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In a move that will not be a massive surprise to many, middle England's favourite tabloid hate-peddler the Daily Mail has decided to back Nasa hacker Gary McKinnon's bid to avoid extradition to the US.
In a front page lead yesterday, the holier-than-thou Mail dispensed with its usual immigrant-bashing and Princess Di fascination, instead focussing all of its not insignificant vitriol on the American administration and the "craven politicians" of the UK who have allowed this "affront to British justice".
McKinnon, as we all know, hacked into pentagon and Nasa computer systems with surprising ease, back in 2001, allegedly looking for evidence of little green men. And ever since his arrest, the US authorities have been after him. The arguments against McKinnon's extradition are well-versed and focus mainly around his suffering from Asperger's Syndrome, a type of autism, which would render him wholly incapable of coping with prison life. Another argument in the "no way USA" camp is that the authorities there are planning to use his case as an example to others, and so if tried there any sentence handed out could be harsher than the crime deserves.
So far the McKinnon case has garnered much publicity and he has even won public backing from influential figures such as London mayor Boris Johnson. Whether the Daily Mail will succeed where the others have so far failed remains to be seen.
04 Jul 2009
