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Judge in Jim Bell trial says media may not quote public documents
by Declan McCullagh 10 Apr '01

10 Apr '01

----- Forwarded message from Declan McCullagh <declan(a)well.com> -----

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IP follies
by Nomen Nescio 10 Apr '01

10 Apr '01

"Kuala Lumpur located" inet-one.com's IP (216.167.27.54) seems to be owned by Verio, Inc. (NET-VRIO-216-167-000) 8005 South Chester Street Englewood, CO 80112 US traceroute: 3 usc-isi-atm.ln.net (130.152.128.2) 3.509 ms 4.66 ms 4 fa-0-0-0.a01.lsanca01.us.ra.verio.net (209.189.66.65) 5.98 ms 5.281 ms 5 ge-5-0.r01.lsanca01.us.bb.verio.net (129.250.29.142) 5.654 ms 7.404 ms 6 p4-5-0.r00.snjsca03.us.bb.verio.net (129.250.2.25) 13.729 ms 15.388 ms 7 p4-0-3.r05.plalca01.us.bb.verio.net (129.250.2.73) 13.494 ms 15.355 ms 8 p4-0-2.r00.mclnva02.us.bb.verio.net (129.250.2.246) 103.8 ms 103.54 ms 9 p4-2-0.alx2.dn.net (129.250.17.2) 103.263 ms 103.274 ms 10 ge0031.ed2.wdc.dn.net (216.167.88.124) 104.228 ms 106.188 ms 11 kuala-lumpur.inet-one.com (216.167.27.54) 104.531 ms 104.717 ms dn.net appears to be ... Verio. So, inet-one.com is somewhere in US.

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That latest military SNAFU
by George＠Orwellian.Org 10 Apr '01

10 Apr '01

Ugh, let's see, not the crash in Vietnam, not the sub taking out the Japs... The NSA spy plane: FoxNewsChannel reports the plane was flying straight while on autopilot when it was hit. We outta send Steve Martin over to apologize. __ __ _ _ \ \ / /__| | | \ \ /\ / / _ \ | | \ V V / __/ | | \_/\_/ \___|_|_| _____ | ____|_ _____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ ___ | _| \ \/ / __| | | | | | | | | | | | / __|/ _ \ | |___ > < (__| |_| | |_| | |_| | |_| \__ \ __/ |_____/_/\_\___|\__,_|\__,_|\__,_|\__,_|___/\___| __ __ _ | \/ | ___| | | |\/| |/ _ \ | | | | | __/_| |_| |_|\___(_)

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Please disappear, government
by A. Melon 10 Apr '01

10 Apr '01

>I personally think that, as information becomes more and more >available, government becomes less and less necessary. Or >maybe the idea should be expressed as "Government is a protocol >for collaborative or collective action in the absence of the It is a serious delusion that government is there because it is necessary for something you need. Goverment is not there by your choice or some required service for the common good. Not everything they teach in school is true. Government is simply a consequence of the will for power. The fuckers will fuck the fucked, in the name of this and that, whatever makes it easier to take. Now just relax that sphincter ... it's for the kids ...

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TannerWatch
by Blank Frank 10 Apr '01

10 Apr '01

Bockwinkel, a former newspaper photojournalist and editor, captured Arends' assault of Coffey on film. (The clear and graphic pictures can be viewed on the CLEAN Web site at http://www.clean.org/photos/photo1.html ). In one photo, Arends is choking the petite Coffey in a parking lot; her body is rammed against a pick-up truck. A federal jury agreed with Coffey's complaint of excessive force by Arends, but U.S. District Court Judge Jack Tanner dismissed the suit and declined to award damages. http://www.web-friend.com/bob/page8.html

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Cypherpunks Web Archive
by Eric Cordian 10 Apr '01

10 Apr '01

Does anyone know why the Cypherpunks archive at www.inet-one.com/cypherpunks/ has been down for over a day now? If it's just a DNS problem, could someone post a numeric IP. Thanks. -- Eric Michael Cordian 0+ O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"

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Tanner reversed again
by Anne Fibian 10 Apr '01

10 Apr '01

Posted by FoM on July 07, 1999 at 11:24:55 PT Source: SF Gate SAN FRANCISCO An appeals court has struck down a federal sentencing guideline and ordered a reduction in a Washington man's 6 1/2-year sentence for illegal gun possession by a felon. The guideline under which a federal judge sentenced Albert Leo Palmer conflicted with the federal law on gun sentences, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday. That law increases a gun possession sentence if a felon's previous crime was for violence or drugs, but not if the state has either granted a pardon or restored the felon's civil rights. Restoration of rights, including the right to own guns, is a procedure used by many states after a felon successfully completes parole. Palmer pleaded guilty to concealing his criminal record and giving other false information when he bought a rifle from a licensed dealer in Tacoma, Wash. in October 1976. U.S. District Judge Jack Tanner sentenced him to more than twice the sentence originally recommended by prosecutors, based in part on the fact that one of his past crimes was a 1989 conviction for possessing marijuana with the intent to distribute. But the appeals court said the state of Washington had later restored Palmer's civil rights for that conviction. Although the U.S. Sentencing Commission's guidelines would allow the conviction to be used to increase the sentence, the guidelines conflict with the underlying law, said Judge Sidney Thomas in the 3-0 ruling. The court also said Tanner had wrongly found Palmer responsible for owning a number of guns that actually belonged to his son, another basis for an increased sentence. The net effect is that his new sentence will be no more than 18 months, a period he has already served, said Assistant Federal Public Defender Peter Offenbecher. The case is U.S. vs. Palmer, 98-30181. http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread1939.shtml

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school censorship
by Blank Frank 10 Apr '01

10 Apr '01

Apr 6, 2001 - 01:16 PM Confederate T-Shirts Spark Fashion Fight in Southern Schools By Russ Bynum Associated Press Writer RICHMOND HILL, Ga. (AP) - Zane Dunn wore a banned T-shirt to school and became a rebel with a Confederate cause. Like six other students at Richmond Hill Middle School, 14-year-old Zane was suspended for a day because of the Confederate flag on the shirt. More than a century after Lee surrendered at Appomattox and a few months after defenders of Confederate symbols lost battles in the Georgia and South Carolina statehouses, the fight over Southern heritage has moved to schoolhouses. "My Confederate ancestors, they died for this flag," said 14-year-old Zane, whose mother bought him the shirt after another student was suspended. "I was born and raised in the South and I have to stand up for it." Educators say they have banned Confederate symbols to prevent racial violence. Parents and students from Richmond Hill, 18 miles south of Savannah, wore Confederate shirts and bandanas to a recent Bryan County school board meeting to protest the suspensions last month. In Cairo, Ga., rebel flag-waving parents picketed their school board after 50 students at Cairo High School and Washington Middle School were told to change their Confederate shirts. The American Civil Liberties Union has gotten involved in a similar controversy in Brunswick, Ga., where the principal of Jane Macon Middle School wrote to parents saying the shirts caused "rumors of threats and impending fights." Cairo High principal Wayne Tootle said the actions do not stem from political correctness but from school shootings that have taught administrators to be wary of anything that might lead to violence. "School folks are in a very precarious situation," Tootle said. "If they don't do something to try to prevent, and something happens, then the parents and news media will just lambast them for what they didn't do." In recent years, children wearing Confederate symbols, even as backpack patches, have been punished in Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia. In Georgia, the controversies followed the Legislature's move in January to change the state flag, which had been dominated by the Confederate emblem since 1956. School officials said bans on Confederate emblems have been in place for years, but the flag fight prompted students and parents to deliberately violate them. "Adults who want to keep arguing need to do something other than use our youngsters as a pawn in some political game," said Gary Russell, superintendent of the Bryan County school system. A lawyer representing parents in Richmond Hill and Cairo said the change in the Georgia flag has emboldened school officials. "The flag came down and they said, 'Oh, boy! It's open season on Confederate flags,'" said Kirk Lyons of the Southern Legal Resource Center, whose clients have included a former Ku Klux Klan grand dragon and the head of a North Carolina NAACP chapter. The classroom clashes have been a boon for Dewey Barber and his T-shirt company, Odum-based Dixie Outfitters, which has more than 200 shirt designs that incorporate the Confederate flag. "When they tell them they can't wear the rebel flag, they say, 'By gosh, we have the right of free speech and to our heritage!' And they buy more," Barber said. Dixie Outfitters shirts are so popular that some schools have banned them by brand name. Zane and his six fellow students all wore Dixie Outfitters shirts. Zane's shirt depicted a snarling, wild boar, with the Confederate emblem as a backdrop. Another Dixie Outfitters design shows just the flag's corners peeking from a basket of sleeping puppies. A third shirt depicts slaves working in a cotton field beneath the words "The Land of Cotton." No lawsuits have been filed in Georgia, but the state chapter of the ACLU has sent letters urging schools to lift the bans. Georgia ACLU legal director Gery Weber said the bans violate students' free-speech rights unless a school can show evidence that a shirt causes classroom disruptions. "It is hard to say a Confederate flag on a T-shirt is going to create that when, until recently, the Georgia flag had that on it and was placed in all the schools," he said. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected without comment the appeal of an Ohio student whose T-shirts of shock-rocker Marilyn Manson were banned from school. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had sided with the school, saying it could ban shirts that were offensive, even if they didn't cause a serious disruption. But the same appeals court last month revived a lawsuit by two Kentucky students who were suspended for wearing Hank Williams Jr. shirts with the Confederate flag. The court said the school needed to better explain its reason for the ban, such as whether there had been racial violence. http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAIYRP68LC.html

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Jim Bell Trial: Third Day
by auto211076＠hushmail.com 10 Apr '01

10 Apr '01

Third Day: Jim Bell trial Rabatin (the computer forensics specialist) took the stand again. He verified that more documents were pulled from Bell's computer: 1) Message to Ray Dillinger, 10/19/2000, "Judges Needed Killing". Rabatin read an excerpt where Bell suggested a "chemical solution" whereby PCBs could be used to contaminate vehicles seized by government agencies, turning them from $10,000 assets into $100,000 liabilities. 2) The now oft-cited "Say Goodnight to Joshua" message of 10/24/2000. 3) Message to Jim East (friend of Bell's who testified on Wednesday) on 10/24/2000, regarding Bell's investigation of addresses of a Jeffrey Gordon in Eagle Creek, OR, and Mike McNall. An excerpt read by Rabatin: "The new renter acted like he knew Mike McNall." 4) Message on 10/25/2000 to John Branton at the Vancouver Columbian, Re: Harry Browne in Portland. Bell writes that he talked to Gordon and McNall. Bell states that Lund got 10 years off sentence in exchange for assistance in intimidating Bell into signing the original guilty plea agreement. 5) Message to cypherpunks, 10/25, "CIA in Oregon." 6) Message on 10/26 to Branton, regarding Bell's search through the Oregon DMV database for a possible CIA operative. 7) Message to Bob Johnson on 10/26, with a reference to outing feds. 8) Message to cypherpunks, 10/27, regarding the CIA and Intellink in Oregon. 9) Another message to cypherpunks on the same date, same subject 10) Message to Branton, 10/28, regarding "outing" of "CIA agent" Mueller in Bend. 11) Message (to Branton?), saying that the Mueller in Bend did not have the same birthday as previously thought. 12) Message to cypherpunks, 10/30, Re: Parties, urging people to make various public databases easily available. 13) Message to jessicas(a)alum.mit.edu and darcy.bender(a)iis.com, with cc: to Declan McCullagh, John Branton, and John Painter. Bell states that he's still interested in uncovering the truth concerning McNall and Lund. He asks the recipients to call the ATF office where he believes that McNall works. As part of the deal that Bell believes that Lund got for cooperation, Bell notes that Lund got 27 months instead of 10-12 years for possession of an illegal firearm and methamphetamines. 14) Message to John Young, 11/2, describing his upcoming trip to Bend to check out the address of Mueller. 15) Message to Blanc Weber, 11/3, similar to the previous message to John Young. 16) Message to cypherpunks, 11/4, Re: CIA in Oregon and Intellink" describing the Mueller home in Bend, Oregon, and listing license plate numbers on cars he found there. During the above testimony, the prosecution displayed the email messages on a monitor that was located about 20 feet from the jury box. The jurors leaned over, squinting to see the messages. Although there had been two days of testimony where images had been displayed on this monitor, it wasn't until the third day that the judge asked if the jurors had difficulty seeing the messages. Almost all raised their hands. The judge then encourage the jurors to stand up and move around to get a better look at the monitor, which they did for a couple of exhibits. After that, none of the jurors made significant physical effort to examine the exhibits. London asked Rabatin: "How do you know authorship [of these emails]?" Rabatin responded that the email programs are set up for multiple users. However, he generally only looked at emails that were obviously either authored by or sent to Jim Bell. Rabatin noted that other family members used email on the same computer that Jim did, and that Rabatin had only made a cursory review of their accounts. In cross-examination, Rabatin stated that he had only found email on one computer, although three computers were seized in the November 6 raid. (Obviously, the two computers that were seized but obviously not used by Bell were sitting in the courtroom and had not yet been returned to the family.) In addition, Rabatin had failed to check the date and time on Bell's computer, but believed them to be generally accurate. The prosecution next called Barbara Gordon, wife of a Jeffrey Gordon. She pointed out her husband in the courtroom, a youngish, bearded working-class casually dressed man. She verified that the information that Bell had gathered from public databases referred to her and her husband. She testified that she had never received the October explanation of benefits from her insurance carrier, and stated that she and her husband were so busy that at times they did not pick up their mail for a couple of days at a time from the mailbox at the curb. In cross-examination, Leen asked her where she had heard of Jim Bell. She was unaware of Bell until Jeff Gordon had approached her. Asked if she knew of any thefts or trespass, she said that she did not. The next witness was Robert Dutra, Detention Enforcement Officer with the U.S. Marshall's Service. He verified that he had taken a 10-print card of Bell's fingerprints on 11/20/2000. Bell had signed the fingerprint card. Succeeding Dutra was Sue White, a Senior Fingerprint Specialist with the Treasury Department. She was qualified as an expert witness under rule 702. White was obviously experienced in testifying. While most witnesses watched and responded to the attorney questioning them, White would listen to the question and then turn to the jury to respond. Her responses were textbook- quality, an introduction to fingerprint analysis 101. Not until Jeff Gordon took the stand did any other witness so directly address the jury. She stated that she examined Bell's notebook for prints, and also examined the notes left on cars (those that asked the owners to call John Branton at the Columbian). Latent fingerprints from Bell were found on the notebook, but not on the notes left on the cars. The court recessed for a break. During the break, London tried to get the judge to admit a newspaper article about the Tokyo subway Sarin attack on the basis that it was corroboration for the fears of the IRS agents. Tanner couldn't see the point, and ruled in favor of the defense. London then brought up the matter of John Young being able to download the list of juror names from the Pacer system. Pacer is accessible from the internet for a fee. Tanner had barred anyone from publishing juror's names, but apparently one of his assistants had already published the juror's names to Pacer. Tanner ruled that the names could not be reproduced in any medium. The defense requested information about the tracking device that was attached to Jim Bell's car: the type, make, and where installed in the car. London cited "law enforcement privilege" and argued that giving out that information would enable future surveillance subjects to find and dismantle such devices. (Earlier in the trial, it was mentioned that this was the first use of a GPS tracking device in the area.) When the jury returned, Christy Hanley took the stand. She is an office manager for Unitel Communications. She pulled the long-distance records for the Bell residence for the period 5/2000 through 12/2000. She stated that on 10/31/2000 at 10:34 a.m., a call had been made for 2 minutes to (503) 326-2246. The next witness to take the stand was Brian Mayer, special agent for the ATF. He stated that he had installed the electronic tracking device on Bell's car, a Nissan Maxima, during the 11/6 raid, pursuant to federal court order. He said that the device received GPS signals from up to 12 satellites, and had an RF transmitter for broadcasting the location of the vehicle. The GPS quality was "high quality, probably military." The RF signal, which was always on, was broadcast to a receiver, and the data mapped onto a street grid coordinate system which could be displayed on a PC. Mayer implied that the device also had a recording function when he stated that after he had removed the device from Bell's car on 11/20, he had "downloaded data" from the device into a computer. The jury was then recessed for lunch. The judge then called on John Young about the matter of publishing jurors' names. Young asked for clarification. Tanner told him not to publish any names before the end of the trial under penalty of contempt. The prosecution tried to get all records sealed until the end of the trial, but Tanner said that the order extended to the names of jurors only, not the names and addresses of anyone else. After lunch, Mayer re-took the stand. He mentioned that he had tested the accuracy of the tracking device before attaching it to Bell's car, and verified it after he had attached it on 11/6. He mentioned that he removed the device on Thanksgiving morning. The device, he said, emits signal continuously even when the car is stopped. On cross-examination, Leen asked him if Bell had also been tailed. Mayer said that agents had relied on the tracker alone. Next on the stand was Kevin Layng, patrol sergeant with the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office. He testified that he had stopped Bell after Bell had been to the Groener's residence in Oregon City. Layng had been alerted by Treasury agents that Bell's car was in the area, and found Bell driving about 2-3 miles away from the Groener's residence. He stated that he followed Bell for about half a mile, during which time Bell crossed the center line of the road by about a foot when going around curves. That was sufficient cause to stop him. Layng's instructions were to stop Bell, then wait for a federal agent to come to the scene. Layng said that he questioned Bell and that Bell returned his questions with more questions. Bell asked the real reason he was being stopped, who Layng had been talking to. Leen cross-examined Layng, asking if Bell possessed any weapons, chemical or nerve agents. Layng said no. Layng stated that ATF agent Mike McNall had shown up and spoke briefly with him. McNall expressed concern to Layng about the Groener's house. Layng also mentioned that Bell was handcuffed during the stop, about 30-40 minutes, then released. The next witness was Randy Oxford, Sheriff's office hazardous materials technician, Clackamas County. He was called out to recover the notes that had been left on the vehicles (ones that asked the owners to call Branton at the Columbian), because Treasury agents believed that they might be contaminated with PCBs. The notes were transferred to the Clackamas County hazardous chemical facility. On cross-examination, Oxford stated that he did not know the outcome of the chemical analysis. (These are the same notes that were later handled- without unusual precautions, apparently, by Sue White when she did the fingerprint analysis.) Called next to the stand was John Branton, police reporter for the Vancouver Columbian. He stated that he had written several articles about Jim Bell over the years, and had talked on the phone and exchanged email with Bell a number of times. He testified that Bell had told him that Bell had been researching Oregon DMV databases and had driven to government agents' homes and taken pictures. Under cross-examination, Branton stated that Bell believed that he had been persecuted and was trying to gather proof from court records and license databases. Bell felt that the government knew that he was getting too close to the truth, and that government agents hated him. Bell mentioned in email to Branton that he wanted to ask Mike McNall about the deal with Ryan Lund. On cross-examination, Leen asked Branton about the email with the subject "Re: Harry Browne in Portland." Leen: "Who's Harry Browne?" Branton: "I don't know who Harry Browne is." Leen asked Branton if he thought Bell was dangerous. Branton replied, "I asked Jim if he intended to hurt someone, and he said no." In a later email that Branton read to the court, Bell gave a more ambiguous answer. When Branton asked Bell if he was a terrorist "Are you just talking or do you intend to hurt someone?", he said that Bell "always seemed to be just talking." After a short recess, Mike McNall, special agent of the ATF, Portland, took the stand. He confirmed the ATF's address at 1500 SW 1st Ave., Room 680 in Portland. He stated that he was the principal agent in the Lund case, prosecuting him for felony possession of a firearm. He hadn't heard of Bell until Jeff Gordon alerted him that his name had been mentioned on the cypherpunks list on 9/15/2000. He stated that there had been no deal for Lund, that most cases of this type go into plea bargain. He said that he hadn't been in touch with Lund since the original interview with Lund in 1997. London asked McNall how he felt about being "stalked" by Bell. McNall said his initial reaction was that it was part of being in law enforcement. But after learning about Assassination Politics, Sarin, and Bell's chemistry background, he was concerned for himself and his family. He mentioned that he thought about getting a restraining order, but decided not to for two reasons: (1) the difficulty of serving a restraining order issued by an Oregon court on a Washington resident; (2) the requirement (which might be waived with some trouble) of putting his home address on the order. Instead he notified the local police, and arranged for them to show up immediately in case Bell came to his house, started locking up his garage rather than leaving it unlocked. He stated that his wife became more aware of cars in the neighborhood, and that he himself cancelled a business trip scheduled for the time before Bell was taken into custody. On cross-examination, McNall stated that he had never met Bell, and denied that Lund was working as an informant for the ATF. On re-examination, McNall stated that Bell had gotten his name from researching Lund's case file. The next witness was Jeff Gordon, special agent for the Inpector General for Tax Administration. Although Tanner had initially excluded witnesses from the courtroom during the trial, Gordon had sat during the entire trial at the prosecution table, calling up exhibits on his computer, prompting D.A. London during questioning, and bringing in prosecution witnesses. He said that his job was investigating threats against IRS agents and their families. He first became aware of Bell in October, 1996, when his attention was drawn to a post on cypherpunks concerning a post with personal information of Joan Luthy and Lynn Rose (CID). He then ran Bell's email address through a search engine, found Bell's AP essay and "similar language." He also found an ad through the search engine of computer equipment for sale. The ad had a phone number. Gordon traced the phone number to a house in Vancouver, Washington. Gordon also found references to "Operation Locate IRS" which he said alarmed him greatly. The references were found in email sent to both the Common Law Court and the Northwest Libertarians lists. He stated that Operation Locate IRS "directly targeted tax collectors." During a six-month investigation, Gordon pulled Bell's IRS file. In the file was a letter from Bell, where he threatened to take the IRS to the Common Law Court. Bell owed money from previous years, and had failed to file tax forms for some years. (Gordon did not disclose if Bell had sufficient income to file a return in those years; nor did Gordon mentioned that W- 2s or 1099s had been filed for those years.) On May 15, 1997, Bell was arrested for obstruction of IRS operations and his home was searched. A warrant was soon issued to search East's home because East and Bell had email conversations about using nickel-coated carbon fiber to sabotage computers. Gordon complained that he didn't get much information from the email exchanges between Bell and East were encrypted. "We know when two people exchange email, there's two copies of every email." Only a few messages had been stored on hard drives unencrypted. Why was East's house searched? Gordon replied that Bell had been using East's house to receive mail and had used East's phone. In 1997, Bell pleaded guilty to obstructing the IRS. Starting early in 1998 in mail and phone correspondence with people outside of prison, Bell talked of the connection between Ryan Lund and federal agents. However, Gordon stated, Bell assented in court during his sentencing that he had not been coerced into making a guilty plea. Asked if federal agents had followed Bell, Gordon said that Bell may have been followed "once or twice" in 1997, but not in 1998. He said that Bell's home had never been wiretapped, that evidence against Bell had been developed through legal means. Gordon said that Bell "seems to be obsessed that his neighbors are spying on him and beaming things at him." Gordon maintained an interest in Bell and decided to maintain a watch on him prior to his release in April, 2000, because he believed that there "would be substantial security issues when he got out of jail." Gordon mentioned that when agents raided Bell's home in 1997, that the hazmat team wouldn't even go in because of all the chemicals in Bell's home. Agents thought about abandoning the search, but decided instead to go in and search quickly. Before release, Bell had gotten in touch with people outside of jail and some contacted Jeff Gordon to give him a heads up. "He clearly wasn't backing off from the kinds of activities that he's been arrested for in the first place." Bell was still advocating assassination politics and other ideas and that showed that he hadn't reformed. After release people in the Vancouver voter registration office said that Bell had visited the office, looking up names. During the summer, Bell's neighbors complained of black smoke coming from the chimney of Bell's house. Gordon linked that with his concern that Bell was burning chemicals in the fireplace. Bell said that he continued to monitor the cypherpunks list and USENET. Apparently he used a search engine to look at USENET postings. When he saw the "Judges needed killing" post, Gordon stated that it got him "worried enough" to open up a new investigation. Gordon insisted that he was only monitoring public lists, and not monitoring private communications. Court then recessed for the day. Free, encrypted, secure Web-based email at www.hushmail.com

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Day #3: U.S. v. Jim Bell report from federal court in Tacoma
by Declan McCullagh 10 Apr '01

10 Apr '01

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,42895,00.html ATF Admits Tracking Jim Bell by Declan McCullagh (declan(a)wired.com) 10:20 a.m. Apr. 6, 2001 PDT TACOMA, Washington -- The government revealed Thursday that it implanted a satellite-tracking device in a suspect's car and tracked him as he drove around Oregon and Washington. Brian Meyer, a special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, testified that he installed a GPS bug last November in a Nissan Maxima owned by defendant Jim Bell. Meyer told a fascinated jury that the device -- "high quality, something that military and law enforcement uses" -- continually transmitted Bell's exact location using a radio signal to receivers operated by law enforcement. Federal agents used graphical mapping software on a PC to plot Bell's movements in real time. Political essayist Bell is on trial here this week in a case that involves his alleged use of legally obtained CD-ROMs to compile information about Treasury Department agents. He is not accused of directly threatening them, but the government says that by collecting information about agents by driving to their suspected residences and by refusing to renounce his writings about how to assassinate unethical federal employees, Bell is guilty of violating stalking laws. The government hopes to prove that Bell crossed state lines when driving from Vancouver, Washington along I-205 to 14135 S. Clackamas Drive in Oregon City, Oregon. That address is the current home of Christopher John Groener, who testified on behalf of the prosecution, and the former residence of ATF agent Mike McNall. [...] ----- End forwarded message -----

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