A database of news and information about people with disabilities and disability issues...
Copyright statement: Unless otherwise stated, all posts on this blog continue to be the property of the original author/publication/Web site, which can be found via the link at the beginning of each post.
LONDON - A British computer expert accused by the United States of "the biggest military hack of all time" lost an appeal on August 28 and could be extradited within weeks.
Gary McKinnon, 42, (pictured left) had asked the European Court of Human Rights to block his extradition to the United States, complaining that he could face inhumane prison conditions if convicted there. The court rejected the appeal.
McKinnon could face up to 70 years in prison if convicted in America of illegally accessing computers, including those of the Pentagon, U.S. army, navy and NASA, and causing $700,000 (381,134 pounds) worth of damage.
"The appeal is lost," said Karen Todner, of Kaim Todner solicitors, representing McKinnon. "He is completely distraught, all of them are, his family, his girlfriend."
Todner said her client would now appeal to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to try to persuade her to reconsider an earlier decision and prosecute her client in the United Kingdom.
"Failing that he will be extradited ... probably within the next three weeks," Todner added. She said her client had recently been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome and hoped Smith would take this information into account.
McKinnon lost his appeal in July to Britain's highest court to block extradition to face charges in the United States.
He told Reuters in 2006 he was just a computer nerd who wanted to find out whether aliens really existed and became obsessed with trawling large military networks for proof.
His lawyers have argued that sending him to the United States would breach his human rights because he could be prosecuted on account of his nationality or political opinions.
Beth Haller, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (www.gadim.org). A former print journalist, she is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Center on Disability and Journalism (https://ncdj.org/). Haller is Professor Emerita in the Department of Mass Communication at Towson University in Maryland, USA. Haller is co-editor of the 2020 "Routledge Companion to Disability and Media" (with Gerard Goggin of University of Sydney & Katie Ellis of Curtin University, Australia). She is author of "Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media" (Advocado Press, 2010) and the author/editor of Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller (Advocado Press, 2015). She has been researching disability representation in mass media for 30+ years. She is adjunct faculty in the Disability Studies programs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Texas-Arlington.
From Reuters August 27:
