Eric, I invite folks to read the full article at: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,40102,00.html http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=00/11/11/101218&mode=nested I'm not taking a position on Bell's case. I do need to tell my readers why was locked up earlier, and that seemed a reasonable way to do it. Bell was not coerced into taking the plea agreement; if anything, he seems to have more mental resources to fight the system than other defendants I have interviewed. -Declan On Sat, Nov 11, 2000 at 09:40:34AM -0800, Eric Cordian wrote:
In a Wired News article, Declan reports:
"In Bell's 1997, plea agreement, he admitted to owning chemicals that could be used to produce Sarin gas and to stink-bombing the carpet outside an IRS office."
Yeah, and I own chemicals for making chlorine gas. Sodium hypochlorite solution, and sodium bisulphate. I use these "dangerous" chemicals when I do my laundry, and when I clean my bathroom.
I think "chemicals that could be used to produce..." is pretty sleezy journalism, which could describe virtually anything. I think using the word "admitted" in describing a plea bargain taken in lieu of a much longer prison sentence is also pretty sleezy journalism.
What were the chemicals in question? Does Bell, outside of documents the government makes him sign, claim to have made the IRS doormat smell bad?
Does anyone with a clue think nitric acid is a ominous chemical for a chemist to own?
I'm really getting tired of Jim Bell articles whose tone suggests that despite the egregious mistreatment of Mr. Bell, the government apprehended him just in the nick of time, before he killed millions with homemade weapons of mass destruction.
Bell's Common Law Court was political theatre, his Assassination Politics essays satirical commentary on political accountability, and his documentation of smart-assed IRS employees consumer activism. Aside from not giving his government-issued Social Security number to an employer, the entire compendium of alleged Jim Bell crimes is little more than one of IRS Agent Jeff Gordon's more extreme masturbation fantasies.
-- Eric Michael Cordian 0+ O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"