McKinnon gets 72 hours to thwart US

McKinnon is an admitted hacker who must now face the music for his crimes. Hopefully he will get at least 20 years in prison for his crimes. Punishment is meant to be a deterrent. Let's hope Gary gets a clue.

20 years for a minor offence that wouldn't have been possible had the authorities done their job.

You have to wonder what goes on in someones head when they think a minor offence that didn't actually hurt anyone should carry a greater sentence that raping children or murdering people.

Paul, you're a scarey guy, shouldn't you be locked up too?

McKinnon broke the law, but he is not a terrorist. Let's hope my (the U. S.) government takes this opportunity to show the world that it hasn't lost its mind in the war against terror and treats McKinnon as the sort of criminal he really is and not try him for war crimes.

Paul. I agree with you completely but I doubt he'll get even that despite the seriousness of the crime. We are way too soft on things people haven't realized are major offenses. Maybe we'll catch up with other countries in that regard eventually.

Jon: By your reasoning, Watergate was simply a minor offense. Or what about online bank robbery? Is that a minor offense? People still get hurt in online crimes. Especially when the information is not public. Maybe you should actually talk to some of these guys and see how harmless they really are. They don't care about you or anybody else. They want something, they take it by force. How different is that from a murderer or rapist? 
Last time I checked, there are guards outside the Pentagon, and given the events that happened, I would think someone like a 42-year old UK man would be aware of the response and consequences of his actions. Is he a dumbass? Yes. I'm sure that will be taken into consideration in his defense. He'll probably even get a job or other benefits from his 15-minutes of fame like the last 20 hackers did.

Jason: I would agree with you normally, but I don't feel like listening to Hamas, Al Qaida, KKK, Neo-Nazis, or anybody else use such stupid defenses to stonewall prosecution while they are still able to act and continue whatever their "plans" would be like the did from that Mosque in Germany for 9/11. Foreign powers screwed the US horribly with the intelligence agencies. Forgive us if we don't want it to happen again. I think it is happening again already. They are setting the precedent for exactly that.

He's come up with every defense possible and even turned it into a political matter when he actually DID commit the crimes. He does not deny it, but he claims he should be tried in a country more sympathetic to his interest regardless of actually committing the crime in the US. And, no, the Internet is not a separate nation or "non-territorial" for all you idiots out there. Last time I checked, the Pentagon hosts are in the US.

With the sheer amount of information available about you on the internet, are you guys who defend him sure you want to let this guy walk around free? UK has no interest or stake in prosecuting him so it would be a trivial trial. Unfortunately, like many of his ilk, as soon as he gets out of jail and is free to use a computer again, he'll go on a spree like Mitnick did and we'll be in the same boat we are now. So, if he does have a valid psychological disorder, it would probably be being a sociopath with antisocial tendencies. I'm not a doctor, but I can recognize general and simple trends of people who don't care who they harm and do negative behavior to get what they want. Unfortunately, the way the system works now, it actually does.

The unsung hero is the administrator that can defend against the several hundred attacks coming into their network space per second. Especially since you are extremely limited in the protocols and the policies that are available to you. Let alone the sheer number of vulnerabilities discovered in software you use. But we glorify people like GM as the underdog, Make no mistake at who the real underdog is. 

Besides, what is GM fighting for? Is it for country? Family? Friends? Or himself? Think about it. I'm sure we all have something we want, but we make CHOICES about how we want to pursue those goals. HOW we pursue those goals defines us as a person.

I'm sorry to go on a large rant here, but I really hate what my industry has become. It's full of script kiddies, spammers, identity thieves, game cheaters, and other unethical people with no way to adequately discourage or stop them their negative behavior. If anything will push net neutrality in a bad direction, it is this kind of international political and legal crap! Realistically, currently, the internet is under mob rule. The only things that protect you as a user are those network administrators because the law doesn't help them and nobody likes admitting they've been hacked. It's like having a police force where nobody calls in and reports a crime! It is surreal if you think of the implications! Just thank your local network administrators for covering your arse on a daily basis. Trust me, it's harder than you think.

Bring on the Rendition, next flight leaving Terminal 5 (after the inevitable delay and lost luggage fiasco) destined for Guantanamo Bay via Diego Garcia, for a bit of orange jump suit action, will give those yanks a good excuse to break out the waterboard for old times sake and McKinnon can thank god for being a citizen of the worlds most spent force, with it's pseudo democracy, sheep like inhabitants and glove puppet like relationship to the good old US of A. Imagine if it were the other way round would the same cooperation exist? Anyone remember the future plans to share the criminal records of all UK citizens traveling to the US with US authorities, in a non reciprocal arrangement nice................

Klaus Fuchs committed most damaging acts of espionage while on U.S. soil against the Allied Powers during and immediately after WWII. As a British subject, he was later tried in a British court and incarcerated in a British prison. One wonders what McKinnon might have seen or the authorities fear he might have seen which apparently demands harsher treatment than received by Fuchs.

Salieri and Jon have excellent posts here. Gary is a criminal, but there is so much more to it than that. I have made public a lot of special information at www.usexpats.blogspot.com for the sake of those wanting to know the truth. Hope this helps.