Jim Bell 2

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

   The Oregonian, May 20, 1997, Metro Section P-1:

   IRS says suspect discussed sabotage

      An affidavit says a Vancouver man arrested Friday talked of
      sabotaging Portland's 9-1-1 computer and Bull Run water

   By John Painter, Jr., of the Oregonian staff

   Vancouver, Wash. -- A Vancouver man arrested Friday by Internal
   Revenue agents discussed sabotaging the computers in Portland's
   9-1-1 center and talked about using a botulism toxin to contaminate 
   the Bull Run water supply, a federal agent said Monday.

   James Dalton Bell, 38, appeared Monday afternoon in U.S. District
   Court in Tacoma and was accused in an 18-page affidavit of scheming
   to overthrow the U.S. government.

   U.S. Magistrate J. Kelly Arnold set Friday for a detention and
   preliminary hearing. The government has asked that Bell be held
   without bail because he is a danger to the community.

   Bell, who describes himself as a libertarian, has a history of tax
   disputes with the IRS, which says Bell "has a large, outstanding unpaid
   balance."

   Bell is the author of "Assassination Politics," a 10-part essay about a
   risk-free way of rewarding assassins who successfully kill designated
   public officials. The essay has circulated on the Internet.

   The strategy, which Bell says he wrote and posted for discussion,
   involves uses of encryption to predict and confirm assassinations and
   electronic digital cash to pay for the killings.

   Federal agents raided Bell's Vancouver home April 1.

   He is accused of obstructing government officers and employees and
   using false Social Security numbers. But government agents think he
   is far more dangerous than the charges suggest, the affidavit filed by
   IRS Inspector Phillip G. Scott said.

   Scott's affidavit said Bell, who has a chemistry degree from the
   Massaschusetts Institute of Technology, had discussions about using
   carbon fiber particles to attack computer systems with Greg Daly, a
   friend who is an electronics specialist overseeing Portland's 9-1-1
   communications center.

   "Daly stated that he and Bell had 'laughed' about attacking the 9-1-1
   center with fiber," the affidavit said.

   Daly also told IRS agents that he had hypothetical discussions with
   Bell about contaminating water supplies and about making botulism
   toxin from green beans, the affidavit said.

   In the April 17 and 18 interviews with IRS agents, Daly said that as part
   of his job, he "has keys and direct access to the Portland Bull Run
   water treatment facility."

   Daly said Monday that the conversations that he and Bell had were
   merely "intellectual fun-and-games discussions" between old friends
   who enjoy technical things.

   "There's a difference between reasonable freedom of speech and
   unreasonable probability of attack," Daly said. "Standing around and
   flapping our lips about how it would be funny is way different from
   even contemplating actual attack."

   Daly described his friend of 15 years as a "bit of an odd unit" but never
   dangerous and never serious about attacking the 9-1-1 systems or the
   Bull Run watershed.

   "I'd rat him out in a heartbeat for that," Daly said.

   Thursday, IRS agents searched the home of Robert East, a merchant
   radioman and a friend of Bell's. Among items seized was 3-foot length
   of carbon fiber.

   The affidavit said East told agents that he and Bell had discussed "the
   possibility of putting the fibers down the air vents of a federal building"
   to kill its computers and about using the fiber against the IRS.

   However, Bell has described himself as a "man of ideas, not action,"
   and East said Bell was a "talker, not a doer."

   [End]

   Thanks to John Painter.