Eyewitness impression of today's Bow Street Magistrates' Court appearance by Gary McKinnon

Below is an eyewitness impression of today's Bow Street Magistrates' Court appearance by Gary McKinnon:

"It was a wet rainy day in London. As we walked into the court in Bow Street, there were quite a few media photographers outside. We met Gary inside and he was understandably nervous. The prosecutor hadn't turned up.

We went upstairs to the court room most of the seats were already taken by the press but we all managed to squeeze in. We sat around for a long time until we were informed that the representative from the American government was going to be late, so we sat around a while longer.

When the judge eventually appeared he told Gary to sit anywhere he chose as he would become cramped in the seat in front of the judge.

When the charges were read out they sounded damning. The US government
appear to have dropped the charges relating to intrusions into US universities etc. (who had previously denied that any damage had taken
place) and have concentrated on government facilities.

They mention emotive names like Pearl Harbour and "after 9/11". They make it sound as though Gary, single handedly controlled the entire American military installations from a PC in a room in his girlfriend flat.

They imply that with the press of a button Gary could have disabled the entire US military operations.

This is alarming as we feel that Gary's knowledge is deliberately being incredibly over-rated. If Gary was capable of doing this and US military security is so incredibly poor, God help the planet!!!

The judge mentioned Babar Ahmad and also the judicial review won by the Enron 3 that is to take place. It seems that if the judicial review comes out in favour of the Enron 3 this will set a precedent and Gary will be able to appeal by using this precedent.

The judge by his own volition changed Gary's bail conditions so that Gary only has to sign at the police station twice a week as opposed to every evening. This was in spite of the American representative's protest, that if it were possible they'd have liked Gary to sign every few hours.

The judge asked the barristers about Gary's bail conditions but unfortunately no one mentioned the fact that he has to sleep in his own flat every night because that is also quite restrictive.

The other incredibly unfortunate thing is that the judge ruled that Gary's address is to be made public; this is in spite of the fact that he was told that Gary had just lost his previous flat because of the publicity which surrounded his case and his doorstep. When his new landlord hears about the case Gary may well be made homeless.

Gary's case has been postponed until the 18th and the 20th October in order that an expert lawyer from America can come over with an Affidavit which will hopefully help Gary to fight the extradition.

We came out of the court and there were so many photographers around that we all walked back inside. Gary's solicitor spoke to the press and one photo was agreed. A friend of Gary's got a taxi so that Gary and his girlfriend could leave without being hounded.

Gary's parents and friends left the court pretty worried by the way in which the charges had been referred to. The official secrets act was mentioned today.(we were previously told that Gary hadn't gotten any classified information as the networks he had wandered into were non classified)

It sounds to us as though they may be going to attempt to try Gary in a US military court. That is a big worry, as is Guantanamo Bay!!! The reason that would be used is secrecy and National Security. That way they'd avoid the huge embarrassment of the world knowing that they had blank passwords and there was no need for anyone to steal them as there were none to steal.

On many hackers website messageboards they refer to Gary as an amateur and talk about how easy it is to hack into the Pentagon. The Pentagon say their computer systems are protected and that Gary broke
into "protected internet security systems". They were very obviously not protected, as many hackers apparently regularly hack into US computer systems.

Surely instead of spending fortunes on prosecuting people the US should spend some money on securing their systems. Most of the hackers could never penetrate the UK government's internet security system, or most banks and financial institutions, so why is the US so poorly protected?

Gary is a scapegoat for the US government's incompetence, so they have to make him sound like an expert which he isn't. Ask other serious hackers and they will confirm this. Gary downloaded a programme called "Remotely Anywhere" which was legally available to any member of the public. This is what he used to gain access.

Now real hackers have much more sophisticated ways of hacking and they
aren't caught!!!

We can only hope against hope that Gary is allowed to be tried in his own country. We always believed in British justice, let's hope British citizens have the right to be judged by their own judicial system which is very, very different from the American judicial system.

Gary wants to thank everyone who has taken the trouble to write to their MP's and the Home Secretary and to email messages of support. In his own words:

"It's so good to feel that I'm not alone. The emails and support has meant so much to me and has given me the strength I needed at this moment in time. Thank You!!!"

Gary is still not allowed to use the internet which is why I posted on
his behalf."