Jim Bell goes to Jail!

[Alan Olsen <alan@ctrl-alt-del.com>]

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- From the Oregonian Sunday edition May 18, 1997 page D-10:

IRS agents arrest Vancouver man who called for killing federal workers

* James D. Bell, who wrote the 10-part essay, "Assassination Politics," faces 
charges of interfering with a U.S. officer

By John Painter Jr.
of the Oregonian staff

VANCOUVER - A Vancouver man who has written about assassination of government 
officials and whose home was raided in April has been arrested by IRS agents 
on charges of interfering with a federal officer.

James D. Bell was held without bail in the Clark County jail.  On Monday, the 
IRS will transport him to U.S. District Court in Tacoma for his first 
appearance.  He was arrested without incident Friday evening while waiting
for 
a bus after work.

IRS agents could not be reached for comment, and the complaint underlying the 
criminal charge was sealed and unavailable.  The Clark County Jail confirmed 
that Bell was a prisoner there, held on a federal detainer.

A friend of Bell's, Robert W. East, said Bell phoned him from jail and told 
him he was arrested for interfering with a federal officer.

The affidavit for the April search warrant accused Bell of "directly 
soliciting others to set up a system to murder government officials" and 
"obtaining the home address of an IRS employee, as well as information about 
bombs and bomb-making materials."

Bell is the admitted author of a 10-part essay called "Assassination 
Politics," which has been circulated widely on the Internet, particularly in 
anti-government forums.  "Assassination Politics" discusses creation of an 
organization to reward those killing public officials while protecting 
assassins' identities.

IRS agents searched East's home in Vancouver on Thursday.  East said he was 
questioned for about 90 minutes, during which time agents asked him about a 
"stink-bomb attack" on an IRS office in San Diego or Long Beach, Calif.,
and a 
"propane bomb" found at another IRS office.  In that search agents found a 3-
foot carbon fiber that East said he got from Bell for an electrolysis 
experiment.

Federal agents since have focused on a Bell theory that carbon fibers could
be 
used to sabotage computer hard drives, thus disabling them.  East confirmed 
Bell's interest in using carbon fibers as a "computer killer" but dismissed
it 
as a "goofball idea."

The search warrant for East's home shows that the government also is 
interested in determining whether Bell and others have experimented with 
volatile chemicals in preparation for attacks on IRS offices and agents.

The search warrant for Bell's home shows that agents were searching for 
evidence of "threats, assaults, obstruction, intimidation, solicitation of 
murder, false statements, and the unlawful use of false social security 
numbers."

Jeff Gordon, a Portland-based IRS special investigator, said he discovered 
"Assassination Politics" among items seized when IRS agents took Bell's 1986 
Honda for unpaid back taxes in February.  Bell denied the car was his.  An
IRS 
tally of the items inside the car included a document about a "trial" by the 
Multnomah County Common Law Court in January of several IRS agents, a federal 
magistrate in Portland, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and an IRS 
commissioner, Margaret Richardson.

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