(I've changed the thread title to something simple, replacing the "RE: Zooko on JYA, cpunks, and surveillance (was: Re: Can't tell the kooks without a scorecard? Re: Monkey Wrenching the Echelon Engine)" title.) At 11:56 AM -0700 9/8/98, Fisher Mark wrote:
Zane Lewkowicz writes:
As far as i can tell, only people who threaten feds with physical danger are getting busted. Threatening feds with the possibility of a future society in which their roles are obviated apparently doesn't work.
This matches what I've seen. Mr. Bell made the big mistake of directly attacking the IRS (the mercaptan [sp?] attack). I've had some dealings with local government people on real estate issues (who have generally been reasonably helpful), and the set of people who like practical jokes has a (nearly?) null intersection with the set of people who go into government service. Especially when you do something to send people to the doctor because of chemical-induced vomiting...
Ditto in spade for me. To wit, if I caught someone dumping mercaptin under my door I'd likely be so enraged I'd empty a clip into him right then and there...and I'd consider myself justified. Bell "crossed the line" into committing prosecutable offenses in more than just the alleged mercaptin attack. There was also the matter of working under multiple faked Social Security numbers. (No, I'm not saying this was immoral. Just illegal. And those who do the crime should not be surprised to have to do the time.) The issue of whether he threatened IRS officials at their home by having their home addresses is unproven to me. Compiling such lists is perfectly legal. The metal chaff he supposedly wanted to drop down an IRS building airshaft...well, it seems unworkable. And, as many of us have noted, their is zero chance a working AP system was deployed, absent several of the building blocks. So AP could not in itself have been a threat. But clearly his AP literature aroused much interest by various arms of law enforcement. And once arouse, they pretty much had to find something to get him on. His earlier conviction or plea on chemical and/or drug charges meant they were looking for chemicals. And they found them. Plus, recall that Bell bragged to his friends that he'd gotten revenge against a lawyer he didn't like, and against the IRS.
If Tim May gets picked up, I expect it to be a result of a Chinese Cultural Revolution-type action (all intellectuals, all programmers, all engineers, etc.). As long as Tim isn't entrapped, he is probably pretty safe from being picked up. However, there's going to be a lot of changes in the near future (e$, Y2K, Internet fall-out, biochemoelectronics, etc.), so I advise that everyone batten down the hatches -- we're in for a stormy ride into a [likely] glorious future.
I don't hide my political views, nor my support of various interesting technologies. My actions are fully protected by the Bill of Rights, even if various unconstitutional restrictions on mys speech and funding habits have been recently passed. I expect the chickens to come home to roost...meaning, some nerve gas or biological attacks on government, the nuking of at least one major city, and possibly the driving of the Zionists into the sea (figuratively speaking, as more literally they'll probably be hacked to death by Arabs, gassed by neighboring states, and possibly incinerated with ex-Soviet nukes). Chickens coming home to roost. The patriot movement in the U.S. is gaining strength every day, though it is going to ground. (Which makes strong crypto tools much more interesting and important to them.) I expect they may strike at various targets as Y2K unfolds. It is a glorious thing for our technologies to be spreading into the hands of those who can do so much. --Tim May "The tree of liberty must be watered periodically with the blood of tyrants...." ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments.