Saturday, August 1, 2009

President Obama, do us all a favour


Dear President Obama

I am writing to you to ask you to intervene in the case of Gary McKinnon from Glasgow, Scotland who was daft enough to hack into the Pentagon computers in search of evidence of extra-terrestrials.

Mr. McKinnon isn’t a James Bond type spy; he is a guy in his own little world that has Asperser’s syndrome.

Despite this your authorities are determined to put him on trial, saying his actions were "the biggest military hack of all time".

I would suggest that if people are to be put on the carpet then it should be the ones who allowed a wee guy to access your sites and wander about the place looking for ET.

In fact if he is so good at this then I suspect there is scope for giving him a job and letting him see if anyone else is leaving the stable door wide open.

On a serious note however we have a treaty in place and of course the USA is well within its rights to have McKinnon stand trial.

This man despite the uproar he has caused is not a threat to the US and our treaty should not be used to satisfy and cover up people who face embarrassment for not doing their jobs properly.

I am sure the treaty wasn’t written in that spirit.

The US government alleges his conduct was intentional and calculated to affect them by "intimidation and coercion".

In other words one guy with Asperger’s and a keyboard can put an entire country in fear!

As someone with an interest in human rights; I have no problem in seeing the guilty punished but in this case, I cannot see the benefit of punishing a vulnerable man just to prove a point.

Surely you would recognise that there is no justice in that.

I would therefore ask to personally intervene on Gary McKinnon’s behalf and help him.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

1 comment:

  1. The University of Glasgow Involved in Fraud

    A whistleblower was subjected to unlawful discrimination by former bosses at the fourth-oldest


    senior members at the University of Glasgow and the university for discrimination and constructive

    dismissal.


    The former employee refused to disclose details about the case but a senior university member

    confirmed that the whistleblowing was about publishing inaccurate medical data which could

    potentially cause catastrophic damage to patients. He also added that both the General Medical Council

    and General Dental Council were informed about the incident.


    The former employee, kept tape recordings of the comments he claims the ex-bosses made to or about him. In a written statement

    presented to the employment tribunal in Glasgow, he said: “The race discrimination acts were caught on tape recording for example the

    sarcastic jokes about my race, my complain about the race discrimination and the following victimisation/discrimination were all caught

    on tape recording”


    The allegations relate to a 21-month period between 2009 and 2011, when the employee was a clinical research fellow and senior house

    officer at the School of Medicine. Following the allegations, one of his ex-bosses, Professor Colin Murray, left his senior position and fled

    the country.


    Mel Sangster, representing the University of Glasgow, argued the tribunal should not be held because the claims were made months

    after the alleged discrimination occurred.


    Not long ago, the University of St Andrews spent more than £200,000 on legal fees to defend a claim for constructive dismissal by a

    lecturer. He claimed he had been forced out by bullying and intolerable working conditions. But the legal fees were 10 times the amount

    the university might have paid in compensation had it lost the case. “In this case, the reputation of Glasgow University was seriously

    damaged” said the senior member.


    The employee is suing Professor Jeremy Bagg, Professor Colin Murray, Professor Gordon Ramage, Mr David Lappin and others such as

    Professor Anton Muscatelli. Regardless of the tape recordings, the legal fees of the claims are expected to be 10 times the amount the

    University of St Andrews paid.


    The original article from Facebook attached

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