McKinnon Loses Extradition Fight

This content was originally posted on benscomputer.no-ip.org 3rd April 2007

In the news today Gary McKinnon has lost his bid to avoid extradition to the US. For those who have not been following his story, he was accused by the US government of breaking into US Government Networks. He does not deny this, nor has he ever done so. However the US want him extradited to America for trial, despite the fact that he repeatedly states that he was only there out of curiosity, and the security on these networks was low enough to be trivial. Many feel that the US is trying to make a scapegoat out of McKinnon, whilst he did break through their security he did no harm, and the government should have ensured they had higher levels of security on these networks.

I myself am very dissappointed that once again our government has bowed to the whim of the US Government in agreeing to extradite Mr McKinnon, he is likely to find himself serving a sentence of decades.
It is alleged that one US prosecutor has told him he will 'fry'. The government has a duty of care towards Mr McKinnon as a british resident, and although he has indeed committed a crime, the government need to ensure that he receives a punishment proportionate to his crime.

It is time that the US focused on its internal issues, and stopped policing the world. Whilst Mr McKinnon did break into their networks, it seems unfair that no-one in the US seems to be asking quite why these networks were so badly secured? Surely networks of such importance should have a very high security level attached to them?

I hope for the sake of every British Citizen that the House of Lords does indeed overturn the decision to extradite Mr McKinnon, although the Governments steps to ensure that Mr McKinnon is protected in the following areas, is a good start, it's not enough.

The US have agreed that;

Mr McKinnon will not be tried by Military tribunal;
He will be eligible for parole;
He will not serve his sentence at Guantanamo Bay.

This is simply not enough, that our Government can bend to the whim of the US so easily is a very disturbing thought. It is thought that Mr McKinnon could spend the rest of his life in a US jail were he to lose the appeal to the House of Lords. He may not be allowed repatriation as punishment for fighting the extradition.

I for one will be following this story very closely after the next few weeks. Please go to http://freegary.org.uk/ and pledge your support.

Please sign this in the hope that Tony Blair may intercede.

There is more about this on my blog, please be aware that it's content may offend some users however