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Chapter 33 2001: A Conspiratorial Odyssey
Gary McKinnon, a citizen of the U.K., is someone who got himself into a great deal of trouble when, in 2001, he chose to do exactly what Matthew Bevan did years earlier. Namely, to illegally penetrate sensitive computer-based systems of the U.S. Government. Unlike Bevan, though, McKinnon found himself plunged into a nightmare that completely eclipsed the treatment that Bevan got. McKinnon, maybe in an effort to try and protect his identity, chose to hack NASA and various other elements of the U.S. Government not from his own home, but from that of his girlfriend, in Crouch End, London, England. Jon Ronson is a respected journalist and author in the U.K. who took a deep interest in McKinnon’s case and who said: “Basically, what Gary was looking for – and found time and again – were network administrators within high levels of the U.S. Government and military establishments who hadn’t bothered to give themselves passwords. That’s how he got in.”
Even McKinnon himself expressed major surprise about just how easy it was for him to get into certain classified systems. One of the first things that McKinnon found on NASA’s systems was a list of military personnel. Well, perhaps, that’s not so strange, as the military and NASA do work together, and particularly so in relation to spy-satellite technology and operations. But, it was the title of the file that caught McKinnon’s attention. It was titled “Non-Terrestrial Officers.” McKinnon almost immediately came to the not at all improbable theory that this was a reference to what we might call an elite, secret team of military personnel who worked off the planet. Maybe even on the Moon. Possibly, even on Mars. McKinnon was stunned by the discovery. The U.S. Government, when they found out, was also stunned – but in a very different way.
McKinnon was excited by the possibility that he – and he alone – had uncovered snippets of material on what we might call a secret space program. Proud of his achievement, McKinnon was fired up to take things to the next level. That means, yet another hack. McKinnon wasn’t just proud and excited, though. He told a Welsh UFO researcher, Matthew Williams – a good friend of Matthew Bevan, as it happens – that he was angered by the possibility that some arm of the U.S. military was likely using advanced technologies that he, McKinnon, believed should be placed into the public domain for one and all to have access to.
One of the stories that particularly intrigued McKinnon, and which was partially responsible for his actions going ahead, was that of a woman named Donna Hare, a woman who had come out of the shadows and who spoke publicly about her connections to NASA and how NASA staff were ordered to airbrush images of UFOs in photos – to ensure that nothing incriminating ever got to the public and the media.
McKinnon, in an interview with Williams and which I arranged, McKinnon said: “This was my best and worst moment in it all, and I still think back with anger because of the way things went. What [Donna Hare] said was there, was there. I wanted to see the images, and I had to see them. I had to know. But, transferring those files at that size would have taken days, so I had an idea. I would look at it on their screen. I did it by taking graphical control of their desktop and turning the color right down, so that it could transfer to my PC quickly. I saw probably about two-thirds of this picture, and I saw what looked like the Earth’s hemisphere with clouds. But then the structure started to appear and it started to reveal the body of what at first looked like a satellite. Then, as it revealed more, I realized that this thing looked very different and I was onto something. There didn’t appear to be any seams or rivets, and no telemetry, no aerials. Just then, I saw the mouse move on the screen and it went down to the lower part of the screen, and next chose the ‘Disconnect’ command, and that was it: that was me out of NASA. Hats off to NASA: they did close off my method of entry in practically no time at all, in nearly all of their systems. It was a horrible moment, though, because it was ‘eureka,’ and then instantly I got caught.”
McKinnon said to Williams, with regard to his actions: “Just because it was illegal doesn’t make it wrong.” He had done it, McKinnon added, “for the greater good.”
McKinnon then did something that went far beyond just hacking and which was guaranteed to ensure that the U.S. Government would take quick and decisive action against him. He very stupidly hacked into additional government systems, leaving controversial messages claiming that the U.S. Government was behind the tragic and terrible events of September 11, 2001- as a means to further justify the War on Terror. It was no surprise at all that all of these combined activities of McKinnon reached the eyes and the ears of the very people who were in prime positions to ensure he spent a long time in jail. And not just years, but decades. And, they almost succeeded. They were that close to locking McKinnon away for the rest of his life.
It was in early 2002 when U.S. intelligence agents, working alongside colleagues from the U.K.’s Special Branch, Scotland Yard and MI5, were certain they had identified who the hacker was: McKinnon. Since the crimes had been committed within the borders of the U.K., McKinnon was arrested by officers from the U.K. National High-Tech Crime Unit. McKinnon wasn’t in just hot water. He was in scalding water. He was charged with offences that came under the government’s Computer Misuse Act. McKinnon was actually not too concerned, as at the time the maximum amount of time permissible in jail for carrying out such acts was six months. McKinnon considered it likely that he would get off with a suspended sentence. Since the case was a complicated one – with McKinnon hacking from England, but accessing U.S. computer systems, and not even from his own home – it took a while before the case went ahead. But, finally it did.
The U.S. Government, wholly understandably furious, was determined to see McKinnon’s balls nailed to the wall. Forget about that six months of British legislation: the Americans wanted McKinnon sent over to the United States - and to stand trial there, too. And, if found guilty, thrown in the slammer. Also in the United States. It was revealed as the controversy developed that McKinnon had hacked into close to one hundred U.S. Government systems. Those same systems were operated by the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, and NASA. Worse still, the U.S. Government said that McKinnon didn’t just access the computers, but damaged their programs, too. And to the point of some of them being beyond repair. Dark clouds were looming over McKinnon’s head.
