Comments on: Thoughts on Gary McKinnon

By: Nick Redfern

Nick Redfern — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 13:44:33 +0000

Or perhaps make him Director of Homeland Security.

By: Lehmberg

Lehmberg — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 00:31:47 +0000

He exposed blithe incompetency and shallow disregard of our security on the backs of billions of dollars spent to secure same. He performed a service; they should let him go with a cash award and the thanks of a grateful nation.

Alien View
U F O M a g a z i n e

By: Nick Redfern

Nick Redfern — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 21:32:29 +0000

Bill

Totally agree. McKinnon surely knew that if you hack into the files of any government, they are going to come after you.

Hacking government computers in not a game: it’s just asking for big, big trouble.

But the problem for him is the timing. The fact is that if 9-11 hadn’t happened, McKinnon would not be facing extradition to the US and 70 years in Guantanamo. It really is that simple.

Unfortunately for him, what should have been a less severe conviction will be blown up way out of proportion and he’ll be the convenient scapegoat to hold up and the government will say to its enemies: “You think you can hack us? This is what will happen to you too. From now on, if anyone hacks us, we’ll have you extradited from your own country. Your own government will give you up and we will decide your fate, not your fellow countrymen.”

Had 9-11 not occurred, Mckinnon would have been tried in a British court (after all, his crime was committed in Britain - not the US!), he probably would have got a couple of years in a British jail, or maybe parole, or a fine, or even just community service.
Or he may have ended up with the charges dropped, just like Matthew Bevan a decade earlier.

Unfortunately, in the “age of terror” everyone who does anything against the government is potentially going to be treated the same way and subjected to the most severe punishment, when in his case his punishment should not be on almost an equal par with someone who flies aircraft into buildings.

By: Bill Hancock

Bill Hancock — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 19:03:22 +0000

This is the kind of case you wish could just be made to go away. On the one hand you wish the Justice Department would recognize the intent vs. non-intent here and scale down their agenda for what should be done in regard to Gary McKinnon, and, on the other hand, you’d like to seize McKinnon by the shirt collar and shake him till his teeth rattled and yell “You FOOL ! What did you THINK was going to happen?” at him. Computer geeks, often full of their own private passions, often think breaking into various sites is like some little GAME.
Like its Dungeons & Dragons or something. But it is no game and the powers that be are prepared to come down hard on transgressors. In the post 9/11 age..and the current Litvinenko era of seemingly retro-SMERSH type operations…we must understand that this world is still a VERY dangerous place and governments ARE going to “cover their backsides”.
Nick, you know yourself how much “messing with” you received while working on “Bodysnatchers In the Desert”, and you weren’t trying to breach maximum security sites. You are therefore in a very good position to see how far Gary McKinnon stuck his neck out for this. Steven Greer and Stan Friedman and others play it a lot safer…and wiser…by going the long, hard road through FOI and informants. McKinnon tried a big-time short-cut and had the hammer dropped on him because of it.

This is regrettable. I really feel for the guy and understand what a part the
“enthusiastic geek” factor played into this. They just don’t “see” the danger until it rears up and bites them.

Lets all hope this “eases up” once it all comes out in court.

Bill

By: Nick Redfern

Nick Redfern — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 15:58:08 +0000

Very good points.
I suppose we wait and see what his outcome will be in a few months from now.

By: Nafarious

Nafarious — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 14:51:00 +0000

This situation is rife with all the factors in place to focus in on the twin issues of accountability and, most importantly..secrecy as it applies to a democracy. His quest was benign if one considers the alternatives. If it were not him, then eventually someone else would have attempted to scale the electronic wall, where they keep the UFO pieces in the puzzle palace. The stance of denial and covert research in a democracy is like baiting a hook to catch fish. If one does not respect the rules of this game and is caught, then if one considers for a moment that if secrecy is an intentional veil, over the truth, then as an ethical issue, shame on those who practice a double standard. One has to ask themselves, what is there to protect in that policy of UFO government secrecy? Is truth a matter of private ownership, especially when the owner makes the rules for establishing this game? I hope this potential trial speaks truth to power. Perhaps this is too much to ask. Under the new Military Justice rules of this game, perhaps he will be shuttled off to a dungeon somewhere in equally apt and perverse secrecy.