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FC: Feds arrest cypherpunk Jim Bell, charge with stalking
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 13:36:05 -0800
********** I've placed the complaint/affidavit filed by the IRS at: http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=00/11/21/1944238 Background documents: http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=00/11/11/101218 -Declan ********** http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,40300,00.html 'Cyber-Terrorist' Jailed Again by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com) 2:00 a.m. Nov. 21, 2000 PST Jim Bell is nothing if not determined. Just seven months after being released from prison, the 42-year-old convicted felon whom the U.S. government once dubbed a techno-terrorist is back in jail, this time for allegedly trying to intimidate IRS agents. Bell was arrested last Friday, a week after the IRS and U.S. Marshals raided the home he shares with his parents in Vancouver, Washington. He has been charged with two counts of violating federal stalking laws. Bell was arraigned Monday before Magistrate Judge J. Kelly Arnold in Tacoma, Washington and is being held without bail at the Federal Detention Center near Seattle. In a series of telephone interviews in the days leading up to his arrest, Bell claimed he was compiling evidence of a government conspiracy to conduct illegal surveillance against him and unlawfully bug his home. "One guess is that I was getting a little too close to these people," Bell said. Bell, a cypherpunk who pleaded guilty in July 1997 to interfering with IRS agents and using false Social Security numbers, is best known for a scheme he popularized that would use encryption, anonymity and digital cash to bring about the annihilation of all forms of government. He even gave it a catchy title: "Assassination Politics." When the feds searched Bell's home earlier this month, according to a one-page attachment to the search warrant, agents were looking for "items which refer to Assassination Politics." They also hoped to find items that "contain the names, home addresses, or other information relating to current or past BATF, IRS, or other government or law enforcement employees." Bell says that he's put his Assassination Politics proposal on hold. But he acknowledges that he showed up at the homes of suspected BATF agents and has done DMV searches on their names -- all in an effort to let them know that surveillance can be done in both directions. "The double standard here is simply incredible," Bell said. "They simply don't like the idea that Jim Bell can simply look through a few databases, find one of their people, and publish the name on the Internet. They hate that." "They're trying to make it look like I've been intimidating them. They've been intimidating me," Bell said. "I wasn't all that happy before, but I'm hopping mad ... if you think this is going to stop me, baloney." Bell also said that he believed the Feds had illegally installed a tracking device in his car that would receive GPS signals and transmit the vehicle's location. He said he had contacted a security firm and asked them to locate it. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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- FC: Feds arrest cypherpunk Jim Bell, charge with stalking Declan McCullagh (Nov 22)