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@alum.mit.edu and darcy.bender@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