This is my friend Gary Mckinnon. In 2002 he was arrested for hacking into the Pentagon from his home in North London. Gary, a self confessed computer nerd, would be the first to admit that he is no genius when it comes to hacking the fact is what he did was scarily easy. With a £200 computer and a program downloaded free from the Internet he was able to access what should be the most secure computer system in the world, the US Military. Gary is of no threat what so ever to US national security yet the Government persist in wasting thousands of their tax payers hard earned dollars trying to extradite him to stand trial and be sentenced in America, where they say they will push for the maximum penalty of seventy years in jail without appeal, with references even on paper to, "Seeing him fry". Quite a severe punishment for a harmless computer geek, especially as in Britain-where the crime was committed and where legally he should stand trial- he would face a maximum of two years and would be out on parole after six months. A slight contrast in the metering of justice from two such staunchly allied countries I feel. "If you play with fire you get burnt." I hear you think. Yes, very true but in this case it should only merit the fingers, not the entire body in the electric chair. The only crime Gary has committed is to expose severe weaknesses in the infrastructure of the computer network of the defence of the United States of America. The fact that the US Government want to waste valuable time effort and money prosecuting the least dangerous man in the world to a life times imprisonment is so ridiculous it's embarrassing, even more embarrassing when the court case will highlight the ease at which he penetrated the heart of the American National Security. That and exactly how untreatening he is. In this volatile political climate these resources need to be utilised wisely and spending vast amounts of tax payers money on prosecuting a "computer nerd" when someone else's judicial system can more than adequately deal with it doesn't sound very wise to me. End this farce and let Gary stand trial in Britain.
