Re: Jim Bell raid

[Alan <alano@teleport.com>]

On Thu, 3 Apr 1997, Greg Broiles wrote:

> A southern Washington newspaper, The Columbian (apparently published in
> Vancouver) provides a "greeked" (e.g., squiggles instead of text) version of
> its front page at http://www.columbian.com (you'll have to pick the frame for
> "The latest Columbian headlines") - and today's page one above-the-fold
> headline is "Affidavit: Internet essay solicits murder". 

I have the Columbian with the front page articles.  (They have two.  One
titled _Federal agents 'overreacting,' says Vancouver target of raid_ and
the other titled _Assassination scheme on Internet_.)  The articles are in
the Columbian's standard style. (i.e. slanted towards sensationalizm and
general tabloid sleeze with lots of quotation marks.)

> It looks to me like this is real. Yow. Jim Bell is a goddamn loon, but I
> haven't seen him write anything that I thought was criminal. 

What is "Criminal" is getting more and more broad.  (My personal belief is
that if the Government wanted to discredit AP they would just send Mr.
Bell on a speaking tour.)

Maybe the raid was just making an "example" as to what could happen to
those who threaten the state. (No matter how badly.)