The Daily Mail and the UK Pentagon Hacker - a bizarre crusade

When you think of Daily Mail crusades, you'll likely imagine them focusing on things like plane spotters, cancer, paedophiles, immigrants and single mums. The trouble with Hate Mail campaigns is the fact they are bereft of principle, consistency or logic. If something crops up that the Mail perceives may cause fright and paranoia amongst its narrow minded WASPish (White, Anglo Saxon Protestant) readership, it's all hands to the pump to give a massive boot up the government's arse.

When it comes to law and order, there's seldom a purveyor of journalism that isn't as brutal and unforgiving as the Mail. I am also extremely hard-line on crime and punishment, though I am suspicious of the Mail's angle on this topic as it is invariably knee jerk and its other, more pernicious agendas have a strange habit of sneaking in (see Mail comment on things like date rape and on cases that involve Johnnie Foreigners).

You can usually rest assured that the Mail is guaranteed to lobby for the harshest outcome for criminals of whatever hue.

So what's with their latest bizarre campaign (front page of online edition today) where the paper wants the government to step in to stop a bloke from being extradited to the States for his alleged crime of hacking into the Pentagon computer systems?

"Betrayal of a naive hacker" screams the front page, "Why are our MPs doing nothing to help Asperger's victim Gary?"

Cheeky cunts, are the Daily Mail. A man (allegedly) commits a crime, but because the Mail has decided he is a 'naive hacker', that's alright then. Our MPs are to spend their time lobbying in favour of the bloke, presumably because he is:

a) British
b) er, that's it.

Do you seriously think the Mail has suddenly grown benevolent bones, and is now a champ for disabled and disadvantaged people? Quite a hilarious notion, given that some Mail hacks take the view that Asperger's, autism and ADHD don't exist or are exaggerated conditions used by left wing social services. The Mail has no time for the disadvantaged of society, so I am a little cynical as to why they suddenly give a shit now.

The piece whines on and on and on about how harmless the bloke is and how unfair it is for the US to want to drag him over to the States for trial.

What is wrong with this newspaper? Do they really stand by the logic that, because the alleged hacker (Gary McKinnon) is supported by those that make excuses for his actions, those excuses should by law be perfectly reasonable and no trial is required? By that logic, most court cases should never transpire, because the defence could simply conjure an excuse for their client's actions and that should be taken at face value. Fuck trials, expensive things anyway eh.

Apparently if found guilty, McKinnon will receive a harsh sentence. Again, is this adequate reason for arguing against extradition and trial? Of course not. If a crime has been detected and if there's enough evidence to link it to a person or persons, then a trial should take place. There's an extradition treaty between the US and the UK, so it's an obvious fucking point that he ought to be extradited to face a fair trial where McKinnon's defence would undoubtedly raise certain points, including his Asperger's, to a jury.

What the fuck are the Mail on about here? And why should our MPs be fighting to make this bloke a one off case where extradition must be fought against?

I'm not at all surprised that the US have a hard-on for this matter. The bloke did the cyber equivalent of breaking into Fort Knox, running about the main hall with a wheelbarrow full of gold whilst doing moonies at the CCTV and running off again. It's pretty serious and it's blatantly obvious that the world's geeky hacker community will be watching to see whether there's much consequence for trying out stuff like that.

But no, McKinnon is Caucasian British you see, and is therefore lovable and part of our rich, eccentric nation's tapestry. His condition is a great sideline to tap into, but really all this is about is prodding the patriotic sentiments of the readers for the purposes of drumming up support and sales for the rag.

Naturally, of course, were it a foreign hacker breaking into British systems, the Mail wouldn't give a fuck what excuses the foreign cunt came up with. They'd want his brown face in a stockade and they'd give their readership a barrow load of rotten aubergines to pelt him with all day long.

The double standards operated by the Mail is incredible. Harsh and unforgiving when it suits its agenda; a lover of human rights, fairness and a British sense of decency when it also suits its agenda.

If no-one can see the weirdness of this story, then the country has sadly entered a rather dim and blinkered phase in its history. It is up to Boaty & D to wake everyone up and show them the way - few else seek to do this.