McKinnon is the hacker who broke into the US military and NASA
computer systems in 2001 and 2002, where he claims he saw evidence
of alien life. McKinnon broke into the systems using just a dial up
connection and default passwords.
"I should get my appeal pretty soon, I should think it will be
this month or next month," McKinnon said, noting that the person in
front of him in the pipeline for extradition cases has just lost
his appeal.
Should McKinnon lose his appeal the only thing that could stop
him being deported would be the granting of permission to appeal to
the House of Lords. He says that the case of the last people to
request that, the NatWest Three, does not fill him with
confidence.
"If I don't win the appeal then I can apply for leave to appeal
to the House of Lords but that is not an automatic right," he said.
"The NatWest Three applied for leave to appeal to the House of
Lords and were refused and everyone was gobsmacked because they are
hardly petty criminals, it was a big important case."
McKinnon has admitted the offences of which he is accused and
says he would happily stand trial in the UK, the country in which
he says the crimes were committed. He objects, though, to what he
sees as the politically-motivated attempts to extradite him, and
the UK Government's compliance with the US process.
While he was told he would face community service for the crimes
in the UK because he did not appear to have caused damage, the US
is claiming that he caused thousands of dollars' worth of damage.
The prosecutor there has said that he could face 70 years in jail
and McKinnon's lawyers have even said that he could end up at
prison camp Guantanemo Bay.
McKinnon has always maintained that his breaking into the
computer systems was not only benign, given that he was searching
for alien life and not military secrets, but also that it was
easy.
His opinion of US government security has not changed. "Every
year they appraise federal and military installation security and
every year it gets worse and worse," he said. "It's not the leading
concern, profit is the motive and continuing operation is the
motive. Safety and security always come last because they are the
highest cost outlay."
