Liberty (advocacy group) a victory for Gary McKinnon, after a decade-long ordeal, as the Home Secretary, Theresa May, announced that she was refusing to allow Gary's extradition to the US on the basis that doing so would breach his Human Rights. Gary McKinnon was charged in 2002 of hacking into US military and NASA systems, but maintains that he was looking for UFOs and evidence of free energy suppression. Gary, who has Asperger Syndrome, could have spent up to 70 years in a US jail if convicted and it was argued by his lawyers in an appeal to the European Court of Human
News International phone hacking scandal to nothing" and excuses his papers' actions as "part of the culture of Fleet Street". By 2002, an organised trade in confidential personal information had developed in Britain and was widely used by the British newspaper industry. Illegal means of gaining information used included hacking the private voicemail accounts on mobile phones, hacking into computers, making false statements to officials, entrapment, blackmail, burglaries, theft of mobile phones and making payments to public officials. Private investigators who were illegally providing information to the "News of the World" were also engaged in a variety of other illegal activities. Between 1999 and 2003,