taxpayers. so tough luck gary, maybe it's not too bad in a US sweatjail, just keep thinking about 'Stir Crazy'.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @ Ian Johnstone + others

    Imagine the audacity of Mr McKinnon in fighting his case with 'tenacity'.

    Yes, he really should just bow down and accept his unknown fate in a country noted for its abuse of human rights.

    As for the people saying, 'If you can't do the time', I am sure that Mr McKinnon is glad of heart that people are keeping such an open mind on the outcome of his trial.

  7. jon
    Boffin

    Sod that

    Give him a work permit, he's obviously better with computers than they are.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    He's a national hero for hacking - or NOT!

    The guy is a scumbag hacker who got caught breaking into military computers for - according to him - the purpose of chasing UFO information. Evidently shortly there after he developed asswipe syndrome. This is a medical illness where you try to lie your way out of accountability for the crimes you knowingly committed. Then you get a bunch of bleeding hearts to write letters to politicians and you post on Ufool so people will feel sorry for you because you have asswipe syndrome, no clue and bad breath.

    All of the effort spent to try and allow McKinnon to escape prosecution and incarceration in the U.S. for his crimes, would be better spent convicting all hackers and making them face the music in the country where they committed their crimes. This would be a good deterrent unlike a slap on the wrist imposed by some fools who have no clue what hacking is. The whining over prosecution in the U.S. is simply ignorant fanboy nationalism, which has no relevance to the case what so ever.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Bah, nothing new

    I mean, he committed a minor offense in the UK, so let's deport him to the US and judge him retroactively... (the US laws that have been invoked have been passed AFTER the offense).

    Anon, as this message might be made illegal in the future by a merkin law and have me sent to Gitmo.

  10. kain preacher

    @AC ovember 2008 17:29 GMT

    (the US laws that have been invoked have been passed AFTER the offense).

    I would like to see a successful prosecution based on what you said.;

  11. Simon Brown
    Stop

    Accused of crimes that don't exist

    He is accused of committing a crime on US soil, breaking US laws and the US has a treaty of extradition.

    That's correct except for the minor detail that he is being prosecuted for breaking a law that didn't exist when he did what he did. I can't condone what he did - and I certainly can't condone doing it in such a way that he would be traceable when at the time it would have been easy enough to log in anonymously to a wi-fi network. But that's besides the point. I can't condone him hacking into these servers and what have you to look for aliens or something similarly banal.

    However he is being prosecuted under terror legislation, as a terrorist, for carrying out terrorist offences under anti-terror laws that didn't exist when he did his hacking. In effect, they weren't terrorist offences when he committed them. What made them terror offences? Bringing the terrorism laws in made them terror offences. UIp until the point those laws come in, they aren't terror offences. By all means do him for hacking. But retrospective prosecutions?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    Surprised at attitudes here

    I wonder whether the people here saying deport him are US folk, and the more sympathetic people are UK folk...? Me (uk folk), it hardly seems fair prosecuting somebody with laws from another country of which you are unfamiliar. Sure he shouldn't have done it, and he is obviously an idiot. However, under UK law he was not committing a particularly serious offense, but is now being treated as a low life scum of a criminal, serving the kind of time handed out to rapists and armed robbers. That is not justice.

    Alien, because there surely is some, though rather unlikely to be visiting us.

  13. Chris

    What technical and social ignorance

    When did hacking become a "minor offense" , especially hacking military computers? Good God are people this f*cking dumb? I guess when their bank account get's hacked we'll hear them squeal pretty loudly about hackers only commiting a "minor offense".

    I'm sure the U.S. will be pleased to provide McKinnon with a "work permit". He'll get a chance to do hard labor for the next 20 years. That's the kind of work criminals get. Then we'll see if he's as good with a shovel as he is with a keyboard.

  14. R Callan
    Thumb Down

    @Chris the uninformed

    Hacking is NOT an offence, of any description. If that was so then Linus and Richard would be in gaol for "hacking military computers". I've heard that Gnu/Linux is quite popular on US military computers. What you are talking about is "cracking", and only a crackhead or reporter would make this elementary error.

  15. Mark
    Paris Hilton

    re: Oh dear god, people

    How could he? He wasn't ON US soil. The soil he was on the CPS didn't think it worth jailing him for.

    Frigging idiot.

  16. Mark
    IT Angle

    @Chris

    What hacking?

    Username: Admin

    Password: [enter]

    ?

    That's not hacking.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    Amazing how may commentards

    .. know so little about the details of the case.

    Idiot's guide:

    - Mc Kinnon was one of hundreds of 'visitors' to Pentagon network, he logged in to a workstation remotely and was able to sniff around in some directories.

    - An employee at the Pentagon noticed the cursor moving about and began a typed conversation with McKinnon in order to determine his identity and intentions.

    - The FBI originally charged McK with 'material damage to computer systems' because they had to shut down the network after the leak was discovered. In the US this is (something like) 6,000 dollars *per computer*, so they multiplied the fine by the amount of workstations on the network - hey presto: a multi-million dollar offence.

    -It was only later that these offences were magically converted to "Terrorism".

    - McKinnon never accessed 'secret' files nor hacked any servers. He 'took over' an employee's workstation, with no special passwords, access etc via a remote session.

    - The Feds were so enraged and embarrassed that they want to 'make an example' of this geek in front of the world.

    I'm not a McKinnon Fanboy, I am not a hakx0r and (for the CIA, FBI, CSA, RIAA and whoever..) I am not a "Turrist" either.

    I just worry about elasticated laws with mobile goalposts and hysteria based justice.

    But why should we worry?

    We have nothing to hide eh?

    (The question is, who is the party with things to hide?)

    ;P

    .......

  18. The Other Steve

    Dances with retards

    "Supporters of Gary McKinnon are planning a further demo outside the US embassy next Friday"

    What, all twelve of them ? BFD.

  19. Thomas Baker
    Alien

    There's quite a few comments on here.

    From people who have not followed this whole debacle. From people who don't understand that 'standing outside Woolworths in the high street' is not a crime today, so if it becomes one tomorrow, I'm not liable, because I did it today. From people who don't understand what the word 'hacking' means. From people who do understand what 'hacking' means but haven't really looked into what Gary McKinnon actually *did*. You are the fucking idiots because you're doing a Daily Mail knee-jerk. Shame on you. Read up on your subject before commenting.

    So, 5th of December, I'm there. And I will be wearing my full bike gear so I can't be tazered. Let's see if we can't come up with something that'll really get their attention too...hmmm.

    Alien - because I feel like one among morons who throw out pat lines like: "Don't do the crime if you can't do the crime." Care to look up what the crime actually was?

    You're an idiot.

    MMMmmllleh.

  20. Chris

    The nutcakes are out in full force

    You can tell Gary's supporters by the ignorant rants they make. It's amazing these folks can't even buy a clue with Bill Gates money.

    Let's hope all three or four of McKinnon's defenders get an increase in their Clozapine meds because they obviously are pretty removed from reality. The U.S. may be able to offer these folks a padded cell, where they can work out their delusions and be close to their hero Gary? Let's hope they all get the help they need - in the U.S. I'm sure the U.S. will take excellent care of these fallen and delusional Brits.

  21. Smokey Joe

    Forget what the tabloids tell yers

    "What hacking?

    Username: Admin

    Password: [enter]

    ?

    That's not hacking."

    Perzactly! And it's as simple as that.

    I find it hard to believe that so many visitors to places like this don't know what McKinnon did.

  22. David Simpson
    Flame

    Hes an idiot let him burn

    Deport him, he admitted guilt and has now wasted thousands of pounds in legal aid.

    I don't care if the Americans set him on fire, he is a waste of space, hacking is illegal and should stay illegal, if you don't know that you shouldn't remotely access military computers then you obviously never watched "war games"

  23. Mark

    Hes an idiot let him burn

    If we should burn idiots, get on the fire, Dave.

    He admitted actions that were not criminal at the time. If we're going to go all retroactive on people's asses with anti-terror laws, how about the US terrorists who usurped the legitimate UK authority back in the 18th century? Round 'em up. Put 'em in a field. And BOMB THE BASTARDS!!!

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Begyourpardon?

    8-10 for a little light breaking-and-entering? Oh dear. Of course that could explain why the U.S. of A has the largest percentage of the population of any country* housed at His Majesty King George III's pleasure.

    Pardon the guy already, he's already done more time for breaking-and-entering than the average thief would ever have to.

    *: except of course for those countries where the borders can be considered equal to prison walls.

  25. Greg Trocchia

    @Surprised at attitudes here

    As a US citizen, I can assure you that most of us have never heard of Gary McKinnon, even those of us who follow technology. The only reason *I* know about McKinnon is that I read the Register on a regular basis. I would also like to point out that, even if Mr. McKinnon is extradited here, a conviction is not necessarily a foregone conclusion. The belief that UFOs are of alien origin, and the suspicion that the US government is conspiring to withhold evidence of the same, is not exactly unknown here and it would only take one individual with such beliefs to deadlock a jury (supposing that such an individual would be unwilling to convict McKinnon for trying to "get at the truth"). Furthermore, if Simon Brown is correct about the McKinnon doing his looking around prior to passage of a law against it, that would sound like something which runs hard up against the Constitutional prohibition against ex post facto laws (Article 1, Section 9).

    As one of those rare Americans who has been following the McKinnon case, thanks to the coverage at the Reg, I can give you my personal opinion: it would not bother me if he succeeded in avoiding extradition. My reasoning is that lack of malevolent motivation + failure to mount a serious hacking attack = A case the prosecution should have used its discretion not to push in the first place.

    If McKinnon actually was a terrorist, say looking for info to hand over to Bin Laden and company, or if he was mounting a more invasive attack, say installing keyloggers or doing a man-in-the-middle attack or trying a buffer overrun exploit, then it might be worth going after the dude as a deterrent. As it is, I come away with the distinct impression that the zeal in going after the guy is more a matter of the amount of embarrassment he is supposed to have caused and I find it hard to get worked up over that. Of course that is just my opinion, but I think it worth stating as contrary evidence to the notion that all of us in the US want to see them lock McKinnon up and throw away the key.

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