by David Griffin – Exopolitics
UK 
Posted: 23:30 July
31, 2008
It was with a dose of dark irony that some of us watched the British news headlines on the 30th July, the same morning as London based Gary McKinnon had his Law Lords appeal rejected with regard his extradition to the USA. The ironic twist came from the fact that the primary headline besides Gary’s plight was the fact that many energy companies were expected to raise UK fuel bills by an astonishing 70% - this despite the likes of BP forecasting their highest ever quarterly profit up 56% to £4.3bn [$8.6bn].
Anyone who has followed the case of Gary since his arrest by the Hi Tech Crimes Unit in March 2002 may be aware that one of the main factors which catalysed his actions was the fact that:
“In Britain the elderly are dying each Winter as they are
being made to choose between heating and eating.”McKinnon sincerely believed that if new energy systems that could help change this situation were being closeted by the military industrial complex, we had a right to know. Having had a long-term interest in the UFO issue since childhood as well as having seen the 2001 Disclosure Project in action – Gary knew the inextricable link between the numerous types of over-unity, anti-gravity or quantum flux and the advanced vehicles operated by visiting intelligences and probably terrestrial above-government factions. Thus began a novel search for real information.
Gary laughs at the idea he is an efficient hacker. Using basic, self-taught PC and network skills he proceeded to access several of the main military networks, including NASA, and took a look around. He admits he should face a court for his exploits and this was meant to be a short jail term or community order to be done in the UK – however, for various reasons his “crime” has been hijacked by US authorities and he faces a long, harsh jail term on US soil. Some officials have claimed they want to “see him fry” when he gets extradited. Given McKinnon can be viewed as a truth seeking activist on UFO and exopolitical issues, could the wider community have done more to highlight his cause and even prevent the amplified term he is now facing?
McKinnon not only found the odd gem of significant exopolitical data, he also found that the US’s military and intelligence electronic networks were, to understate it, vastly insecure. Using a bought piece of software [which eventually helped him to be traced and caught] called Remotely Anywhere, McKinnon was able to browse servers and individual networked PCs as if the main administrator. Passwords on the various networks were often left blank or to default and even caught in the act a couple of times the intruder managed to blag his way out of trouble as a ‘sys admin doing security checks’. Many people believe that the over-zealous targeting of Gary by the US authorities is down to the humiliation those in charge of network security and their superiors must have felt. In fact Gary has been pursued when he claimed that numerous foreign IP addresses were regularly doing the same as he – a significant amount from China. So it’s likely the Pentagon saw that some early retirements were taken and personnel moved round to pretend that this was a momentary flaw but the reality is that for years prior to McKinnon - there had been a hacker free-for-all on transnational military/intel networks. It’s unfortunate that a UK citizen with [whatever your moral views on his activities] humanitarian intent should now be facing a 60 year jail term when possibly more threatening actors are still free behind their respective computer screens.
Gary had seen the testimony of former NASA employee Donna Hare as part of the Disclosure Project whistleblowers. She had mentioned a specific building where air-brushing of satellite images took place before their release to the wider public. After much searching – McKinnon claims to have found examples of this practice – including folders marked ‘touched’ and ‘untouched’. One image especially showed a huge, vivid object over the earth prior to photoshop cleansing but he claims the filesize prevented him downloading this to his home PC in London as this was still the era of 56K dial-up connections. Even more interesting although equally unprovable are a couple of other items he located. It’s worth remembering that McKinnon spent numerous hours online trawling these networks and finding mostly regular material – it was his obsessive nature on the embargoed UFO issue that pushed him onwards. By the time of his arrest, Gary had found two items that have been endlessly debated in the field ever since. First was a list of ‘non-terrestrial officers’ and second was a spreadsheet detailing ‘fleet-to-fleet transfers’.
Given that some researchers claim a separate, black-project secret space program exists with much of the usual NASA actions being more of a public front, it seems very possible to me that a covert space program, perhaps with historical and current support from ET groups, is operating and of course requires a crew. Maybe instead ‘non terrestrial officers’ means a group not from this planet but operating from here? The reality could of course be more basic – someone suggested this means ‘satellite repair staff’?! Just as interesting is the spreadsheet on fleet-to-fleet transfers. When we think of fleets we usually think “ships” yet Gary claims to have checked the names he saw of the vessels against records of all sea-going [ie: naval] ships and found not one match. It’s likely that a fleet could then refer once more to a non-disclosed NASA/Pentagon fleet as part of the previously mention covert space program.
Again the debate has on occasion tended to play down what the findings could mean but I would view the possibilities within an open framework where considerations are made for the fact that firstly we know black projects are decades ahead of what’s publicly known and seen and secondly we have evidence of ET visitation and human/ET liaison. Thus we need to employ a wider, parallel approach to research than previously. UFOlogical or exopolitical elements are best viewed as a mosaic instead of the usual, linear conceptual format. Given this and adding the peripheral data about secret space programs and ET liaisons and agreements it becomes equally possible that these two findings of McKinnon are what we’ve suggested, just as much as they may have more down to earth explanations.
More recently, Gary’s findings I believe have been backed up by UK based astro-video expert John Lenard Walson. On the Exopolitics UK site I commented on the point that if half of what JLW has located in high earth orbit is real hardware, then we could well have lists of active space officers and transport records of off-planet craft.
So with this week’s ruling, Gary is a step closer to being dispatched abroad to face what has been suggested as a Guantanamo style closed military tribunal which could result in up to 60 years in jail: yes it’s that big. Given McKinnon refutes the charge about causing thousands of dollars worth of network ‘damage’ and he was following what he saw as a just course of action [with maybe a little harmless mischief thrown in] – can this be justified? It seems some behind-the-scenes discussion led to the closing ranks of the Law Lords considering the appeal which isn't surprising given current UK-USA relations over the amplified 'terror' status. It's still a sad indictment on the UK however - we have been previously known for our liberal support of what some consider modern human rights. The published outcome was less of a shock though when we learn that the leading author was Intelligence Services Commissioner - not a role that has a 'retirement' period perhaps?
There’s still the European Human Rights Court to pursue but as pointed out in recent online discussion, Gary's case is difficult to frame within the aims and operation such systems. This is again ironic because when we step back, McKinnon’s case is all about human rights – we just have a conceptual lag so much of the public and civil/legal systems fail to see it this way. We've seen how the US intelligence services and traditional media have linked Gary's actions to that of "cyber hacker" and "terrorist" - both these misleading terms are sufficient on their own to reduce those willing to offer support but add on the UFO and alternative energy tags and such a case becomes still further isolated. Not only have the usual left-wing and libertarian groups failed to align themselves with Gary's plight but most of the UFO and Exopolitics field have offered limited support also.
Both the Freegary.org.uk support site and Exopolitics.org.uk have attempted to publicise the McKinnon case as it progressed. This took the form in the last couple of years of writing to certain MPs, visiting one sitting MP, mentioning it at conferences and events and distributing leaflets and media online and offline. More recently we distributed template letters people could send in to the Uk Parliament, MPs and finally the Law Lords direct office at the Houses of Parliament. However I still have this nagging feeling the wider community could have done more but we seemed to just accept the limited narrative which bounced between authorities, traditional media and the public consensus without much intervention. What we essentially have summarised in the McKinnon case is a real-world example of what happens when someone attempts something tangible in the search for disclosure and truth with regards the UFO phenomenon and new energy systems. Let’s have optimistic ideas of how to push things forward to a new world and new paradigm but remember this cannot happen and will not happen without human causalities along the way - it's the nature of the beast we're collectively tackling.
It's sad that when someone needed a full-on response from a [not insignificant] UFO/Exopolitics community it didn’t materialise. Seeing this take place has made me doubtful that this field has the ability to deal with some of the harsher incidents that will occur as we continue to push for a more open, ethical system with regards energy and off-planet communication. It's all very well asking us to smile and embrace the coming disclosure but this will be a tainted new world, post-disclosure, if we don't support those that fall along the wayside through no real fault of their own.
To be fair we should point out that some support was offered from various areas. In response to the points made above Alfred Webre from Exopolitics.com pointed out the complexities of the situation:
“We attempted to communicate with the Solicitors, with Gary and with his family and were not successful in getting an approval to go forward with an activist Exopolitical community and media campaign, which we were prepared to carry out.”“I personally felt this was a strategic error on behalf of Gary's legal team, and still do, especially given the remarks of Gary's solicitor on the BBC TV today to the effect that the UK had not prosecuted Gary because they wanted to give full berth to the USA to do so. That makes this a political case, and I do not understand the logic of Gary's solicitors in not wanting us to raise the UFO political issue widely and loudly.”
Alfred Webre rightly indicates that agreement from the family and legal team was not received in any formal manner in fact when we learned the extradition was going ahead Alfred even offered his experience as an international and human rights skilled judge. The difficulty they had on Gary’s side was deciding on whether to risk raising the political issues further by aligning the case with core disclosure themes. The last thing any of us want is for Gary to become a kind of ‘poster boy’ for UFO and disclosure issues - it may have brought further problems to sway the final outcome. On a personal level I fully believe that if it had been up to Gary himself he would have welcomed a more formal layer of support from this community. He certainly wasn't afraid to comment on the 9/11 issue in an interview done only a few days before the hearing.
A couple of points come to mind. One is that the case has been going on since 2001/2. We knew several years back that an extradition was being sought or at least that the US military were going to ensure he was made an example of in a disproportionate manner. Very little was organised or highlighted by this community in that time. We were all happy to endlessly debate and discuss the 2 or 3 significant gems of disclosure type information he found but less interested when it came to ensuring a researcher did not suffer for seeking such information.
Secondly, given the complexities raised by offering close political support from this field, it was feasible [and still is] to think of other ways to help out. I realise it's a huge task as it essentially meant taking on a vast and well-resourced network of legal, political and military but in other areas where someone has taken a stand for truth this has happened to varying extents so something could have been created from our side of things. Given that most people who consider themselves as role-players in the exopolitics/free-energy/UFO area should be painfully aware of how difficult the topic is to approach with the wider population outside - we should also realise that extra effort is required when someone from within our community, with altruistic intention, tries to act and gets caught out. With the Disclosure Project we saw significant numbers of civilian and military personnel essentially break laws when they ignored their security oaths and discussed what they felt needed to be public. Why is McKinnon so different when he essentially sought information for the public good also yet he faces loss of liberty and the DP witnesses have had no ramifications from their actions?
Whatever your views morally on what McKinnon did - the fact is a truth seeker who wanted to gain nothing for himself is now facing a huge jail term as a scapegoat. Punish him for minor computer infringements but don't buy the hype on the rest of it to the point where it becomes something we fail to act upon. My fear is that we have other, similar casualties in coming years that may break laws and get caught - I just hope we have a shift in priorities and get systems in place to stop them being sacrificed for the rest of us. I'm not criticising any individuals or even groups of individuals over this - it's more the overall approach of the community as a whole that I believe needs to change somewhat to cater for such incidents. Maybe if he is forced to a trial in the US our trans-Atlantic friends can consider creating a basic support system for Gary over there – its one scary big country to us little islanders!
So we can see in the McKinnon situation a microcosm of the current state of play of the [exo]political elements of UFOlogy: an individual decides to seek answers to core issues by locating embargoed information on new energy and UFOs in closed government systems. When he is stopped [as are so many in a variety of ways] and the situation comes to public attention we are confronted with the fact that wider society is still not ready to have key areas to do with new energy systems, black budgets, sequestered technologies and intelligent ET visitation raised as part of the defence of a truth-seeking researcher. Things are however shifting fast with regards public perception and interest so at the current rate of change if Gary’s case had occurred in 2012 not 2002 things may have been profoundly different. This just tells us to keep pushing these issues into wider consciousness so maybe one day individuals won’t see the need to illegally access information networks for information it is our collective birth-rite to know.
McKinnon's interest in aliens was started by an internet-based group of UFO enthusiasts called The Disclosure Project. The group had collected more than 200 testimonies - some from people who have served in the US military - that 'confirm' that extra-terrestrials exist. Not only that but, according to McKinnon, some of the testimonies offered proof that 'certain parts of Western intelligence had acquired and reverse-engineered their technology, mainly weaponry and free energy'.
McKinnon was caught before he could find any confidential information on 'free energy', but he saw enough to believe the US authorities are suppressing what they know about aliens. He says he came across a document written by a Nasa official who claimed the agency has to airbrush UFOs out of satellite photos because 'there are so many of them'.
Resources:
BBC video on appeal result: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn_QFTx8muM and BBC interview with Gary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4PkNPCEnJM
BBC radio play on Gary’s exploits: http://tiny.pl/2jm6
For updates on the Gary McKinnon case check Freegary and Exopolitics UK.
A selection of articles and media can be found here and at the Black Vault Wiki.
Gary’s case and community support will be discussed on the next episode of Exopolitics Radio
