Gary McKinnon suicidal following U.S. bullying

Originally posted by vonspurter
If Gary McKinnon really did uncover something - you would never have heard his name, let alone his case.

Using Remotely Anywhere to access random IP addresses (alocated to US Mil institutes - open to anyone to find) in the hope of discovering a Windows Server to try and log into? Hardly hacking is it? Any joker can do that. Having a blank admin password should have the sysadmin sacked however.

Because of my first line, I think this is a non event - I don't care what happens to him - he's just a kid messing about - he found nothing.

Frankly, if a computer belonging to any Government unit has extremely sensitive information on it - do you think it would be connected directly to the internet? Firewalled or otherwise? Of course it wouldn't. Do you think a NASA server with proof of alien life JPEG'S on it requires to update the Yahoo Weather every 5 minutes?

Hackers can try as hard as they like - they'll get nowhere without physical access. McKinnon is an idiot. Hackers shouldn't make a stand for him, he's just someone who can use a mouse and with his destructive mentality, given the capability he'd probably be writing viruses 24/7.


[edit on 15/10/09 by vonspurter]

The problem is, somewhere along the line, someone assumed 'script-kiddie' was the same as 'hacker' - I mean it's all 'bad stuff' on computers, right? - and McKinnon has now been bestowed with these 'mad 1337 skillz' and now, in much of the public mind, he's some super arch-villain who can bring the world to its knees simply by looking at a PC. I'm fairly sure that some aspects of the American media are playing this angle, and that some Americans are falling for it, as justification of the way he's being treated.

Originally posted by Detailed Perfection

That is until, and you quoted it yourself directly, "Analysis of the appellant’s home computer confirmed these allegations", because with the proof to back up the allegations, they became Evidence to be presented in a court of law.

And as far as your claim that "the U.S. has not even been required to provide such evidence" is a false statement. They contacted the proper UK authorities with their findings from their investigation, the "allegations". That UK authority investigated those "allegations" and they found the evidence to prove the allegations as Fact. Once they became fact, they became Evidence, that WILL be presented to the Judge in a court of law.

Sorry. I completely reject everything said in this portion of your post, quoted above, as unfounded and wholly without proof.

[edit on 15-10-2009 by Malcram]

Hearing dates: 9, 10 June 2009; 14 July 2009 Approved Judgment

Obviously this subject and all the activity within this site and within the United Kingdom has not gone unnoticed, however, i would like to direct your attention to what the United Kingdom Judicial structure heard/read and decided to act on.

To those who have an open minded approach i would like to present the opportunity to who ever may wish to read what the actual court transcript is that was handed to the court. The pdf document is 43 pages long so make yourself a cup of coffee or tea and simply get comfortable.

media.abovetopsecret.com...


Sincerely
Tristar


edit:
Big hand of applause to the site owners at the level of interaction amongst your members within this thread.

[edit on 15-10-2009 by tristar]

First of all I would like to say that I would love to join this guys fan-club because I truly do believe in his cause. NASA, and the U.S. Government have many secrets that the people should know about, and I applaud him for having the guts to go after that truth.

That being said, now I have to state my opinions which will have the doors to his fan-club forever slammed in my face. He committed a crime, and you can plead for forgiveness based on the seriousness of the crime all day, but that won't change the fact that he broke the law, and will/should be held accountable for it. I believe that he knew this was a crime when he did it and therefore regardless of how noble his cause may have been, he should have been ready for the fallout if he was caught.

He is a Freedom Fighter... Maybe, as I said, I support his cause. However, fighting for a cause that I personally believe in doesn't exempt someone from the law. I am a marijuana smoker, and member of NORML; an organization that I believe deeply in. At a NORML protest a few years back a gentleman fired up a joint, and was subsequently arrested for possession of marijuana. Do I agree with the law that he was arrested under? Obviously not, but he did break the law no matter how unjust a law it is.

Another problem that I have with the whole "He is a freedom fighter, so it is ok" argument is that it opens the doors to justification of all sorts of crimes. I would have no problem finding large groups of people who would tell us, and make compelling arguments that groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, hell even the KKK are freedom fighters. I ask you, since they are fighting for someones idea of freedom should they be exempt from the consequences of their actions? If you argue that he should not be prosecuted because he is, in YOUR eyes, a freedom fighter, but you answer no to my question then I would have to openly call you a hypocrite.

In conclusion I have to say that I would not mind seeing him find a way to escape prosecution. However, as an intelligent adult I think that he knew the possible ramifications of his actions, and therefore he should have been prepared to accept the responsibility for said actions.

Originally posted by Majiq
First of all I would like to say that I would love to join this guys fan-club because I truly do believe in his cause. NASA, and the U.S. Government have many secrets that the people should know about, and I applaud him for having the guts to go after that truth.

That being said, now I have to state my opinions which will have the doors to his fan-club forever slammed in my face.

Too many people on this thread are polarising this issue. There is middle-ground on this issue. Personally, I accept what he did was wrong - autism/asperger's or not. I don't actually have problem with him going to prison.

What I do have a problem with is the way the American government have handled this, the sentencing that's being proposed and the pathetically one-way nature of this 'special relationship'. There's no way on earth that, if McKinnon was American and this had been the other way around, that this story would be unfolding the way it is doing and I honestly suspect that some of the American's supporting the extradition and are calling for severe punishments wouldn't be too happy about an American being extradited this way.

reply to post by Merriman Weir


I'm wondering just how the extradition will effect the prospects for a fair trial as well. Will there be an extravition of british witnesses and evidence? How will the jurors be selected?

Originally posted by fromunclexcommunicate
reply to post by Merriman Weir

 

I'm wondering just how the extradition will effect the prospects for a fair trial as well. Will there be an extravition of british witnesses and evidence? How will the jurors be selected?

It will affect it as much as ant will affect your balance when your walking and you step on one.

You should take the time to read the pdf within my previous link and any question you may have will be answered by your own conscious.

Hi all,

Look, the guy broke some serious USA laws and got into areas he had no bloody business getting into. The whole IFO based sites are ablaze with Mr MCKinnon and it's being blown out of proportion. United States won't hang'm. And, as some sites suggest, he may have helped the USA Military re-align their media security?

But McKinnon has to face the music here. Hopefully just a suspended sentence, but people need know where not to go, just out of consequences being caught -- yes? But get the McKinnon case done and over.

Decoy

Post reply to the big yin !

The howes are guilty as mate ! their lab in grangemouth was raided .

also the sites they were advertising on also had links to create crystal meth! and what are these two doing selling precurrsor ingredients anyways?

just because their CV didnt match doon the job centre aye right !

the difference between these clowns and mckinnin is that mckinnon was only looking for info ,

Howes couple were selling precurrsor materials for a highly illegal drug , which also kills people and destroys families !


[edit on 16-10-2009 by sapien82]

Originally posted by StinkyFeet
This guy has pulled out all the stops to get sympathy from people, so he won't have to face his just desserts. He pulls out the sympathy card more than Jessie Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton pull out the race card.

If he didn't want his butt tossed in prison maybe he shouldn't have been haking our computers. DUH!

You just got done telling ATS members how you would like us to be work slaves and take away our freedom to not work. Now you are telling me that it is wrong to ask for sympathy if YOU don't think it is deserved. So you not want to take away our freedom of speech as well. Which would you do first, enslave us or take away our freedom of speech? Just admit you want to be supreme dictator of the USA and make each and every crime carry the death penalty. That is what you would do as king is it not if just you were in charge of everything?

This world is littered with authoritarians such as yourself and so I'm honestly glad you are here on ATS because there are so few authoritarians on ATS.

the only thing I can think of -- he accessed the hidden part of NASA.
John Lear believes he accessed the Black Astronault Core. space based weapon platforms and the like. stuff that doesnt exist stuff...

Gary said he saw about half of a UFO before being caught... ?

as Gary says - its not hard to hack NASA they are wide open... care to join Gary just go whacken on NASA servers and you will be prosecuted.

You'd think he would've done the right thing, backed up some stuff, shown it on ATS and then get us all to see what he had seen. If he gets sent to prison or dies, then it's all in vain.

All I know is that if I stumbled across this kind of information I'd want to distribute it as fast as I could. Even if I didn't understand it too well, I'm sure someone else out there would appreciate the information more than I would.

reply to post by Whine Flu


We will have to wait for the extradition apparently. He said he didn't store any information on his hard drive in the UK but there are thousands of FTP incomming directories on the net to hide evidence with other hackers. You don't travel that many miles on the net without sharing the same Janet flights with other hackers, so there are plenty of witnesses.

[edit on 16-10-2009 by fromunclexcommunicate]

Obviously people are either afraid or simply skipping through the post which serve their own agenda rather than going through the simple process of reading why this individual is being processed.

The appellant’s alleged criminality
11. Using his home computer the appellant, through the internet, identified US Government network computers with an open Microsoft Windows connection and from those extracted the identities of certain administrative accounts and associated passwords. Having gained access to those accounts he installed unauthorised remote access and administrative software called "remotely anywhere" that enabled him to access and alter data upon the American computers at any time and without detection by virtue of the programme masquerading as a Windows operating system. Once "remotely anywhere" was installed, he then installed software facilitating both further compromises to the computers and also the concealment of his own activities. Using this software he was able to scan over 73,000 US Government computers for other computers and networks susceptible to similar compromise. He was thus able to lever himself from network to network and into a number of significant Government computers in different parts of the USA.

12. The 97 computers the appellant accessed were: 53 army computers, including computers based in Virginia and Washington that control the army's military district of Washington network and are used in furtherance of national defence and security; 26 navy computers, including US Naval Weapons Station Earle, New Jersey, which was responsible for replenishing munitions and supplies for the deployed Atlantic fleet; 16 NASA computers; one Department of Defense computer; and one US Air Force computer.

13. Having gained access to these computers the appellant deleted data from them including critical operating system files from nine computers, the deletion of which shut down the entire US Army's Military District of Washington network of over 2000 computers for 24 hours, significantly disrupting

Draft 31 July 2009 09:48 Page 3
Judgment Approved by the court for handing down. McKinnon v Home Secretary

Governmental functions; 2,455 user accounts on a US Army computer that controlled access to an Army computer network, causing these computers to reboot and become inoperable; and logs from computers at US Naval Weapons Station Earle, one of which was used for monitoring the identity, location, physical condition, staffing and battle readiness of Navy ships, deletion of these files rendering the Base's entire network of over 300 computers inoperable at a critical time immediately following 11 September 2001 and thereafter leaving the network vulnerable to other intruders.

14. The appellant also copied data and files onto his own computers, including operating system files containing account names and encrypted passwords from 22 computers comprising: 189 files from US Army computers, 35 files from US Navy computers (including some 950 passwords from server computers at Naval Weapons Station Earle); and six files from NASA computers.

15. The appellant's conduct was alleged to be intentional and calculated to influence the US Government by intimidation and coercion. It damaged computers by impairing their integrity, availability and operation of programmes, systems, information and data, rendering them unreliable. The cost of repair was alleged to total over $700,000.

16. Analysis of the appellant's home computer confirmed these allegations. During his interviews under caution, moreover, he admitted responsibility (although not that he had actually caused damage). He stated that his targets were high level US Army, Navy and Air Force computers and that his ultimate goal was to gain access to the US military classified information network. He admitted leaving a note on one army computer reading:
“US foreign policy is akin to government-sponsored terrorism these days . . . It was not a mistake that there was a huge security stand down on September 11 last year . . . I am SOLO. I will continue to disrupt at the highest levels . . .[\quote]

link





* Note the bold, and your asking that he should be considred as a freedom of information fighter. Sorry we have other plans. Welcome to the U.S.

[edit on 16-10-2009 by tristar]

Originally posted by tristar
Obviously people are either afraid or simply skipping through the post...

Not really. Those are the allegation of the U.S. Govt, made in order to meet the criteria for extradition.

An allegation is not a fact, especially when it comes from the U.S. Govt. and is made to achieve a desired goal.

WMD's anyone?


[edit on 16-10-2009 by Malcram]

reply to post by Malcram


Not much chance to become a hero by defending what the media claims is a mental cripple who toppled the US military computer networks. They will be giving out medals to the brave analysts who survived this terrorist etc. etc.

There isn't much more information that I saw that would be of interest to the ATS crowd other than the esoteric UFO stuff. Those leads get covered in other threads.

Originally posted by Malcram

Originally posted by tristar
Obviously people are either afraid or simply skipping through the post...

Not really. Those are the allegation of the U.S. Govt, made in order to meet the criteria for extradition.

An allegation is not a fact, especially when it comes from the U.S. Govt. and is made to achieve a desired goal.

WMD's anyone?


[edit on 16-10-2009 by Malcram]

Lets get serveral things right here without pussy footnoting around here.


If you have read the transcript you will and have or will have understood his acknowledgment into accessing an authorized area. Is this that difficult for the U.K. or who ever is an advocate to understand .

Hypothetical Scenario: how would you feel if you woke only to hear / read / viral news , find out that we have been there done that long before ?

Originally posted by tristar
If you have read the transcript you will and have or will have understood his acknowledgment into accessing an authorized area. Is this that difficult for the U.K. or who ever is an advocate to understand .

Er no, this has been covered in depth and accepted by everyone. You're not making any new points here. McKinnon used the negligence and sloppy security of US agencies to snoop around for info on UFO's and clean energy etc. Even he admits that, as has every other poster.

Hypothetical Scenario: how would you feel if you woke only to hear / read / viral news , find out that we have been there done that long before ?

Sorry, I'm not sure what you are saying here.

I would hope Gary McKinnon wrote reams of info on his hacking to be held in the hands of a trusted individual in case he mysteriously perishes from a ailment or is incarcerated for a long time. Our government has hosed us for decades for money and secrets on Black Projects that are 'allegedly' for the good of this Country.

reply to post by Malcram


Speaking of ancient prepubescent viral news isn't it amazing how few people there are that saw through the WTC project? The mastermind behind that could have been a nine year old!