Lesism - by Les Floyd: McKinnon, Obama, Two Mothers and Honouring 'The Fallen'

Gary McKinnon was arrested nearly ten years ago for ‘hacking’ into US government computers, including systems for NASA and the US Air Force.

He used a computer ‘script’ to search for blank passwords and entered these systems to look for evidence of UFOs and suppressed free-energy technology. (He was smoking a lot of cannabis at the time.) He also left some silly messages that he shouldn’t have, but… sticks and stones…

In the year of his arrest – 2002 - having admitted his ‘crimes’, it looked as though he’d go to court in the UK and get a community sentence.

This is from Wikipedia:

“McKinnon remained at liberty without restriction for three years until June 2005, until after the UK enacted the Extradition Act 2003, which implemented the 2003 extradition treaty with the US wherein the US did not need to provide contestable evidence.”

Now, because of this act – which was ratified a year after Gary was arrested – he faces up to 60 years in a US prison for the crime of walking through already open cyber-doors, looking for UFOs.

He has also been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome – an Autism spectrum disorder, which explains so much in regard to the obsessive behaviour which got him into trouble in the first place.

Gary’s mother, Janis Sharp, is one of the most amazing people I’ve ever had the pleasure to communicate with… she is a true heroine, a remarkably passionate and glitteringly good soul who has been doing everything she possibly can – over many years, now – to stop her son… her little boy… from being taken thousands of miles away and put in a place he simply would not come back from.

His life is shattered. He’s been on the edge of suicide for years and only the constant care of his mother, girlfriend, cats and some exceptionally dedicated members of the mental-healthcare community have kept him alive.

Take him away from all of that and of course he’s going to commit suicide. I know I would do the same, in the same position.

The thing that frustrates me the most about this case is that both David Cameron and Nick Clegg supported Janis wholeheartedly before they ‘came to power’. They gave her assurances that they would stop this extradition, if elected.

This is an excerpt from a Daily Mail article, with words from David Cameron, in 2009:

Mr Cameron said he did not believe Britain's extradition proceedings were set up to apply to cases like Mr McKinnon's.

'It should still mean something to be a British citizen - with the full protection of the British Parliament, rather than a British Government trying to send you off to a foreign court', he said.

And this is part of an article on Nick Clegg, who appeared alongside Janis in a demonstration, before he ‘came to power’:

Mr Clegg has been a high profile supporter of their efforts and dismissed claims by the previous government that it had no power to intervene. 

In an article last year he wrote: “It's simply not good enough for Alan Johnson to shrug his shoulders and claim that nothing can be done. 

“It's completely within his power to enact amendments from the Police and Justice Act, which would allow Gary McKinnon to be tried over here. 

“Or he could urge the Director of Public Prosecutions to begin proceedings.”

Now that they’re in office, they’ve distanced themselves from their words, their oaths and their promises to stop Gary being extradited.

President Obama is visiting the UK this week, and there is so much hope focussed on the possibility that he could bring the good news that the US is going to relinquish their demand for Gary to be tried in the US.

To relinquish demands to extradite and imprison a mentally-ill man - already on the edge of suicide – who was looking for evidence of ‘little green men’, by walking through open doors in lax security systems of a Superpower.

What I’d like to see these three men do, together, is visit the graves of Sarah Bryant and Oz Schmid, and all of the other British troops who have been killed… to talk to their families and all those who loved them… to meet the maimed, injured and traumatised troops that survived… all the dedicated, brave troops who have ever fought these wars… all the families and mothers who have held that aching fear of their loved-ones being killed in far-off lands… look them in the eye and tell them:

“It is because of your dedication and sacrifice that dangerous terrorists like Gary McKinnon can be brought to justice.”

And then I hope those people spit back in their leaders’ faces so hard that their phlegm lubricates their eye sockets for weeks afterwards.

If Gary McKinnon is taken from this country, it would be the greatest, most disgraceful disrespect to the memory of the fallen…

It has to stop, now. It’s time for Gary to be freed from this, and it’s time for Janis to be able to live her life again… with her little boy safe and well.

via lesism.blogspot.com