Care in the Community
Read on for the latest news, features and happenings for ZDNet.co.uk members from your very own community editor.
Thursday 26 November 2009, 11:17 PM
Nasa hacker extradition to go ahead, minister says
McKinnon's supporters had asked the minister to halt the extradition on the grounds that it would be a breach of McKinnon's human rights. They argued that the move would be inhuman treatment under the European Convention, as the Londoner has been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome.
According to a report in the Daily Telegraph on Thursday, Johnson said he had carefully considered the fresh medical evidence presented to him, but had found that it was not "materially different" from that already considered by the high court and did not demonstrate a potential breach of McKinnon's human rights.
"As the courts have affirmed, I have no general discretion. If Mr McKinnon's human rights would be breached, I must stop the extradition. If they would not be breached, the extradition must go ahead," Johnson is quoted as saying.
The home secretary added that the US authorities had given him assurances that McKinnon's health and psychiatric needs would be met. He also said it was not likely that the hacker would be sent to a supermax prison.
McKinnon faces charges of hacking into US military computers, which could bring a sentence of up to 60 years.
McKinnon's mother, Janis Sharp, said in a Twitter post that her son's legal team will seek a judicial review of Johnson's decision within a week. She also expressed concern that the government might expedite the review to enable McKinnon to be sent to the US before Christmas.
PreviousComments on this post
Interesting stuff, but what's all the hype about? If McKinnon had boosted a car off the street in the middle of Anchorage and was wanted to face trial for it, Asperger's or not, we wouldn't have heard anything about it.
As it is, he cracked his way into US government computers. It hasn't been reported that he did damage once in their network, nor has it been reported that he leaked any of the information he acquired to the public (as far as I know). So what the big issue must be is: He had the audacity, cheek, pomposity, arrogance, gall, call it what you like, to do it to THEM.
It's not even half as bad as the guy who broke into Buckingham Palace and walked right in to the queen's bedroom, meeting her face-to-face as he went. Why do the US officials have to make it such a big national state of emergency? Maybe because they're unsure as to whether such a thing has happened before undetected?
As for McKinnon's health issues, all I can say is that I know one guy personally with Asperger's. This condition is on the edge of the Autism spectrum, and the guy I know is affected in regard to inter-personal skills. He sometimes doesn't get the idea when people are joking and when to laugh or not. If he's ever suicidal I doubt it would be because of the Aspergers. In fact, his condition makes him ideal in the workplace as he's unbelievably focused on his job. If McKinnon were to be a suicide risk in the event of extradition, I reckon he's already that way inclined now that he's been caught.
But then I'm not any kind of medical professional and I'm probably blowing off as much hot air as the rest of the news media who've hyped this thing. Just my tuppence-worth.
Interesting article though. Thanks for collecting the relevant facts in your post for us.
FPDW
Oops.
Just read that he's accused of disabling a battleship and £thousands of damage.
How could you disable a battleship from a remote computer terminal? Either it's the worst design ever, or they really mean a battleship game for Windows XP.
