Hacking for UFO's

Computer hacker Gary McKinnon has been refused permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court against his extradition to the US.
The High Court ruled the case was not of "general public importance" to go to the UK's highest court.
Glasgow-born Mr McKinnon, 43, of Wood Green, London, is accused of breaking into the US's military computer system. Mr Mickinnon, who has Asperger's syndrome, insists he was just seeking evidence of UFOs.
Janis Sharp told BBC Radio 5 live that the ordeal had "broken" her son".
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/8298924.stm)

McKinnon's craziness manifested itself in obsessive hacking. With a joint in the ashtray and a can of Foster's next to the mousepad, he hacked Nasa, the Pentagon, and every US military installation he could get into. It was, he says, incredibly easy. He wrote a script that searched for network administrators who'd been too lazy to change their user names from "user name" and their passwords from "password". And when he found one he was in.

His testimony offers a compelling argument against conspiracy theories. He spent between five and seven years roaming the corridors of power like the Invisible Man, wandering into Pentagon offices, rifling through files, and he found no particular smoking gun about anything. He unearthed nothing to suggest a US involvement in 9/11, nothing to suggest a UFO cover-up. Nothing, he told me, except two things.
"I found a list of officers' names," he said during our first meeting in 2003, "under the heading "Non-Terrestrial Officers". I looked it up and it's nowhere. I don't think it means little green men. What I think it means is not Earth-based. What I saw made me believe that they have some kind of spaceship, off planet."
"Some kind of other Mir that nobody knows about?" I asked.
"I guess so," said McKinnon. "But I was smoking a lot of dope at the time. Not good for the intellect.
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/01/gary-mckinnon-extradition-nightmare)

OK. So should the British Government Extradite this man? I think so. He has been caught for breaking into multiple U.S. Government sites and the kicker is that he has admitted it! He claims to be searching for information on UFO's, but does it really matter? Either way he compromised a government system and he needs to be tried for it and sentenced.

"For the past seven years, in bedsits in Crouch End and Bounds Green, north London, the Pentagon hacker and UFO buff Gary McKinnon has – according to his family and friends – been suffering one long anxiety attack. He's prone to regular fits of fainting and thoughts of suicide. He's written that he can't look himself in his eyes when he's shaving in case the sight of himself sets the spiral off. He jumps out of his skin if someone touches him by surprise. I've met him sporadically during these years and can vouch that he's a chainsmoking, terrified shell.
"I'm walking down the road and I find I can't control my own legs," he has told me. "And I'm sitting up all night thinking about jail. About male rape. An American jail. I'm only a little nerd … My life is like walking through a world you know is probably going to end."

Is this guy fit to stand trial? Most likely not. He seems like he's a bit out there. I think one major issue with this guy is that he didn't/doesn't realize the consequences of his actions. Did he really think that if he hacked into anything, and was caught, that nothing would happen to him? He says, "...And I'm sitting up all night thinking about jail. About male rape. An American jail. I'm only a little nerd …" OK, well yes, shit happens in jail that isn't good, but really, you should have thought about that before you started doing illegal stuff. The news claims that he was one of the first to start messing around on the Internet and that he was testing it's boundaries. If that's the case, he should have stopped hacking after Mitnick was arrested and tried. In the end, I hope that he is extradited and that he stands trial. He deserves to go to jail, even if it is for a short term.