British UFO Hacker's Extradition On Hold
Question: In his May 8 speech at Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas, which government agency did Defense Secretary Robert Gates say is “ripe for scrutiny” and will need to overcome “steep institutional and political challenges” in order to keep its overspending in check?
Answer: The Pentagon
Question: What government agency alleges that, between 2001 and 2002, “an unemployed computer administrator” living in London named Gary McKinnon used a 56k modem and commonly available software (RemotelyAnywhere) to hack U.S. Army and NASA computers in the United States causing $700,000 in damages?
Answer: The Pentagon
Question: Is the Pentagon’s estimate of damages reliable?
Answer: See first question.
For the better part of a decade, the United States government has been trying to extradite burgeoning British folk hero Gary McKinnon to the US where, if convicted, he could face up to 60 years in prison.
As for McKinnon, he says he was only looking for evidence of UFO’s.
And that he found it.
According to McKinnon’s legal defense team, however, seven years of legal wrangling has made McKinnon suicidal and, for that reason alone, he should not be extradited. Yet a succession of five British home secretaries have refused to challenge the 2003 extradition treaty that’s being invoked to compel McKinnon’s transfer to U.S. soil.
Times, they are a-changin’
Enter new British Home Secretary Theresa May.
According to a May 20 report published in The Guardian, May has “agreed to an adjournment of a judicial review that was supposed to start within days.” In legal terms, this means that McKinnon’s previously imminent departure for the Land of the Free has been put on indefinite hold.
The London Telegraph reports that Britain’s new coalition government also intends to conduct a comprehensive review of the extradition treaty itself, a savvy political move in a country where McKinnon’s case has become a cause célèbre.
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