It's naieve to assume that Bell was even the target. World gov't/military machines learned their PR lessons in vietnam. As a part of a greater plan, it makes sense. If the stinkbomb allegations are fact, then they have enough to convict him on something minor like assault, possibly with intent or with a weapon. That would help, but wouldn't be required. They most definitely have posts with his name on them and people who would testify to his being of the libertatian/radical bent. Neither of those will likely hold up in court, but that's ok. The US is still reeling from OK City. Tried as it might, the US gov't couldn't find an outside enemy to pin it to. Whether Timmy did it or not is again irrelevant, they needed to find someone to blame and did. Now that it's the defenses turn, it would be useful to remind people of the scar--get someone for "conspiring" to do it again. Bring up that hatred again--can't hurt the prosecutions case. Markoff's and Littman's versions of the Mitnick saga are indeed most interesting. Shimomura's machine gets broken into and there was _something_ on there that _someone_ wanted back pretty badly. Does it matter if he did it? _Someone_ did, and that alone is usable. BTW, we get to wash the egg off the FBI. Sommi the "cyberstalker" goes unfound for months. Come on, we all know that no one could be that stupid. Ultimately, these add up in the mind of Joe public online. He's scared of hackers and organizations that promote libertarianism. "We can protect you from them if you let us." At this point the collective conscious doesn't care about losing what it percieves as a tiny amount of freedom to keep itself and it's offspring safe. And that's the game. The more a gov't oppresses, the more paranoid it needs to be. Becoming a police state is simple, becoming a welcomed police state takes careful planning. Prior planning prevents piss poor performance -- sparky