McKinnon loses latest battle against extradition to US

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Gary McKinnon has been told he won't be allowed to appeal to the newly created Supreme Court to avoid extradition to the US to face charges of hacking into Pentagon and Nasa computers.

The admitted hacker suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, and has claimed he wasn't looking to cause trouble, just find evidence of aliens.

This time around, McKinnon was looking to overturn a previous decision by Home Secretary Alan Johnson that the government couldn't step in and prevent his extradition, possibly by trying him in the UK.

It's the latest blow in the four-year case, which has seen McKinnon try every legal angle to avoid extradition. McKinnon has won backing from a wide variety of supporters including MPs, the wives of Sting and the PM, the Daily Mail, and many in the IT sector.

"The IT community has been very supportive of the McKinnon campaign and today’s news will shock many,” said Mark Harris, global director of SophosLabs, in a statement.

“The consensus is that it is perhaps inappropriate to make an example of a UFO conspiracy theorist when serious crimes are still being carried out by financially-motivated hackers, stealing identities, sending spam and creating botnets," he added.

That view was echoed by IT PRO readers, many of whom think the hacker should not go to jail, but be given a job in security.

Click here for more on the McKinnon saga.

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