Gary McKinnon caused a lot of red faces among top brass in the USA when he penetrated and wandered around computer systems at the Pentagon and NASA in his obsessive trawl for documents revealing their cover-up of UFO sightings. They didn’t like their incompetence being made obvious, and want him “to fry” for it. His case is also useful in their attempts to secure large amounts of extra funding for security.
David Blunkett brought in a one-sided extradition treaty with the US through the back-door when Parliament was on holiday which means that McKinnon can be sent for trial in the US without any evidence being presented in the courts here. The only thing that can stop this now is a decision on compassionate grounds by Jacqui Smith. McKinnon has now been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome which is said to be the cause of his obssession. If tried here, the case would probably collapse (as an earlier hacker prosecution did) or result in a very short sentence, but in the US he might get 40 years or more in jail.
The demonstration outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square on Sunday was organised by the London Autistic Rights Movemeny. More pictures on My London Diary.