First Published Friday, 2 January 2009

First Published Friday, 2 January 2009

First Published Friday, 2 January 2009

First Published Saturday, 3 January 2009

By JEREMY OLSHAN

John Travolta’s 16-year-old son died today while the family was vacationing in the Bahamas, authorities said.

The circumstances of the boy’s death are unclear, although sources told the Post that his body was found unconscious in a bathtub at the Old Bahama Bay Resort Hotel in Grand Bahama.

Jett was pronounced dead on arrival at Rand Memorial Hospital, officials said.

According to Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston, Jett had long suffered from Kawasaki disease – a rare condition said to be caused by chemical contaminants — but many had criticized the couple for refusing to acknowledge that the boy was autistic because of his belief in Scientology.

In 2007, one of Travolta’s Florida neighbors, whose son is autistic, said he was shocked that the movie star could let his belief stand in the way of helping the boy.

“They see it as a weakness. That’s what the space aliens are telling him I guess,” Tim Kenny told Hollywoodinterrupted.com after approaching Travolta as “one autistic father to another.”

“Scientology is keeping him from acknowledging his son’s autism. They see it as a weakness,” he said.

In Scientology mental illness is viewed as a weakness, that can be treated through hard work rather than through medicine.

Source:   http://www.nypost.com/seven/01022009/news/nationalnews/john_travoltas_son_found_dead_146914.htm

John Travolta’s Son Dies In Bahamas

NASSAU (Reuters) – The teenage son of actor John Travolta died suddenly on Friday during a family vacation in the Bahamas, according to police and the family’s lawyer.

Jett Travolta, 16, suffered a seizure at his family’s vacation home at the Old Bahama Bay resort on Grand Bahama Island, attorney Michael Ossi said.

The teen apparently hit his head and a caretaker found him unconscious in the bathroom on Friday morning. He was taken by ambulance to Rand Memorial Hospital in Freeport, where he was pronounced dead, according to a statement from the Royal Bahamas Police Department.

Jett, who had a history of seizures, was the eldest child of Travolta and his wife, actress Kelly Preston. They also have an 8-year-old daughter, Ella.

An autopsy was pending, police said.

The family, who have homes in California and Florida, arrived in the Bahamas on Tuesday by private plane, police said.

(Reporting by John Marquis; editing by Jane Sutton)

Source:   http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE50145920090102

‘My agony at losing my beloved boy’: ‘Heartbroken’ John Travolta breaks silence over death of teenage son

By Paul Thompson
Last updated at 6:58 PM on 04th January 2009

John Travolta has spoken for the first time of his desperate struggle to save his son’s life.

In a statement on his website, John Travolta said he and his wife Kelly Preston were ‘heartbroken’ by their sudden loss.

‘Jett was the most wonderful son that two parents could ever ask for and lit up the lives of everyone he encountered,’ the star said in a statement posted on www.travolta.com.

John Travolta and Kelly Preston’s teenage son Jett, 16, died in the Bahamas

‘We are heartbroken that our time with him was so brief. We will cherish the time that we had with him for the rest of our lives.’

The statement did not refer to Jett’s medical history or possible cause of death. But it offered thanks from the Hollywood star, his wife and their eight-year-old-daughter, Ella, for ‘many messages of condolence from around the world.’

As many of his Hollywood friends called to offer their support, the actor described the frantic efforts to revive his 16 year-old son Jett.

More…

• Scientologist Travolta to face questions over son’s history of illness following his tragic death
• John Travolta ‘frantically tried to revive teenage son after hearing nanny’s screams’

The Grease star sat down with family lawyer Michael McDermott to talk about  the tragedy and make funeral arrangements.

‘I did everything I could to keep Jett alive,’ Travolta told McDermott.

John Travolta’s house in the Bahamas where Jett died

‘There was a slight pulse so we did all we could. I tried the kiss of life for about 20 minutes.I wouldn’t give up.

‘The paramedics took over from me when they arrived, and they continued. Jeff (nanny Jeff Kathrein) gave Jett CPR while I tried to resuscitate him.’

Despite Travolta’s frantic efforts, his son, who had a history of seizures, was pronounced dead after being rushed to hospital in Freeport, Bahamas.

Two pathologists will on Monday carry out a post mortem to determine the exact  cause of death.

‘I’ve got to be strong for Kelly and Ella,’ Travolta told McDermott, referring to his actress wife Kelly Preston and eight year-old  daughter Ella.

‘We have to  try and pick ourselves up and continue with our lives.’

Jett is rumoured to have suffered autism

The actor is expected to issue a formal statement later Monday.

McDermott said Travolta, 54, and wife Kelly, 46, have been comforted by the messages of sympathy from his friends, family and  fans.

Chat show queen Oprah Winfrey was due to arrive in the Bahamas on Sunday to comfort the couple. McDermott said other A-list stars were also planning to fly to the Bahamas to comfort Travolta.

Tom Cruise, a close friend and fellow Scientologist, has spoken at length to Travolta.

Will Smith has also called the resort in the Bahamas where Travolta and his family had travelled to see in the New Year.

Oprah Winfrey, pictured during her 50th birthday celebrations, is flying to see Travolta (centre)

Actress Kirstie Alley, who starred with Travolta in “Look Who’s Talking” is flying to the Travolta family home in Ocala, Florida, to wait for  his return.

‘John has had dozens of calls from all the people he has  worked with in  Hollywood,’ said McDermott.

‘He and Kelly are very grateful for all the messages of support. It has been a  great source of strength to them as they try to cope with  what has happened.

‘They really have appreciated all the messages, and they know  lots of people are hurting. This has been the worst time of their lives, but  they know life continues and they will pull themselves together.’

McDermott, speaking with the authorisation of Travolta, also released new details about the events leading up to Jett’s death.

Kirsty Alley, pictured with Travolta and Kelly Preston, is flying to the family home in Florida to await the actor’s return

The teenager had been with his family on a boat trip and returned to his room with his nanny Jeff Kathrein.

‘Jett was tired and wanted to go to bed early,’ said  McDermott. ‘It was about  6pm when he got back to his room which is on the ground  floor of the house  where John was staying.

‘He was accompanied by his nanny who stayed watching TV while Jett was in his  room.’

Travolta and Preston in happier times, pictured at an Oscar party last year

McDermott said Jett’s other nanny, a man called Eli, later returned to the  room and slept in an adjacent room. He was just a few feet  away.

Jett’s room was fitted with a baby monitor and chimes on the  bathroom door.

The family have said Jett, who suffered from a condition known as Kawasaki disease, had a history of seizures.

One theory is that Jett suffered a seizure while using the bathroom. Another  is that he slipped and banged his head and then suffered a  fatal seizure.

‘There have been reports that Jett was alone for hours and  they are just wrong and distressing for the family,’ said  McDermott.

‘As soon as Jett was discovered Jeff tried to revive him. The duty manager of  the hotel was alerted and ran 150 yards to help. She knew about  CPR and said  there were signs of a pulse.

‘John and Kelly were asleep in the room, but the other nanny  fetched them. John took over trying to resuscitate his son.

‘The ambulance took about 15 to 20 minutes to get to the  hotel, and all that  time John said he never once gave up trying to save his  son.’

After returning from Rand Memorial Hospital where his son had  been taken he  broke the news of Jett’s death to their eight year old daughter  Ella.

‘Kelly is still very quiet and withdrawn, but she is coping,’  said McDermott.  ‘You only have to look at them both to see the pain, it is etched into their  faces. They have not had a lot of sleep.

‘It is hard to know what to say to a couple who have just lost  their son.’

Jett’s funeral is expected to take place later this week in Ocala where Travolta has a home built around its own runway.

An avid pilot, who named one of his planes after his children, he can park two jets just yards from his home in the Jumbolair  estate.

Source:   http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1105129/My-agony-losing-beloved-boy-Heartbroken-John-Travolta-breaks-silence-death-teenage-son.html?ITO=1490

Condolences for Travolta Family – John Travolta, Kelly Preston & Sister Ella

No parent such as John Travolta and Kelly Preston should have to outlive their child, Jett. Even more tragic is for their son, Jett Travolta to die so young. There is a bit of confusion around the web searching for information as people wishing to extend their condolences to the Travolta Family have been keying Jeff Travolta rather than Jett Travolta. Our hearts go out to John Travolta, Kelly Preston & Sister Ella at this time as we extend our deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences.

Image Source: Reuters Pictures on Daylife.com

Jett Travolta Remembered

Photos for Jett Travolta From Daylife.com

John Travolta on Jett Travolta

Kelly Preston & John Travolta Release Statement of Thanks for Condolences

We would like to extend our deepest and most heartfelt thanks to everyone who has sent their love and condolences. Jett was the most wonderful son that two parents could ever ask for and lit up the lives of everyone he encountered.

We are heartbroken that our time with him was so brief. We will cherish the time we had with him for the rest of our lives.

We have received many messages of condolence from around the world and we want to thank everyone for their prayers and support. It has meant so much to us. It is a beautiful reminder of the inherent goodness in the human spirit that gives us a hope for a brighter future.

With love, John, Kelly, Ella

Source: travolta.com

Celebrities Supporting Travolta Family

Including Famous Scientologists

According to aspie-editorial.blog-city.com, Travolta’s attorney reports Travolta and his wife Kelly have been comforted by messages of sympathy from friends, family and fans.

Several stars including Oprah Winfrey are scheduled to fly to the Bahamas to comfort Travolta. Kirsty Alley has apparently flown to Ocala to be there for when Kelly and John return to Florida. Other stars who have reached out and contacted Travolta include Will Smith, fellow Scientologist Tom Cruise.

Qantas airlines also extended their condolences. Travolta, an aviation fanatic is also a spokesperson for Qantas.

Sources:
“Condolences for Travolta Family”, aspie-editorial.blog-city.com
“Qantas pass condolences to John Travolta, Kelly Preston for Jett”, The Daily Telegraph

What is Kawasaki Syndrome? Jett Travolta

Kawasaki disease, also known as lymph node syndrome, mucocutaneous node disease, infantile polyarteritis and Kawasaki syndrome, is a poorly understood self-limited vasculitis that affects many organs, including the skin and mucous membranes, lymph nodes, blood vessel walls, and the heart. It was first described in 1967 by Dr. Tomisaku Kawasaki in Japan.

read the rest of the Wikipedia article

Jett Travolta Kawasaki Syndrome & Scientology

Information Provided by Associated Content

Kawasaki Disease in Spotlight After Jett Travolta Death

The death of John Travolta’s son puts a new light on Kawasaki Disease, which Jett Travolta was diagnosed with. Speculation is over how much the disease contributed to his death- and even on whether he was autistic instead.

Jett Travolta: Did Scientology Kill Him?

The Church of Scientology denies mental illness exists, including autism. Did Jett Travolta have autism and, because of religious beliefs, was denied treatment?

Scientology Beliefs, Autism and Jett Travolta

Was John Travolta’s Son the Victim of Church Prescribed Medical Neglect?

Jett Travolta & Kawasaki Syndrome

Jett Travolta, Kawasaki Disease: Separating Fact From Fiction

The recent tragic death of Jett Travolta has raised awareness of Kawasaki Disease, a disease with which he was diagnosed in early childhood. Kawasaki disease is a rare form of vasculitis which usually strikes children under the age of …

Jett Travolta and Kawasaki Syndrome – On Parenting (usnews.com)

Knowing signs of the mysterious ailment can reduce heart risk.

Kawasaki Disease: No Link to Travolta Death

Jett Travolta’s childhood brush with Kawasaki disease is highly unlikely to have caused the seizures that apparently led to his death, a Kawasaki expert tells WebMD.

Kawasaki Syndrome Jett Travolta

Jett Travolta, John Travolta’s son, reportedly suffered from Kawasaki Syndrome. But what is Kawasaki Syndrome? The disease of Kawasaki Syndrome is given a complete write …

Source:   http://www.squidoo.com/jett-travolta

Jett Travolta died of ‘seizure’: Bahamas officials

Jan 6 12:19 AM US/Eastern

Officials in the Bahamas who conducted an autopsy on Jett Travolta said the 16-year-old son of actor John Travolta died here last week of a “seizure,” and that his body showed no signs of head trauma.

…Jett Travolta had a history of seizures since he was a toddler, and a lawyer for his father said he may have suffered a lethal one on Friday.

Citing the assistant director of a funeral home that carried out the autopsy, TMZ.com said Jett Travolta’s death certificate listed “seizure” as the cause of death.

To Continue Reading …

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=090106041843.wk8v3bcc&show_article=1

15. Kay King left…

My heart is broken for this loving family. How sad and how helpless they must all feel. My prayers are with them. There are no words for times like these. Hold on to your family & friends any minute can be the last. I feel as if I am mouring a friend myself. Such dear people and so much loss. I hope the press will leave them in peace.

First Published Tuesday, 6 January 2009

First Published Wednesday, 7 January 2009

Professor Simon Baron-Cohen
Director, Autism Research Centre, Cambridge University

The prospect of a prenatal test for autism, allowing couples to choose whether to have a baby with the condition, is coming closer. And with it also comes the possibility of a prenatal drug treatment being developed.

But in this week’s Scrubbing Up, leading autism expert Professor Simon Baron-Cohen warns caution is needed to ensure associated talents, like numerical abilities, are not lost if the test or a “cure” become available.

Males, maths and autism. On the face of it, these three things don’t appear to be linked. And yet they are.

Males are much more likely to apply to university to study maths, for example.

An ability to understand numbers could be in DNA

In 2007, three quarters of applicants to read maths at Cambridge were male, as were 90% of applicants for the computer sciences degree.

Research is not yet at the stage where autism can be detected prenatally Read your comments

Cambridge is not unique in this way. So why are males so attracted to studying maths?

And why, in over 100 years of the existence of the Fields Medal, maths’ Nobel Prize, have none of the winners have ever been a woman?

Similarly, people with autism are much more likely to be male. Among those with classic autism, which includes a developmental delay in language and a risk of learning difficulties, males outnumber females by four to one.

And among those with Asperger Syndrome, males outnumber females by nine to one.

People with the condition talk at a normal age and have at least an average IQ, but share the social and communication difficulties of those with classic autism, as well as the narrow – even obsessive – interests and love of repetition.

‘Male brains’

It seems as you move to the extremes of mathematical excellence, autism becomes more common.

The search to understand why led scientists to genetics. Fathers and grandfathers of children with autism are more likely to work in the field of engineering, a field that needs good attention to detail and a good understanding of systems, just like mathematics.

Siblings of mathematicians also have a higher risk of autism, suggesting the link between maths and autism is genetically mediated. And parents of children with autism show male-typical brain function in tests.

But genetics may not be the only explanation.

Research published this year showed a link between higher levels of the male hormone testosterone in the amniotic fluid surrounding a foetus and autistic traits when the child was eight.

And animal studies have shown foetal testosterone levels influence brain development, masculinising it.

‘Wise to think ahead’

Research is not yet at the stage where autism can be detected prenatally using a biological test, but this may not be far off.

Such a test will need to prove itself clinically in terms of whether it is highly specific (in detecting just autism).

But assuming such a test is developed, we would be wise to think ahead as to how such a test would be used.

If it was used to ‘prevent’ autism, with doctors advising mothers to consider termination of the pregnancy if their baby tested ‘positive’, what else would be lost in reducing the number of children born with autism?

Would we also reduce the number of future great mathematicians, for example?

Or if this test led to some kind of prenatal treatment, such as the use of drugs to block the effect of testosterone which is already medically possible, would this be desirable?

If reducing the testosterone in a foetus helped that baby’s future social development, we would all be delighted.

But what if such a treatment reduced that baby’s future ability to attend to details, and to understand systematic information like maths?

Caution is needed before scientists embrace prenatal testing so that we do not inadvertently repeat the history of eugenics or inadvertently ‘cure’ not just autism but the associated talents that are not in need of treatment.

Source:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7736196.stm

Further Articles

• They just can’t help it, Simon Baron-Cohen, The Guardian (17 April 2003)
• The Male Condition, Simon Baron-Cohen, The New York Times Op-Ed Section, (8 August 2005)
• The Assortative Mating Theory: A Talk with Simon Baron-Cohen, Edge Foundation discussion, 2005
• EQSQ.com: How Does Your Mind Work – Brain-function psychological tests developed by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Sally Wheelwright, and their team.
• GanInfo.org: Simon Baron-Cohen Discusses Autism – Austim Presentation in Irvine California, USA
• Journal Social Neuroscience

First Published Thursday, 8 January 2009

Paul Dirac – a pioneer of quantum mechanics – displayed some of the classic signs of autism. Photograph: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives

A prenatal test for autism would deprive the world of future geniuses

As a new book speculates that ‘Britain’s Einstein’ was autistic, an autism expert warns that a prenatal test for the condition would prevent brilliant scientists like Paul Dirac from ever being born.

A new book on the greatest British physicist since Newton speculates that both his profound mathematical abilites and his extreme social awkwardness stemmed from undiagnosed autism.

The claims – from a biography of Paul Dirac by Graham Farmelo, The Strangest Man – tie in with an article on the BBC website from leading autism researcher Prof Simon Baron-Cohen. Baron-Cohen says we need a public debate about the prenatal diagnosis of autism. Although such a test is not yet available, it soon could be.

Baron-Cohen points out that the use of embryo selection during IVF to reject babies with autism genes might have the effect of preventing some individuals with brilliant mathematical abilities from being born.

More on Baron-Cohen’s argument later, but first, Farmelo’s book presents a highly detailed picture of a brilliant but profoundly odd man with an extremely troubled relationship with his parents. Given Dirac’s contribution to science, Farmelo argues that he is shockingly under-appreciated and largely unknown in the UK, particularly in his home town of Bristol.

Dirac was one of the pioneers of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics. For example, in 1930 he predicted that the electron has an equivalent anti-particle, the positron – a notion that was greeted with scepticism and derision by some physicists at the time but was proved correct in experiments two years later.

He is the youngest theoretical physicist ever to win a Nobel Prize, and a year earlier in 1932 he was made Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge. At 29 he was a few months older than Sir Isaac Newton when he took up the same position in 1669. Its current holder is Prof Stephen Hawking.

The physicist Freeman Dyson summed up Dirac’s effortless brilliance thus:

His great discoveries were like exquisitely carved marble statues falling out of the sky one after another. He seemed to be able to conjure laws of nature from pure thought.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Dirac was also an extemely unconventional person (Farmelo’s title is a quotation from Dirac’s contemporary Niels Bohr). Even Einstein found him peculiar. “I have trouble with Dirac,” he wrote to a friend. “This balancing on the dizzying path between genius and madness is awful.”

Dirac was prone to very long silences and was famous for his apparently emotionless responses to events. He also often took a very literal interpretation of statements by other people. All are characteristics of autism.

When Farmelo spoke to Baron-Cohen about the condition he said he was struck by two things. First, that autistic men often have foreign wives, “perhaps because the women were more tolerant of unusual behaviour in foreign men than in men from their own culture.” Dirac was married to a Hungarian woman for 50 years.

Baron-Cohen also said that autistic people are often extremely loyal. “When they believe that a friend has suffered an injustice, they are often so indignant that they will disrupt or abandon their almost invariable daily routines to rectify it,” wrote Farmelo. Dirac demonstrated great loyalty to his friends the physicists Pyotr Kapitsa and Werner Heisenberg. There are also signs that Paul’s father Charles was autistic and there was a history of depression and suicide in the Dirac family.

Whatever the difficulties in diagnosing autism in a man who died in 1984, Baron-Cohen’s argument is that preventing cases of the condition by screening the genes for autism out of the population could stop brilliant individuals such as Dirac ever being born.

Research is not yet at the stage where autism can be detected prenatally using a biological test, but this may not be far off … If it was used to ‘prevent’ autism, with doctors advising mothers to consider termination of the pregnancy if their baby tested ‘positive’, what else would be lost in reducing the number of children born with autism?

Would we also reduce the number of future great mathematicians, for example? Or if this test led to some kind of prenatal treatment, such as the use of drugs to block the effect of testosterone which is already medically possible, would this be desirable?

Caution is needed before scientists embrace prenatal testing so that we do not inadvertently repeat the history of eugenics or inadvertently ‘cure’ not just autism but the associated talents that are not in need of treatment.

If a prenatal test for autism becomes available, should medical science be used to ‘cure’ the condition?

Source:   http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2009/jan/07/autism-test-genius-dirac

The Strangest Man: Graham Farmelo

Published  – 22.01.2009

Synopsis:

The first full biography of Paul Dirac, the greatest British physicist since Newton – and one of the strangest geniuses of the twentieth century, who may have suffered from autism.

Paul Dirac was a pioneer of quantum mechanics and was regarded as an equal by Albert Einstein. He predicted, purely from what he saw in his equations, the existence of antimatter. The youngest person ever to win the Nobel Prize for Physics, he was also pathologically reticent, strangely literal-minded and almost completely unable to communicate or empathise. His silences were legendary and when he spoke, he betrayed no emotion. Through his greatest period of productivity, his postcards home contained only remarks about the weather. He is said to have cried only once, when his friend Einstein died.

Based on a previously undiscovered archive of family papers in Florida, Graham Farmelo celebrates Dirac’s massive scientific achievement while drawing a compassionate portrait of his life and the people around him. Dirac had a traumatic relationship with his family: his brother committed suicide, and he hated his father to the end of his life. His political allegiances were radical. His best friend was the Russian physicist Peter Kapitza, and even at the height of the purges Dirac holidayed in the Soviet Union.

Yet Farmelo also reveals a man who, while seemingly lacking in emotion, could manage to love and father a family. He catches Dirac’s absolute belief in the beauty of mathematics with warmth and sympathy. And Farmelo shows that Dirac’s eccentricities may well have stemmed from undiagnosed autism.

The Strangest Man is a moving human story, and a study of one of the most exciting times in scientific history.

Source:   http://www.faber.co.uk/work/strangest-man/9780571222780/

Paul Dirac – Photos and Anecdotes About the Physicist:
http://www.dirac.ch/PaulDirac.html

Paul Dirac – Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Dirac

Paul Dirac: Biography from Answers.com:
http://www.answers.com/topic/paul-dirac

The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius: Graham Farmelo
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Strangest-Man-Hidden-Quantum-Genius/dp/product-description/0571222781
http://www.amazon.com/Strangest-Man-Hidden-Quantum-Genius/dp/0571222781/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231424942&sr=1-2

First Published Friday, 9 January 2009

Clinical Review

Blood pressure self monitoring: questions and answers from a national conference

¹ Primary Care Clinical Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston Birmingham B15 2TT, ² Department of Primary Health Care, University of Oxford, Headington, Oxford OX3 7LF, ³ Screening and Test Evaluation Program, School of Public Health, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia , ⁴ General Practice and Primary Care Research Unit, Institute of Public Health, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 0SR, ⁵ Department of Medical Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH4 2XU, ⁶ Faculty of Health, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ

Blood pressure home monitoring

Being told you have high blood pressure can feel like a big deal – you’ll probably have to take pills for the rest of your life and go to your GP regularly to check your blood pressure’s under control.

There’s not much you can do about the first bombshell, except remind yourself high blood pressure isn’t so much a disease as a risk factor for other diseases, such as heart disease and stroke.

Why are many doctors still sniffy about patients measuring their own blood pressure at home?

But you might decide you’re going to wrestle back some control by checking your blood pressure yourself at home, using an automatic blood pressure monitor.

They’re easy to get hold of, reasonably priced (from about £40-£150), and you don’t need to be a brain surgeon (or even a heart surgeon) to use one. No wonder sales of these devices are booming.

So why are many doctors still sniffy about patients measuring their own blood pressure at home? Is home monitoring a good idea or not?

Taking control or worrying yourself sick?

There are several reasons why your GP might be sceptical about self-monitoring.

It could be a hangover from earlier times when it meant doctors training patients in the complicated art and science of using a manual blood pressure device. Modern devices pose much less of a challenge.

Even automatic machines are open to bias: it’s easy to round figures down or simply ignore unusually high results. In my experience, this can apply equally to doctors, and some modern machines memorise readings so you can’t fiddle the records.

More simply, doctors worry that patients will worry. They worry some people will develop an obsessional and unhealthy interest in every peak and trough of their blood pressure. I’ve certainly seen people panicked unnecessarily by a one-off high reading.

But perhaps the main reason is that most automated blood pressure monitors on sale to the public haven’t been properly validated, or have been shown to be inaccurate. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, which issues guidance for doctors, says using home-monitoring devices as part of primary care needs more research.

Golden rules of self-monitoring

Other doctors may have a different view, but if a patient of mine wanted to buy one of these devices this is what I hope they would do.

First, discuss it with me. We can talk about how to use the machine properly, how often and when to take readings, and how to interpret them. For example, the threshold for high blood pressure is generally lower using home monitors (more than 135/85 is high) than in the clinic (more than 140/90 is high).

Without getting too obsessive, when it comes to long-term monitoring I’ve found the European Society of Hypertension advice works well – take two morning and evening readings each day for one week every three months. Alternatively, you could take readings on one day every week.

Second, before my patient handed over their hard-earned cash, I’d strongly advise them to check up-to-date information on which devices have been properly validated.

Just because a monitor is on sale – and even if it has a ‘CE’ mark (indicating it meets European standards) – it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s accurate or reliable.

Luckily, this job is done for you by the British Hypertension Society.

Third, choose an upper arm monitor as these have been shown to be the most reliable, but always make sure you have the right sized cuff to fit your arm – too small or too large and the reading can be inaccurate.

In general, wrist and finger devices aren’t recommended because they’re easily influenced by changes in circulation, and the measuring cuff is not always at the level of your heart, which it should be.

Benefits of self-monitoring

Despite some doctors’ reservations, the tide seems to be turning.

Self-monitoring can be useful in detecting white coat hypertension. This is a phenomenon affecting up to one in five adults, in which blood pressure measurements taken at your doctor’s or in a clinic are high even though your blood pressure’s normal the rest of the time.

The European Society of Hypertension and the US Joint National Committee reckon self-monitoring might work well in these cases because several readings, taken in your normal environment, can be averaged over time.

The latest guidance from the British Hypertension Society also says self-monitoring could encourage people to take their blood pressure medication.

Last but not least

Finally, if you buy a self-monitoring device get it properly checked and recalibrated every year or so. Check with the manufacturer if they’ll do this for you and how much it’ll cost. One manufacturer I asked quoted around £30 and recommends a check every two years.

With a bit of dialogue, you and your GP can both feel managing your blood pressure effectively is a team effort.

First Published Friday, 9 January 2009

People who behaved badly at school are more likely to suffer mental health and social difficulties as adults, a 40-year-study of Britons suggests.

Canadian researchers writing in the British Medical Journal examined data from 3,500 people from the age of 13 until they reached their 40s or 50s.

Those who had school behaviour problems were more likely to be depressed, divorced or have financial problems.

But a psychologist questioned whether the same would apply in other eras.

I’d like to think that things are much different today, and that today’s children would not have these problems later in life Linda Blair Clinical psychologist

In the late 1950s and the start of the 1960s, teachers across Britain were asked to rate the behaviour of a nationally representative sample of children, all of them born in 1946, as they entered their early teenage years.

A quarter of the children were described by the teachers as having some sort of mild or more severe behavioural problem.

The participants were then reinterviewed between the ages of 36 and 53, asked about their mental health, and social and economic status.

Those who had been described as having behavioural problems by their teachers decades earlier were more likely to have left school with no qualifications, and to suffer a number of problems in adulthood.

These included depression and anxiety, failed relationships, teenage pregnancy, and financial difficulties.

Even when the results were adjusted to take account of other factors, such as sex, the social class of parents, depression in adolescence and IQ, the link to behaviour held true.

Discipline change

The researchers, from the University of Alberta, wrote: “Given the long-term costs to society, and the distressing impact on the adolescents themselves, our results might have considerable implications for public health policy.”

However, Linda Blair, a clinical psychologist who works with families, said that she believed that in general the children born in the 1940s faced a completely different school and home environment to those born today.

Harsh criticisms and discipline for bad behaviour would have contributed to a “vicious cycle” of low self-confidence and poor achievement, she said.

She said: “You can’t imagine anyone back then asking a child how they felt about something.

“I’d like to think that things are much different today, and that today’s children would not have these problems later in life.

“The key thing is how you respond to behavioural problems in schools – hopefully we now handle them in a way that will increase self-esteem, not reduce it.”

Source:   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7818636.stm

Outcomes of conduct problems in adolescence: 40 year follow-up of national cohort — Colman et al. 338: a2981 — BMJhttp://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/338/jan08_2/a2981

First Published Monday, 12 January 2009

Gary McKinnon, the hacker accused of breaking into the Pentagon and Nasa, could be tried in Britain Photo: PA

Nasa hacker Gary McKinnon could be tried in Britain

Gary McKinnon, the British hacker accused of breaking into the Pentagon and Nasa computer systems, could be tried in Britain to prevent his extradition to the US.

By Matthew Moore
Last Updated: 11:55AM GMT 12 Jan 2009

Lawyers for Mr McKinnon, 42, have told the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) that he will plead guilty to a charge under the Misuse of Computers Act, according to reports.

A prosecution in Britain would likely scupper attempts by the US government to extradite the unemployed systems analyst, who has Asperger’s syndrome.

Mr McKinnon admits he gained access to 97 US Navy, Army, Nasa and Pentagon computers from the bedroom of his girlfriend’s aunt’s house, but he says he was motivated by curiosity and only got in because of lax security.

The US government says he stole passwords and deleted files. He faces up to 70 years in prison if found guilty in America.

Mr McKinnon has been involved in a long-running legal battle to prevent his extradition, but in August 2008 the European Court of Human Rights rejected his application to appeal a House of Lords ruling that he must go to the US.

Karen Todner, Mr McKinnon’s solicitor, has now written to the Director of Public Prosecutions to acknowledge her client’s guilt and make clear his willingness to face justice in Britain where the offence was committed, The Guardian reported. The CPS is said to be considering the matter.

Mr McKinnon has won support from the National Autistic Society and more than 80 MPs in his battle to stay in the UK.

Source:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/4220292/Nasa-hacker-Gary-McKinnon-could-be-tried-in-Britain.html

Previous Updates

http://aspie-editorial.blog-city.com/ongoing_updates_gary_mckinnon_extradition_judicial_review_.htm

From Times Online

January 12, 2009

Gary McKinnon signs confession to avoid hacking extradition

(Dave Bebber/The Times)

Gary McKinnon denies that he damaged any computers while searching for evidence of alien encounters

Nico Hines

A UFO enthusiast who hacked into US military computers looking for evidence that aliens have visited Earth today signed a written confession in a last-ditch bid to avoid extradition.

Gary McKinnon, 42, from north London, faces a sentence of up to 80 years in prison if he is found guilty in an American court of hacking into and damaging 97 US Navy, Army, Nasa and Pentagon computers.

Mr McKinnon, who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, has failed in numerous appeals against the extradition. His lawyer hopes that by handing a signed confession to the Crown Prosecution Service he could be tried in the UK.

Karen Todner, his lawyer, said he still denies causing damage to the computer equipment, which cost $800,000 (£532,500) according to the US authorities. He signed a statement offering to plead guilty under UK law to hacking into the computers in breach of the Misuse of Computers Act.

Related Links

• Hacker in final plea to stop extradition

• ‘Biggest ever hacker’ loses US extradition appeal

• Briton faces US court for hacking charges

Ms Todner said she was awaiting a response from the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, but added she was hopeful prosecutors would accept the deal.

“They are different offences to what he was being extradited for, but it reflects his culpability for what he did,” she said.

A Crown Prosecution Service spokeswoman confirmed they had received the letter and were considering it.

The US military claims Mr McKinnon, from Wood Green, left 300 computers at a US Navy weapons station unusable immediately after the September 11 terror attacks in 2001.

He is accused of hacking into 53 US Army computers and 26 US Navy computers, including those at US Naval Weapons Station Earle in New Jersey, which is responsible for replenishing munitions and supplies for the Atlantic fleet.

He is also accused of hacking into 16 Nasa computers, one US Department of Defence computer and one machine belonging to the US Air Force.

He was caught in 2002 as he tried to download a grainy black and white photograph which he believed was an alien spacecraft from a Nasa computer housed in the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas.

He was easily traced by the authorities because he used a personal e-mail address.

If the case is heard in the US it is thought that he would receive a relatively light sentence and that, under a plea bargain offer, he would spend six to 12 months in a US jail before being returned to Britain to serve the rest of his time.

McKinnon says he was looking for UFO files and his supporters have said this was an obsession that went too far.

He has previously said: “What I did was illegal and wrong and I accept I should be punished. But I am not a member of al-Qaeda. I believe my case is being treated so seriously because they’re scared of what I’ve seen. I’m living in a surreal, nutter’s film.”

An application for permission for a judicial review of the proposed extradition is expected to be heard at the High Court in London on January 20.

Source:  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article5503814.ece

Gary McKinnon’s mum tries to stop his extradition

Author:

Ian Grant

Posted:

14:28 12 Jan 2009

Self-confessed hacker Gary McKinnon‘s mother has written to the Director of Public Prosecutions in a renewed effort to stop his extradition to the US and have him tried in the UK.

Karen Todner, McKinnon’s lawyer, has also asked the Crown Prosecution Service to try her client in the UK. Todner believes an admission of guilt signed by McKinnon and sent to the DPP entitles him to a British trial under the Computer Misuse Act.

>> Read the full letter: Gary McKinnon’s mother’s appeal to the DPP

McKinnon is wanted by the US to face charges that he hacked into Nasa and US defence computers and caused damage worth thousands of dollars. McKinnion admits the hacking, but denies causing damage.

Mckinnon’s mother, Janis Sharp told Keir Starmer that she wanted her son to receive equal treatment to that received by Aaron Caffrey, a 19-year-old whom the Americans wanted extradited for a denial of service attack on one of the US’s business harbours, Houston, on 20 September 2001.

“I am not asking for Gary to be excused I am merely asking that he can be tried in the UK on all of the charges already brought by the Americans and if need be, punished here,” Sharp wrote to Starmer.

“I am not requesting this merely for compassionate reasons but am asking on the basis of the right for my son Gary to receive equal treatment to Aaron Caffrey,” she said.

Demonstration outside Home Office to halt the extradition of Gary McKinnon

According to Sharp, the same CPS official dealt with both Caffrey’s and McKinnon’s cases. She said this person led Gary and his solicitor to understand at the time that he had been instructed from “the very top” to basically stand aside for America to prosecute Gary. “What we did not know at the time was that simultaneously the CPS was deciding to approve the prosecution of Aaron Caffrey in Southwark Crown Court,” she said.

Caffrey, who admitted he was a member of a white hat hacking group, admitted the attack came from his computer, but said it was due to a Trojan that ran without his knowledge. A forensic examination of Caffrey’s computer showed no evidence of the Trojan. Caffrey was tried in the UK and acquitted because the jury was not convinced he had hacked the port’s computers.

Sharp said the Home Secretary (Jack Straw) had previously turned down extradition requests for former Chilean dictator leader Augusto Pinochet, and alleged IRA terrorist Roisin McAliskey on health grounds. He had also tried to negotiate the release of Michael Shields from Bulgaria, who had been convicted for attempted murderer.

“(Jack Straw) should feel it only fair to allow a gentle person like Gary to be tried in the UK as Gary has no criminal record and has never hurt anyone and his crime was merely his obsessive behaviour caused by Asperger Syndrome,” Sharp said.

Source:   http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/01/12/234178/gary-mckinnons-mum-tries-to-stop-his-extradition.htm

NAS -  Media  Statement – Gary McKinnon

14 January 2008

Statement on NAS involvement in the case of Gary McKinnon, a man with Asperger syndrome who is appealing against extradition to the United States, where he will face charges of hacking into US government computer systems.

The National Autistic Society’s chief executive Mark Lever said: “We are calling for urgent action to prevent this extradition and allow Gary McKinnon to stand trial in the UK. We believe that the extradition, and a possible maximum security prison sentence, would be inappropriate and very damaging for anyone affected by Asperger syndrome.”

Mr. McKinnon has applied for Judicial Review of the Secretary of State’s decision to order his extradition to the USA. The hearing will take place in the High Court on 20th January 2009. The NAS has already written to the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith urging her to take Mr. McKinnon’s Asperger syndrome into account and we are now providing a written statement to the court expressing our concern that his diagnosis be taken into consideration in his application for judicial review.

The evidence we plan to submit explains the nature of Asperger syndrome and the fact that diagnosis in adults is often late, as in Mr. McKinnon’s case. In addition, we have included information explaining that people with Asperger syndrome may be particularly vulnerable because of their difficulties with social awareness and communication, and may be susceptible to additional mental health problems as a result of their disability.

As Mr. McKinnon was only diagnosed in August 2008, his Asperger syndrome was not taken into account in earlier legal proceedings dating back to his arrest in March 2002. The NAS strongly believes this new information needs to be taken into consideration before any decision is made about his extradition.

Asperger syndrome is a form of autism – a serious, lifelong and disabling condition which effects how a person communicates with, and relates to, other people. Without the right support it can have a profound effect on individuals and families. As autism is a spectrum condition, no two people are affected in the same way.

Take action for Gary McKinnon by following this link.

Source:   http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=2074&a=18512

From Times Online

January 15, 2009

CPS considers last attempt at halting Gary McKinnon extradition

(Andy Rain/EPA)

Gary McKinnon has not denied he hacked into Pentagon computers

Lucy Bannerman

The head of the Crown Prosecution Service is considering a request to try Gary McKinnon in the UK, delivering one last, legal lifeline to the Briton accused of the biggest hacking operation in American military history.

With just five days left until a final decision is made on his controversial extradition to the US, Keir Starmer QC will examine whether Mr McKinnon should instead be prosecuted on a lesser charge in the British courts.

Pressure is mounting to halt the extradition of Mr McKinnon, who has not denied hacking into a high-security network of American Navy, Army, Nasa and Pentagon computers.

Mr McKinnon, 42, from Wood Green, north London, insists he was looking for evidence of UFOs when he broke into the sensitive military networks in 2001 and 2002.

Related Links

• ‘My son was just looking for ET’

• Hacker signs confession to avoid extradition

• Asperger’s syndrome fits in well with computing

He says his behaviour was the result of Asperger’s Syndrome, which was only diagnosed in August last year.

If extradited, he faces up to 70 years in a high-security prison.

Today, Simon Baron-Cohen, a professor at the University of Cambridge and one of the leading experts in Asperger’s Syndrome, said Mr McKinnon was a vulnerable adult, who was acting through “social naivete” rather than criminal intent.

Mr Baron-Cohen told a press conference: “There are questions about whether he should be imprisoned at all because someone with Asperger’s Syndrome will find it very difficult to tolerate a prison environment.

“If, as I believe, the crime was committed through naivety and through an obsession – in this case with computers and trying to find information – without any intent to deceive, without any attempt to hide what he was doing, we should be thinking about this as the activity of somebody with a disability rather than a criminal activity.”

Professor Baron-Cohen also said Mr McKinnon’s behaviour was typical of people with Asperger’s Syndrome.

“It can bring a sort of tunnel vision so that in their pursuit of the truth they are blind to the potential social consequences for them or for other people,” he said.

The Crown Prosecution Service today confirmed it is considering a request from McKinnon’s lawyers in which they have said their client would plead guilty to an offence under the Misuse of Computers Act.

His lawyers have asked to adjourn the judicial review, due to take place at the High Court on Monday, pending Mr Starmer’s decision, which is expected to be made within four weeks.

Mr McKinnon’s solicitor, Karen Todner, said: “If this fails, it will be likely that Gary will be on a plane within days with no guarantee he will ever return. This is the end of the road.”

Mr McKinnon, a former hairdresser and systems analyst, who is now unemployed, told The Times: “I can only think as far ahead as the next legal step. I don’t want to think about the rest.

“I am very controlled, which is probably not a good thing, but inside the fires of hell are burning. It’s not a good place to be.

“I’m on beta-blockers at the moment and I’m extremely stressed.”

He conceded that after losing every appeal, he was now running out of options.

James Welsh, of the civil rights group, Liberty, said the computer hacker had been the victim of an “unfair imbalance” in Britain’s extradition agreement with the US, which does not require the US government to provide any evidence of alleged crimes.

He urged politicians to “remedy this obvious and glaring defect” in the legislation.

The US military alleges that Mr McKinnon caused $800,000 worth (£532,500) of damage and shut down 300 computers at a US Navy weapons station, in the wake of the September 11 2001 terror attacks.

He is also accused of hacking into 16 Nasa computers, one US Department of Defence computer and one machine belonging to the US Air Force.

Mr McKinnon, who was operating from a bedroom in north London, was caught in 2002 as he allegedly tried to download a grainy black and white photograph which he believed was an alien spacecraft from a Nasa computer housed in the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas.

He was easily traced by the authorities because he used his own email address.

Source:   http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5526034.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1

Computer hacker in plea for Bush pardon

Published Date: 16 January 2009

By Gerri Peev

SUPPORTERS of the Scottish computer hacker Gary McKinnon have urged George Bush, the US president, to pardon him as one of his final acts before leaving office.

McKinnon is only days away from finding out whether he will be extradited to the United States. The High Court judgment will be delivered on Tuesday, the same day as the inauguration of Barack Obama as US president.

But McKinnon’s lawyers hope Mr Bush will carry out a last act of clemency. It is common for outgoing presidents to pardon some people when they leave office, and McKinnon hopes his name will be on Mr Bush’s list.

At a news conference in London yesterday, his solicitor, Karen Todner, said she had written to David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, asking him to appeal to Mr Bush to pardon her client. The 42-year-old has Asperger’s syndrome, and autism campaigners fear for his future if he is extradited to the US to face charges.

McKinnon hacked into US military computers from his North London home, but the UK’s extradition treaty means he can be sent to the US to face punishment there. He could face up to 60 years in prison.

He has asked to be charged under the Computer Misuse Act in Britain, where he believes would get a fairer trial.

Source:   http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Computer-hacker-in-plea-for.4883427.jp

11th hour lifeline for computer hacker

editorial@hamhigh.co.uk
16 January 2009

COMPUTER hacker and former Crouch End resident Gary McKinnon has been given an 11th hour just days before a final decision on his extradition is made.

Mr McKinnon, 42 and a former Highgate Wood pupil, is currently awaiting extradition after being accused of causing $700,000 worth of damage when he allegedly hacked into US security systems from his Hillfield Avenue home in 2002.

His lawyers received a letter from the director of public prosecutions (DPP) yesterday stating it would take up to four weeks to deliberate over Mr McKinnon’s signed confession.

Last month, Mr McKinnon, who faces up to 60 years in an American prison, signed a formal confession pleading guilty to computer misuse, in an attempt to have him tried in this country.

On Tuesday (January 20), he faces an oral application for a judicial review at the High Court, where his lawyers now plan to delay the extradition until after the DPP has come to a decision.

“If that fails, we really have come to the end of the line,” Mr McKinnon’s solicitor, Karen Todner, said. “Gary would then be extradited within the next 10 days.”

Meanwhile, the leading authority on autism has defended Mr McKinnon in a plea to prevent his extradition.

At a special press conference on Thursday, Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, who diagnosed Mr McKinnon with Asperger’s syndrome in August, pledged his support to the UFO enthusiast.

“We should be thinking of this as the activity of someone with a disability, not a criminal activity,” he said. “There are questions as to whether he should be imprisoned at all. Someone was Asperger’s would find it very difficult to deal with it.

“He believed that what he was doing was right.

Source:   http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/content/camden/hamhigh/news/story.aspx?brand=NorthLondon24&category=Newshamhigh&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newshamhigh&itemid=WeED16%20Jan%202009%2011%3A13%3A54%3A240

McKinnon extradition on hold until February

Tom Espiner and David Meyer ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 20 Jan 2009 11:58 GMT

Gary McKinnon’s potential extradition to the US for hacking military systems is on hold for the next few weeks, McKinnon’s lawyer has told ZDNet UK.

On Tuesday, McKinnon appeared at the High Court in London for an oral hearing about his extradition. McKinnon has always admitted hacking into Nasa and Pentagon systems — a crime for which he could face up to 70 years in prison if he were found guilty by a US court — but denies causing damage to the extent claimed by the US.

Late last December, McKinnon sent a confession to Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions (DPP), in the hope he might be tried in the UK under the Computer Misuse Act, rather than in the US.

Before the hearing, McKinnon’s solicitor Karen Todner told ZDNet UK that the home secretary’s counsel had promised her the Home Office would stay the extradition until the DPP had issued his decision.

“The counsel for the home secretary has undertaken not to extradite Gary pending a decision from the DPP,” Todner said. The DPP said a week ago he would make a decision within four weeks, so that decision is expected in mid-February.

McKinnon, speaking to ZDNet UK before the hearing, described himself as “nervous”. He was, however, jubilant at the news of the delayed extradition.

“It’s brilliant news — they’re delaying the whole thing until we’ve got the DPP’s decision,” McKinnon said. “It’s such a relief.”

McKinnon added that he and his team would also apply for a judicial review of the home secretary’s October rejection of his appeal against extradition. McKinnon’s lawyers had argued that he should not be extradited on the grounds he suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, a condition on the autistic spectrum, but the Home Office rejected the appeal, claiming the diagnosis did not provide sufficient grounds for overturning the extradition order.

Source:   http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39597073,00.htm

Hacker ‘faces suicide risk if extradited to US,’ High Court hears

(Tuesday 20 January 2009)

A BRITISH computer expert accused of hacking into US military networks would be at real risk of psychosis or suicide if extradited to the US, the High Court was told on Tuesday.

Gary McKinnon faces a lifetime in jail if he is found guilty in the US of sabotaging vital defence systems after the September 11 terror attacks.

But his supporters say that he acted through “naivety” as a result of his Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism, and should not be considered a criminal.

Edward Fitzgerald QC, appearing for Mr McKinnon, told the High Court that his medical condition was likely to give rise to psychosis or suicide if he were removed to the US, far away from his family, and that he should be allowed to stand trial in Britain.

The QC said: “The very fact of extradition will endanger his health.”

Lord Justice Maurice Kay and Mr Justice Simon, sitting in London, are being asked to grant the hacker permission to seek judicial review of the Home Secretary’s extradition decision.

Government lawyers are claiming that the decision to extradite does not infringe either Article 3 or Mr McKinnon’s Article 8 rights under the European convention to private and family life.

Source:

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/britain/hacker_faces_suicide_risk_if_extradited_to_us_high_court_hears

Autistic hackers can be extradited, says UK

Appeal for common humanity resisted

By Mark Ballard

Wednesday, 21 January 2009, 20:55

PENTAGON HACKER Gary McKinnon’s autistic anguish is not painful enough to stop his extradition and confinement in a notorious US prison, the British government told the High Court yesterday.

Gary’s legal team asked the High Court to consider how his autism could turn a foreign trial and sentence into a terrifying ordeal that could make him go mad and even take his own life. The briefs argued Gary should face his hacking charges in a British court and serve any resulting prison sentence in his home country. The court was asked to review the Home Secretary’s decision in October to dismiss this question.

Hugo Keith QC, acting on behalf of UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, argued that Gary had survived a near four-year legal battle that had taken him through the local courts, High Court and House of Lords, so he ought to be able to cope with life in a US jail.

The lengthy legal battle had caused Gary anxiety and depression. But the symptoms hadn’t been bad enough for his lawyers to bring them up when Gary was fighting his extradition in the courts, said Keith. So why should it be any different now that Asperger’s, the catalyst, had been identified?

Expert evidence had warned that, if Gary were extradited and put through a foreign judicial process, away from his supporting family, his Aspergic vulnerabilities would be tested perilously more heavily than they were by his UK court battles.

Edward Fitzgerald QC, acting for Gary, appealed to the Home Secretary’s “common humanity” in considering Gary’s case. He argued that the Extradition Act 2003 allowed her to act humanely, and the European Convention of Human Rights compelled her to.

The court heard how the Extradition Act contained a provision for someone’s mental health to stop their extradition. But the Act had been designed to stop the government interfering in the extradition process, so only the courts could stop Gary’s extradition on these grounds. The Home Secretary did have the power to intervene, but only in limited circumstances: the Extradition Act was also designed to make people’s removal from their home country more efficient.

Humane or not humane
This exasperated Fitzgerald, the famed human rights layer: “What would you do with someone who discovered they had cancer or schizophrenia after the conclusion of the judicial process of an extradition?” he asked the judge. If the Home Secretary couldn’t intervene, then who could?

The case appeared to hinge therefore on whether the Home Secretary was obliged to stay Gary ‘s extradition under the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). Her decisions must pass the human rights test. But her position was that it wasn’t inhumane to let Gary the Aspergic be taken from his home country.

Fitzgerald argued that Gary was destined to face up to 60 years in a US supermax prison that had been criticised as inhumane by human rights bodies. Combined with his autism, this would breach Article 3 of the ECHR, which states: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

Moreover, removing someone with Asperger’s from their home country and incarcerating them in a foreign prison would breach Article 8 of the ECHR, which obliges prosecutors to respect people’s right to a private and family life.

“If exposure to potentially inhuman conditions and mental deterioration is avoidable by trial in this country, then that is a highly relevant factor to the assessment of inhumanity under Article 3 and disproportionality under Article 8,” Fitzgerald said.

Keith said there was not enough evidence to say Gary would serve time in a supermax prison, nor that he would be treated inhumanely if he did. The US was a civilised country. It might not have signed international human rights treaties, but its prisoners were given the right to complain about their conditions.

Is he or isn’t he?
Had Gary been a Muslim terrorist he might have had reason to fear mistreatment in a supermax, said Keith. Had he been a home-grown US terrorist like Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, Eric Rudolph, the Olympic bomber or Terry Nichols who conspired with Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma bomber, then he might be guaranteed to serve supermax time. There was some debate about whether the US wants to try Gary as a terrorist at all. Though it did want to have him for damaging military computer systems “for ideological reasons”.

Neither did the Home Secretary think she had a right to protect Gary’s Article 8 right to a private and family life, because the US gave their prisoners psychiatric care. This, it was implied, would compensate for any additional hardships he might suffer as an autistic in a foreign jail. And the US courts were anyway civilised enough to see that Gary’s Asperger’s was taken into account.

But the Home Secretary hadn’t even bothered to get assurances from the US that Gary would get the support he needed: that he would be given bail, kept in humane prison conditions, and repatriated to serve most of his time in a UK prison. In this she had neglected her duty and her “common humanity”, said Fitzgerald. The Home Secretary thought she didn’t need to get any such assurances unless there was a real risk to Gary’s human rights. But had she considered this question properly?

These were all interesting points, but it all boiled down to whether removing an Aspergic from their home country to face a long sentence in a foreign jail would be cruel, and illegally so. Why put someone with Asperger’s through such an ordeal when it was possible to prosecute them in their home country? The judge will rule on the matter on Friday.

Source:   http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/558/1050558/autistic-hackers-extradited-uk

Friday, 23 January 2009

Hacker wins court review decision

Gary McKinnon says he was looking for classified documents on UFOs

British hacker Gary McKinnon has won permission from the High Court to apply for a judicial review against his extradition to the United States.

The 42-year-old from London, who was diagnosed last August as having Asperger’s Syndrome, has admitted hacking into US military computers.

His lawyers had said Mr McKinnon was at risk of suicide if he were extradited.

Lawyers for the home secretary had argued against the review, saying the risk to Mr McKinnon’s health was low.

Fresh challenge

Lord Justice Maurice Kay and Mr Justice Simon ruled that Mr McKinnon’s case “merits substantive consideration” and granted him leave to launch a fresh challenge at the court in London.

His lawyers had previously told the High Court that if he were removed from his family and sent to the US, his condition was likely to give rise to psychosis or suicide.

The condition was not taken into consideration by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith last October when she permitted the extradition.

However, her lawyers said she acted within her powers.

The judges said that although Ms Smith’s decision might be found to be “unassailable”, Mr McKinnon had an arguable case that should be tested in court.

We have always been outraged by the Home Office’s decision to have him extradited to stand trial in a foreign land where he would face an out-of-proportion sentence for what is essentially a crime of eccentricity Janis Sharp Profile: Gary McKinnon

Mr McKinnon, who is from Wood Green, has always admitted hacking into the computer systems in 2001-2 -which the US government says caused damage costing $800,000 (£550,000).

He hacked into 97 government computers belonging to organisations including the US Navy and Nasa.

He was caught as he tried to download a grainy black and white photograph which he believed was an alien spacecraft from a Nasa computer housed in the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas.

He was easily traced by the authorities because he used his own email address.

He has always said that he had no malicious intent but was looking for classified documents on UFOs which he believed the US authorities had suppressed.

He has signed a statement accepting that his hacking constituted an offence under the UK’s Computer Misuse Act 1990.

Mr McKinnon’s mother Janis Sharp relayed the news to her son after the hearing.

She said: “We are overjoyed that the British courts have shown sense and compassion by allowing our son Gary, a young man with Asperger’s syndrome, this judicial review.

“We have always been outraged by the Home Office’s decision to have him extradited to stand trial in a foreign land where he would face an out-of-proportion sentence for what is essentially a crime of eccentricity.””

Mr McKinnon and his mother Janis say he should be tried in the UK

Mr McKinnon has said he believes he will get a fairer trial in the UK and that he found the situation stressful.

“I am very controlled, which is probably not a good thing, but inside the fires of hell are burning.

“It’s not a good place to be,” he said.

Those with Asperger’s Syndrome commonly become obsessed with certain activities and interests and have a level of “social naivety” when it comes to evaluating the consequences of their actions.

Prof Simon Baron-Cohen, who diagnosed Mr McKinnon with the condition, has said of the hacker’s actions: “We should be thinking about this as the activity of somebody with a disability rather than a criminal activity.”

Mr McKinnon’s legal team have sent a request to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Keir Starmer, asking for him to face trial in the UK rather than the US.

The home secretary has agreed to postpone Mr McKinnon’s extradition until the DPP gives his response to the case in four weeks.

If the DPP is persuaded to try Mr McKinnon in the UK, the hacker would face a three to four year sentence, rather than a potential 70 years in US courts.

Mr McKinnon’s full application for judicial review is likely to be heard after 16 March, by which time the DPP is expected to have made his decision.

Source:   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7846442.stm

NAS

Take action for Gary McKinnon

Gary McKinnon, a man diagnosed with Asperger syndrome in August 2008, is due to be extradited to the United States to face trial for allegedly hacking into US defence computer systems.

On Friday 23rd January, the High Court granted permission to apply for a judicial review against the decision to extradite Gary. The National Autistic Society has been particularly concerned about Gary’s case and provided evidence in the legal proceedings expressing its concern that Gary’s Asperger syndrome be taken in to account in deciding whether to grant judicial review. In particular, The National Autistic Society provided evidence relating to the nature of Asperger syndrome, the behaviours associated with it, and late diagnosis. The National Autistic Society is pleased that in line with the evidence it submitted, the Court acknowledged that Gary had been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome late and that it seemed that late diagnosis was not uncommon.

The judicial review hearing is likely to be listed in March.

Although this is a great step forward for Gary, there is no guarantee that the hearing in March will succeed and we still need as many supporters to carry out our campaigner action now, urging the Attorney General to reconsider her decision not prosecute Gary in the UK.

Please take a moment to email the Attorney General now

You can also read our media statement on the case and find out more details about it below.

Related resources

Relevant areas/articles elsewhere on this website Media statement: Gary McKinnon

‘Gobsmacked’ Scot wins right to challenge extradition ruling

computer hacker could commit suicide if moved to us, say lawyers

By John Aston and Mike Taylor

Published: 24/01/2009

Scottish computer hacker Gary McKinnon said he was “gobsmacked” yesterday after winning the right to launch a fresh High Court challenge against moves to extradite him to America.

Lawyers for Mr McKinnon, 42, originally from Glasgow, said he would be at real risk of psychosis and suicide if extradited to face charges of hacking into US military networks.

Lord Justice Maurice Kay and Mr Justice Simon, sitting at the High Court in London, ruled the claim that his forced removal could infringe his human rights merited “substantive consideration”.

The judges granted him permission to seek judicial review of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith’s decision last October that extradition should go ahead.

He faces a lifetime in jail if he is found guilty in the US of sabotaging vital defence systems after the September 11 terror attacks.

Supporters say he acted through “naivety” as a result of Asperger’s syndrome – a form of autism.

Mr McKinnon, who lives in London, said of yesterday’s ruling: “I am gobsmacked. I am really, really pleased that there has been light at the end of the tunnel within our own legal system.”

His case was rejected by a district judge, the High Court and then, in July last year, by the House of Lords. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg also refused to intervene.

Yesterday Lord Justice Maurice Kay said it was some four weeks after the law lords’ ruling that Mr McKinnon was first diagnosed as suffering from Asperger’s syndrome.

Edward Fitzgerald QC, appearing for Mr McKinnon, argued that the home secretary had failed to give adequate consideration to expert evidence, including that from Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, a leading expert on Asperger’s syndrome, that extradition, in Mr McKinnon’s case, could endanger his health and lead to suicide.

Hugo Keith, appearing for the home secretary, argued the home secretary had acted within her powers and her reasoning on Article 3 was “unassailable”.

But the judges granted leave for a judicial review hearing.

Mr McKinnon’s mother, Janis Sharp, said she was “overjoyed” that the British courts “have shown sense and compassion”.

Computer expert Mr McKinnon has signed a statement accepting that his hacking constituted an offence under the UK’s Computer Misuse Act 1990. He insists he was only looking for evidence of UFOs when he hacked into the US military networks in 2001 and 2002.

But the US military alleges that he caused £550,000 ($800,000) of damage and left 300 computers at a US Navy weapons station unusable immediately after the September 11, 2001 atrocities.

Source:   http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1045565?UserKey=

Boris Johnson is supporting McKinnon’s case

Boris Johnson opposes McKinnon extradition

London mayor urges Obama to call off seven-year witch hunt

Written by Phil Muncaster

vnunet.com, 27 Jan 2009

London mayor Boris Johnson has called on US president Barack Obama to call off his government’s seven-year quest to extradite Nasa hacker Gary McKinnon.

In his column in The Daily Telegraph, Johnson called the move “neocon lunacy”, and said that the 43-year old Londoner who hacked into Pentagon and Nasa systems is no threat to American security.

“The British government is obviously too feeble to help Mr McKinnon and, even though the courts last week granted him another review, it is plain that the matter will simply drag preposterously and expensively on,” wrote Johnson.

“It is time for the commander-in-chief to tell the US military to stop being so utterly wet, dry their eyes, and invest in some passwords that are slightly more difficult to crack.”

Johnson also argued that the “legal nightmare” could continue indefinitely at taxpayers’ expense if Obama does not step in.

McKinnon, who could face 70 years in a maximum security jail if extradited and found guilty, has not denied hacking into the military systems, but has always maintained that he was motivated only by a desire to find evidence of extra-terrestrial life.

The case against him was postponed last week while Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, reviews the case.

McKinnon’s lawyers are hoping that he can be tried under the UK’s Computer Misuse Act, and wants his Asperger’s diagnosis to be taken into consideration.

Source:   http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2235190/mayor-johnson-mckinnon-should

2. Julie left…

Hi Peggy – Gary is currently awaiting a judicial review of the extradition order by the U.K.’s High Court of Justice. It’s scheduled for June 9-10th in London. Will keep you posted.

Support Blog: http://freegary.org.uk/