FC: Feds arrest cypherpunk Jim Bell, charge with stalking

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

**********

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.

   [...]




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