(Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/169458/british_hackers_mom_appeals_to_obama.html?tk=rss_news) 'Soon after a British court ruled last week that it wouldn't stop the extradition of a British hacker, the man's mother made a plea to President Barack Obama to stop the legal proceedings.' HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH Okay, really. The man is 43, for chrissake. He broke into the DoD, NASA, and the US Army's computer systems, because he 'was looking for evidence of UFOs on U.S. military computers.' He caused $900K worth of damage to computers. He caused the shutdown of the federal government's computer systems for three days. He continued to do this even after 9/11, when we needed the investigative work elsewhere; say, finding out how the terrorists hijacked 2 planes and blew up the WTC? Well, apparently he still needs his mommy to get him out of this pot of boiling water. You moron. And get this. 'Sharp also said she fears that U.S. prosecutors will go for the death penalty for her son. "Obama, please hear about us," Sharp added. "Stand by us and make this world a better place, a more compassionate place. Please hear us, Obama. I know you'd do the right thing."'. First of all, what the hell? It's not like he's going to get a death sentence, you moron. And yeah, Obama! You should definitely start handing out free presidential pardons to people that maliciously crack computers and steal sensitive military/government information! Otherwise, you'd be making the world a worse place. The mother is a moron, too. Obama too, if he actually pardons the guy. 'Fitzgerald [McKinnon's attorney] also contends that an extradition, trial and sentence would weigh too heavily on McKinnon, who reportedly has Asperger's Syndrome, an autism-related neurobiological disorder. He added that the stress of it could make McKinnon psychotic or suicidal, according to a report from BBC.com.' Everyone claims they have Asperger's. As it turns out, most of these people are just lying jerkwads that need a medical excuse to not be sent to jail. That besides, since when do neurological conditions free people of guilt? Moron. '[London Mayor Boris] Johnson called those efforts [to extradite and prosecute McKinnon] a "legal nightmare" and described the move as "American bullying."'. Hm. So you're saying that if an American cracker were to hack into the UK's computer systems, cause $900K worth of computer damage, steal confidential information, and otherwise take time and resources to locate the cracker that could have better been spent researching a recent terrorist attack on London, you'd be perfectly happy with letting the hacker get away without any consequences? Guess what? Another moron. Jeez, even Pink Floyd supports this idiot. 'Since then, other celebrities have joined McKinnon's cause. In April, McKinnon's mother, Janis Sharp, announced that David Gilmour, singer and guitarist for the iconic English rock bank Pink Floyd, had recorded a song for an upcoming CD that's being put together to support McKinnon.' I can imagine the lyrics. "McKinnon hacked America - McKinnon got arrested - McKinnon is a British guy - He is a national hero" A whole band of morons. The sole voice of reason in the entire article came from former US assistant attorney general in New York, Scott Christie. 'Christie, who now leads the IT group at law firm McCarter & English LLP, said it's hard for him to understand the support that McKinnon has found in the U.K. "It's hard to understand how this case has become such a media circus when, in fact, it is relatively clear cut that he committed criminal conduct by breaking into U.S. military computers," he added. "It seems that many people in the U.K. fail to appreciate the seriousness of his conduct and seem to excuse what he has done by virtue of his supposed motivation to uncover evidence of UFOs or his Asperger's Syndrome, which does nothing to mitigate his guilt and is irrelevant in determining whether he has committed a crime.... People have seized upon inaccurate facts to make Mr. McKinnon a martyr almost."' [br][/br] Eh, something I wrote on my Facebook. Anyone in UK got any insight on this?
Man do I love me some Pink Floyd! I mean, I'll just be relaxin' all cool and all shootin some b-ball outside of the school. When a couple of guys who were up to no good, started makin' trouble in my neighborhood. I got in one little fight and my mom got scared. She said "You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air." Oh ****! I'm sorry about that. Anyhow. May this be a lesson to America's computer systems! Please renew your Norton subscriptions!
I don't get the "$900K worth of damage to computers". Is it because they needed to replace the computers he'd accessed, or does he have magic hacker powers that make electronics explode, like Neo, except 43 years old, with an over-protective mother. ..and looking for UFO's on U.S military computers? Everyone knows only the secret-multi-billionaire-corporation's attempting to reverse engineer alien technology have computers with that information. Geez, what a rookie.
Obviously it is only right that there are consequences for his actions, but whether he has a mental disability or not it's quite clear he is a deluded individual who didn't, or wasn't able to take responsibility for his actions. It wasn't a malicious attack however, and personally I believe that intent should play a notable role during sentencing (and it does). The real source of tension though is that the UK-US extradition treaty is biased in favour of the US because our politicians cut their own balls off a long time ago, and your computer security is clearly a joke. That's about it really.
My opinion of the US justice system ( I'm british ) is that it can be a little harsh but it seems to me that this is due to a bigger deterence being needed in America due to the frequency of crime. I think its right he should be extradited as he hacked into important systems deep within the US's government and did so just after 9/11. However I think he needs to be thoroughly assessed in terms of any neurological conditions, as this could have had a significant impact on his actions and intent.
Why it this funny? I'm sure if it was someone you loved that did something which, as far as it seems, they did not entirelly understand what they were doing I'm sure you would want them tried in your own country rather then sent to another where, to be honest, the punishment would be more likely to be far more harsher then need be. To be honest I don't think he went to his mother and asked her to do that. I presume it is a mother acting on her love for her son rather then an act prompted by her son. I think it's an entirely justified worry. Many prosectuers might see it as an act of terrorism. As I don't live in the USA I don't know but i'm presuming some acts of terrorism might be punished with the death penalty or is it when there is only loss of life because of said act? Proof that everyone claims they have Asperger? I know of no cases off the top of my head that people cry Asperger or another mental disorder just to get off being sent to jail. And no it shouldn't free him of guilt but it should be taken into consideration about what sentence is issued to him. Personally I think they should be far more worried that he managed to hack into the system and it could have had potentially far worse consquences then what happenend. Stealing confidential imformation? Again I would like a source on that as I didn't know that was what happened to be honest I don't think he should be extridited mainly for the reasons Shock Theta has said; he wasn't really aware of his actions but also because, for all extents and purposes, the damage could have been far worse. He neither published the information nor used it to attack although the fact that he hacked them is still wrong. I personally think Shock has it on the mark and that its down to the USA wanting to have a figurehead about what happens if you do something like that. Personally I think they should hire him to increase secruity as if he can do it so can others.
Why are you so quick to attack this guy? - The security should have been tighter on these systems - How the hell did he cause £900,000 of damage without malicious intent? What if he wanted to cause harm? - This is the news. Look into some more stories, Nemi, this could well be biased It is an amusing case though...
He's a hacker who has a mental condition like ADD. He would not simply give up, or he would face the large amounts of stress due to the mental condition, or else it would render him psychotic or suicidal. It's actually $900K, as in 900,000 dollars, not pounds, and by causing 'damage' I think what they mean is to develop new security systems, reset passwords and keycards, train new personnel to monitor the security systems, and etc.
What the Americans should do is give him a slap on the wrist, tell him not to do it again, and sign him up for NSA. A guy who cracks into the military systems like that is pretty good. If you tell him that he'll know lots of top secret crap he'll join right away.