New UK Prime Minister and ufos

A couple of UFO-related stories arise from the new coalition Government in the UK and our new Prime Minister, David Cameron. These relate to:

(1) Gary Mckinnon;
(2) Various misleading articles about remarks made by David Cameron about alien visitors.


(1) Gary Mckinnon

If the Conservative Party and the Lib Dems keep their word, there should be good news in the near future for at least one individual well known to regular visitors to this forum : Gary Mckinnon.

Gary Mckinnon is the UFO hacker seeking to avoid extradition to the US to face trial for hacking into US military networks. For anyone unfamiliar with him, he can be seen in the old video below:




Prior to the election, the Conservative Party had voiced support for Gary Mckinnon and pledged itself to reforming the lopsided extradition treaty.

For example, Dominic Grieve (then shadow justice secretary), told the Conservative party conference in Manchester last year that:

"Our extradition laws are a mess. They’re one-sided. A Conservative
government will re-write them.”

www.telegraph.co.uk...

The Lib Dems have also said that "should the Lib Dems form a government, the party would not only push for a halt to McKinnon's extradition, but address the extradition arrangements that the UK has with the US": "One of the first pieces of legislation we have promised is a Freedom Bill to roll back the worst excesses of Labour's surveillance state," said the spokesperson. "A key part of this is rebalancing the unequal extradition treaty we have with the United States and halting unfair extraditions like that of Gary McKinnon."

www.zdnet.co.uk...


(2) Various misleading articles about remarks made by David Cameron about alien visitors

Sigh.

I know I shouldn't even bother wasting my time pointing it out, but I thought I'd mention that various ufo websites and articles are including misleading (and sometimes downright wrong) quotations of remarks made by David Cameron last year.

For example, the current issue of George Filer's "Filer's files" (#20 - 2010) includes the following:

"David Cameron the Conservative leader in the UK elected as Prime Minister of the UK. In the past he said, "I am convinced the Earth has been visited by aliens and vow to publish any secret files that may exist on UFOs if I become Prime Minister." Aliens in UFOs have visited Earth, says David Cameron"

George Filer's article then goes on to refer to questions and answers in one of David Cameron's "Cameron Direct” public meetings, in which a member of the audience asked about UFOs and quotes (in bold) David Cameron's response as "I'm convinced we have been visited by alien life forms…" followed by "Snip".

The supposed quotation in the first paragraph of the article (i.e. "I am convinced the Earth has been visited by aliens and vow to publish any secret files that may exist on UFOs if I become Prime Minister") was not in fact said by David Cameron.

Instead, David Cameron said (as an obvious JOKE) that "I'm convinced we have been visited by alien life forms - and one of them is the trade secretary Peter Mandelson."

If the fact that this was a JOKE is not completely obvious from the fuller quotation, it is even more obvious if you watch the video of the relevant exchange (complete with repeated apologies by David Cameron to the person asking the question and his subsequent promise to give a serious answer).

See 1 minute and 20 seconds into a video of the relevant exchange at:



The quotations in George Filer's article appear to have been taken (very selectively and somewhat inaccurately) from the newspaper article at the link below:
www.telegraph.co.uk...

By the way, the relevant member of the audience that raised the question with David Cameron was Richard D Hall (a British ufologist that has been hosting programmes on one of the fairly obscure cable/satellite channels in the UK, not the deceased American ufologist Richard Hall).

On a more positive note, David Cameron did stress that he would be entirely open and frank about these things (see the last few seconds of the video).

Sorry to address this at such length, but I find the use of selective quotations by ufologists to be counter-productive to efforts to make ufology more respectable and therefore worth highlighting.

All the best,

Isaac

[edit on 13-5-2010 by IsaacKoi]

Gary Mckinnon's mother posts regular comments on Twitter.

One of her posts tonight mentions the following:

BBC Radio rang me at 7am & told me that Gary's case was discussed during coalition talks. We are hoping for a decision soon

Originally posted by IsaacKoi
A couple of UFO-related stories arise from the new coalition Government in the UK and our new Prime Minister, David Cameron. These relate to:

(1) Gary Mckinnon;
(2) Various misleading articles about remarks made by David Cameron about alien visitors.

(1) Since I posted the above here on ATS last week, there have been several articles in the mainstream press about Gary McKinnon indicating that his mother is pushing hard for his case to be revisited by the new Government here in the UK.

The latest news (today) is that a spokeperson for the new Home Secretary has confirmed that she is reconsidering the extradition request in relation to Gary McKinnon:

www.techeye.net...

New home secretary reconsidering UFO watcher case

Hacker McKinnon might be saved by new government

The UK Home Secretary has confirmed that she is considering a request from UFO watcher Gary McKinnon to reconsider his extradition to the US on hacking charges.

...

Before they were elected, there was some support from both the Tories and the Liberal Democrats for McKinnon. The Brits have been jolly good at handing over people who the US has been accused of being bad guys but the US on the other hand is not so keen to extradite the people the British say have been naughty.

There is no doubt that rather than getting jailed for the rest of his life McKinnon would get a much lighter sentence in Blighty, if he went to jail at all.

A Home Office spokesman told TechEye that May had received the letter and was considering it. He could not say when she would make her mind up.

(2) The remarks of David Cameron about alien visitors continue to be very selectively quoted (to the point of being extremely misleading as to his actual statements) on various UFO websites and forums following the election.

All the best,

Isaac

Breaking news - the new UK Government has agreed to postpone a forthcoming Court hearing while it reconsiders its position in relation to the extradition of Gary Mckinnon:

www.pcworld.com...

The new British government has canceled a court hearing for a hacker who hunted for evidence of UFOs on U.S. military computers while it reconsiders an extradition order that would send him to face a U.S. trial.

A judicial review scheduled to begin next Tuesday in the High Court has been adjourned by the Home Office, which oversees criminal justice affairs, lawyers for Gary McKinnon said on Thursday.

"I hope this may be a signal of a more compassionate and caring home secretary and one that is willing to defend the rights of our citizens," McKinnon's lawyer, Karen Todner, wrote.

The latest turn in the case is a sign that McKinnon may get a sympathetic ear from Britain's new coalition government, composed of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

Prime Minister David Cameron and Nick Clegg, deputy prime minister, lent their support to McKinnon last year, questioning the terms of the U.K.-U.S. extradition treaty and the circumstances of McKinnon's case. The new Home Secretary Theresa May is a Conservative.

Oh my god, I have just agreed with a politician!! (as pointed out by my workmate as I read this thread out to him )


I truly hope that Mr McKinnon can be helped by our "new" goverment. It'd be a massive sttep forward in rethinking the laws of extradition that we have. This is IMO a good thing

SnF'd.

Originally posted by Acidtastic
I truly hope that Mr McKinnon can be helped by our "new" goverment. It'd be a massive sttep forward in rethinking the laws of extradition that we have. This is IMO a good thing

Well, I'm fairly optimistic that within the next week or two I'll be posting an update in this thread that will include a link to a news report that the new Government has decided that McKinnon should not be extradited.

We'll see...

reply to post by IsaacKoi
Erroneously or not, I tend to assume that quotes from significant politicians, when associated with UFOs, are inaccurate, misinterpreted or misleading. It's an assumption born out by experience. There's a theme of upcoming western leaders being associated with the fabled 'disclosure.'

McKinnon's case seems to have been ongoing for much longer than these few short years. May's recommendation of an adjournment is good news. I don't see him as a whistleblower or icon of conspiracists, but would like to see him get a fair trial with a proportionate sentence. Serving time in the UK is as valid as a US sentence, in my opinion.

To be blunt, it appears he looked up the skirts of the US military and NASA networks whilst they were hiking them.

Using a basic analogy...if an expensive car is left running in a side-street, the owner should share responsibility when someone takes it for a joyride.

Thank you for the clarification on the misquotes, IsaacKoi. I dislike very much when the UFO community takes quotes out of context to try and push through their agenda, and end up alienating (excuse the pun) reasonable people who have to distance themselves from the remarks.

The greater context of David Cameron's remarks was in overall government secrecy and the question was posed as a "what if" scenario in which David Cameron's answer didn't need to imply belief or not.

Originally posted by Shere Khaan
Thank you for the clarification on the misquotes, IsaacKoi.

My pleasure.

I dislike very much when the UFO community takes quotes out of context to try and push through their agenda, and end up alienating (excuse the pun) reasonable people who have to distance themselves from the remarks.

I completely agree.

Such misquoting only harms "serious" ufology.

If ufologists want to be taken seriously, there has to be more effort by ufologists directed to pointing out misquoting or inaccurate/incomplete presentations of evidence...

All the best,

Isaac

Originally posted by IsaacKoi
Well, I'm fairly optimistic that within the next week or two I'll be posting an update in this thread that will include a link to a news report that the new Government has decided that McKinnon should not be extradited.

We'll see...

Okay, it's been more than a week but developments/rumours are still fairly promising.

Apart from the press reporting of the discussion of the case by Obama and David Cameron, there are now some press reports of the detail of attempts to reach a deal:

Deal means Gary McKinnon would serve sentence in a British jail

www.dailymail.co.uk...

Gary McKinnon would not have to spend a single night in a U.S jail in a deal being thrashed out by UK and American officials, the Mail can reveal.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Asperger’s sufferer would be guaranteed bail before facing a trial in the U.S. for hacking into military computers.

If found guilty, he would be immediately transferred back to Britain to serve out any custodial term.

Previously, the U.S had been insisting he would be jailed in America – with little prospect of a prisoner transfer.

But details of the latest negotiations emerged after President Obama said he hoped to find an ‘appropriate solution’ to the saga, which dates back to 2002, when Gary hacked into NASA and Pentagon computers looking for evidence of alien life.

Campaigners last night insisted they will continue fighting for Gary, 44, to be tried in the UK, as well as serving any jail sentence here.

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk... 0uPjHBlat

[edit on 22-7-2010 by IsaacKoi]

Originally posted by IsaacKoi
(1) Gary Mckinnon

If the Conservative Party and the Lib Dems keep their word, there should be good news in the near future for at least one individual well known to regular visitors to this forum : Gary Mckinnon.

Gary Mckinnon is the UFO hacker seeking to avoid extradition to the US to face trial for hacking into US military networks. For anyone unfamiliar with him, he can be seen in the old video below:

Prior to the election, the Conservative Party had voiced support for Gary Mckinnon and pledged itself to reforming the lopsided extradition treaty.

It's good to see the leadership of the Conservative Party doesn't seem to have forgotten the pre-election rhetoric about the UK's extradition process and sympathy for Gary McKinnon.

See the thread I've just started in the Breaking News forum:
Gary McKinnon extradition to US blocked by Theresa May

reply to post by IsaacKoi


hello isaac
it's very good news for solo. he can cease stroking the kittens and open the curtains. i suspect his condition weighted in his favour unlike the poor sod packed off for the linky website to free film downloads.
will internet restrictions for gary still apply in the clink i wonder?

regarding your original title, the only link between the then new pm and uap's i can assume come in very loose connections between
pelindaba, battlefield yield nooks,(( all not accounted for), apparently) unusual aerial activity around the site and finally said state head in young buck swagger sorting out the mess on the ground when thatcher was steering the bike. could be crap but from memory the articles read and a conversation with imo a distinguished site member compelled me to add a photo of the noble cosmonaut into my avatar-bar.
permutations of results in search engine may be of interest.

regards fakedirt.