Fighting to avoid what he fears will be unfair treatment from U.S. courts, U.K. hacker Gary McKinnon lost another appeal in his attempt to avoid being extradited.

Thomas Claburn, Editor at Large, Enterprise Mobility

July 31, 2009

2 Min Read

Gary McKinnon, the British computer hacker accused of breaking into 97 computers operated by the U.S. military and NASA in 2001 and 2002, lost his latest appeal before Britain's High Court on Friday to avoid extradition to the U.S.

McKinnon's legal counsel expects to file a further appeal to the country's new Supreme Court, which begins operating in October, and perhaps to a European Union court.

McKinnon's extradition was approved by the British government in 2006 and McKinnon's legal representatives have been fighting to keep their client in the U.K. ever since.

McKinnon's mother, Janis Sharp, called the High Court's ruling a disgrace, according to a video posted online by the BBC. In the video, she asks for the support of President Obama to end the persecution of her son.

McKinnon has been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism, and has gained the support of a number of British celebrities and politicians who believe he will not be treated fairly in a U.S. court.

Having admitted that he broke into U.S. government computers, McKinnon maintains that he was motivated by the desire to expose UFO secrets that were being concealed.

In an interview with the BBC conducted after Britain's House of Lords rejected an appeal in 2008, McKinnon characterized his actions as a moral crusade. "[UFOs] have been reverse-engineered," he said. "Rogue elements of Western intelligence and governments have reverse engineered them to gain free energy, which I thought was very important, in these days of the energy crisis."

McKinnon's supporters characterize him as a harmless eccentric. And the number of people supporting his cause has risen, at least in the IT community. In 2006, Sophos, a U.K.-based computer security firm, found that 52% of the 565 IT professionals participating in an online poll believed that McKinnon should not be extradited. In 2009, 71% of 550 IT professionals surveyed felt that way.

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About the Author(s)

Thomas Claburn

Editor at Large, Enterprise Mobility

Thomas Claburn has been writing about business and technology since 1996, for publications such as New Architect, PC Computing, InformationWeek, Salon, Wired, and Ziff Davis Smart Business. Before that, he worked in film and television, having earned a not particularly useful master's degree in film production. He wrote the original treatment for 3DO's Killing Time, a short story that appeared in On Spec, and the screenplay for an independent film called The Hanged Man, which he would later direct. He's the author of a science fiction novel, Reflecting Fires, and a sadly neglected blog, Lot 49. His iPhone game, Blocfall, is available through the iTunes App Store. His wife is a talented jazz singer; he does not sing, which is for the best.

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