Topic: Super-hacker McKinnon speaks out

[Amker]

ALLEGED SUPER-HACKER Gary McKinnon has spoken of his fears of what will happen to him if extradited to the US on hacking charges.
He accused the US of "using a hammer to squash a gnat" ahead of his extradition hearing at Bow Street Magistrates Court.

"What I did was just unauthorised access," McKinnon told vnunet.com "I'm p*ssed off that six months' community service has turned out to be 60 years in a foreign jail."

McKinnon claimed folk overreact in cases of hacking that do not match the level of the supposed crime.

"I did not do any damage," he complained. "Lovebug did more damage than my alleged damage did, not just to military systems but to ATMs, hospitals, power grids, all sorts of systems."

KcKinnon is a guest speaker this week at the Infosec show in London's Olympia. He compared his plight to that of Matthew Bevan , who was arrested in 1996. "They called him the biggest threat to national security since Hitler. What a load of rubbish!"

The decision as to whether McKinnon will be extradited to the United States on charges of hacking into top secret military installations and causing thousands of pounds worth of damage will be made at a hearing on 10 May. He rates his chances as 50-50.

"I'm worried," he said. "I know I've got a fight on my hands."

McKinnon questioned the whole extradition procedure America is using. "The new extradition treaty, which isn't ratified by the US Senate yet, is a one-ended treaty. It is also retrospective, which is against international treaty laws," he said.

"It's also meant to be a fast track for combating terrorism, but it's being for used for people like me, people in finance, lots of businessmen. The US administration is completely misusing the law."

McKinnon's biggest fear is that he'll end up in some place like Guantanamo Bay.

"I won't stand a chance in hell if I get extradited, because I will probably come under military order number one," he said.

"This means a secret military tribunal with a military lawyer, no rights of appeal, no rights of public comment and no press. It'll be Gary goes down a black hole and you don't see him again."

According to McKinnon, the top military brass claim "it's where he's been and what he's seen" that poses the threat.

McKinnon has always asserted that he was hacking to get at information about UFOs.

"I was looking for suppressed technology and UFOs," he said. "I'd read a book by Stephen Greer, called Disclosure, that has expert testimonies ranging from civilian air traffic controllers and military radar operators, right up to the guys who are in charge of whether or not to launch nuclear missiles."

McKinnon claims that he found secret files on the Johnson Space Center's systems, including photos in a proprietary Nasa image format.

He describes a cigar-shaped object surrounded by domes, which looked like it was made from a single piece of metal without any seams.