July 30, 2008

Liberal traditions

"I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions."

Object oriented justice

A few moments' glance at this interview shows Gary McKinnon as a likeable nut, but he's about to be smashed by a sledgehammer wielded by thugs:
This London hacker will now be extradited to the US to be prosecuted for hacking into NASA/Pentagon systems. He faces 70 years in jail. The details of damage claimed in the extradition seem blatantly trumped up and the critical impetus seems to be embarrassment at the criminal incompetence of the US in safeguarding its own systems. (The UK is no better as numerous instances show of briefcases of secrets left in trains ). The atmospherics are that the US-UK extradition treaty is resented in the UK given that Congress failed for years to ratify it apparently to shield IRA terrorists in the US whose murders used to be seen as political acts and given the indifference to justice which is rampant in high profile US persecutions.

McKinnon committed this "biggest military computer hack of all time" using a dial-up modem and blank passwords.
...he did admit that he hacked into dozens of US government computer systems. In fact, he calmly detailed just how easy it was to access extremely sensitive information in those systems.
"I found out that the US military use Windows," said Mr McKinnon in that BBC interview. "And having realised this, I assumed it would probably be an easy hack if they hadn't secured it properly."
Using commercially available software, Mr McKinnon probed dozens of US military and government networks. He found many machines without adequate password or firewall protection. So, he simply hacked into them.
The recent shenanigans of US prosecutors in rebus Conrad Black, Lt.Col. Chessani, Hank Greenberg and many other cases have brought US justice into disrepute among Yankophiles like me. The rot of course starts at the top with the grotesque social engineering agenda of the US Supreme Court.