Readers back McKinnon appeal

Nearly three quarters (74 per cent) of vnunet.com readers who voted in our current poll believe that 'Nasa hacker' Gary McKinnon should not be extradited to the US.

McKinnon has vowed to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights, after his appeal against extradition was rejected by the House of Lords.

Of the 383 people who have already voted, the majority (44 per cent) reckon the US authorities should hire him as a security consultant rather than punishing him, while 30 per cent believe he should be tried here in the UK.

Just one in five (21 per cent) respondents say that he deserves whatever the US decide is appropriate. The remaining five per cent believe that he should be extradited and tried in the US, but that there should be conditions about his punishment.

Although McKinnon has not been charged in the UK, he has admitted to hacking into several US government agencies.

The main concern of commenter's seems to be that the US authorities will not give McKinnon a fair trial and instead seek to make an example of him.

"Gary is the victim of dented pride for showing how insecure the US computer systems are," wrote one reader using the username 'Leigh'.

"If he can hack into them what price any other hostile government can also. The US should be pleased that flaws in their systems have been shown up and employ hackers to break into other systems to show their security, which can then be improved."

The thoughts were echoed by 'A Lincoln', who said: "I don't think that the US should be using Gary as a scapegoat to cover their own inadequacies and slack attitude to security."

"The probable reality is that they will extradite Gary, take him to a classified location (Guantanamo Bay) and interview (torture) him for a while until he confesses to everything they want him to."

However, not everyone is sympathetic to McKinnon's case.

One reader dubbed simply 'Me' challenged McKinnon to go and face a trial in the US.

"If there's nothing to worry about why not come to the US where you will face a trial?" he asked.

"Own up and man up to what you did, as the saying goes 'don't do the crime if you can't do the time'. You are apparently not that bright if you didn't consider that while you were 'hacking' those systems," he wrote.

The poll is still running for those readers who wish to make their opinion known and comments on any of our stories are always welcome.