Gary McKinnon

[ThatVikRinA22]

i am practically shouting at the telly, watching the news - please please please someone stop this - Alan Johnson you are a fuckwit and this will stop me voting labour.

how can they do this? why are they so hell bent on extraditing him to the US, despite knowing he has aspergers, despite knowing he is suicidal.

The americans should be thanking him for exposing glaring holes in their "security"

my DS has aspergers. he is a computer whizz. he says there is info all over the net on how to hack so called secure systems. even he says better Gary hacking in than a spy.

how can we stop this?

If a bloke with aspergers walked into my home looking for aliens, and I had left my door wide open, and left a note like that, no, I wouldn't want him prosecuted. we're talking about a potential life sentence FGS. Would you want a man who had done that [with aspergers] to go prison for life?

IMO the fact he has aspergers is totally clouding peoples' opinions on this case.

Surely the question here really is whether we believe that people who commit crimes against the US in the UK should be extradited to the US for trial, and by the same token, whether we think that someone who commits a crime against the UK in the US should be extradited here for trial.

And sorry but you can't say "well he only meant to look for aliens," the reason is irelevant, he committed a crime, and whether he did it to look for aliens (and tbh the messages he left behind don't seem to be indicative of that), or whether he actually meant to compromise security doesn't change the crime he committed. And surely anyone caught hacking into someone else's computer system could fane an excuse and make what they did justifyable.

Equally I don't see why the US should be grateful to him. Yes perhaps they should be glad that the person who hacked in apparently didn't have more sinister motives (although again we only have his word for that), but grateful to the perpitrator? I think not.

As for people being extradited from the US to the UK, do people actually know that this never happens? Or is this just a convenient assumption to back up the argument against Gary McKinnon's extradition to the US?

wannaBe, US and UK extradition is not equal.

If the US wants to extradite someone from the UK to the US they just have to ask, they don't have to present the UK courts with any evidence.

On the other hand when trying to extradite from the US to the UK the British Government must show that they have a "reasonable case".

I have aspergers.

He didnt do this once, he did it several times.. i dont believe that he didnt know that hacking was illegal.

Time to extradite him and make him face up to what he did.

Having Aspergers does no absolve one from blame when you have commited a crime... fwiw, Aspergers is more recongnised in the USA than it is here and he's more likely to get an understanding jury there than here.

The issue isn't a case of not prosecuting him because he has Aspergers. He freely admits that he did 'wrong' and should be tried.

This issue is where should he be tried?

The offence was committed in the Uk - not in the US, so he should be tried in the UK.

Also, the Home Secretary has limited his time to appeal against extradition to just one week, instead of the normal 3 months that are allowed for appeal.

Why? - to ensure that by the time the Conservatives (who do not agree with our current agreement with the US re extradition) get in he has already been handed over to US custody.

Now that's what i call a political decision that should have no place in the justice system.