Anyone with even a passing interest in Twitter would be aware of the massive groundswell of support there for Gary McKinnon. In a rough count over the past few hours, twitter posts with the hashtag #freegary have averaged around one every 90 seconds. And the Free Gary McKinnon Facebook group has 8,291 members. That adds up to a lot of people in cyberspace taking Gary’s plight to heart.
Gary is a Glaswegean self confessed hacker. Now a London resident – he has been fighting to be tried in the United Kingdom after the US Government asked for him to be sent for trial in America.
He has admitted hacking into 97 American military computers and the Pentagon and Nasa between 2001 and 2002 - but claims he was looking for evidence of UFOs and was a not a security threat.
The computer networks he is accused of hacking include networks owned by NASA, the US Army, US Navy, Department of Defense, and the US Air Force. This sounds like a rather impressive CV to me, and I would have thought the Pentagon would be offering Gary a job, not looking to lock him up for the remainder of his natural.
The support for Gary is huge outside of cyberspace as well. Earlier this month, Scottish Newspaper The Herald reported that Scots entrepreneur Luke Heron would pay £100,000 towards Gary McKinnon’s legal costs in the event he was extradited to the US. He is also supported by a host of public figures including Sir Bob Geldoff, guitarist Dave Gilmour, Stephen Fry, Chrissy Hynde, Nick Hornby, Jonathan Ross and human rights campaigner Terry Waite.
Now the largest adult autism charity in the UK (Staffordshire Adults Autistic Society) has appealed directly to the Queen to save Gary McKinnon from extradition.
It is beyond me that anyone seriously thinks Gary McKinnon is a terrorist. But the thought of someone with Aspergers being subjected to life in an American high security jail on account of his unexplained behavior is not good.
Lets get in behind the efforts – both online and offline – to ensure Gary McKinnon is treated humanely.
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