WikiLeaks Document Spotlights Hacker Extradition Fight

(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) - One of the classified diplomatic cables leaked on WikiLeaks has reignited the controversy surrounding a British computer hacker and the desire by the U.S. to have him extradited for prosecution.

Gary McKinnon, a Scottish systems administrator, hacked into nearly 100 U.S. military and NASA computers. He was allegedly trying to find secret UFO files until he was nabbed by U.S. officials eight years ago.

AOLNews.com reported McKinnon contends that he was looking for secret files about UFOs, extraterrestrials, anti-gravity technology and evidence of free-energy sources that could presumably be used by everybody on Earth.

According to the BBC , the WikiLeaks document revealed that former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown unsuccessfully tried to convince officials in Washington to allow McKinnon to serve out any prison sentence in England for what one U.S. prosecutor claimed was the "biggest military computer hack of all time."

Brown's face-to-face attempt to strike a deal with the U.S. was spurned by the Obama administration, in what the Guardian dubbed a "humiliating diplomatic rebuff" that the Global Post said could strain the "special relationship."

McKinnon, 44, who suffers from Asperger's syndrome, is accused of illegally gaining access to military files. He has never denied his unauthorized hacking activities between February 2001 and March 2002. After he was caught in 2002, he was charged with hacking into the Army, Navy, Air Force, Defense Department and NASA computers.

McKinnon's computer hacking could ultimately land him behind bars for 60 years.