By now most people are familiar with the details of the story of Gary McKinnon, a UK hacker with severe Asperger’s syndrome who in 2001 broke into NASA and Pentagon systems, highlighting the weakness of their security with the well-publicised comments, which included: Â ’your security is crap’.
The point is that the attack came at a time when any such activity was treated with even greater seriousness than before in the aftermath of the destruction of the twin towers, and hence despite the fact that it is now clear McKinnon suffers from serious mental health problems, including extreme depression, and that he was in fact motivated not by some terrorist objective but instead a curiosity about UFO data that he hoped to find on the NASA and Pentagon databases, he still faces extradition, trial and imprisonment in the US.
The home secretary, Alan Johnson, recently paused the process to allow for more information on McKinnon’s medical condition to be heard, which has now happened – and confirms that any extradition would be illegal on account of his unstable mental state. Duncan Campbell’s Guardian piece rightly points out that this is now finally the opportunity to let the matter rest once and for all, by doing the humane thing and pardoning McKinnon instead of using him as a deterrent for other would-be hackers.
Now is the time to raise some awareness on this issue here in the UK and hopefully ensure that this vulnerable man is treated humanely, rather than used as some currency in US-UK international relations (to make up the damage done by the Scottish release of Megrahi, earlier this year?). Yes, McKinnon committed a crime – and obviously the Pentagon cannot admit that he actually did them a favour by highlighting security holes without really doing any damage, but maybe it’s not beyond them to stop baying for his blood for the purposes of a PR demo on their tough stance on terrorism, for lest we forget, whatever McKinnon has done, he is categorically and unquestionably NOT a terrorist.
Dejan Levi