After getting into NASA archives two decades ago, a British hacker has disclosed his discoveries.
After gaining access to NASA information, the US attempted to extradite Gary McKinnon and threatened the 56-year-old hacker with 60 years in prison. McKinnon’s extradition was rejected by then-home secretary Theresa May after protracted appeals, and he just revealed what he discovered on NASA systems. McKinnon claimed to have uncovered ‘thousands’ of photos, one of which depicted a cigar-shaped extraterrestrial spaceship, in an interview with The Sun.
Between February 2001 and March 2002, McKinnon had access to the photographs and believes the space agency is ‘covering up proof of extraterrestrial life.’ He explained: “It’s a fact that there are objects we don’t understand flying around in our skies, it’s also a fact that there are scientific, intelligence and military departments that study these objects. “I was absolutely gobsmacked and those folders had thousands more images.”
Hacker Gary McKinnon criticize NASA's UFO report conclusions McKinnon is certain that evidence of UFOs is being hidden in the US and was inspired to hack into NASA files after Donna Hare, a former NASA employee, claimed that the space agency had been ‘scrubbing images of UFO evidence’. In a bid to verify Hare’s claims, McKinnon got access to NASA files and claims to have seen four folders marked: Filtered; Unfiltered; Processed; and Raw. However, due to his slow internet connection, McKinnon was only able to grab one image from the space agency’s folders – that being the picture of a cigar-shaped spacecraft.
"I was obsessed with UFOs. I was dying to find out the information. The internet was a real enabler for finding out information, um, by going to places you shouldn't be in, um, because they were so open. There were a lot of text files and lists of places, installations, military bases, Air Force bases, Navy sites, NASA sites, so there was a lot to go through. But I did find a goldmine of information.
According to McKinnon, he unearthed a secret US military program that existed entirely in space. I found the spreadsheet was actually titled in the column 'non-terrestrial officers,' as well as officers' names. It had ship names, none of these were Oceano ships. It was astounding. They're not Navy, they're not Army, and not even Air Force. So to me, I was thinking there must be an off-planet space force or space fleet, at least.
After McKinnon's arrest, he was told the US government intended to sentence him to 70 years in prison. At the time, I thought six months of community service was all you'd do for the Computer Misuse Act."
