Gary McKinnon who allegedly caused thousands of dollars of damage to US army, air force and NASA property by hacking their computer systems, has lost his appeal against his extradition to the US where he could face a military tribunal and up to 70 years in jail.
Mckinnon, alias “Solo”, claimed he only hacked systems in 2001 while searching for evidence of UFOs and proof of advanced technology.
But the US (Pentagon) claims he caused $700,000 (£375, 000) worth of damage while crippling their systems.
His solicitors now plan to apply to the House of Lords, Britain’s highest court, to challenge today’s high court ruling and ultimately, the original decision by the Home Secretary, John Reid.
Lets hope this fiasco reaches a happy end.
External Links:
Gary McKinnon (Wikipedia)
Free Gary Mckinnon (Blog)
Briton loses extradition fight over US military hacking (Guardian)
UK hacker loses extradition fight (BBC)
Ah, gotta love a good ufo conspiracy theory. ….
700,000 is chump change to the U.S government, that money was probably only used to patch up the security holes he exposed. Helping them out in fact. JMHO