Guatemala Deports McAfee To the US 141
Reuters reports that John McAfee's troubles in Central America seem to be coming to an end. After a Guatemalan judge ordered McAfee's release yesterday, the country's immigration authorities have now deported him, putting him on a plane to Miami this afternoon. McAfee told ABC News, "They took me out of my cell and put me on a freaking airplane. I had no choice in the matter." Which is not to say he's unhappy with the outcome: "It was the most gracious expulsion I've ever experienced. Compared to my past two wives that expelled me this isn't a terrible trip."
innocent until proven guilty (Score:5, Insightful)
The public's cynical reaction to Mcafee is strong proof that we need "innocent until guilty," protection now more than ever in this world.
If you presume innocence for a moment, the things that have been happening to Mcafee look like tragedies that no one would wish on any human being.
Last I checked being strange doesn't automatically make you guilty of a crime.
Let's check the facts; Belize authorities have said they don't suspect him of being involved in the crime, there is no warrant for his arrest, and that they just want to question him. However, they were willing to go so far as to demand his extradition from Guatemala and get Interpol involved. And, if you watch the interview of Mcafee on youtube where he is being arrested, the Interpol agents all turned away in shame and faced away from the camera man. If this doesn't sound fishy to anyone else, I'm at a loss of words.
Something isn't right here. And, I for one feel bad for this man and what he has had to endure.
Also, he's not a billionaire, and never was.
And, various folks on forums and youtube are angry at his antivirus and saying it's good that this is happening to him because of their personal vendettas against his software. I'd like to point out he left the company in 1994 before Windows 95 came out, while the application was still on running on Microsoft DOS. For you kids who aren't aware, Mcafee antivirus was one of the best antivirus softwares available for DOS at the time. The fact that current management (Intel) drove the AV maker into the ground has nothing to do with the original founder. And, his character shouldn't be prematurely judged for your personal experiences with that piece of software.
Regarding, his drug habits, he's admitted to these but explained that he's been clean for more than a decade now. This may or may not be true, but it has nothing to do the extradition requests from Belize. Also, various forums are accusing him of being a coke head but he wasn't, he was experimenting with bath salts. He discovered that the form that he had invented on Belize make women sexually excited, hence the large group of women that were interested in him. If anything, this guy might have discovered a cure for frigidity.
Perform some research yourself on this guy and his predicament before you write vitriol or slander about him. If it were me in the same situation, I wouldn't want to be crucified by the public like he has been.
Which they would have to provide evidence for (Score:3, Insightful)
Extradition only matters when you have proof someone is a criminal.
The whole issue of Belize wanting McAfee from the start was a farce; he didn't pay his protection money and they wanted to hurt/kill him. End of story.
The proof of this will to be seen in nothing whatsoever happening to McAfee on his return to the U.S. They have no proof against him and can't request to extradite someone just because he made them look like fools.
The whole story is a cautionary tale about living in places where corruption of the government is rampant.
Answers are numerous (Score:5, Insightful)
If he knew the Belizian government to be corrupt and dangerous for years... then why did he continue living in Belize?
Because the benefits outweighed the costs until recently:
1) He liked to use drugs and it was much easier to get Belize police to look the other way.
2) He had a much greater access to women, he basically had a harem. It does not seem like he could find that many women willing to accommodate him in the U.S, at least not without paying them a lot of money.
Basically the answer is some guys will put up with a lot of crap for the sake of drugs & women.