no one doubts the gravity of the offences that gary mckinnon is alleged to have committed. that is beyond question; the simple question is whether he should, in the circumstances, be tried here or extradited to the united states. the prime minister and the president of the united states indicated yesterday that they have had a discussion about gary mckinnon and that, notwithstanding the gravity of the alleged crimes, they hope to find a way forward. >> i join the right honorable gentleman in paying tribute to the british servicemen who have been killed in afghanistan in recent days: marine jonathan crookes, from 40 commando royal marines, and senior aircraftman kinikki griffiths, from the raf regiment, who both died on friday; and sergeant david monkhouse, from the royal dragoon guards, and staff sergeant brett linley, from 11 explosive ordnance disposal regiment, the royal logistic corps, who both died on saturday. these were very brave men who lost their lives in the service of their country -- our country. we salute their courage, and we will always honor their memory an

we completely understand that gary mckinnon stands accused of a very important and significant crime in terms of hacking into vital databases. and nobody denies that that is an important crime that has to be considered. but i have had conversations with the u.s. ambassador, as well as raising it today with the president, about this issue, and i hope a way through can be found. >> well, one of the things that david and i discussed was the increasing challenge that we're going to face as a consequence of the internet and the need for us to cooperate extensively on issues of cybersecurity. we had a brief discussion about the fact that although there may still be efforts to send in spies and try to obtain state secrets through traditional cold war methods, the truth of the matter is these days, where we're going to see enormous vulnerability when it comes to information is going to be through these kind of breaches in our information systems. so we take this very seriously. and i know that the british government does, as well. beyond that, one of the traditions we have is the president d