Gary McKinnon

Gary McKinnon is the 43 year old man waiting to find out if he is to be extradited to the US on charges of hacking into military computers in the USA. On Friday, the next chapter in the story will open, or close, as we find out the results of a judicial review into his extradition to the US to face trial.
Mr McKinnon admits hacking into 97 US government computers, including those of Nasa and the Pentagon, during 2001 and 2002.
The judicial review focuses on whether Mr McKinnon should have been allowed to face trial in the UK and whether the decision to extradite him should have been reconsidered in light of a diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome last year.
If found guilty, McKinnon could be facing a 70 year prison sentence.
It is said that his autism spectrum disorder will lead to him suffering acutely if removed from his own country, friends and family. Further, McKinnon and his supporters say he is not a malicious cyber criminal and that his hacking is a symptom of his neuro untypical behaviour and obsessions. One US prosecutor accused him of committing "the biggest military computer hack of all time" and it is felt that the US government is likely to be hard on him in order to deter others.
Mr McKinnon recently told BBC 5 Live's Victoria Derbyshire that he was on a "moral crusade" to prove US intelligence had found an alien craft run on clean fuel.
A user called Knellerman posted the folllowing on Victoria's blog during the show:

How Asperger's works. My son has it. One day at end of school he pulled out a fence post and ran across the field. The head saw this and called it vandalism.
I asked him what he thought he was doing. He said he had spotted some dog poo and wanted to move it so younger children would not fall into it.
The head's heart melted. Welcome to Asperger's: Right motive, wrong action.
Gary was looking for UFOs, not hacking into military secrets. My son's behaviour was impulsive but that impulsive behavior can become obbsessive, as in Gary's case. What do I know? I was diagnosed with AS at the age of 50.

Video: BBC's Huw Edwards interviews Gary McKinnon - 30 July 2008
Interview with Gary who explains his motives. He talks to the BBC's Spencer Kelly about and antigravity and other technologies that are being hidden from us and which he was hoping to uncover. Also discussed is the lack of security in the US department of defence and details of his hacking exploits across two years