Gary McKinnon

The United States should hire hacker Gary McKinnon to prevent future WikiLeaks revelations rather than putting him behind bars, a former member of the British parliament told her peers yesterday.

McKinnon, who has been dubbed “the biggest military computer hack of all time,” has spent the past six years facing the threat of extradition to the United States after he hacked into military computers in search of evidence of extraterrestrial lifeforms and zero-point energy.

“Do you agree that in the light of the damage caused to the American government by WikiLeaks that rather than trying to imprison an autistic savant, the Pentagon would do well to employ Gary McKinnon to sort out the weaknesses in their computer system?” asked Angela Browning, a British Conservative Party politician.

Browning posed the question to Home Office official Pauline Neville-Jones, who earlier told peers a judicial review of a decision by the previous home secretary to uphold an order for McKinnon’s extradition “stands adjourned,” BCC reported.

“The home secretary is reviewing the case against the sole legal test which is whether – given Mr. McKinnon’s medical condition – extradition would breach his human rights,” she told peers.

The home office minister said McKinnon had been asked whether he would consent to a psychiatric assessment. As reported by Wired and other media outlets, McKinnon was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome at age 42.

According to BBC, one of the WikiLeaks revelations suggested former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown had unsuccessfully proposed a deal in August 2009 that would have allowed McKinnon to serve any prison sentence in Britain.

Photo: White House

British Prime Minister David Cameron has raised the issue of Pentagon hacker Gary McKinnon’s extradition case with President Barack Obama, according to The Guardian. Cameron and his deputy PM, Nick Clegg, have each criticized the extradition attempts of McKinnon, arguing that he should instead appear in a British court.

McKinnon stands accused of hacking Department of Defense systems and could face up to 60 years in prison. McKinnon, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, has been trying to fight off extradition to the United States for 6 years.

“Clearly there is a discussion going on between the British and the Americans about this, but I don’t want to prejudice those discussions,” Cameron said at a joint press conference. “We completely understand that Gary McKinnon stands accused of a very important and significant crime in terms of hacking into vital databases, and nobody denies that is an important crime that has to be considered. I have had conversations with the US ambassador as well as raising it with the president, and I hope a way through can be found.”

President Obama stayed relatively aloof of the situation, saying historically, presidents avoid getting directly involved in such processes.

“One of the traditions we have is that the President doesn’t get involved in decisions around prosecutions, extradition matters,” Obam said. “I trust that this will get resolved in a way that underscores the seriousness of the issue, but also underscores the fact that we work together, we can find an appropriate solution.”

McKinnon claims his motivation for hacking the DoD system was his search for UFOs. Many McKinnon supporters see the public pronouncement by Cameron, the first since he became PM, as a step forward in keeping McKinnon in the United Kingdom.

“We’re very pleased that David Cameron has raised this and had a face-to-face discussion about Gary,” McKinnon’s lawyer said. “Obama has used the term an appropriate solution and the appropriate solution is that he stands trial in the UK.”