Gary McKinnon could face a long prison sentence

A Briton accused of hacking into top secret military computers has lost a Law Lords appeal against being extradited to stand trial in the US.

Glasgow-born Gary McKinnon could face life in jail if convicted of accessing 97 US military and Nasa computers.

He has admitted breaking into the computers from his London home but said he was seeking information on UFOs.

The 42-year-old's lawyers said they would apply to the European Court of Human Rights to prevent his removal.

Mr McKinnon first lost his case at the High Court in 2006 before taking it to the highest court in the UK, the House of Lords.

He was arrested in 2002 but never charged in the UK.

The US government claims he committed a malicious crime - the biggest military computer hack ever.

The authorities have warned that without his co-operation and a guilty plea the case could be treated as terrorism and he could face a long jail sentence.

A statement by solicitors for McKinnon, who was not at the Lords to hear the judgement, said: "Gary McKinnon is neither a terrorist nor a terrorist sympathiser.

"His case could have been properly dealt with by our own prosecuting authorities. We believe that the British government declined to prosecute him to enable the US government to make an example of him.

"American officials involved in this case have stated that they want to see him 'fry'.

"The consequences he faces if extradited are both disproportionate and intolerable."

'Computer nerd'

Their client is accused of hacking into the computers with the intention of intimidating the US government.

It alleges that between February 2001 and March 2002, he hacked into dozens of US Army, Navy, Air Force, and Department of Defense computers, as well as 16 Nasa computers.

.

American officials involved in this case have stated that they want to see him 'fry' Gary McKinnon's lawyers

Prosecutors say he altered and deleted files at a naval air station not long after the 11 September attacks in 2001, rendering critical systems inoperable.

Mr McKinnon, who is unemployed, has admitted that he accessed computers in the US without authority.

But he has said he is merely a computer nerd, whose motives were harmless and innocent. He denies any attempts at sabotage.

He said he wanted to find evidence of UFOs he thought was being held by the US authorities, and to expose what he believed was a cover-up.

Repatriated

The Law Lords were told by Mr McKinnon's lawyers that extraditing him would be an abuse of proceedings.

US authorities had threatened him with a long jail sentence if he did not plead guilty, they said.

If the case was treated as terrorism it could result in a sentence of up to 60 years in a maximum security prison, should he be found guilty on all six indictments.

With co-operation, he would receive a lesser sentence of 37 to 46 months and be repatriated to the UK, where he could be released on parole and charges of "significantly damaging national security" would be dropped.

But Clare Montgomery QC, representing the home secretary, argued no threats were made, and the extradition should go ahead.

On Wednesday, a 42-year-old UFO enthusiast lost his bid in a British court to fight extradition to the U.S. on charges he hacked into several U.S. military bases and even NASA.

Gary McKinnon has been fighting extradition for nearly six years, and his latest setback occurred in the British House of Lords. McKinnon admits breaking into U.S. databases in order to uncover evidence of secret UFO documents. His supporters contend that if deported to the U.S. for trial, McKinnon could be portrayed as a terrorist, seeking military secrets in general.

At the heart of Wednesday's hearing was McKinnon's claim that there was a wide disparity between what the U.S. offered if he voluntarily turned himself over and admitted guilt (three to four years of prison at the maximum) and if he were extradited and stood trial (anything up to life imprisonment).

The magistrate in the House of Lords dismissed the claim, saying that such plea bargaining is common in the U.S.

Between 2001 and 2002, McKinnon is alleged to have hacked his way into computers managed by the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, Department of Defense, and NASA. He did so from a tiny bedroom in his girlfriend's aunt's house. McKinnon maintains that he was motivated by his interests in UFOs, and that the military computers had lax security.

In 2006, the British Home Secretary ruled McKinnon should be extradited to the United States, and the U.K. Court of Appeal also made a subsequent ruling in favor of extradition.

Mark Summers, an official representing U.S. interests in the proceedings against McKinnon, said in British court that McKinnon's actions were "intentional and calculated to influence and affect the U.S. government by intimidation and coercion."

In a statement, McKinnon's lawyers responded in a statement that he is "neither a terrorist nor a terrorist sympathizer." They argue that "his case could have been properly dealt with by our own prosecuting authorities."

"We believe that the British government declined to prosecute him to enable the U.S. government to make an example of him."

McKinnon's lawyers alleged that an American official had told him he would be forced to serve a lengthy sentence in the United States if he fought against his extradition, something they say amounted to an unlawful threat.

The five Law Lords were unanimous in deciding McKinnon had failed to prove his case.

McKinnon's supporters say they want him freed -- or at least tried in Britain.

Prosecutors allege that McKinnon hacked into more than 90 computer systems belonging to the U.S. army, navy, air force, Department of Defence and NASA between February 2001 and March 2002, causing $900,000 worth of damage.

McKinnon has acknowledged accessing the computers, but he disputes the reported damage and said he did it because he wanted to find evidence that America was concealing the existence of aliens.

He was caught in 2002 after some of the software used in the attacks was traced back to his girlfriend's e-mail account.

In his interview with the BBC he also claimed that "The Disclosure Project" says there is "extra-terrestrial in origin and

[they've] captured spacecraft and reverse engineered it.

" He also claimed to have downloaded a low-resolution image of "something not man-made" and "cigar shaped" floating above the northern hemisphere. He said that unfortunately he did not manage to get a screenshot or recording of the image because he was "bedazzled" to see the image, could not remember the capture function in the software RemotelyAnywhere, and that he was "cut off" from his connection.^[11]

The charge that he perpetrated "the biggest military hack of all time" is disputed by McKinnon who characterises himself as a "bumbling computer nerd". He refers to previous documented incidents of cracking including May 2001 when as acknowledged by U.S. government contractor Exigent International one or more hackers broke into a U.S government server storing satellite software and stole code. Evidence led investigators to an e-mail service in Sweden but the culprits were never apprehended. In 1997, two California teenagers and a trio of Israeli hackers were arrested for cracking into Pentagon servers. Israeli hacker Ehud Tenenbaum, then 18 years old, and his two teenage accomplices were not extradited, but were prosecuted by local authorities. McKinnon has also claimed that on many occasions he noticed other crackers unlawfully entering the same systems and suggests that his activities were not unique. The U.S. Pentagon has for example in the past cited as many as 250,000 attacks in a single year.

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