The Autism News

The Autism News | English

By IT Chuiko

Time marches inexorably to the “UFO hacker”. Gary McKinnon lawyers try using another appeal before the High Court in London directly to prevent the threatened 43-year-old man deported to the United States.

Yesterday (3 December), the UK Home Office has provided an extension of McKinnon appeal by seven days, until 10 December. The court decided to check the interior minister Alan Johnson, who is alleged failure to take account of new information on health status and McKinnon decided to continue the process of extradition. In McKinnon was found Asperger syndrome – one of the forms of autism.

Last week, Johnson decided that the medical evidence is not sufficient to stop the deportation on humanitarian grounds. McKinnon, who accuse the United States repeatedly to break into military computer systems, originally was to be deported on December 10, but the interior minister, who because of the stubborn attitude he found himself under pressure from politicians and public opinion, once again confirmed that the Scot will not be expelled as long as you remain at his disposal measures. If the London tribunal rejects the request for verification of the decision, McKinnon lawyers will have two weeks to re-submission of the matter before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. However, there Scot had already suffered a defeat.

If the last legal means fail to achieve the desired result, McKinnon theoretically this year may be submitted to the United States. Szkotowie U.S. government alleges that between 2001 and 2002, broke into several government computers, and they want him to arrange for this reason the process. McKinnon admitted that he had obtained access to computers such as NASA, the Pentagon and the U.S. Army to look at them, hiding information about UFOs. While McKinnon was to be guided only by curiosity, American prosecutors accuse him of “the biggest computer hacking of all time” and estimate the damage done by him in $ 800 000 (530 000 euros). In the event of conviction threatens to McKinnon in the United States to 70 years imprisonment.

Source: http://it-chuiko.com/internet/1499-last-resort-of-ufo-hacker.html

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The Autism News English Alan Johnson, asperger syndrome, autism, autistic, European Court, Gary McKinnon, Human Rights, London tribunal, NASA, Pentagon, Strasbourg, U.S. Army

The Autism News | English

By CNN | International

LONDON, England (CNN) — The Briton accused of hacking into U.S. government computers on Friday lost his court appeal to have his case heard in Britain, his legal team said.

The decision means Gary McKinnon faces extradition to the United States, where he is wanted for allegedly hacking into computers at the Pentagon and NASA.

His mother, Janis Sharp, promised to appeal.

McKinnon, who has admitted breaking the law and intentionally gaining unauthorized access to computer systems, wanted to be tried in Britain rather than the United States.

He planned to ask judges at the High Court in London to review a recent decision by the director of public prosecutions not to pursue legal action in Britain, a spokeswoman at the prosecutor’s office told CNN July.

The prosecutor’s decision effectively cleared the way for McKinnon’s extradition.

The U.S. government says McKinnon carried out the biggest military computer hacking of all time, accessing 97 computers from his home in London for a year starting in March 2001 and costing the government about $1 million.

McKinnon, currently free on bail in England, has said he was simply doing research to find out whether the U.S. government was covering up the existence of UFOs.

Prosecutors in the United States and Britain disagree.

“These were not random experiments in computer hacking, but a deliberate effort to breach U.S. defense systems at a critical time which caused well-documented damage,” Alison Saunders of the Crown Prosecution Service said in February. “They may have been conducted from Mr. McKinnon’s home computer — and in that sense there is a UK link — but the target and the damage were trans-Atlantic.”

U.S. federal prosecutors accuse McKinnon of breaking into military, NASA and civilian networks and accessing computers at the Pentagon; Fort Benning, Georgia; Fort Meade, Maryland; the Earle Naval Weapons Station in Colts Neck, New Jersey; and the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, among others.

In one case, McKinnon allegedly crashed computers belonging to the Military District of Washington.

McKinnon is believed to have acted alone, with no known connection to any terrorist organization, said Paul McNulty, the former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

A U.S. federal grand jury indicted McKinnon on seven counts of computer fraud and related activity. If convicted, he would face a maximum of 10 years in prison on each count and a $250,000 fine.

McKinnon’s lawyer, Karen Todner, complained that the United States has never provided evidence to prosecutors or McKinnon’s legal team to support their extradition request — and in fact, under Britain’s Extradition Act of 2003, U.S. prosecutors are not required to.

McKinnon has previously said it was easy for him to access the secret files.

“I did occasionally leave messages in system administrators’ machines saying, ‘This is ridiculous,’” McKinnon has said. “(I left) some political diatribes as well, but also a pointer to say, you know, this is ridiculous.”

McKinnon was on the brink of extradition in August 2008, when the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, refused to reconsider the decision to send him to the United States, effectively clearing the way for his transfer.

Shortly after that decision, however, McKinnon was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, and he claims that diagnosis changed the case for extradition.

It was on that basis that McKinnon made his appeals in Britain.

Asperger syndrome is a form of autism that affects a person’s social communication and interaction, according to Britain’s National Autistic Society.

Those affected often are of above-average intelligence and have fewer problems speaking than do those with autism. They sometimes have difficulty knowing when to start or end a conversation and can be very literal in what they say, with difficulty understanding jokes, metaphors and sarcasm.

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/07/31/british.hacker.mckinnon/

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The Autism News English, English Gary McKinnon, Janis Sharp, loses appeal

The Autism News | English

By Peter Griffiths | Reuters UK

LONDON (Reuters) – A British computer expert wanted by the United States for “the biggest military hack of all time” begins a final attempt on Tuesday to avoid extradition.

Lawyers for Gary McKinnon, 43, will argue in the High Court that he is too ill to be sent to the United States for trial because he has Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism.

U.S. prosecutors accuse McKinnon of causing $700,000 (434,017 pounds) of damage and shutting down the U.S. Army’s entire network of more than 2,000 computers in Washington for 24 hours.

At the time of his indictment, Paul McNulty, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said: “McKinnon is charged with the biggest military computer hack of all time.”

McKinnon says he was searching for proof of alien life when he repeatedly broke into Pentagon and NASA networks from his home computer in London in 2001 and 2002.

The hearing is likely to end on Wednesday, although the judges may not announce their decision for some weeks, an assistant to McKinnon’s lawyer Karen Todner told Reuters.

Since his arrest in 2002, McKinnon has lost repeated legal attempts to avoid extradition. He wants to be tried in London, where he would expect a more lenient sentence if convicted. A U.S. court could jail him for up to 70 years.

The European Court of Human Rights and the House of Lords have both approved his extradition.

McKinnon’s campaign has won celebrity backers, including singer Sting, Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and former Beirut hostage Terry Waite.

“A lot of this rests on intent,” Waite told Sky News. “His intent was to try and discover whether there were little green men around. Well, that’s rather ridiculous, isn’t it?”

Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKTRE5581WD20090609?sp=true

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