On Tuesday 11th July, Alan Simpson MP for Nottingham South and Jeremy Corbyn MP for Islington North in London, delivered a letter of protest from a group of Italian Parliamentarians, to the Home Office, on behalf of Gary McKinnon.
Their covering letter was signed by 15 Labour MPs:-
Rt Hon John Reid MP
Home Office Minister
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Dear John,Much attention has been given to the case for having tougher and clearer guidelines governing the extradition of UK citizens for trial in the US. So far, this attention has focussed on the three bankers involved in the Enron fraud. We want to raise a different case with you, namely the proposed extradition of Gary McKinnon.
Mr McKinnon is accused of attacking the US military and faces a possible sentence of over 60 years in prison. He could (and should) though, be tried in the UK under the UK Computer Misuse Act 1990. Since he was arrested under this Act in 2002, and released without charge, we fail to understand the basis on which he is offered for extradition.
We have also been approached by MPs representing all of the parties in the new government in Italy and agreed to pass on to you their representations against his extradition. We hope you will take all these representations seriously and insist that no extradition is considered until the US produces prima facie evidence of the ‘damage’ he is supposed to have done.
Yours sincerely,
Alan Simpson MP
This is in addition to the 245 Members of Parliament from the Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Nationalist parties who voted symbolically on Wednesday, calling for fair and reciprocal UK-US Extraditon arrangements, and the 216 Opposition and Cross-bench Peers, in the House of Lords, who amended the Police and Justice Bill on Tuesday, during the Committee Stage of the Bill, to do exactly that.
Sebastian
Just saw Gary on Richard and Judy. How DARE the fucking yanks demand that our citizens be brought to them?!!? How dare they. If Gary Mckinnon is tried here, in the UK, then he would probably would face 6 months, the damn yanks want to give him 10 times that. Fuck the Americans, and fuck there "Justice system"
Æger DolÜS
Ouch :) Phuck the US ? there just us system.
Sounds like your programing got you angry enough to type comment :) Good for you sebastian bark bark sebastian bach
But seriously. There is no "them" over the river, only "US". Gary is up, he's been there. Get over it.
Zofia Dluzewska
So many people from all walks of life have appealed to the British Labour Government on the subject of US extradition but itall seems to be falling on deaf ears. Apparently we are now a satellite of the USA and therefore it seems logical to assume that we need to be represented by the Americans. I would suggest that in future we call on Senator Hilary Clinton to represent us as clearly the Blair government are refusing to. Perhaps what would be even better is if we could have representation in the senate ourselves. Maybe that could get us a hearing!
Maty
Hmm he did the crime in the UK, he should get tried in the UK.
Place the USA saying he did all that damage? LoLz? I mean there PC's wouldnt need to be that high spec any way!
At the end of the day it will just encourage more hackers, wanna be's to do it. :/
ÆGER DOLÜSPHINX
I really feel for Gary, & I appreciate his singing very very much BUT |_)_) & it is a big butt. Gary did endanger the lives of many non-terroristial US agents & for that it appears the amerrycar'n legal system wants a piece of him. Fair enough - there's a bigger picture.
The english need to realise that the americans own the legal system. Imagine CSI, Boston Legal & all the other "american" legal TV shows doing episodes on half the shit Gazza has dug up and left in a big pile for us all to shift through.
@ the least Gary's legal costs should be covered by the royalties from the next generation of SNEAKERS, TAKEDOWN (FREE KEVIN, FREE GARY:) & OTHER cool new infotainment he's going to be responsible for. He's already done one film (Moongirl or wh@ever it's called) - so why not let him tell his story in America & we can all sit back & be educ@ted :)
Phucking PEACE!
bruce
Gary is just another scapegoat in the jigsaw of conspiracy to leave mankind totally ignorant to truth and universal reality that the common man has no clue about.The universe is teeming with intelligent life while the world establishmentIE.Cabal want humanity to live some bullshit lie so that the few crazed power mad hedonistic ego's can be the kings Queens head of states and any other status quo important positions within human society.Once the whole of mankind know's the real truth about life and the universe these morons in power have no more control and influence over HUMANITY.
Stu
Bruce - what absolute rubbish. Cut down on the spliffs
THE AMERICAN
YOU FUCKING UK PUKES say FUCK THE AMERICANS, WELL I say FUCK YOU PUNY IGNORANT BRITS. You're all a bunch of pig headed puny FUCKS, who have their head so far up their ASS they can not see the sun if it were right in front of their face. You're all a bag of hipocrits. If your country had been attacked you'd be crying tears of a different state that we should help. Well from this day on I'll fight against that and will fight against anything you pig headed folls want.
GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NOW AND FOREVER (The worlds ONLY real super power)!!!!
fg
@ "THE AMERICAN "
-
We want fair, transparent and proportionate justice, based on actual evidence, not on mere allegations, for everyone.
If that is what you are going to fight against, then you are no better than the Taliban or Al Quaida religous fanatics, who want to do exactly the same.
Luckily, we know that most real American patriots do not hold extremist views like yours.
Jones
To Marge(The American)
Considering you work for the Airforce 56 "Communications Squadron"
Your continual use of the word "fuck", implies you have a lack of vocabulary and have not yet learned the art of communication.
I'm sure Ron "Colonel Mozzillo" will be impressed by your command of the "English" language, when he sees your email.
If you are an example of an employee of the Airforce communication squadron,we are all in trouble.
Your rhetoric sounds a lot like Nazi rhetoric to me.
I don't see "anti American" statements on this website, in so much as anti "Bush" statements, which many Americans agree with.
Dennis
I remember stumbling on to the Gary McKinnon story when he was first arrested. Once again when I saw his name while surfing UFO sites, I remembered him and was interestred as to the reults (to date). If the United States wants him, they need to hire him. He is obviously brighter than the fools who allowed him access. As a tax payer in the U.S., I have no interest in him going to prison for the rest of his life and have to pay for it. It's unjust and the U.S. Government ought to thank him for pointing out their messes rather than punish him. This man is no threat to anyone. Just a A-typical computer nerd whose skills should be used and not placed in a box with bars. FREE GARY MCKINNON or at least reconsider the punishment. To me it doesn't fit the crime.
James
What rantings "THE AMERICAN" has supplied us with! Only *very* insecure people talk like that. Maybe he forgets that no doubt the Romans also thought their empire would last forever. (Has he heard of Romans?). Anyway, it didn't, the British one didn't, and yours won't. Get used to it! As for asking for help from the Americans, why bother? They only turn up when the thing's nearly over or won anyway. Or as in the Falklands, when they actually helped the Argentinians, they're no help at all! That was treachery. Try and win a war on your own for once, you Americans. You're certainly not winning Iraq or Afghanistan, despite the UK's boot-licking help. The only war you won on your own was the American Civil War!!
Chalky
Hey James, thats cool - I thought they won Korea, the Bay of Pigs and Vietnam. lol As for Gary, I hope and pray he's not submitted to that ghastly US system of so-called justice. If there was any, Bush, Cheney & co would have been in prison years ago. We're rooting for yer, Gary!
Nick
The Americans did not win their civil war by themselves, they were helped by the French - hence their gift of the Statue of Liberty. They have not won a single war unless you count the Invasion of Grenada as a war...
Soon Blair and NuLabour will be out of power but who will replace them?
James
To be absolutely fair (though why should I be?), the Americans DID win their War of Independence. But that was really British against British, so we can count that as a British victory!
That's called a Rumsfeldian truth. ;o)
T.L.
Wow! A lot of interesting diaglogue here. I have a couple of comments. One: The writer who calls himself "The American" is an ass and certainly does not represent the views of the general public as FP astutely points out. That said, snarks at the FBI or any government or corporation, etc... regarding hacks are... fun, I'm sure, but unwarranted for the most part. Getting hacked is not a sign of technical ineptness. (Is ineptness a word?) ...I liken such comments to decrying an individual for having is home broken into. Of course, we (on both sides of the pond) hold our politicians and government agencies to higher standards than we do ourselves... but then we complain about the costs. And when it comes to cyber-security, the costs are ridiculous. Let's not forget that our governments have been around a few years longer than PCs and the network technology. It wasn't until the late-80's that the dudes at DEC figured out how to network our personal boxes. It is not as if these large lumbering giants designed their enterprises in one fail swoop. The tens of thousands of machines connected to their respective infrastructures were each added one at a time over the course of many years. Yawn... I apologize. Suffice it to say that cyber-security is a complex topic. This said, I am not a FBI OR US goverment apologist. Far from it. I voted against Bush in both 2000 and 2004. And I oppose many of his "agendas." I am disgusted by the ridiculous amount of money the wealthy are making off the war in Iraq and other human tragedies around the world. I am ashamed of the complete lack of leadership among all our politicians. And... I think Gary is probably harmless and the U.S. government is certainly wasting my tax dollars going after him... What was my point?
Watcher
You may want to go and see this group of cybermasons in the UK and see what they are doing to FREE GARY
http://www.stuartraith.me.uk/cyber9.html
Watcher
You may want to go and see this group of cybermasons in the UK and see what they are doing to FREE GARY
http://www.stuartraith.me.uk/cyber9.html
WinstonSmithJunior
"The english need to realise that the americans own the legal system."
No, the people of the US need to realise that the jurisdiction of the US to interfere in the legal process of entirely seperate soveriegn entities ends at the US border.
We have our own legal system here in Britain, several of them in fact, depending on which part of the United Kingdom you are from.
"Gary did endanger the lives of many non-terroristial US agents"
Utter humbug and hogwash! Aside from the patent absurdity of the statement, given that Mr McKinnon gained access to information which you view as being so critical as to place the lives of operational personell in danger, surely the blame therefore lies at the door of whichever sytems administrator left a box running with an open or default password?
Gary McKinnon is essentially bein jailed for political reasons, in order that the lapdog Bliar can prove his loyalty to the Orwellian overlord Mr Bush, in their quest to make sure that they know every little about our lives, and attempt to control our behavours according to how they wish us to live our lives.
Freeing Gary McKinnon is just the first step in freeing the world.
Free Gary, Free the world.
James
WinstonSmithJunior, I just popped back in to add my name to your post! 100% correct - well done!
Let's not all forget that the Aberration Bush and his little doggie Bliar WILL be gone from office in a couple of years or so. By that time, Iran will be blown to bits of course, but I just wonder what will happen to the world post Aberration Bush...
As for Gary, will praying help? Since Aberration & Woof-Woof use the same God as me, I doubt it! Damn them for the wreakage they've wreaked on this poor Earth.
Calvin
I wrote to John Reid a lengthy and, I believe, competent letter regarding this.
I have as yet to receive any reply.
Even acknowledgment.
And so the UK government's disenfranchisement of its young intelligentsia marches irrevocably onward.
revere
what governments seem to forget as soon as their elected officials are in office is that they exist to serve the people, not themselves.
they are too wrapped up in their own petty agendas to listen to the wishes of those they supposidly represent.
imho he saw somrething they didnt want seen, or at least they believe he saw something. to me its the only rational explaination as to why they want him so badly.
John Moloney
The role of the state is to protect their citizens, the fact that the UK Goverment wants Gary to be extradited to the USA without prima facie evidence,
a requirement that does not apply in respect of extradition requests from the USA.. Blair has managed to tear up 800 years of hard fought English legal rights.