Just suppose you got home to find that someone had been in your house. Just suppose that you'd left the front door wide open and they'd walked in. Just suppose they'd left you a note on the table calling you an idiot for not taking care of your property. Just suppose they'd accidentally knocked a vase over and spilled some water on the kitchen floor. Just suppose you knew they'd looked through all your stuff, but clearly hadn't pinched anything. How would you feel? You'd probably call the police. When they saw the note saying that you'd left the door open, would you feel a bit stupid. After a while you might think that maybe the snooper had actually done you a favour. I'm pretty sure that PC Plod would tell you that you were pretty lucky and should be grateful that the visitor wasn't someone with more malicious intent.
How would you feel to find out that a snooper with special needs had done just that to the US military computer network. He'd been looking for evidence of aliens and found out that the Yanks couldn't be bothered to use proper passwords. He left messages on their computers saying that their security was rubbish. How did the US military react? Did they sack the people who'd exposed us all to the risk of world war 3 by their negligence? Did they immediately offer the guy a few thousand quid to test the rest of their network security. Did they send him a thank you for showing them that they were risking all of our lives?
Nope, they've spent the last few years trying to extradite him from Great Britain so they can jail him for up to 60 years. You see the bully boy US military don't like being made to look stupid. They don't like the fact that a guy in his flat in North London showed the rest of us that they weren't fit to run a whelk stall. That's why they are persecuting Gary McKinnon, an aspergers sufferer from North London. He though that the US government was hiding evidence of Alien life and contact, so he hacked into their system. He did it from his bedroom. He didn't conceal the fact. He left anti American messages on the systems and he left messages telling them how bad their security was. Uncle Sam doesnt' like it. As if that isn't bad enough, our own government is complicit. The useless and cowardly W*******rs who run our government bleat that "we've signed a treaty, there's nothing they can do" (shame on you Alan Johnson).
Well there is something quite simple they could do. They could ring up President Obama and tell him that Gary McKinnon did him a favour and that their persecution of him offends natural justice. They could tell Mr Obama that he should prosecute the people who were paid a small fortune to set the systems up and left us all vulnerable to terrorist activity by not using proper security systems. They could tell Mr Obama that we'll never deport Mr McKinnon because the extradition treaty was designed for terrorists and criminals.
I don't know what I find more revolting, the attitude of the US authorities in trying to blame Mr McKinnon for something which any fair minded person would instantly see is their own fault for being so crap or our government for going along with it. Lets face it, what will the Yanks do if they get really pissed off with us. tell us to take our boys home from Afghanistan so they can keep all the casualties to themselves?
Please can you do something for me. Can you write to your MP if he's Labour and tell him what you think of the spineless creeps in his Govenrment who have allowed this to go on for so long. If you live in a Lib Dem or a Tory Constituency, can you write to Gordon Brown and tell him that you think his behaiviour in this affair is shameful and it's time he showed a little bit of backbone.
Oh and just in case you wondered, I once hacked the US Military system and downloaded all the files on Alien encounters, it is absolutely ... Sorry I'll get back to you in a minute, someone has just knocked on the door.
Rog
ReplyDeleteNot that long ago, real leaders understood that leadership involved accepting responsibility, not just for your own actions, but for those under your charge.
Today we live in a culture where everything is always someone else’s fault. Whether Gary McKinnon’s claim to have been looking for evidence of aliens is true or not, it is quite clear that he is not a terrorist or a threat to anyone other than himself. As you say, he did the Pentagon a huge favour by exposing their weaknesses, but for them to admit that would require some senior heads to roll. It’s far easier is to blame a harmless computer geek.
But this government has shown itself to be pathologically incapable of protecting British citizens and British interests, whether on the battlefields on Iraq or Afghanistan, or from the rules and regulations which emanate from Brussels. Labour doesn’t care about Gary McKinnon because it is too busy thinking of new ways to bribe its client state in its desperate attempt to cling on to power.