- Sunday, 8 November 2009
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America once had the clarity of a pioneer axe - Robert Osborn
Veteran NASA hacker catcher says lay off Gary
BRITISH AUTHORITIES should not allow Pentagon Hacker Gary McKinnon to be extradited to the US unless they want him to suffer inhumane treatment, a retired agent who investigated hackers for the mysterious NASA Office of Inspector General writes in THE INQUIRER today.
Joseph Richard Gutheinz, Jr., now a practising defence lawyer and tutor, retired from NASA with commendations for his OIG work exposing $200 million of frauds, leading a Federal task force of nine agencies, catching astronaut impersonator Jerry Whittredge, and rooting out smugglers of multi-million dollar rocks collected from the moon.
He's spent years bagging criminals, is a member of the Republican National Lawyers Association, and told the INQ that if malicious hackers got access to US NASA and military secrets, it could "undermine the free world".
Yet he thinks Gary McKinnon should not be extradited to face hacking charges in the US.
Here's why:
I am retired NASA Office of Inspector General Senior Special Agent. I have seen the harm that illegal hacking has caused. I was even trained by the United States Government to hack into computers to understand the psyche and techniques used by hackers.
After retiring from NASA, I started practising criminal law and found that the American judicial system turns a blind eye towards the needs of the mentally ill. America is a great country and I am a proud American, but it is a country tied to many archaic legal principles.
Until just recently America executed mentally retarded offenders and still jails schizophrenics and other seriously mentally impaired defendants with little compassion. It is a country which fights drug addiction with long prison terms for the addicted. Individuals become judges on a record of zero tolerance where compassion has little value or is viewed as a negative.
If I were the prosecutor on Gary McKinnon's case, I would say keep him in England: you can have him fly him over here, he'll plea out, and we'll put him probation in England for a number of years with conditions. That is the compassionate thing to do, and that is what I haven't seen the American government offer. And that is where I think they are wrong.
I tell my students that laws exist to be followed and when the law is ignored, anarchy follows. I am known as a conservative on law and order issues, but I also believe in justice. I worry that Gary McKinnon might not find any justice in America.
For two years I fought to keep a young boy out of juvenile prison or a psychiatric ward, a boy who like Gary McKinnon has Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism. He went through hell in the legal system. There was no compassion, no understanding. They just wanted to lock the kid away. It was a heart-breaking case.
Predicated on that experience I was grateful when Texas Governor Rick Perry appointed me to the Texas Criminal Justice Advisory Committee on Medical and Mental Impairments, but once there I saw the same lack of concern by law enforcement and the judiciary towards the mentally ill that I saw as a defense attorney.
Gary McKinnon's is a case that demands that we use a little bit of compassion. What are you going to accomplish by extraditing him back to the United States and punishing him and putting him in prison? Are you sending a message out that if you've got a mental illness you better watch it? I do believe in what his mother says - separating him from her and his environment is going to be detrimental to his well being.
I hope a deal can be reached with American prosecutors that will offer Gary treatment rather than jail or prison, and permit him to remain in England around surroundings and people that will nurture him, and to this end I ask America to halt its efforts to extradite Gary and in the alternative work out a compromise that will protect its national security and enhance Gary’s well being.
If the guy didn't have autism, I'd say he's made his bed and he's got so sleep in it. My opinion would be different if Gary was a physical threat to others or a continuing threat to American national security, but neither appears to be the case.
If America is unwilling to strike a compassionate plea bargain with Gary’s defense attorneys I believe England must take steps to protect its citizen. In the case of Gary McKinnon, I have come to the conclusion that England should not extradite this man to America to face the prospect of injustice masked as justice.
Joseph Richard Gutheinz, Jr., J.D.
Attorney at Law
Retired NASA OIG Senior Special Agent
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Finally a Yank with a brain and common sense. Well done my son, well done!
Now go tell that to B.O (how unfortunate for a webtitle MyB.O.) - he obviously didnt go to an English public school.
:)
Why don't they just offer him a job?
He's obviously much more clever than the guys who wrote their system, so he could probably show them a few things.
Furthermore, people with this sort of "disability" are very often very close to being genuises.
If Gary will be extradicted, it will be the evidence that Britain is a vassal of the US. Most people know that but sometimes it's good to remind the slaves who are your masters.
It's tragic how the mentally ill are treated and this case is absurd. It is a welcome sight to see someone from the RIGHT side of American politics exhibit common sense in assessing this situation.
With the booting of Bush and his criminal cronies I hope to see that President Obama's sensibility and humanity takes hold and eliminates the Stalinist mentality of the prior organization.
Hats off to Joseph Richard Gutheinz, Jr.
oh!!, This guy is a just scriptkiddie, he is not a real hacker, let him alone, he has no technical knowledge of Hackingm he just was playing and pretending to be one
Surly you meant the NSA ~sans the extra "A", NSA =/= National Security Agency, ya know the People who bought you Echelon??
.... A quick stint on google shows the same NASA References... Hummm who knew they had the James Bond Types lurking there....
It's good to hear someone with some common sense. We should not be punishing mentally ill people who are no threat with such harshness. It's about time our government was standing up for the rights of it's people instead of trampling over them to please America.
so it was actually you that hacked into their computer, i suppose? or did you teach Gary?
I agree with surfer that they should probably give him a job. His definitely cleverer than the guys they have. And INQ, turn on paragraphs for goodness sake.
Thank you for speaking out. I hope The Inq forwards your letter to Gary's family and lawyer ASAP.
The Inq, please turn on paragraphs or explain why not.
unidentifiable browser problem: please email the author if you can't see paragraphs. cheers.
FIRST of all, I wouldn't want this guy as my attorney - his grammar is absolutely terrible.
SECOND, I think Gary should be tried here, but his sentence should be carried out in his home country - only because of his mental illness.
THIRD - I agree with the others - turn on paragraphs (please). It makes reading comments much easier.
FOURTH - Ichijoe, why is it so hard to believe the guy worked for NASA?
I cannot believe the people willing to excuse such a threatening crime just because someone claims to get upset if he is sent away. If you can't do the time, don't do the crime. He broke the law, a serious one. He should pay as anyone else so we don't set precident that it's ok to do what you want as long as you can claim you're not well. Boo Hoo! I'm not perfectly well, I take pills to cope, what I don't do is break federal laws! Jail the man!
This case is not serious enough for the UK to break their extradition agreements, so he should be extradited unless he is found to be mentally incompetent by the UK courts (in which case the extradition should be blocked on the grounds that the UK does not recognize him as being legally liable for his actions). I agree with the arguments in the article, even if he is not found to be mentally incompetent his disability should be considered in sentencing.
wtf ppl?!?! If we don't prosecute our own citizens for breaking into g'v boxes, what chance do we have of prosecuting foreign nationals, or leet single celled amoeba's? who cares if this dude has a "condition?" I have a condition too, it's called curiosity... oops I wanted to see confidential information. I'm not saying lets throw the chump into prison, he needs to do some community service or somin. We've had too many bright cats go to prison simply for "hacking." 30+ years for changing schools grades? if thats how we prosecute then this guy should have 12 life sentences. obviously this doesn't make sense, so Americans need to wake up and take note on how hackers/crackers/scriptkiddies are mistreated. Come on America, who hasn't cheated on a test, or seen something they shouldn't have?
Why is no one discussing the terrible security flaw in the systems that were hacked? My company run websites and webservices which are constantly under attack; we have to take measures to protect them. I realise that the US government systems are more complex however the stakes are higher. I am not under the impression that this guy was a particular genius. If our company was hacked it would be us that would be held responsible by our customers - not the hacker. Hackers are out there prosecuting is not going to stop them
After Several Faled Attempts at octo BiPass upon Mike, Now its' Time for PsychChiefs PsychoSurgery. In America You Can Do Anything You Want.
If this where Paragraph, it's have those two little lines||, other suggestions // or picturs of Pizza. Code isn't in English, so where do English Courts decide if its hack or even forced confession. Maybe writer had gary try some new gimmick. Whose Fault would that be, given that Gary cann't read code ethier. I say live in you bubble & turn green.
Drak Drak
DrakityDrak
Drashek
I appreciate that there are still people with common sense in the USA, like Mr. Gutheinz. Quite frankly, I thought the country has gone completely banana over the past eight years. But the most important question should be why a European citizen can be denied a trial in Europe, and can be extradited instead. If Gary McKinnon were a German citizen, he would have that right and protection. But as a UK citizen he seems to be a second class citizen. I think every European citizen should have that right. How about a McKinnon Act?
The law should follow logic as well as the basic facts. Gary is not a terrorist and was FULLY co-opative with the authorities. This allowed things to be cleaned up and patched, so Gary actually helped security in the future (if lessons were learnt)?
The REAL issue is why is was so easy to hack in to very important PCs and why this was not noticed and went on to allow him ADMIN rights to install software that further compromised security. If systems were being monitored and backup up correctely this would have been dealt with much sooner.
It shows me that around the dreaded September 11th, America was not protecting sensitive systems. Someone or group of people should be responsible?
Gary did a crime - and should be punished, but NOT extradited to a country that has a dubious human rights record. I believe that he was threatened with going to Guantanamo bay. That would really help a mentally ill person wouldn't it?
"I do believe in what his mother says - separating him from her and his environment is going to be detrimental to his well being."
That's the idea. It's PRISON, not a vacation.
At what point EXACTLY do people cease to be responsible for their own actions, MEDICALLY? Schizophrenia? Autism? Aspergers? Attention deficit disorder? Maybe just having a bad day?
Do the crime... do the time.