Hacker McKinnon To Be Extradited To US

Vainglorious Coward writes "When UK hacker and Asperger's sufferer Gray McKinnon lost the judicial review of his case it seemed likely that he would be extradited to the US to face charges of hacking almost a hundred systems causing $700,000 worth of damage. Today the UK home secretary rejected his last-ditch attempt to avoid extradition adding that 'his extradition to the United States must proceed forthwith.' McKinnon's relatives are expressing concerns for his health, with his lawyer going so far as to claim that extradition would make the 43-year-old's death 'virtually certain.'"

Re:Good grief!

[Anonymous Coward]

with his lawyer going so far as to claim that extradition would make the 43-year-old's death 'virtually certain'.

So, international travel with "Asperge's" can cause death?

Re:Good grief! - Bend Over!

[AKMask]

He tried to quench that 'thirst' by breaking in to a highly sensitive military computer network directly or indirectly depended on by many people in harms way every day. Sounds a hell of a lot like it SHOULD fall under terrorism laws. Think of it this way, if he had bypassed and broken security in person, slipping in to the heart of an actual highly sensitive military base because he was 'curious' his motivation would hardly matter. I'm just glad the terrorism laws are being applied to someone who actually broke them rather then the usual trumped up charges.

Re:UK citizen?

[WowTIP]

Yes, but it seems to be a one way street? Remember the US air force pilot that killed 20 people when cutting the cables of a cable car in Italy, some years ago?

Iirc they wanted him extradited to Italy, but that was a no go. He was tried in the US and the jury found him "not guilty".

Re:Good grief! - Bend Over!

[Anonymous Coward]

The fact that the old lady didn't put up much of a fight when the mugger took her purse doesn't make it less of a mugging. 'But she was so easy to rob, didn't put up any fight at all! Send her to jail since she's not taking any self defense classes!'

Was he really looking for ufo stuff or just want t

[Joe The Dragon]

Was he really looking for ufo stuff or just wanted to brag about about getting into US army systems.

Part of this has to be to so the army does not look that bad and he may even get a deal maybe 10-15 years just to keep this out of court.

Or did he just find a setup trap that was meant to be that easy to get into like the child porn traps that are out there.

Was the systems setup that was as no payed for it to be setup right and they wanted to hit what even hacker to foot the bill for it.

Re:Hypocrisy

[wronskyMan]

Consent of the governed is considered to apply to tourists/other non-citizen visitors since it is assumed that by traveling to another country they voluntarily place themselves under the jurisdiction of those laws (if a Dutch citizen doesn't want to risk the high drug penalties in Singapore, for example, he can just stay and smoke up in Holland). Citizens are then (theoretically) granted the right to vote on their laws since they have no "home country" to go back to. Where it gets sticky in this case is determining if "traveling" virtually to the US servers is equivalent to getting on a plane and flying to the US. WRT UK citizens being charged for posting hate speech on US servers, nations also claim extraterritorial jurisdiction over their citizens - for example, US citizens who travel to Thailand for example to have sex with small children can be prosecuted in the US just as if they committed the crime here.

Telemurder

[nacturation]

The funny thing about jurisdiction is that traditionally it is based on where the crime took place. Nowadays it seems to be a matter of convenience.

But where did the crime take place? Consider someone who stood inside France and shot an arrow into Germany. That arrow strikes a Kraut and kills them. Did the murder occur in France or in Germany?

Re:The Vengeful crazies

[Raisey-raison]

He stands little or no chance of a fair trial. Where does a foreigner get money for a lawyer while getting a new job, while paying his previous mortgage, loans and somehow finding health insurance all at the same time? And while he is clinically depressed and feeling suicidal.

And then he stands to get 70 years in prison (the feds are really gunning fro him - they have said as much) for hacking into the pentagon system and in a maximum security prison - he might as well be summarily executed. It would be more merciful.

Re:UK citizen?

[RiotingPacifist]

somewhat biased in favour of the US

That is like saying, having your balls ripped of using a blunt knife is somewhat painful! The US allowed known IRA terrorists and fundraisers to stick around, but at the first opportunity we hand over some computer hacker, fuck that!

Re:What about schizophrenia?

[Toonol]

I do, to a large extent. Not so much dire cases of schizophrenia, for instance, but depression? Anxiety? Anger control? Asperger's? They are real conditions, but they are claimed to exist FAR more than they really do in a significant way.

All of those disorders exist in a smooth gradiation from severe psychological problem to simple personality trait, and in the majority of cases they're probably closer to the latter. When a geek is introverted, it may be a mild case of Asperger's, but that truly gives you no better or more useful diagnoses than 'smart and introverted' once did. It may indeed be more harmful, because such a diagnoses tends to remove one's personal accountability for correcting the condition... and mild cases of all those behaviors can often be corrected by simple personal growth and mindful behavior.

Obviously, those conditions exist, and in severe cases really do call for specialized treatment. However, the vast majority of self-proclaimed Asperger's sufferers have it in no significant degree, and I suspect they are using it as a sneaky egoboost ("Asperger's may be asocial, but they're really smart") or as an excuse ("you don't want me to talk at the meeting, I'm asperger's"). Both are harmful.