NASA Hacker McKinnon Appeals To Bush For Pardon

McKinnon's legal team has asked foreign secretary David Miliband to press for a pardon on MCKinnon to avoid his extradition to the United States from the UK. President Bush has denied this pardon; however, Barack Obama will be in office on Tuesday January 20, 2009. McKinnon told the press conference that," A lot of us have looked at Obama as a new hope." Only time will tell what Obama will do about McKinnon. Mc Kinnon has caused $700,000 in damages to computers by deleting files that were contained on them. Mc Kinnon pleaded guilty to UK computer offenses in hope to halt his extradition to the United States and will be heard from the High Court on January 20, 2009 by Keir Starmer. Starmer is expected to reach a decision on within four weeks to determine if McKinnon will stay in the UK for a jail term. He pleaded guilty to Section 2 of the Computer Misuse Act (CMA) which deals with unauthorized access with intent to commit or facilitate commission of further offences. In addition, on Tuesday 20 January the High Court will hear oral evidence from McKinnon's legal team. McKinnon's defence contend that McKinnon's diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome in the summer was not taken into account by the home secretary Jacqui Smith when she rejected McKinnon's second appealagainst extradition in October. You can read up on this story here, and more updates are sure to follow. See you then.

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Autism Expert Backs Hacker

I ran into this story and thought wow. Gary McKinnon,42, could face up to 70 years in prison if he is found guilty of gaining access to and damaging 97 American Navy, Army, NASA, and Pentagon computers for information regarding UFO's in 2001 and 2002. The expert Simon Baron-Cohen says that the behavior McKinnon was showing was a result of an interest in UFO's and the truth. He, McKinnon, was acting out of his disability of Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism, and didn't realize it as a crime to access information on UFO's. Simon Baron-Cohen has backed McKinnon as to try and avoid having him extradited to the United States. You can read the article here.

In my opinion, this is a sad story of a man who only wanted the truth, but couldn't comprehend what he was actually doing because of an illness that affects him. He was diagnosed with Asperger's two years ago. I hope all goes well, but a crime is a crime. This one is a big one and I'm looking forward to hearing more on this case. I'll keep up with it the best to my ability and keep you informed. Who know what will happen when the time comes.

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