In 2002, Scottish IT expert Gary McKinnon was arrested for hacking into 97 US military and NASA systems. During a 13-month period McKinnon was able to breach government servers via a desktop computer belonging to his girlfriend’s Aunt under the name ‘Solo’. The motivation behind his mission was to find definitive evidence of free energy suppression and the existence of UFOs. McKinnon was on a moral crusade and felt that the general public had a right to know about such technologies.
From a young age McKinnon was interested in stars and outer space. His step-father was an avid science fiction fan which lead to a fascination of unearthly beings. At 12 he became a member of the British UFO Research Association (BUFORA). After attending the Disclosure Project conference in 2000 McKinnon’s interest in hacking really took off. Hearing renown and high ranking citizen’s testimonies convinced him that the US government was concealing life-altering information from the masses.
Through this meeting McKinnon was introduced to Donna Hare who worked in Building Eight at Johnson Space Center. She was a NASA engineering employee with full clearance. One day a colleague showed Hare a satellite image of a metallic disk. Though skeptical she listened as the lab worker explained. Their department’s job was to edit thousands of images to remove all traces of these spacecrafts. Hare stated that she also viewed photographic evidence of UFOs on the moon. Although NASA did not directly threaten her life they did give a clear warning to never speak of such topics.
Inspired by Hare’s confessions, McKinnon had a mission to access this type of restricted information. Since there were no security measures or firewalls he was able to easily gain entry into various computer networks. There was one simple entry he utilized to break into NASA, Army, Navy and Pentagon systems. While on Johnson Space Center’s server, a satellite image showing a large metallic cigar shaped object was found. Now McKinnon felt he was really onto something.
Through a program called Landsearch the hacker was able to gain control of domains and search all files and folders simultaneously. With this advantage a critical discovery was made: an Excel spreadsheet naming “Non-Terrestrial Officers”. Each individual’s name, rank and location were described. A separate file was found revealing a list of ships. Each began with “USS” which stands for United States Ship. A third document was located with tabs labeled “material transfer between ships”. When he failed to find Navy vessels by the same names McKinnon became suspicious. He concluded that the United States was running a secret space-based battalion.
A final discovery was made that became his holy grain: evidence of free energy concealment. Despite not revealing the exact origin of this information, McKinnon says that Tesla coils and similar mechanisms were utilized. It was this very infinite and limitless energy source that kept Solo searching. Righteous obligation was his driving force. According to the hacker, it was ethically wrong to deny such resources when many cannot afford to pay their utility bills each month.
On March 19, 2002 McKinnon was first interviewed by authorities who then seized his computer. By November he was indicted by a federal grand jury based out the Eastern District of Virginia. The US wanted him extradited from the UK where he faced charges that could result up to 70 years in prison. Those charged in Great Britain with similar crimes would ultimately serve only 180 days probation without any jail time. A major factor that played into this case was the fact that McKinnon had Asperger’s as well as depression. His defense team argued that if forced to face trial in America there was a high risk that he would take his own life. After an arduous legal battle that lasted a decade, the British government ultimately opted to block the extradition.
McKinnon never denied any of his crimes . While many disagree with the actions he took others praise his efforts. After all, his intentions seemed selfless with a motive only to better society. Why did the US government push for a longer sentence than some convicted killers? Perhaps the there is truth to the information that he found. Whether the hacker stumbled upon a secret space fleet or extraterrestrial government agents has yet to be revealed. With the rise of the dark web and advanced levels of hacking it may only be a matter of time until the truth fully surfaces.