Originally posted by Malcram
It's cruel, ridiculous and illegal IMO and I hope his appeal to the European Court of Human Rights saves him from these coldhearted idiots baying for his blood in the U.S.

It won't matter in practice though because the US has never taken any notice of the European Court of Human Rights.

Some of you people make me laugh. You cry about the government keeping secrets from you and the guy that tries to get those secrets out you crucify him and throw him to the wolves. AS stated before NASA is NOT government and is NOT an INTELLIGENCE agency.

Doubleyou Tea Eff mate?

AND all he did was remote access the computer that wasnt even password protected. The morons at NASA should have the computers password encrypted at least. This plays more like a warning to other hackers not to go sniffing around where there not welcome. You as a person dont have the right to anything but WHAT they decide to tell you. What bull $h&t is that. Now the wolves even have the sheep trained to keep the rest of the flock in line...great.

I still don't know what this is about. If someone posted a link on ATS to a top secret military archive of UFO information, how many ATSers would jump on the link?

If Gary Mckinnon gets a good lawyer he probably stands a good chance of winning. The lawyer will need to prove that Gary was surfing the military sites as a patron of UFOlogy like many of our ATS members, rather than attacking as a malicious hacker.

The lawyer will also have to prove how open the information was and explain how these military sites get targeted by anti government groups. Gary didn't go looking for NASA, some anti government site implanted Gary with an allegorical fantasy involving free energy then gave Gary the tools and targeted NASA.

In the US you are entitled to a trial by a jury of your peers and in this case the procedure could prove interesting. It's no wonder Gary is concerned about trial prospects but perhaps he should be looking up rather than down, there are prospective jurors in the US that understand the UK oil.

List of questions for prospective jurors.

1. Have you ever been abducted by extraterrestrials?

2. Are you comfortable traveling through time in a UFO?

3. Have you ever used a decompression utility named Beethovans ghost to view images and documents?




[edit on 11-10-2009 by fromunclexcommunicate]

I wish the guy all the best, this can't be a great time for anyone to go through, let alone someone with Asperger's.

That said, as someone has already said, ;eaving the door open is no excuse.

If i accidently leave the door open to my house, and some decides to walk in and look around, be prepared to be on the end of whatever justice i dish out.

I see no difference here. I do support him don't get me wrong, i just find it hard to accept that he did not know he was doing any wrong. Then again, people with Asperger's can get a bit obsessive with certain subjects, and nothing will deter them from doing what they intend on doing, whether it be right or wrong.

CX.

[edit on 11/10/09 by CX]

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Originally posted by OuttaHere
Oh, this will be convenient. They will suicide him and then they won't have to deal with him any more. Makes me sick.

Agreed.

And I expect that Gary and his family/friends etc are worried sick that he will be murdered so that the case never has to go to court.

I don't think the case WILL ever go to court because of the 'subject matter' - the potential witnesses - and discussions about motives.

I have one hope for Gary...that he will be pardoned? I have one hope for the British polititians that allowed his extradition...that they were assured that the case would never get to court and that he would be pardoned.

The only way that the US can get out of this potentially very damaging situation - is to LET HIM GO.

Originally posted by CX
You are not telling me that with all the info on the subject, he did not have knowledge that it was wrong to hack into these systems?

McKinnon knew what he was doing was wrong; he admits he got caught because he miscalculated the timezone and hacked into a computer while its owner was operating it. This shows that McKinnon was trying to hide his actions, thus knowing he what he was doing was wrong.

Originally posted by TiM3LoRd
AND all he did was remote access the computer that wasnt even password protected. The morons at NASA should have the computers password encrypted at least.

If you leave your car unlocked and someone steals it, is it any less a crime? If you leave your door unlocked and someone walks in uninvited and unwelcome, is it any less a crime?

I hope,when it goes to trial,that his lawyer confronts the PTB with every single detail that McKinnon unearthed,just so we can see how much they squirm at the thought of their secrets being aired in public!

I bet there will be a few,"Objection your Honour" then!

Originally posted by scobro
I hope,when it goes to trial,that his lawyer confronts the PTB with every single detail that McKinnon unearthed,just so we can see how much they squirm at the thought of their secrets being aired in public!

I bet there will be a few,"Objection your Honour" then!

That's why I don't think it will ever get to court. Surely the US isn't that stupid?

BUT if it does, and if the Court blocks a lot of sensitive stuff - there will still be extensive public discussion and all the details will be mulled over, world-wide.

The US have put THEMSELVES in the dock. They don't have to proceed.

If Gary 'dies' there will be public outrage. It will go down in history as a
CRIME.

The US Government have put themselves in a lose lose situation. DUH!

Originally posted by TheNetherlands
Isn't hacking defined as theft or sabotage/damage? If so, the perp, in this case, did neither.

According to US authorities, McKinnon disrupted operations on at least 2500 computers and caused around $700,000 in damage. What evidence do you have they are lying, other than speculation they are making it up and McKinnon's simple declaration he didn't.

McKinnon was intentionally disrupting and causing damage. He left a message on several machines...

“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.”

And admits this...

“The reason I left not just one note, but multiple notes on multiple desk-tops, was to say ‘Look, this is ridiculous’.”

Further, many claim what he did was okay because he was just revealing the truth. What truths did he unveil? He makes claims he say X, Y and Z about aliens on these computers, but he provides no proof. You accept his claims, not based on any proof or objective reason, but because he is saying what you want to hear.

[edit on 11-10-2009 by DoomsdayRex]

Originally posted by scobro
I hope,when it goes to trial,that his lawyer confronts the PTB with every single detail that McKinnon unearthed...

What details? McKinnon has no proof.

Originally posted by DoomsdayRex
You accept his claims, not based on any proof or objective reason, but because he is saying what you want to hear.

And YOU are saying what the 'establishment' wants to hear.

But it won't wash, you know.

This case has gone way, way too far already.

The only way for the US Government to retain any dignity regarding this case is to let it drop. They just have to work out how best to do it without looking stupid.

Rather than go after this guy why not find out who left the databases unsecured and risked national security to begin with?
If I remember correctly, this was around about the same time as China was found to be hacking into U.S government databases. So maybe they left it all unguarded to catch the Chinese and this guy botched up the trap by highlighting that there were no passwords on the databases?

There is way more to this story than meets the eye IMO.

And if heads are gonna roll, it shouldn't be this guys.