http://apbnews.com/newscenter/breakingnews/2000/11/21/cyberstalk1121_01.html Bitter Man Accused of Stalking Federal Agents Sought to Turn Tables on Investigators, Authorities Charge Nov. 21, 2000 By Joe Beaird TACOMA, Wash. (APBnews.com) -- A convicted felon with a decade-long antagonism against the federal government has been arrested for stalking two Treasury Department agents. James D. Bell of Vancouver is being held at a federal detention center near the SeaTac International Airport as he awaits a bail hearing Wednesday. Bell is the author of an Internet manifesto called Assassination Politics, which proposes a way for people to anonymously claim cash rewards for correctly "predicting" the deaths of government employees and officeholders. The current charges against Bell allege that he made interstate trips attempting to track down agents Jeff Gordon and Mike McNall, who work for the Treasury Departments inspector general for tax administration. Bell allegedly pursued these agents, who had investigated him in previous cases, "with the intent to injure or harass" them, according to the 17-page criminal complaint filed with the U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington at Tacoma. Prior record Gordon led a team of agents who searched Bells house and arrested him in 1997 on similar stalking charges. He has also testified against Bell -- a Massachusetts Institute of Technology chemistry graduate -- on several occasions. McNall was involved in another 1996 case in which Bell was convicted of "corrupt interference" with internal revenue laws. "It had to do with Mr. Bells belief that the agents were illegally harassing him, and his response was to begin an investigation of them," said Bells court-appointed defense lawyer Robert M. Leen. Leen was appointed after Bell complained in Internet-published letters that the federal public defenders office was acting in collusion with federal prosecutors. "Given Mr. Bells history of stalking and aggressively pursuing people when he feels that someone has wronged him, the public defenders office thought it would be best if someone outside the office represented him," Leen told APBnews.com. Allegedly gathered names of workers According to the criminal complaint against him, Bell has been using online databases, voter registration data and motor vehicle records to collect the names and home addresses of dozens of government employees working for the IRS, FBI, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, as well as members of local police agencies. He also has bragged of using his chemistry knowledge to manufacture the toxic nerve gas sarin, the complaint alleges. In 1997, he pleaded guilty to contaminating an IRS office with noxious chemicals, collecting the names of IRS employees, attempting to obstruct the enforcement of internal revenue laws, and using false Social Security numbers to hide his assets, according to the criminal complaint against him. Bell apparently believes that federal officials will be less apt to investigate him if he collects personal information about them. In Internet newsgroup postings he allegedly wrote: "It is very likely that these people will be far more pliable and less abusive in the future if they are well-known." After having tracked down what he thought was Gordons home address and personal information, but which was in fact data about another Jeff Gordon who has a son, Joshua, Bell allegedly posted the following Internet message: "So say goodnight to Joshua, Mr. Anonymous. Tell him its not his fault that his father is a thug." Playing with chemicals Bells vendetta against the government apparently took root in 1989 when he was arrested for the possession of unregistered chemicals at his home, said Milo Wadlin, Bells brother-in-law. "He picked up this one chemical that has almost no uses except to manufacture methamphetamines," Wadlin told APBnews.com. "It wasnt illegal to have it, but they busted his place and it was all over the papers that he had a meth lab. ... He became bitter at that point." Though not illegal to possess, the chemical had to be registered, and Bell failed to do so. He was sentenced to probation, which he apparently violated, according to court records. Bell had always been a prankster, Wadlin said, and used to delight in filling aerosol cans with marijuana odor and spraying them at police gatherings. But after his arrest for unregistered chemicals, the tone changed, he said.