To halt the extradition of Gary McKinnon, and to leave the government in no doubt as to the public's opposition to this grotesque injustice, we ask everyone to write to their politicians in support of Gary. We need to keep doing this until justice is done, and Gary is free from the threat of extradition.
In the UK, this means write to your own MP, to Jack Straw, David Miliband, Alan Johnson, and to the Prime Minister (10 Downing Street,
London, SW1A 2AA). Every single letter counts. To save you some time, here is a template letter you can use, either in its entirety, or feel free to add to or subtract from it as you see fit, or of course, to compose your own. Even if you have already written, please write again, and keep writing until justice prevails. If you are not a UK voter, please watch this space for 'Letters For Gary Part II'.
Dear
I am writing to you because of serious concerns which I have about the injustice that is being perpetrated on Gary McKinnon.
Whilst undoubtedly wrong in doing what he did, Gary McKinnon was not malicious nor has there been any evidence whatsoever that he caused any damage. What he did and admitted to, was not extraditable and carried a sentence of only six months at the time.
He has been diagnosed by the world’s leading experts in autism as having Aspergers Syndrome, is suicidal and has severe depression. The unbelievable stress of having such an extreme and grossly disproportionate sentence hanging over anyone’s head for such a long time is inhumane. Anyone who is aware of the symptoms of Aspergers Syndrome is aware that sufferers are truthful even to their own detriment; they have a heightened sense of justice and pursue the facts and details of their passion/obsession with a diligence that defies belief. In Mr McKinnon’s case this was UFO’s and what he believed was suppressed free energy technology. He felt this obsession was for a just and worthy cause.
Technically he did not ‘hack’ as there were no passwords or firewalls on thousands of computers on those networks, a fact which shocked him. So much in fact, that he left hundreds of notes informing the various system administrators that their security was nonexistent. In a letter disclosed by the Crown Prosecution Service, evidence supplied by the American authorities as to the alleged damage, was dismissed by the CPS lawyers as ‘hearsay’, ‘inadmissible’ and ‘unable to be adduced’. If, as the Americans prosecutors allege, Mr McKinnon did intentionally cause damage, why then did they allow him to have free unrestricted internet access for over three years after he was arrested in March 2002? Why did they wait until almost three years later before they requested his extradition from the U.K government, despite the fact that Mr McKinnon had not abused the trust placed in him regarding his internet access from March 2002 through until June 2005?
The U.S waited before requesting extradition, for the UK to apply the totally one-sided Extradition Treaty wherein America no longer had to show any evidence to extradite any British citizen. It is clear to any intelligent person that this fact casts doubt on the motives of the US approach. The treaty was applied as law without democratic parliamentary debate and was signed in secret under the ‘Queen’s Prerogative’. This is an arcane legal manoeuvre which was described by the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain and Secretary of State for Justice, Jack Straw, as “having no place in a modern democratic government” . It was three months after this treaty was signed before MPs were permitted to read the text of the treaty which stated that, in order to extradite an American citizen, contestable evidence had to be provided, whereas, in order to extradite a British citizen, no evidence at all needed to be provided and mere suspicion was all that was required.
Baroness Scotland stated:
when we make extradition requests to the United States we shall need to submit sufficient evidence to establish ‘probable cause’. That is a lower test than prima facie but a higher threshold than we ask of the United States, and I make no secret of that. The fact is that under the terms of its constitution the United States of America cannot set its evidential standard any lower than ‘probable cause’.”
Baroness Scotland appears to have no concerns that UK citizens are not treated equally to US citizens, or to others throughout the world, as she stated on 16th Dec 2003
“Complete reciprocity has never been a feature of our extradition arrangements. As your Lordships will know, for many years certain other countries have, for constitutional reasons, been unwilling to extradite their own nationals. The United Kingdom has never had any such reservations. Our extradition relations have reflected that. In other words, we have been in the position where the United Kingdom has been willing to extradite even though in corresponding circumstances the other country would not be prepared to extradite.”
By way of assurance to the worries of US senators with Irish support, the Baroness went on to say
”The treaty is not aimed at speeding up extradition from the US of people suspected of involvement in terrorism connected with Ireland. I hope I was able to satisfy you that the concerns about the treaty raised by certain Irish/American groups are entirely groundless”
This is a gross betrayal of British people and desperately needs to be addressed. When the Supreme Court on 27th January 2010 ruled that laws allowing the freezing of assets of suspected criminals are illegal because they bypassed the democratic parliamentary process, then this too has to be similarly deemed illegal as it too deliberately bypassed the democratic process.
I am writing to you as a fair minded intelligent person with a sense of justice to ask you to urgently do something to address these failures of justice. Something has to be done before it is too late and I believe you have the power and the duty to confront this and to refuse the extradition request for Mr McKinnon.
Yours Sincerely
