Post by Sam Willey on Aug 4, 2007 17:55:20 GMT
Gary McKinnon
This case dates back to 2001, when Mr McKinnon hacked into computers belonging to the US military and scientific establishments from his home in Wood Green, north London.
Under the codename Solo he allegedly hacked into hundreds of machines belonging to the Pentagon, the US army, the air force and NASA which was not properly secured by officials. This occurred over a period of 18 months.
US prosecutors claim he caused $700,000 (£375,000) worth of damage. A lawyer for the US government said the hacking "was intentional and calculated to influence and affect the US government by intimidation. In an interview with the Guardian in 2006, Mr McKinnon claimed he had simply been searching for evidence of UFO activity.
It should be noted that McKinnon claims that he did not cause any damage but was simply as he describes as “snooping around”.
The charges include an incident shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001 - which brought down a network of 300 computers at the Earle naval weapons station in New Jersey. Another event allegedly knocked out 2,000 computers in Washington.
Mr. McKinnon had challenged a decision by the home secretary, John Reid, to send him to the US. Mr Reid decided last year that Mr McKinnon's extradition should go ahead despite claims from his lawyers that the 40-year-old faced the prospect of a military tribunal and possible imprisonment in Guantanamo Bay as an enemy of the state. He faces a sentence of 70 years if found guilty.
Now I have no doubt that Gary will be found guilty I mean the UK government has failed to protect him and the US government obviously don’t want him free after what he saw during his hacking which was related to UFO’s.
Earlier on this year Gary McKinnon lost his high court bid to avoid extradition to the US for allegedly carrying out the "biggest military computer hack of all time”.
So what did he find? Well Mr. McKinnon claims that secret parts of the US government has got “alien” anti-gravity technology and is using it. Mr. McKinnon predicts that within seven years this technology will be public knowledge. McKinnon also claims that he hacked into computer systems at building 8 within the Johnson Space Centre in Houston and found two files labelled “filtered” and “un-filtered”. Filtered being images taken by NASA of space which had been air-brushed and un-filtered being images which had not yet been airbrushed. McKinnon opened an un-filtered image and he states that he saw a satellite-like craft above earths hemisphere which he described as being cigar in shape and not of earthly manufacturing. McKinnon was unable to save a copy as the software he was using during his hacking did not allow it.
Just recently Gary McKinnon has earned his right to appeal to the House of Lords. The law Lords agreed to hear arguments that US authorities acted in an "oppressive" and "arbitrary" manner during plea bargaining negotiations, for example by allegedly threatening McKinnon over the loss of rights to serve part of his sentence in the UK unless he submitted to voluntary extradition. The Guardian newspaper states that Gary McKinnon is said to be delighted by this recent development in the case.
Please discuss your views on this very interesting UFO themed legal case here!
Sam.