Gary McKinnon Extradition

[retrocomeback]

What's everyone's take on this case? Personally, my other half works closely with aspergers sufferers of varying ages and is almost certain McKinnon would have known what he was doing was illegal and therefore wrong. Is his apparently mild Asperger's syndrome therefore an insufficient reason to stop any extradition? It's not an easy call but the law should be applied equally to all in my opinion, whether McKinnin has a lack of social skills or not is almost irrelevant as is his apparent depression and suicide risk which is only present as a result of his admitted crimes.

 

[velomaniac]

He hacked into a foreign powers sensitive goverment computers. He has the skills to do some pretty serious techy stuff but not the sense to know its very bad. No chance, he's up poo creek without an outboard and deserves his fate. His defence is in the same vein of Bart Simpson, 'It wasn't me, it was broken when I got here' :roll:

 

[retrocomeback]

Well, the b1tch (Theresa May) blocked it! :shock: Anyone else sceptical of the Tories sudden swing to populist policies, proposals and decisions?

 

[grahame]

I hope that this is not just "playing to the gallery" but an attempt to rebalance the seriously one-sided extradition treaty with the USA.

 

[B77]

He hacked into the computers of the largest terrorist organisation on the planet. Well done to him I say, give him a medal.

 

[Raging_Bulls]

As a way of coping with my Aspergers, I find myself ana.lyzing every situation and then taking a decision. Once that decision is made, I'll stick to it.
In some cases, I may decide that the best course of action is one that ignores the law and/or other people's idea of right and wrong. In that case I will break said laws and will do so without feeling any guilt.
So while someone with Aspergers may know something is wrong or illegal, he may do it regardless because in his mind it's the only viable option.

Have you ever ran a red light because you were in a hurry and there was nobody else on the road anyway? Remember how you were aware that you were breaking the law but did it regardless?
You could have stopped, but decided that it would be better to just run the red light. It made perfect sense to do it, right?


HOWEVER : He claims he was looking for proof that free energy was being suppressed and evidence of a UFO cover-up.
While I understand that hacking would be the best way to get to that info, it doesn't explain the alledged deletion of critical files and the threat he left on one of the computers he accessed, so IMO he's just a hacker and his quest for information or his Aspergers has nothing to do with it.


That being said, I do support his cause.

 

[retrocomeback]

It will be interesting to see if Kier Starmer (DPP) decides to put McKinnon on trial here. Will McKinnon fight this too? Will his alleged depression and suicide risk now evaporate? Justice needs to be served somehow :?

 

[highlandsflyer]

We need the USA to provide justice?

What has become of this land, that we complain of multiple acts of crime by a man but cannot bring him to justcice right here?

The USA has a history of putting to death persons of low IQ, recently sticking an aging businessman in prison with dangerous cellmates and historically keeping scores of foreign nationals in torture rife limbo for years without trial nor charge.

Why on earth should we trust the USA to provide adequate care for a UK citizen, never mind a fair trial?

I am with B77 on this one.

Punishment should be relative to the harm done, not merely the potential.

If McKinnon could so easily enter their back doors, then should they not offer him work in their anti terrorist efforts rather than put him on trial for doing nothing more than exposing their asses?

 

[Kerplunk]

We need the USA to provide justice?

What has become of this land, that we complain of multiple acts of crime by a man but cannot bring him to justcice right here?


Why on earth should we trust the USA to provide adequate care for a UK citizen, never mind a fair trial?

The crime was committed on servers in the US so that's where the trial should have been. He admitted his guilt. He was offered a deal which would have meant a reduced sentence and its very unlikely that the US would have rejected a request to serve his sentence in a British prison. Looking for UFOs wasnt his original defence. I don't want to sound harsh but if his aspergers was so obvious why didnt any of his family, froends, colleagues etc pick up on it before his lawyer did? I don't think he should necessarily have been deported but can't help but think its been played on somewhat. The national press seemed to quite like the extradition treaty last week when Hamsa got shipped off but this week its grossly unfair...

 

[silverclaws]

For breaking the law he has a case to answer, but in this country not the US and our country should not be so willing to hand over it's citizens so easily every time America clicks it's fingers. But if I were a superpower I wouldn't be going around saying a foreigner with learning difficulties successfully hacked their computers and I believe the Americans themselves should be asking question about the lack of security as McKinnon got in, and chances are many others did too and probably still do, if anything McKinnon did the yanks a favour and highlighted their lack of security in an age where, well, the war on terror.

But I second Raging_Bulls as I also know that,'' it's wrong but I have to do it anyway, as there is no other option'', once the compulsion takes hold, it is difficult to stop it. Then there is something else many an ASD individual understands they are deficient in comparison to those without ASD, hell there is enough negative education out there, many aspies know so well, but to try and be like everyone else and fit in they will do what they believe everyone else does, even if that ting is wrong, the need is so great to fit in and appear to be normal.

The extradition case was not so much about the fact he had aspergers, but was more to do with the common and accompanying black depression, where McKinnon did say if he gets extradited, he will commit suicide, and suicide watch, well aspies are very resourceful when the need arises and knowing what I know of aspergers and the accompanying black depression, I know McKinnon would have gone ahead with his promise, aspies can be stubborn that way.

But I must admit I am very surprised at Theresa May for blocking the extradition, her being of the 'hang 'em high ' mentality I believed it was a foregone conclusion he will be gone in a matter of days and bollocks to his human rights Brits are not allowed to have them, well the English at least. But there has been other things in the news since, since the tory conference showing a different side to the government with them even talking about a referendum on Europe now albeit with changed terms, so something is going on, I suspect they are scared as they know they ain't popular and there is a general election in only two and a half years time. Methinks they are vote buying because they are running scared.