Gary Mckinnon

Gary McKinnon

In 2002 Gary McKinnon was accused of perpetrating the “biggest military computer hack of all time”. He was able to singlehandedly hack into US military computer systems at the Pentagon from a flat in North London. America wanted him to face up to 60 years in prison for his actions, but there was an uproar against the proposal and the UK wished to cancel McKinnon’s call for extradition. Despite the crime he had committed on the US, controversy accumulated over his punishment and a long ten year battle ensued, should Gary McKinnon face retribution for the hack on the United States?

Born in Glasgow on February 1966, McKinnon showed an interest in computers and alien activity from a very early age. In his early years Gary would frequently ask his parents questions about astronomy and he had the tendency to seek for answers himself. It was apparent that Gary McKinnon was not a normal child, one who at the age of 10 developed a fear of the outdoors; he would beg his parents not to let him play with other children outside, such behaviour that is linked with children who are diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. At 14 he taught himself how to code computer games that he set in outer space, and in turn developed a love for computers.

As a teenager McKinnon’s life became increasingly more difficult, and he struggled to cope with everyday life, consequently he dropped out of secondary school, and then looked for jobs to do with ‘Computer Assistance’. His mother, Janis Sharp, noticed severe mood swings to the extent she was worried that these mood changes would lead him to take his own life.

However McKinnon’s life was about to change as in the mid 1990’s the internet was invented, and this served as an escape from the stresses of everyday life for Gary. Janis Sharp said "That's when he started looking online for information on aliens. It was his escape." Gary McKinnon was able to learn about what had interested him for so long, without the challenges of the world outside his front door.

But in the year, 2000 McKinnon believed that the US government were trying to cover up stories about UFO’s, so he went searching for answers. Between February 2001 and March 2002, Gary hacked into 97 United States military and NASA computers at his girlfriend’s auntie’s house under the name ‘Solo’.

Allegedly he deleted important files from the operating system which shut down 2000 computers in the US army’s military district of Washington. McKinnon also wrote on the US military’s website ‘Your security is crap’. He claims that when he was searching through the military’s documents he saw a picture of something that in no way could have been created by human beings. Gary believed America was hiding information of UFO’s from the world. Furthermore he copied files onto his own computer that contained personal information and passwords, it was estimated that the damage he caused cost the US authorities over $700,000.

In 2002 he was interviewed by police about the period of 13 months where he had hacked into the US pentagon, this lead to him being unable to access any computer until further notice. But by the time of his third interview he was indicted by a federal grand jury, this indictment contained seven accounts of computer-related crime, and each of these had a potential of seven years in jail each.

He remained in the UK where he was required to sign in at his local police station each evening and had to stay in at his own address each night. In July 2006 an order was made for Gary McKinnon to be extradited in the United States under the 2003 extradition act. This meant that he would be transferred from the UK to the US so that he could be tried by American courts, which would have led to him facing many years in prison.

This triggered three applications for a review of the case, questioning the fairness of the US-UK extradition treaty as some claimed that it was one sided. Gary McKinnon’s health was put in question because of the extradition process, where if he was extradited to the US he would face up to 60 years in prison. He himself expressed a fear that he would be sent to Guantanamo Bay. The extradition process was heavily criticised because of Mckinnon’s case, as it was shown to be very one-sided and was not created with vulnerable people like Gary in mind.

It was during this time that support for McKinnon grew considerably with 80 British MPs backing a motion which would allow Gary to serve a sentence imposed by American courts in a British prison. Many well known figures pledged their support for Gary McKinnon such as Bob Geldof, Boris Johnson, Sting and Jonathan Ross.

During the ten year fight to keep Gary McKinnon in the UK, David Cameron discussed the matter with Barack Obama. Both leaders wanted to find an appropriate solution to McKinnon’s case, and the option of having Gary tried in a British Court, with the cooperation of American prosecutors, much to the delight of McKinnon’s family.

This is a video showing both leaders discussing the case of Gary McKinnon

Although Obama described Gary’s crime as very significant and serious, the US position appeared to relax, and some Americans wanted the US to recruit such computer hackers to launch cyber-attacks against terrorists, and not to be prosecuting them.

On the 16th October 2012 Gary McKinnon’s extradition was blocked by Theresa May, and she said the sole concern was his human rights. His mother, Janis, had claimed that as Gary suffered with mental health problems that if he were to be extradited it would be likely he would take his own life, which was further supported by psychiatrist Professor Jeremy Turk of St George's Hospital in London, who said that suicide was now an “almost certain inevitability”

Theresa May made her decision as Gary’s life revolves around his own home and his family; he leaves his house very rarely and cannot be seen as a danger to US security. If he were to have been extradited to the US, his mother said that his whole life would have been taken away from him, and he would not have anything to live for. This decision by Theresa May also spurred her to create a so-called forum bar, which stated that if someone could be tried in British courts as well as those in which the crime was committed, prosecution from overseas could be blocked if it is in the interests of justice to do so. This means that cases such as McKinnon’s will face less criticism and controversy in the future, as measures have been put in place to deal with exceptional terms.

Despite the decision not to extradite Gary McKinnon, it cannot be argued that his actions involving the US Pentagon posed a danger to US security and that they cost a huge amount to the US. His actions caused massive problems for the US army such as when he rendered a weapon station’s network of around 300 computers useless, which led to major stoppages in munition supply deliveries to the US Navy’s Atlantic Fleet.

But it must also be considered what would have happened to Gary McKinnon if he had not suffered with a mild form of Autism and depression. If so his actions would have probably resulted in him serving a 60 year prison sentence in the US.

Thank You for Listening