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Re: Canarypunk: Jim Bell in a coalmine
Free speech - Unless Govt. doesn't like it
>From talltom <"talltom(SPAMBLOCKER)"@ipns.com>
Organization Alternate Access Inc.
Date Sat, 21 Jun 1997 19:23:39 -0700
Newsgroups or.politics
Message-ID <[email protected]>
This is in reference to a local, that's being held incommunicado
in Tacoma. I've personally tried to contact Jim and the Marshalls
office said they'd "try" to get a message to him, wouldn't give me an
address, and were REALLY interested in my address.
I believe the reason for holding Jim incomunicado is that the ACLU
requires that the accused ask them for help, and the feds know that
if Jim can't ask he won't get their help.
Vin covers the situation nicely...
[Vin Suprynowicz column:]
In the summer of 1995, 39-year-old electronics engineer Jim Bell of
Vancouver, Wash. (coincidentally the scene of the climactic battle
between militia and central government forces in Ian Slater's current
potboiler paperback "Showdown: U.S.A. vs. Militia,") penned an intriguing
and controversial essay called "Assassination Politics," which has since
been kicking around various Internet discussion groups, triggering
responses from delight to outrage.
This section from Mr. Bell's introduction gives the gist:
"A few months ago, I had a truly and quite literally 'revolutionary'
idea, and I jokingly called it 'Assassination Politics': I speculated on
the question of whether an organization could be set up to legally
announce that it would be awarding a cash prize to somebody who correctly
'predicted' the death of one of a list of violators of rights, usually
either government employees, officeholders, or appointees. It could ask
for anonymous contributions from the public, and individuals would be able
send those contributions using digital cash.
"I also speculated that using modern methods of public-key encryption
and anonymous 'digital cash,' it would be possible to make such awards in
such a way so that nobody knows who is getting awarded the money, only that
the award is being given. Even the organization itself would have no
information that could help the authorities find the person responsible
for the prediction, let alone the one who caused the death. ...
"Obviously, the problem with the general case is that the victim may be
totally innocent under libertarian principles, which would make the
killing a crime, leading to the question of whether the person offering the
money was himself guilty.
"(But) my speculation assumed that the 'victim' is a government
employee, presumably one who is not merely taking a paycheck of stolen tax
dollars, but also is guilty of extra violations of rights beyond this.
(Government agents responsible for the Ruby Ridge incident and Waco come
to mind.) In receiving such money and in his various acts, he violates the
'Non-aggression Principle' (NAP) and thus, presumably, any acts against
him are not the initiation of force under libertarian principles.
"The organization set up to manage such a system could, presumably,
make up a list of people who had seriously violated the NAP, but who would
not see justice in our courts due to the fact that their actions were done
at the behest of the government. ..."
In a followup essay titled "Fishing Expedition Swims Against the Tide,"
published in the May 14 edition of the daily Portland Oregonian, Bell
wrote, in part:
"... I've been openly debating the idea on the Internet since then with
anyone who will listen. My essay surprises many and shocks more than a
few, but I am pleased that such a truly revolutionary concept has been so
well received. Even the Columbian newspaper (www.columbian.com) has
decided to add a pointer to the essay.
"The only 'threat' in the essay is to the jobs of the people who have
been parasites on the rest of us for decades, as well as to the future of
tyrannies around the world. But that's why, on April 1, 20 federal
agents burst in and took my computer, told the news media I was 'armed and
dangerous,' and began engaging in a fishing expedition including
harassing people simply for knowing me. (No arrest or charges so far.) ..."
The charges were forthcoming.
Jim Bell was arrested on Friday, May 16, and has been held ever since,
without bond, in the Pierce County Jail in Tacoma, Wash., on a federal
complaint which alleges:
"Beginning at a time unknown, and continuing to the present, ... JAMES
DALTON BELL did corruptly obstruct and impede ... the due administration
of the internal revenue laws, among other things, by collecting the names
and home addresses of agents and employees of the Internal Revenue Service
('IRS') in order to intimidate them in the performance of their official
functions; by soliciting others to join in a scheme known as 'Assassination
Politics' whereby those who killed IRS employees would be rewarded; by
using social security account numbers that were not assigned to him to
hide his assets and thereby impede the IRS's ability to collect his unpaid
taxes, and by contaminating the area outside of the office of the IRS in
Vancouver, Washington, with mercaptan, a chemical that causes a powerful
odor."
Nor does the complaint stop short with an alleged "stink bomb" floor
mat, proceeding to allege that Mr. Bell has at times discussed poisoning
water supplies, sabotaging government computers, and, well ...
"overthrowing the Government of the United States."
The question here would appear to be whether Mr. Bell has actually
taken substantive steps, as alleged, to "implement" the theory in his
speculative Internet essay, or whether it is the IRS -- who since Feb. 20
have seized the heretofore non-violent Mr. Bell's car, wages and bank
accounts (presumably stymying at the very last minute his plan to
"overthrow the Government of the United States") -- who are doing the
"threatening and intimidating," in an attempt to send a message to anyone
who dares speculate about how justice might ever be obtained against
federal agents ... given that they are rarely if ever indicted, even for
the willful murder of children, as at Waco and Ruby Ridge.
If the defendant Bell has indeed taken substantive steps to set in
motion the murder of any specific government agent, that of course is a
crime, for which he should expect to face the consequences.
On the other hand, if writings of the "what if someone ..." variety
have now become a felony so serious that one can be seized and held
without bond, most of America's adventure and science fiction writers --
who up till now have felt safe spinning thinly-veiled yarns about
near-future government coups and such -- had better watch their
backsides.
Mr. Bell's attorney, Peter Avenia of the Public Defenders Office in
Tacoma, says he fully expects Mr. Bell to be indicted by a federal grand
jury within the next few weeks.
I asked Mr. Avenia if he believes the case will present substantive
First Amendment questions.
"It certainly does concern me."
Is the IRS making an example of Mr. Bell, to chill any further
discussions on the Internet of how justice can ever be had in the case of
uniformed killers who apparently need no longer fear being indicted or
brought to trial in this country?
"It's certainly a possibility. In the context of the Oklahoma City
bombing it's certainly a hostile atmosphere for any such defendant. I
think we can certainly ask whether the government is trying to send a
message to people who pen inflammatory writings."
Defense attorney Avenia can be reached at the Federal Public Defenders
Office, 1551 Broadway, Suite 501, Tacoma, Wash. 98402. The essay
"Assassination Politics" is available on the Internet at
http://jya.com/ap.htm. The current federal complaint against Mr. Bell can
be found at http://jya.com/jimbell3.htm
Vin Suprynowicz is the assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas
Review-Journal. Readers may contact him via e-mail at [email protected]. The
web site for the Suprynowicz column is at http://www.nguworld.com/vindex/
***
Vin Suprynowicz, [email protected]
Voir Dire: A French term which means "jury stacking."