Alan Johnson seems to fit the title: Jack of all trades, master on none. His time as Home Secretary has hardly been one of unmitigated success. It appears the Home Office is Labour’s equivalent of Northern Ireland. Prime Minister’s send ministers there when they want to end their careers in a very final way. If Alan Johnson does have hopes of being Labour leader, he has now found himself between the devil and the deep blue sea or more pertinently, between a hard place of his own making and Plymouth Rock, buckling under the pressure of a US government deeply embarrassed by the actions of a Brit.
Gary McKinnon (photographed above) has Asperger’s Syndrome. He is a UFO nut. Using his technological knowledge he managed to penetrate the seemingly impenetrable walls of the Pentagon. The Americans don’t like this. They want blood. They have already made clear they are going to jump over every legal hurdle to get their man. The only thing that stands in the way is British justice. We are now supposed to sleep well in our beds. The big bad wolf is not going to win. In fairy tales this is true, but we don’t live in a fairy tale and enter stage right, the Right Honourable Member for Hull West and Hessle. The High Court has refused Mr McKinnon the right to appeal to our Supreme Court. Alan Johnson, the postie done good, is now the star player. Is he going to do the right thing or is he going to blow the house down? Is he going to be the hero of the piece? No. Instead he is going to send Mr McKinnon to the US to face a prison sentence.
If I was a boffin in the Pentagon, I would want to get Mr McKinnon to explain how he did it. I would want to use his knowledge to make the computer systems secure. I would understand this man has a mental illness that makes him withdraw from the world we live in and live in a fantasy world.
Alan Johnson was the last roadblock to this extradition folly. He is the man who could have driven this runaway train into the buffers. He could have stopped this dead in its tracks. Instead he is the man who is so far out of his depth, he doesn’t realise the responsibility of a holder of one of the great offices of state. It is now up to us to remind him. Write to him and tell him how disgusted you are with this decision. Write to the press. Express your outrage. The only court that matters now is the court of public opinion. Even Alan Johnson has to bow to that court if enough of us nudge him into a corner.
2 comments:
Gary's original access appears to have been through default/blank passwords. Once in he stole hundreds possibly thousands of genuine usernames and passwords - perhaps it was these that facilitated further access.
He did manage the stunning technical feat of installing a small software package "RemotelyAnywhere" - an ability that would not qualify him for many IT careers that I know about. His vandalism demonstrates no specialist nor useful knowledge.
"Instead he is going to send Mr McKinnon to the US to face a prison sentence."
About 6 months in a low security facility before being repatriated to serve the rest of his sentence/get paroled immediately. Is this too extreme a penalty for the following?
"In fact just 12 days after the 9-11 attacks that left more than 3000 Americans dead, McKinnon, pursuing his belief that the Yanks had hidden extra-terrestrial beings in the computers at a Naval Munitions Yard, returned just to double check in the corners
'the Indictment charges that on Sept. 23, 2001, McKinnon again broke into the NWS (Naval Weapons Station) Earle computer network by accessing the previously-installed RemotelyAnywhere software and using the stolen passwords.
During this intrusion into the network, McKinnon allegedly caused approximately $290,431 in damage to NWS Earle by deleting computer files needed to power up some of the computers on the network'"
You said "I would understand this man has a mental illness that makes him withdraw from the world we live in and live in a fantasy world"
Even is this is true (which it almost certainly isn't) does that give him licence to cause as much criminal damage as he pleases without sanction?
He has Asperger's Syndrome, a kind of Autism - just like me. I have never felt compelled by it to break the law. There's around 600,000 of us in the UK with Autism and none, except McKinnon has gone on a two year rampage through American Military Networks.
"The only court that matters now is the court of public opinion"
That is shocking to read on a political website. And I fear it is indicative of what the country is letting itself in for, once Lord Boris is Home Secretary.
1. A blank password by definition can't be stolen.
2. The courts have ruled that passwords aren't property anyway and therefore cannot be stolen.
3. Even without 1 and 2, it is only "theft" if he came by those passwords dishonestly. Which he didn't.
4. Once in, he stole nothing.
5. Installing Remotely Anywhere is not a "stunning technical feat". 6.He vandalised nothing, damaged nothing. Allegations of such are "an embarrassment to the prosecution" according to presiding judge.
7. US have refused to give assurance of repatriation should he be convicted.
8. re. 23rd Sept, this has been shown in court to be false.
9. Re. Asperger's. Perhaps Socrates should look at the data on prevalence in prison populations. All too easy for people with the condition to inadvertently find themselves on wrong side of law; criminal justice system notoriously fails those with Asperger's.
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