Silk Road forums
Discussion => Off topic => Topic started by: Adasel on October 20, 2012, 05:22 pm
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Personally i am happy about this.
a) The guy suffers from autism, while it might not seem like a good excuse to the american government, id like to hear from how most of the ordinary us folk feel about this topic.
b) Its a far cry from Abu Hamzar. At least the guy didnt try to plan the destruction of a federal building.
Anyone care to share their thoughts on this?.
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Glad to hear it mate.
His name is Gary McKinnon
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Yeah good news, Credit to the British government for standing up to pressure from the US. It would have been scary to send a young vulnerable man to a country with such a poor human rights record.
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Yeah good news, Credit to the British government for standing up to pressure from the US. It would have been scary to send a young vulnerable man to a country with such a poor human rights record.
The British government deserves very little credit for this. They are NOT actually opposed to to Gary's extradition; rather, it is the prospect of Gary committing suicide in an American prison that gave them pause. Couldn't have that, after all, it would make the UK look bad. The UK government, not to mention the courts, have done nothing to prevent the forthcoming extradition to the U.S. of Richard O'Dwyer.
O'Dwyer is notorious for running the site TVShack.com. The TVShack.com site itself did not host any copyright-infringing materials, it merely had links to where such materials could be located, and /downloaded. Mr. O'Dwyer consulted legal counsel in the UK; his counsel informed him that he was NOT breaking any UK laws. In normal circumstances, for an individual to be extradited for a particular act or acts, those acts must be illegal in BOTH countries. This has very conveniently been brushed aside by the British courts and also the British government, in a blatant attempt to appease the United States. (Such craven servility makes me want to vomit!)
My understanding is that recent changes in British law will make any future efforts to block extradition impossible, as the power will be taken away from a Minister of the Crown, where it is now vested; instead the power to determine whether an extradition will proceed or not will be vested in some supposedly independent panel.
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You Yanks not getting yo' hands on our Aspies.
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"In a dramatic House of Commons statement, May told MPs she had taken the quasi-judicial decision on human rights grounds because of medical reports warning that McKinnon, 46, who has Asperger's syndrome and suffers from depressive illness, could kill himself if sent to stand trial in the US." - David Batty, Guardian.co.uk
'After careful consideration of all of the relevant material, I have concluded that Mr McKinnon's extradition would give rise to such a high risk of him ending his life that a decision to extradite would be incompatible with Mr McKinnon's human rights.' - Theresa May
'However, questions do need to be asked as to why within the space of two weeks, a British citizen with Asperger's accused of computer related activity is not extradited, while two other British citizens, one with Asperger's, engaged in computer related activity are extradited.' - The family of Talha Ahsan
"The Ramadhan Foundation said Talha Ahsan, who was sent to the US earlier this month for running a website that allegedly supports terrorism, is like Mr McKinnon, a suicidal Asperger's syndrome sufferer.
Chief executive Mohammed Shafiq said waiting until yesterday to announce the McKinnon decision 'shows the perceived bigotry that exists when it comes to Muslims'. He said: 'Talha Ahsan suffered from the same condition as Gary; he was suicidal and had the government acted a few weeks ago then he would have been put on trial in the UK.'" - Metro.co.uk
"As it should be. McKinnon was not, whatever some people want you to believe, some innocent kid who inadvertently blundered into the Pentagon’s computers in search of evidence of UFOs. On the contrary there is ample evidence – not the least of which comes from his own statements – that his hacking was a politically-motivated action. It Was McKinnon who left a message on a US army computer he had infiltrated which read:
“US foreign policy is akin to Government-sponsored terrorism these days … It was not a mistake that there was a huge security stand down on September 11 last year … I am SOLO. I will continue to disrupt at the highest levels … “
Indeed, part of his defence was that he could not receive a fair trial in the United States because his political beliefs would make that impossible." - Alex Massie, Spectator
"No one in Britain should feel guilty for refusing to hand over a non-violent British computer hacker with serious psychiatric problems to the retribution of the US courts. The 2003 Extradition Treaty, which is widely perceived as imbalanced in favour of extraditing British citizens to the US – and not the other way round – was a result of a rather craven attitude during the Blair years, when many British people felt that our government had grown embarrassingly eager to do the US's bidding.
It is perhaps worth remembering that during the bleak days of the Northern Ireland Troubles, when Britain was beset by IRA terrorism, the American courts repeatedly rejected or delayed numerous British government extradition requests for the return of suspected or convicted IRA fugitives. The justification often given was that the motivation of the IRA members was “political”." - Jenny McCartney, Telegraph.co.uk
Some food for thought. :)
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"In a dramatic House of Commons statement, May told MPs she had taken the quasi-judicial decision on human rights grounds because of medical reports warning that McKinnon, 46, who has Asperger's syndrome and suffers from depressive illness, could kill himself if sent to stand trial in the US." - David Batty, Guardian.co.uk
Yeah, i dont believe for a moment that the us government paused for thought in this case.
They knew from the beginning that the guy had medical issues and suffered from Aspergers, but they wanted someone to hang for breaking into governmental networks.
I mean, he would be classed as a terrorist and more than likely be sent to Guantanamo Bay for it.
All of those things had to be considered by BRITISH courts, not american.
And if Americans think it wouldnt be that serious, just think back of the young lad who served in Guantanamo Bay simply for being accused of terrorism and still awaiting a serious trial. He was only 17 and the time of imprisonment.