- Tuesday, 24 November 2009
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In the beginning, there was nothing -- which exploded - Terry Pratchett
Contempt for hacker's autism defence
PEOPLE LIKE Pentagon Hacker Gary McKinnon often discover they have Asperger's Syndrome late in life. The UK government is more concerned that he discovered it late in his trial.
On Monday, lawyers acting for the Home Office wrote to McKinnon's lawyers explaining why they thought his Asperger's condition, a form of autism, was no reason to stay his extradition to face 60 years in a US prison.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's scepticism of McKinnon's diagnosis was expressed somewhat insensitively in the course of the 11-page document, which the Home Office has refused to publish, but which THE INQUIRER has obtained.
The Home Secretary was in a state of "considerable surprise" that no mention "of the mental problems which it is now said he suffers" was made earlier in the trail, it said.
"The failure to raise such points at an earlier stage... justifies considerable doubt as to whether such points were believed to have legal merit, " it said.
It went on expressing considerable surprise, but also considerable ignorance of Asperger's and even contempt for McKinnon's condition: "You have not explained why a psychiatric opinion was not sought in respect of Mr McKinnon at an earlier point in time, if in fact his behaviour was such as to warrant such an opinion being sought."
The reasons why McKinnon didn't know he had Asperger's should be readily available to anyone who cared to find out.
A spokeswoman for the National Autistic Society said that as autism was only fully discovered in the 1960s, and then only in a limited community of people, "We have a high proportion of the adult population who have not had an opportunity to get diagnosed. This is more true for Asperger's because its harder to pick up," she said.
It is not unusual for people with Asperger's to live well into their 30s or 40s before they discover that the problems they have had negotiating with the world are symptoms of a recognised condition.
Nevertheless, said the government lawyers, McKinnon is 42 and will have had Asperger's symptoms for years: it therefore seemed to the Home Secretary that it was not a "medical condition that has arisen for the first time after the House of Lords dismissed Mr Mckinnon's appeal". It was therefore not enough to interrupt his extradition proceedings.
Yet Lucy Clarke, Gary's girlfriend told THE INQ on Friday how Gary did, indeed, come to discover his own condition so late in the trial.
Simon Baron-Cohen, world-renowned director of Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University, happened to see Gary speaking on the television news after the House of Lords rejected his extradition appeal. He immediately got in touch. Experts in the field have a knack of spotting the condition. He put Gary through the tests and sent the evidence to the Home Office.
Ass burgers
It didn't matter to the government lawyers. The Home Secretary had no "residual
discretion" to consider the health of someone with an extradition order. And
autism was no reason to prevent someone standing trial in the US anyway.
Autistics and prison go together like birds and cages. Dr Thomas Berney, another world renowned autism expert, said in a psychological report on McKinnon's condition he sent to the Home Office in the summer, that McKinnon would suffer a "longstanding deterioration of his mental health" if he was locked up in a US jail.
Baron-Cohen, the government lawyers noted, concurred, and said for that reason McKinnon should stand trial in the UK.
But this wasn't enough for Jacqui Smith to stay Gary's extradition. There wasn't enough evidence, her lawyers said. McKinnon's solicitor, Karen Todner, had said that the combination of his autism and his likely incarceration under the "extremely harsh regime" of the "super-maximum security" ADX Florence prison in Colorado, USA, could constitute torture under Article 3 of the Human Rights Act.
The government responded that Gary could only evade extradition under Article 3 if he was close to death. Asperger's wasn't good enough, especially as it is not guaranteed that McKinnon will be banged up in ADX Florence.
The Home Secretary said that it was OK for someone to suffer mental illness in a foreign prison as long as it was treated, and the US have particularly good mental health services, and if Gary had managed to withstand the pressure of an appeals process that went all the way to the House of Lords, then he should be able to cope with life in a US jail.
Smith dismissed the findings of a United Nations Committee that found conditions in some supermax prisons in the US were so bad that they breached Article 10(1) of the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states: "All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person."
McKinnon's right under Article 8 of the Human Rights Act to a private and family life would also be infringed, Todner told the Home Office. But on balance, the UK's extradition Treaty with the US was more important than McKinnon's right to the support of his family, said the lawyers.
McKinnon has until Friday afternoon to file for a judicial review of his case. ยต
L'Inqs
The National Autistic
Society
Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
UN
Human Rights Committee 1995 report on US maximum security prisons
Gary's
family and Friends speak out in the THE INQUIRER Spodcast
Hacker's
mum squares up to US
McKinnon loses European appeal
Lords
throw McKinnon to the dogs
Pentagon
hacker in the hands of the Lords
Hackers attack Boris as Tories call for crackdown
Hacker
Matthew Bevan vents his spleen on the INQ
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Duh...

The Inkwell always has such enlightened prose... or not. We should all feel so sorry for McKinnon the hacker. Let's be sure to get him the help he needs while he's imprisoned for 20 or more years. I'm sure the medical care will fully cure this worthless hacker to prevent further crimes... or not.

Why does the word SUCKER come to mind when reading this Inkwell indulgence? AFAIK, the only good hacker is a dead hacker. Perhaps we can start a save-the-hacker campaign but only for those hackers who are deemed mentally impaired? Oh, wait then that would include all hackers...

The UK Government are nothing more then puppets of the USA. McKinnon imbarressed the wrong people in the US who had just spent hundreds on millions on security that didnt work.
A lot of people have the condition but just haven't had the opportunity to be diagnosed...


And a lot of people who are supposed "sufferers" are just using it as a cover for their failures and personal defects.

This condition doesn't render him mentally incapable, or unable to control himself. The guy is full of shit, his family is full of shit, he knew what he was doing and he deserves to go to jail.

If this was an Arab looking guy on the way to Guantanamo you can bet he would have been extradited toot sweet. But he's a white middle class boy, so of course this is the greatest travesty of justice ever.

His whole defensive effort has revolved not around whether or not he's guilty - it's a case of "Yeah he's guilty but he really doesn't want to be punished for it. Please let him off."
Boo
Fucking
Hoo.
There's a reason nobody's stuck their neck out to defend him publicly - he's an idiot.

That said, I think it improper that someone clearly harmless and unsound of mind should be used as a diplomatic football...... Local council back officeboy maybe?
Fascism raises its ugly head.
So he has Asperger's? So what. Autistics are rather anti-social creatures anyway, so he should welcome the solitude he'd get in prison.

Just another example of degenerate leftist scum who think that nobody should be held responsible for their behaviour, and that there is no such thing as a real crime, unless, of course, it is committed against them or someone from their herd. Hence the almost incoherent spluttering against even considering parole for that guy that offed John Lennon.

Leftists are such losers!

Throw this criminal into gaol for a few solar circuits and see if he learns that one shouldn't go play around in the wrong playground.
Not again...
Apart from being an extremely embarassing state of affairs for the FBI security *prowess*, and a very unpleasant time for Gary McKinnon and his loved ones - 

~ It does kind of make me laugh a bit [while whincing a lot on the inside] to view the powers that be in the UK being sooooo eager to remain the very bestest of chums with the US, that they'd be willing to tow the line and ship out one of our own for proving that the FBI IT dept bought a router from Radio Shack, plugged it in and just walked away.

I'll be very surprised if they can hand Gary over at all if the time comes;

- It's difficult to see where you're going or what you're doing with your head so far up another nations' arse that you could clean their ears from the inside.

From what we, as the public know about what Gary did [and we may not be in full receipt of the facts...I understand that..... ], not many of us would say it warrants six years in jail, in America.
Lordy, it probably doesn't even warrant six years in America.

There has to be a reason for this. There was a time when extraditoin was fought a little tougher than it has been in this case.
We are fighting the terrorists over there so we don't have to fight them here, right ?
For a full Presidential {pop} pardon, 
which in periods of lame duck,
notoriously and nefariously,
my friends_ freedom has a price
or my name's not:
Some deaf people have had Corns or bugs shoved into ears by loved one or school chum. It is brain swelling ,however NOT as deadly as Maple syrup syndrome.

I clearly see hearing retarded person, whom with NO actual knowledge of How to, had opportunity to enter secured website. Lacking judgement of Dod builders of system, it is impossible to even accept basic Prosecution. Indeed, it is likely defendant is in love with sadist lawyer, whom is showing off curt & unlaw court seesions as cheap wheze. Entertaing friends galore, yet Not concerned about facts of case Vs. Charge defination.

Release Mr. McKinnon by staying extradition..

Signed:PHYSICIAN THOMAS STEWART VON DRASHEK M.D.
A key element of Aspberger's Syndrome is social ineptitude and disregard for other's feelings. That Gary McKinnon was able to maintain a girlfriend for fourteen years as well as a fairly successful IT career makes me suspect that the AS diagnosis is merely a smoke screen for clinical stupidity with a smattering of OCD, which is not a sufficient legal defense for avoiding appropriate punishment.
It was 1981 that the UK recognised Asperger Syndrome. I know as was diagnosed this year (41 yrs old). Also explains why when I was 5 they tested me for full blown autisim and of course came up blank. But hey - high IQ, able to spot patterns and generaly iditic like memory is hardly a handicap. That said I would also add that social interaction as in getting a girlfriend would rate him on the low scale of autistic on that front in my books. Also a good hacker is never caught unless he wants to be caught.


Might also want to factor that its one `disability` often abused by employers and govermental councils in varying forms.
How convenient for him to "discover" his "illness" while metaphorically walking the plank. Don't even start with the "accidental discovery" by a psychiatrist.

This dude should face up to what he has done. He has hacked into Pentagon, he should own up to it, not try to hide in UK, citizen or not. With Asperger's or without it, when he gets to US I bet there will be a lot of inmates searching for UFOs in his a**! 

A final note for the chick, this girlfriend of his: wake up from your miserable life and look for a gentle man; someone who is worth your dedication and love, who will take good care of your kids and who would not willingly hurt anyone, not this hacker piece of sh**.
"the 11-page document, which the Home Office has refused to publish, but which THE INQUIRER has obtained." 

Please publish that document as the British Public are paying a heavy price for it. There are far too many dodgy deals being done behind closed doors for any of them to be healthy.

And Wacky Jacqui could spend fifteen minutes of her time reading the slide show of the Stanford Prison Experiment to experience a likely outcome/effect/trauma .... http://www.prisonexp.org/
My daughter has apergers.
She has no concept of consequences for her actions. She has no sense of responsibility. Her thought patterns are the equivalent of a 9 year old.
These FACTS will never change. They won't change if she's reprimanded, if her possessions are taken away, if she's locked in her room with nothing to do, or even if she gets her ass beaten (never happened).
Prison is designed to rehabilitate people through punishment. It won't work, it's the wrong approach in this case.
One solution would be to do what was done to Kevin Mitnik. Completely deny his use of any computer (or related) equipment. This sets a boundary that an aspergers sufferer can understand and will obey.
Some of you people should consider how fortunate you are before being so ready to judge and condemn another person.
I am constantly amazed at the rationalizations people come up with to excuse illegal behavior. This hacker broke into a secure military facility for his own agenga, shutdown vital national security computers, deleted and changed files...at a time my country, right or wrong, was/is engaged in a war. My, and your, countrymen were engaged in life and death struggles. It is possible that this criminal, yes he is a criminal, caused the death of some soldier fighting against those that perpetrate atrocities against our peoples by his willful actions. To excuse those actions, under any circumstances, is irresponsible.

BTW, for those that argue this criminal would go to a SuperMaxx prison are just ignorant of the US Justice system. He will most likely be in the non-violent Federal system and will become the new poster child of the ACLU.
You DARE to question the judgement of your esteemed leaders? Just who do you think you are? The govt is all knowing and wise in its decisions, who are you to doubt those who are so much smarter than you? You aren't even an elected official. Stop whining and do as you are told.

HB
Mitnick went to jail for ~5 years. He was also put in solitary for eight months.
FBI "maximum secuirty" computer systems are hacked by a disabled man with an old fashioned telephone modem.

Please, someone has to make a T-Shirt with this on it. And to ask Gordon Brown/Jackie Smith what this says for governent data secuirty.

ID Card scheme, data secure.