The Ham & High, the local newspaper group covering North London, reports:
Hacker given 11th-hour lifeline
editorial@hamhigh.co.uk
15 January 2009
By Robyn RosenCOMPUTER hacker and former Crouch End resident, Gary McKinnon has been given a lifeline in the 11th hour, just days before a final decision on his extradition is made.
Mr McKinnon, 42 and a former Highgate Wood pupil, is currently awaiting extradition after being accused of causing $700,000 worth of damage when he allegedly hacked into US security systems from his Hillfield Avenue home in 2002.
Today, his lawyers received a letter from the director of public prosecutions (DPP) stating it would take up to four weeks to deliberate over Mr McKinnon's signed confession.
Last month, Mr McKinnon, who faces up to 60 years in an American prison, signed a formal confession pleading guilty to computer misuse, in an attempt to have him tried in this country.
On Tuesday (January 20), he faces an oral application for a judicial review at the High Court, where his lawyers now plan to delay the extradition until after the DPP has come to a decision.
"If that fails, we really have come to the end of the line," Mr McKinnon's solicitor, Karen Todner, said. "Gary would then be extradited within the next 10 days."
[...]
N.B. Gary has not confessed to causing any "financial damage".
The recent changes to the UK Computer Misuse Act 1990, brought in by the Police and Justice Act 2006 Schedule 14 Minor and Consequential Amendments, which came into force in October 2008, and which repealed Section 11 Proceedings for offences under section 1, in the original CMA for Section 1 unuthorised access offences, could also present the Crown Prosecution Service with a dilemma:
11 Proceedings for offences under section 1.
[...]
(2) Subject to subsection (3) below, proceedings for an offence under section 1 above may be brought within a period of six months from the date on which evidence sufficient in the opinion of the prosecutor to warrant the proceedings came to his knowledge.
(3) No such proceedings shall be brought by virtue of this section more than three years after the commission of the offence.
If the CPS say that Gary cannot now be prosecuted for unauthorised computer access, because the old version of the law applied at the time, and those Section 11 time limits apply, then the same could be said about the extradition law back in 2002 (the Extradition Act 1989), which was based on the 1972 Extradition treaty, requiring prima facie evidence to be presented to a UK Court, where it could be challenged by the defence.
If the CPS decides that the amendments to the Computer Misuse Act 1990 brought in by the Police and Justice Act 2006, do apply in Gary's case, just as the controversial Extradition Act 2003 has been applied to his case retrospectively, then there is no reason for refusing to prosecute him in the UK.
Any such prosecution should then prevent extradition to the USA, under the double jeopardy principle, which does apply to extradition.
If the more serious charges of altering or deleting computer data or programmes are brought (these have never been subject to the 6 month and 3 year prosecution horizons), then the fact that the US systems appear to have been so open, with no password or firewalls required for full systems administrator access, remotely from any country on the internet, would make it hard to prove, "beyond reasonable doubt", that only Gary and nobody else, could have committed the alleged offences, when so many other people, who were much more highly motivated to attack US military systems, were also exploiting the same US military management failure.
Retrospective legislation always produces legal messes and injustices, and this legal nightmare is entirely the fault of the current Labour Government.
We're rooting for you gary!
Dont worry, the supporting numbers are increasing all the time!
Having followed this case for some time. I wish now with the small glimmer of hope that some sensible decision will be made and justice will eventually prevail
Good luck Gary
This is the third time i've read the article and explanatory notes since yesterday, and finally got my head around it. i'm just so thankful that Gary has people of such calibre around to help him, with the intellect and integrity necessary to see through our government's machinations. That little rhyme 'oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive' could have been written for them.
What would really help a lot of people to understand what is going on would be a 'Judge Deed' style TV drama, like the stage play about Blair's conviction for war crimes.
it is a total outrage that this has gone on so long. the changes made in 2006 to the computer misuse act should not be applied in his case, it should be unlawful for this to be taken into account fter making him wait all these years.
Good luck Garry! How the US calls him guilty of cyber-terrorism is completely beyond me. If he did anything, he did them a favor showing how insecure their systems are before the likes of Al Queda broke in.
http://www.examiner.com/x-2024-Denver-UFO-Examiner~y2009m1d15-Whistleblowers-evidence-of-NASA-UFO-fraud-might-kill-UK-hacker-case
Interesting link - please read
Hi
Just to add my support to Gary - behind you all the way - another number to the many.
I agree with the anonymous user who said he showed the US Government how insecure their systems were before anything worse happened - & if they were a bit more open and not so "Top Secret" about some of the stuff that's obviously going on - then Gary wouldn't be in this situation.
To be honest - Gary should be employed the US Government - as they obviously can't look after their own data - actually make that any government as our bunch of muppets that "govern" us can't help but leave data stick/laptops laying about in the back of taxi's and trains etc - maybe if they had Gary showing them how to protect the data to begin with all of our personal details would have been a bit safer to start with.
Good luck!!
Hi
Just to add my support to Gary - behind you all the way - another number to the many.
I agree with the anonymous user who said he showed the US Government how insecure their systems were before anything worse happened - & if they were a bit more open and not so "Top Secret" about some of the stuff that's obviously going on - then Gary wouldn't be in this situation.
To be honest - Gary should be employed the US Government - as they obviously can't look after their own data - actually make that any government as our bunch of muppets that "govern" us can't help but leave data stick/laptops laying about in the back of taxi's and trains etc - maybe if they had Gary showing them how to protect the data to begin with all of our personal details would have been a bit safer to start with.
Let's hope that common sense prevails and Gary is thanked and pardoned for showing how flawed and insecure the USA really is - I mean they let Bush run the place for 8 years (frightening!!). And if UFO's & Aliens are out there (are we really alone???) then isn't it about time NASA and the rest came forward and just said "Yeah - ok - we're not alone" - it's hardly the 1940's anymore - and I think we as a race could cope with the situation....anyway that's for another blog...
Yeah - interesting article - worth a read at the bottom of the page
Good luck Gary!!
Hey Gary, can't do the time? Then you shouldn't have done the crime.
And don't patronise those of us who are disabled - we don't all turn to crime.
Time to take the medicine, Gary.
Like a man.
P.S. I broke the window of my local off-licence and took some booze. Only to demonstrate how weak the glass was, you understand. Get it?
Gary is not asking for special treatment and can do the time in his own country that dosen't have out of proportion sentencing and paranoid views on computer misuse.
No computer misuser has ever been extradited and whether able or disabled we all have equal rights to equal treatment from our own government and courts.
Also if we want to extradite an American we have to provide actual evidence but the new one sided extradition treaty with America means America can take any U.K citizen on the strength of an allegation alone.
Gary has always denied the alleged damage.
We demand equal rights to that of our American counterparts. Why should Brits be treated as second class citizens of the world.
The American government even makes itself and it's army immune/exempt from being tried for war crimes. Where's the fairness or Justice in that?
What kind of civilised society does that sort of thing?
Sounds like a Nazi attitude to me and who wants to extradite anyone to a country that cops out of any punishment for attrocities they commit.
Hopefully Obama will regain the respect for America that the current American government has lost.
Free Gary
@ Colin S; is this you on here:
www.ictgcse.net or a drunk that posted before under the name "James"?
It was on The ABC News on Fri in Aust. It hasn't hardy been in the mainstream news at all.
The USA thinks it can bully every one it likes.
I think Gee wanking Bush is a wee bit mad. It must be the cocaine in his brain.
Then start suing the yanks for damages.
Remember these were windoze systems.
Still studying for the CISSP exam. ( Certified Information Systems Security Professional )Also comonly known among IT professionals as "The Common Body of Knowledge". A requirement for any high up computer systems position especially , I would say, for any one employed by NASA, I would assume. Unless they hire the 'backyard' variety of IT staff - which should be their own personal liability for not hiring someone like myself.
We are in chapter 11 now -Law, Investigations and Ethics. Under the section of Liability and Due Care.
++++++++++++++++
The standard criteria for asswssing the legal requirements for implememting recommendedsafeguards is to evaluate the cost of the safeguard and the esti,ated loss from the corresponding threat,if realized. If the cost is less than the estimated loss and the organization doesn't implement a safeguard, then a lifal liability may exist. This is based on the principal of proximate causation,in which an action taken or nnot taken was part of a sequence of events that resulted in a negative consequences.
Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, senior corporate officers may be personally liable if their organization fails to comply with applicable laws. Such individuals must follow the prudent man rule, which requires them to perform their duties:
-in good faith
-in the best interests of the enterprise, and
-with the cate and diligence that ordinary, prudent persons ina like position would exercise under similar circumstances
The concept of due care and due diligence are related but distinctly different:
-Due Care-The stepd that an organization takes to implement security best practices.
-Due Dilligence-The prudent management and execution of due care.
Another important aspect of due care is the principle of cupable negligence. If an organization fails to follow a standard of due care in the protection of its assets, the organization may be held culpably negligent. In such cases, jury awards may be adjusted accordingly, and the organization's insurance company may be required to pay only a portion of any loss.
++++++++++++++++++++++
ps:: Colin S. - checked your site Ooopps you didn't do any validation on your drop in form - serious security breach - I was going to rip apart your web server but don't have time today. And you teach about computers? Very funny - again Elle is laughing out loud::::::::::)
The "Court of the human rights" does not perform what it stand for and the current court for this case too (it fails).
How the human rights and courts works i don't know, i telling only what i know and see from it, this just from a short information about them:
The eurpean court for human rights is an international court.
47 countrys are protected, they signed the next:
- The right to live and safety
- The right to a fair trial
- The right to protect of property.
- The right to religious freedom-consciences too.
The Convention prohibits:
Death penalty and torture.
The European Court of Human Rights is not an institution of the EUROPEAN UNION, which has its own European Court of Justice in luxemburg.
How the Court works:
....(not added here)
So is the U.K. appart from it or was the Human rights on vacation?
Because there's still a row they provide that allows people to send to another country(s) where a law that violates human rights.
And a court without responsibility is FAIL.
SO WHERE'S THE CRIME OR WHERE ARE THE REAL CRIMINALS AND WHERE ARE OUR RIGHTS?
Please keep counting the number of e-mail messages and tell Gary regularly how many people are rooting for him. It's all we can do, so please keep him updated on the sheer mass of support that he enjoys world-wide
My first language is spanish, I'm just learning how to speak english, but I would like to tell you that even though your nickname is "solo" you are not alone. Even though we speak different languages we seek the truth and we want peace and justice.
I really think what is happening to you is not fair. The only way I can help you is to let you know that the whole world is with you.......we support you.
Remember solo....you are not alone, don't forget that!
No and no. Thank you for your interest.
Colin,
You clearly have not been reading this case in little or any part. What "booze" was "taken"? What "Glass" was "Broken"???
If anything, the American Government just want Gary to find out how he got into their "Top Secret" computers. Plain and simple.
This case is a clean example of "the Bullie on the block" getting beat, and now they are all pissed off. The "war on Terror" is now the "War of Terror"! God shave us all!
My heart and thoughts as well as prayers are with Gary and his family!
-C.R.Love
OutlawTour
Hi I'm a mother whose son has asperges syndrome so I know what it's like to care for a vulnerable person like Gary. This is such a sad circumstance that a man who so obviously didn't mean to cause the trouble he did, is going through all this stress (as well as his loved ones). He doesn't like travelling on transport & this is going to be horrendous for him & his family if he has to be extraditeded to a country whose so relaxed about ALL security. If they spent money on fire walls etc then Gary should've found it impossible to hack into it. Come on, get with it, these people let in known terrorists into their country & 9/11 happened they should own up & say "ok we didn't give our country the security we should have". If Gary has to be tried, do it here. AMERICA own up YOU'RE NEGLLIGENT. If any of Gary's family needs a friendly, supportive e mail contact me. He's not the only one who'd rather sit at his computer during a party. My Brandon does exactly the same, If not James Bond or Star wars is on his Tv. Good luck Gary for tommorow, I'll have my fingers crossed for you & your family.
Could somebody please delete Colin's unhelpful comment. Gary, my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. I am following the case carefully and pray for a fair trial.
@ Nettie - Colin's naive comments seem to have been effectively countered by other people.
He has not been too offensive or way off topic, so his comments will remain online indefinitely, to shame him via future search engine queries by employers and journalists etc.
Go Gary! I am a 66 year old engineer who in the last two years has understood how I was denied the whole "free energy" calculations in my education! After studying Bearden and LaViolette I feel I have been defrauded--Anything I can do to help let me know!!! --Max