[governance] US disappointed by 'laughable' decision on Gary McKinnon

[Riaz K Tayob]

[Torture is just sooo funneeeeee]


  US disappointed by 'laughable' decision on Gary McKinnon


      State Department officials will study ruling and could ask
      Interpol to issue red notice

Nikhil Kumar <http://www.independent.co.uk/biography/nikhil-kumar> 
Author Biography

New York

Wednesday 17 October 2012


The American government expressed its disappointment last night after 
the Home Secretary halted Gary McKinnon's extradition to the US.

The State Department said it was examining the ruling by Theresa May 
yesterday to block the extradition of the 46-year-old computer hacker 
with Asperger's syndrome and severe depression as it would be 
"incompatible with human rights". Victoria Nuland, a spokeswoman for the 
department, said the US "was disappointed by the decision" to deny Mr 
McKinnon's transfer across the Atlantic to face what she called "long 
overdue justice in the United States".

For 10 years, American prosecutors have been seeking to bring Mr 
McKinnon to the US to face trial for hacking into military computers. It 
is claimed that Mr McKinnon damaged scores of machines as a result. He 
denies any malicious intent, saying instead that he was looking for 
files related to UFOs.

Earlier this year, the Prime Minister David Cameron raised the case with 
Barack Obama. On a visit to Washington, Mr Cameron acknowledged that Mr 
McKinnon was accused of a "very important and significant crime" but 
that he was hoping that "a way through can be found".

The US Department of Justice said that it was also disappointed at the 
Home Secretary's decision, "particularly given the past decisions of the 
UK courts and prior Home Secretaries that he should face trial in the 
United States". It did not, however, view the ruling as a precedent for 
other cases.

"The Home Secretary has described this case as exceptional and, thus, 
this decision does not set a precedent for future cases," said Rebekah 
Carmichael, a spokeswoman for the department. "The Home Secretary has 
acknowledged that Mr. McKinnon is accused of serious crimes". She added 
that, despite this ruling, the US-UK extradition relationship "remains 
strong, as is demonstrated by the extradition of five alleged 
terrorists" to the US earlier in October. "Our extradition treaty serves 
the interests of both our nations," said Ms Carmichael.

Douglas McNabb, a Washington-based expert on US federal law, said that 
US authorities may yet decide to pursue Mr McKinnon via Interpol, the 
international policing body. "Now that the Home Secretary has made this 
decision that, of course, bars the US from seeking his extradition, I 
think the next step is that they may well ask Interpol to issue a red 
notice... so that if Mr McKinnon were to travel outside the UK, the red 
notice would pop up and he would be arrested," he said. This, he 
explained, would open the door to the possibility of renewed extradition 
proceedings in the country of his arrest.

Another US lawyer, David Rivkin, who worked for the Reagan and Bush 
administrations, criticised Ms May's decision, saying that to deny the 
extradition on health grounds was "laughable". "Under that logic, 
anybody who claims some kind of physical or mental problem can commit 
crimes with impunity and get away with it," he told the BBC.

The US said the extradition relationship remained strong, as shown by 
the Hamza case

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