[Infowarrior] - Hacker fears Guantanamo Bay as judge urges his extradition

[Richard Forno]

Hacker fears wrath of US court as judge urges his extradition
By Fran Yeoman
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2174677,00.html

Gary McKinnon leaves Bow Street Magistrates' Court yesterday after a judge
recommended that he be extradited to the US (DAVID BEBBER)
    
A BRITISH man accused of the biggest military hacking operation yet faces
trial in the US after a judge recommended him for extradition yesterday.

Gary McKinnon believes that he could be sent to Guantanamo Bay and tried by
a military tribunal if his extradition goes ahead. He said that he was
³practically already hung and quartered² if US government claims that he
would face a federal court in Virginia proved correct.

Mr McKinnon, 40, is alleged to have caused $700,000 (£375,000) of damage in
2001-02 by hacking into US military computers, including army, navy,
Pentagon and Nasa systems, using software available on the internet.

At Bow Street Magistrates¹ Court in London yesterday, District Judge
Nicholas Evans said that Mr McKinnon, of Wood Green, North London, should be
recommended for extradition. The case is expected to be passed to John Reid,
the Home Secretary, for a final decision.

The US Government said it had given assurances that it would not make Mr
McKinnon subject to ³Military Order No 1², which allows President Bush to
detain suspects indefinitely. But outside court, Mr McKinnon said that he
remained fearful.

³As one person has said to me, most people in Guantanamo have not been
proved to be terrorists but allegedly I directly attacked the military. And
Virginia is famously conservative. I¹m practically already hung and
quartered over there,² he said.

Speaking after being released on conditional bail, he said that he had
expected yesterday¹s ruling and was now preparing to appeal. In a direct
appeal to Mr Reid, he added: ³Do right by your subjects.²

Mr McKinnon is alleged to have stolen 950 passwords and deleted system files
from computers at the Earle US Naval Weapons Station in New Jersey, shutting
down the entire base for a week immediately after September 11.

Although he said yesterday that he regretted his actions, he denied that he
had ever intended to disrupt security. ³The fact that I logged on there and
there were no passwords means that there was no security.

³I was amazed at the lack of security and the reason I left not just one
note but multiple notes on multiple desktops was to say, ŒLook, this is
ridiculous¹.² When asked why he had hacked into US defence systems, Mr
McKinnon, whose hacking name was Solo, said that he had been looking for
evidence of UFOs.

In a lengthy judgment delivered a month after April¹s extradition hearing,
Judge Evans said that the risk of Mr McKinnon being sent to Guantanamo was
³fanciful² given the assurances made on behalf of the American Government.

³I have no difficulty in concluding that anyone facing extradition to the
United States who faced a real risk of being charged under Military Order No
1 should not be extradited. For over 150 years we have had extradition
arrangements with the United States. Many hundreds of extraditions have
taken place over the years in both directions . . . It is inconceivable,
given the unequivocal assurances, and all that history and extradition
experience, that the Government would risk damaging, perhaps irretrievably
damaging, our extradition arrangements by not honouring the assurances.²

The judge rejected claims under Article 8 of the European Convention on
Human Rights that Mr McKinnon¹s right to private and family life should
prevent his extradition. He told the court: ³I readily accept, if convicted
in the United States, the probable sentence is likely to be appreciably
harsher than, in comparable circumstances, it would be in the United
Kingdom. It must be obvious to any defendant that if you choose to commit a
crime in a foreign country, you run the risk of being prosecuted in that
country.²

Mr McKinnon faces seven charges of ³computer fraud and related activity² in
Virginia, according to the US Department of Justice website. Each charge
carries a maximum sentence of ten years¹ imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.