gary mckinnon: dear barack

With last ditch attempts in Parliament to save Gary McKinnon sickeningly foiled by the government, a last last ditch attempt is being made to appeal for mercy by contacting Barack Obama directly. A letter is being written by the National Autistic Society, a leading charity, and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Autism, a cross-party alliance of MPs and peers that lobbies for better support for sufferers.

Barack Obama has listened to schmoo advice in the past, hopefully he will now. Might as well try, just sent this to the main man:

Dear Barack, the Gary McKinnon case could be a lot more important to American interests than you may have been advised which is why I am contacting you direct. I know you are busy but this is important. Here is why, and it is all about the interests of the United States.

The guy is sick, it's true, he is honest, straight as a die, but the letter from the Autistic Society goes into all that. You may not realise how bad this is playing for US interests here in London. It just does not look good dragging off a sick guy for hacking, when most of the time the sites he accessed did not even have passwords, that's how slack their security was. This is not like those banker guys, they stole money right? Gary is not a criminal like them. If you drag him off it is going to play super bad. Every one is going to hate America that much more than they did already, which is often a fair bit, even with Bush gone. It will be an open sore for as long as you keep him. This could set you back, for what? To make an example? Why not catch some real hacker criminals? Then you would get most people's support, not most of a country up in arms. You do realise you will be personally blamed if the extradition goes ahead? You got a lot of personal support here right now, why blow even a bit on this?

If you listen to my advice and support Gary staying in the UK to face trial according to UK law, you will be glowing with Brit Love a bit like Nelson Mandela does. Mercy and forgiveness is political gold dust used right, you know that.

Hey! We are losing a hero a day in Afghanistan, plus many more serious casualties, and support is still strong, but it is not easy. You need to help keep that support if you can, and what does this cost you? I know you can't do everything and have to conserve your political capital and all that, but to save Gary you don't have to spend a cent; everyone will be winners except for a few lawyers. Any remaining doubts about you being one special dude will evaporate. This is an emotional thing, just press the buttons on your Blackberry for Gary, and all the glow goes your way. Yes You Can. I'll bet approval ratings of you and the United States in general go up 10% and continue upwards the moment you act. That has to be in the interests of the United States. Ok, it's your call, the buck stops with you, stay cool, schmoo in london x