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Sunday, 13 February 2011
Daily Express | DAVID GILMOUR PAYS FOR GARY MCKINNON'S PSYCHIATRIC TREATMENT
DAVID GILMOUR PAYS FOR GARY MCKINNON'S PSYCHIATRIC TREATMENT
David Gilmour is paying for psychiatric treatment for troubled Gary McKinnon
Sunday February 13,2011
By James Murray
PINK FLOYD star David Gilmour is paying for psychiatric treatment for troubled Gary McKinnon after he was suddenly refused NHS funding while he fights extradition to the US on charges of hacking into military computers.
The renowned guitarist, who supports mental health campaigns, decided to step in after the Asperger’s Syndrome sufferer became a victim of budget cutbacks at a London NHS Trust.
Glasgow-born McKinnon, 45, faces up to 60 years in a US jail for breaking into Nasa and Pentagon computers in 2001 and 2002 while looking for evidence of UFOs. Until last month he had been receiving treatment from Asperger’s expert Professor Jeremy Turk, who believes he will become a suicide risk if forced to go to America to face trial. The intervention comes at a crucial time for Mr McKinnon. His mother, Janis Sharp, is preparing to disclose new evidence of mental illness in the family that could be used to stop the case against her son. Speaking to the Sunday Express, Ms Sharp praised the Pink Floyd star for his help, and insisted their fight against extradition would continue.She said: “When I heard about the funding for Gary’s psychiatrist being refused I was shell-shocked. “The world economy is worse than people realise and people in this country are going to be hit by the cuts that haven’t even fully kicked in yet. What will happen to other people with psychiatric problems if their funding is cut off? “I’m so grateful to David Gilmour for helping Gary at such a crucial time.”While the legal battle continues, Ms Sharp has disclosed confidential family medical information about her son which suggests he was showing signs of mental disorder when he was a teenager.
On his 17th birthday she had deep concerns about his sudden mental deterioration and took him to a London neurologist, thinking he had a brain tumour. She has also told the Sunday Express of uncovering a history of mental illness in the family that may help in the attempt to stop extradition to the US.
Mr McKinnon’s great-grandmother, Christina Macleod, who was born in 1882, was committed to Woodilee Mental Hospital in Lenzie, near Glasgow, where she remained for 50 years until her death, aged 95. Ms Sharp said: “She became increasingly detached from the world around her and never recovered her mental health.”The hacker’s grandmother Margaret Totten, born in 1922, also suffered from depression and was mentally ill for most of her life. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia and died in March 1999 in Greenfield Park Nursing Home at Carntyne, Glasgow.In the past, many people with Asperger’s or other forms of autism were wrongly diagnosed as having schizophrenia.Ms Sharp said: “This proves that mental illness in Gary’s family goes back generations and that Gary had pre-existing mental health difficulties.”A report by Professor Declan Murphy, who served in the Home Office last year, said there are fears about how Mr McKinnon would cope with a trial in the US. It stated: “Gary has greater risk factors to suffer anxiety and stress combined with depression. They will be more severe because of pre-existing Autistic Spectrum Disorder and history of anxiety, which pre-date any legal difficulties.”
An interview with @janissharp by @beezan « #TweetsStorm's in support of Gary Mckinnon
cliffsull
An interview with @janissharp by @beezan
1 VoteJ A N I S S H A R P
‘ I’ve never hated anyone but I hate the prosecutors and their vindictiveness, their lack of compassion … ‘
Janis Sharp is the mother of ‘infamous’ computer hacker, Gary McKinnon, and for the past eight years, she has lived with the fear that her Asperger sufferer son, be extradited to the USA where he could face up to 70 years in a US High Security Prison, alongside murderers, rapists and terrorists. Gary, a naive, peace loving 43 years old, believes in UFOs. He is also convinced the US Government is hiding the truth about the existence of UFOs.
Searching for that truth, Gary, in 2002, aided by The Hackers Handbook, hacked into the hi-tech systems of the Pentagon, NASA and other military sites, from his room in North London. Using an old dial-up computer borrowed from a friend, he was able to gain entry because, astonishingly, none of the highly sensitive sites he infiltrated used any form of computer security. Not even the most basic Firewall or Password, which the most novice of computer users know to install. Yet the Pentagon and NASA, allowed their computers to remain vulnerable for anyone to access. Rather like abandoning a security van, doors wide open with all the gold bullion sitting there for the taking. But what if it had been al Qaeda terrorists instead of Gary McKinnon- hacking into their systems?
Understandably, the Americans must be very embarrassed but do they suppose by making an example of McKinnon they will save their red faces?
Public opinion is that President Obama should offer Gary a job, advising on computer security, not terrorising him with the threat of a life jail sentence.
‘Gary is in a really bad way’ his mother claims ‘he is petrified – doesn’t want television on, wont answer the phone and refuses to look in a mirror, into his own eyes, keeps repeating: ‘I’m dead’ ’
Each day she wakes with the fear of Gary’s extradition on her mind. She goes to bed and it is on her mind. She never switches off. There is always so much to do: meetings with their legal team, talking to the media, battling to drum up support for the Free Gary Campaign.
It never stops. Janis never stops. ‘I’m a positive person – I have to be. Gary needs me’ The big family home in North London, has sadly been sold to help pay for Gary’s legal crusade. ‘There’s no time anymore to make a living’ Janis says in her soft Scots accent ‘… so we get poorer’
These days her life is on hold while she pursues the fight to have Gary tried in the UK ‘I feel like the Jewish people must have felt when fighting the Nazis who were coming to drag them from their homes and country to lock them up in some Hellhole’.
Janis worries about everybody. But what about her? ‘I’ll keep fighting. I may have a couple of days where I cry all the time but then I bounce back fighting. ‘This has ruined everybody’s life and it’s all a big nonsense …’
An unexpected boost come from the Liberty Campaign in support of McKinnon. ‘This is the American sister organisation of Liberty ACLU and they have joined us in supporting Gary against extradition. They have also come out against the one-sided extradition treaty with America.’
During the 2010 General Election campaign, Nick Clegg, and David Cameron, promised if they came to power, they would get Gary McKinnon released from this constant threat, and change the unfair pro US Extradiction Treaty. Well the Con-Lib Coalition is now in power.
It is time to keep those pre-Election promises and #FreeGary!
(c) copyright 2010 – Bruna Zanelli – http://www.brunazanelli.com
You also can find more from Bruna on her twitter a/c – http://twitter.com/beezan
Egypt state media changes sides - Middle East - Al Jazeera English
Last Modified: 13 Feb 2011 13:36 GMT
A day after Mubarak stepped down, Al-Ahram's headline read: The people ousted the regime Egypt's state and pro-government media have abruptly changed their tune after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, from being faithful government mouthpieces to celebrating the revolution.
On Saturday, state TV issued a statement carried by Egypt's Middle East News Agency, "congratulating the Egyptian people for their pure great revolution, lead by the best of the Egyptian youth".
"Egyptian TV will be honest in carrying its message," the statement said. "Egyptian TV is owned by the people of Egypt and will be in their service."
During the 18-day uprising, state TV and pro-Mubarak newspapers portrayed the hundreds of thousands of protesters as a minority of troublemakers.
While violent protests raged in downtown Cairo, state-run Al-Nil TV showed serene videos of the Nile river.
But a day after Mubarak stepped down, the frontpage of the previously pro-Mubarak newspaper Al-Ahram proclaimed "The people ousted the regime".
A state TV journalist, reporting from outside Mubarak's Cairo palace where thousands had gathered after his ouster, said that "at these moments, Egyptians are breathing freedom".
And an editorial by the state-run daily Al-Gomhouria called for greater transparency, complaining that "the sharks of the old regime sucked the life from Egypt".
During the uprising, some pro-government media were targeted by the protesters.
Some of the largest and most violent protests took place in front of the ministry of information, from which state TV broadcasts. At some point, riot police clashed with protesters trying to take over the building.
Many accused Anas el-Fekky, the information minister, of orchestrating a heavy media campaign against protesters by accusing them of sabotaging Egypt.
Dozens of journalists, including from Al Jazeera, were detained, injured and threatened while covering the uprising.
The Egyptian government closed Al Jazeera's bureau in Cairo, saying its coverage was biased against the government and agitating protesters.
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