Gary McKinnon: extradition to US blocked ..

[Drummond]

Is this getting any notable coverage in the US media ? See ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19961796

Gary McKinnon is a British citizen who successfully hacked into some of the most security sensitive computer systems that America has ..

See also ..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/t...precedent.html

McKinnon was accused of hacking into various computer systems, back in 2002 (including at the Pentagon), and the US has tried to get him extradited to the US to stand trial ever since. The case for blocking McKinnon's extradition is that to agree to it would violate McKinnon's human rights .. he's said to suffer from Aspergers Syndrome, and there's been a fear that, if extradited, he'll try to kill himself.

Our Home Secretary has accepted this as a legitimate concern, so, has blocked extradition proceedings .. presumably permanently. As of now, the issue of if he'll ever stand trial in the UK instead hasn't been determined.

So, what are your views ?

Mine is that (a) this sets a dangerous precedent in UK law, and (b) in this case, this is unjust anyway ! I believe the extradition should've gone ahead, and McKinnon should have faced justice for his crimes against the US.

And ... if there really were reasonable concerns about his mental health .. who are we to judge that the US system cannot reasonably deal with that ? Because it seems to me that the judgment passed in this case says that the US cannot be trusted to deal with these things properly !

McKinnon, by the way, came up with the laughable excuse that his hacking activities were intended to find high-level evidence of the existence of UFO's !! But - regardless - what McKinnon did was dangerous, not only for US interests but for the West as a whole. We cannot have an instance where anyone managing a set of crimes of such enormity escapes justice for it !!!