This is the weird story of Scottish man Gary McKinnon who hacked into the Pentagon in his search for ETs. He had gone to ground in London when I finally managed to get him to agree to speak to me. It had taken weeks of phone calls from me in the USA (where I was on an assignment at the time) to organise the interview. When I flew back from the States I was grumpy and tired and not in the mood for crazy stories of ETs, secret technology and Gary’s tales of 3 am, stoned-on-cannabis hacking adventures. But when met in a nice bar in Camden, I liked him immediately and settled down for an interview. Little by little, I started thinking I was in the presence of a really, really paranoid guy. By the end of the interview, he had me half-convinced that the few customers in the bar were spying on him. I told him that it was unlikely and few really cared or felt threatened by his bizarre actions. I now admit I was 100% wrong.

Let’s just say that even after the Prime Minister (then Gordon Brown) spoke to the US secretly about the case, the USA were still intent on extraditing him. I thought it was ludicrous and, to be honest, I now think that – seriously – a couple of people in the bar that day were in fact keeping him and me under surveillance.

Anyone who knows me will tell you I am a great believer in the ‘Cock-Up’ rather than ‘Conspiracy’ view on life… but sometimes I really do need to keep my mind a bit more open to the realities that I encounter…. even when I am jet-lagged, sweating on a hot summer’s day and not looking forward to a connecting Easy Jet flight back to Edinburgh.

Link to PDF of article here: GOLIATH