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Gary McKinnon celebrity support
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of BBC News
Posted: August 9th, 2009
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8181100.stm
British computer hacker Gary McKinnon's fight against extradition to the US has drawn support from a large and diverse range of influential people. How did his case become such a cause celebre? Mr McKinnon has become Britain's best-known conspiracy theorist. Mr McKinnon does not deny he hacked into Pentagon systems, but claims he was searching for evidence of a UFO cover-up. The American authorities see it differently. The 43-year-old is a wanted man in the US, where he has been accused of "the biggest military computer hack of all time". For the past five years he has been fighting an extradition request from the American authorities which want to try him on US soil. If convicted there he faces up to 60 years in prison. Along the way he has amassed a legion of supporters, as diverse in their make up as they are distinguished in their own fields of achievement. They include novelist Nick Hornby, film critic Barry Norman, Emma Noble, the ex-glamour model and former daughter-in-law of John Major, Sting, his film producer wife Trudie Styler and actress Julie Christie. Politicians of all hues have also leapt on Mr McKinnon's case. And pop stars Chrissie Hynde and Sir Bob Geldof have teamed up with Gilmour to record a song of support. In the past six weeks his cause has been further bolstered by a high-profile campaign in the Daily Mail newspaper.
Note: For more on Gary McKinnon's fascinating reasons for hacking into US military computer systems, click here and here.
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