More stories from the Bell jar...
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- This story is from the Oregonian May 22, 1997 Page D3: Arrest solves mystery of law office stink bomb A federal investigation that led to the arrest of James Dalton Bell of Vancouver appears to have solved a longtime mystery regarding a stink bomb attack in a downtown Portland law office. In late April 1984, someone broke into law offices at 1123 S. W. Yamhill St. and poured a liquid on a hallway run that was so odorous it made at least one of the lawyers who smelled it vomit twice. At the time, Nick Albrecht, who still practices law there, said the skunklike scent, called mercaptan, was so overpowering that he had to go home because he could not stop gagging. The target of the stink bomb attack was lawyer C. Douglas Oliver, who now lives in Southern California and won't discuss the incident. Bell was arrested Friday on a federal complaint charging him with obstructing and impeding the Internal Revenue Service and the use of false Social Security numbers. The complaint said that documents found on Bell's computer boasted of the mercaptan attack on the office of a Portland lawyer who had sued him. The lawyer was Oliver. Albrecht said Oliver had suspected that Bell might have been behind the mercaptan attack, but could never prove it. The federal complaint also charged Bell with the March 16 mercaptan attack on the IRS offices in the federal office building in Vancouver. On the following day, when employees returned to work after the weekend, several of them had to be placed on leave because the smell was so powerful, the complaint said. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 5.0 beta Charset: noconv iQEVAwUBM4USfeQCP3v30CeZAQGNJgf+O8L65Bc6ce1jhUtUpjQS1kas2WU3TlNm l/wxZt+kNhRV58VnCLYg1JWsUhoifM6JK+v2QU727SVHmAy+ktlovL43oKsgK7EE Vg4WAj9A0rMqKIzNU/0PjNyjPtdsUEbxaZisIbWPONdm/sx1x9hhbDbA5T7sayyW 6HLms5v8n4OQ9URQsnNNpPme6cKTiMFnOk0qw2+0mQUska4q6fLgoEn+vxOYsDAP WPQHaF7EEWHr/8eDRYZP+GgaOtI2pLJvuLGXeebf/0+BEAmTNS6AUuAwt2ogmxCx TPGni0IRhODol5swhZlKAklK7si548Unm90o2o+Lg3JvFqg0SQs/Vg== =7KT2 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --- | "Bill Clinton - Bringing back the sixties one Nixon at a time." | |"The moral PGP Diffie taught Zimmermann unites all| Disclaimer: | | mankind free in one-key-steganography-privacy!" | Ignore the man | |`finger -l alano@teleport.com` for PGP 2.6.2 key | behind the keyboard.| | http://www.ctrl-alt-del.com/~alan/ |alan@ctrl-alt-del.com|
At 7:43 PM +0200 5/23/97, Anonymous wrote:
I guess the only *real* solution is to get rid of the thugs.
Possibly the real solution is not to do stupid things.
The "Rodney King" effect here is amazing. Jim Bell was not quite a model citizen. I don't think most of us would consider stinkbombing office buildings normal behavior. But that was 13 years ago, and compared to what the feds did to him, Jim Bell comes out looking like an angel. All things are relative.
The stink bomb charge that would stick would be the March 17th event, if this is proven to be Bell's doing. I would've thought this would be "malicious mischief," at most. People who've done far, far, far worse are left unprosecuted in every major jurisdiction in this country. The meat thrown to the media--the usual AP stuff, mixed in with "radical libertarian" descriptions--is just to make the case more media-interesting.
PS For the benefit of our non-technical readers, a bell jar is a glass dome used in vacuum experiments. AFAIK, you can't make a stink bomb in one. :)
Huh? Bell jars, to be pedantic, don't have to involve vacuums, obviously. And a stink bomb could certain fill even a vacuum jar. (Maybe the stink would not be smelled, a la Bishop Berkeley, though...) In any case, more of an allusion. Perhaps even to Plath. Or to the Marines, aka Jarheads. Or to Bell's Theorem. Or to.... --Tim May There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws. Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!" ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."
On Thu, May 22, 1997 at 11:11:56PM -0500, William H. Geiger III wrote:
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In <3.0.2.32.19970522204359.00b37cc0@mail.teleport.com>, on 05/22/97 at 08:43 PM, Alan Olsen <alan@ctrl-alt-del.com> said:
Bell was arrested Friday on a federal complaint charging him with obstructing and impeding the Internal Revenue Service and the use of false Social Security numbers. The complaint said that documents found on Bell's computer boasted of the mercaptan attack on the office of a Portland lawyer who had sued him.
<sigh> I would have thought that Jim would be smarter than leaving such info on his computer unencrypted. I find it equally troubling that he would put such info in "writting" to begin with.
[...]
I guess the only *real* solution is to get rid of the thugs.
Possibly the real solution is not to do stupid things. -- Kent Crispin "No reason to get excited", kent@songbird.com the thief he kindly spoke... PGP fingerprint: B1 8B 72 ED 55 21 5E 44 61 F4 58 0F 72 10 65 55 http://songbird.com/kent/pgp_key.html
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In <3.0.2.32.19970522204359.00b37cc0@mail.teleport.com>, on 05/22/97 at 08:43 PM, Alan Olsen <alan@ctrl-alt-del.com> said:
Bell was arrested Friday on a federal complaint charging him with obstructing and impeding the Internal Revenue Service and the use of false Social Security numbers. The complaint said that documents found on Bell's computer boasted of the mercaptan attack on the office of a Portland lawyer who had sued him.
<sigh> I would have thought that Jim would be smarter than leaving such info on his computer unencrypted. I find it equally troubling that he would put such info in "writting" to begin with. Ofcource since no inventory was done of the documents contained on his HD the FEDS could plant anything that they wanted with little hope of proving that they did. I'm not quite sure how one could counter against such an attack. Even if one stored all documents in an encrypted partition there are still protions of the HD that the OS will require to be unencrypted. Perhaps have a boot disk that would decrypt the OS section of the HD then boot the OS off the HD which then would use a crypto IFS to accesses the remainder of the drive. Even going to these lenghts they could just put what they wanted on a floppy and claim that they "found" it. I guess the only *real* solution is to get rid of the thugs. - -- - ----------------------------------------------------------- William H. Geiger III http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii Geiger Consulting Cooking With Warp 4.0 Author of E-Secure - PGP Front End for MR/2 Ice PGP & MR/2 the only way for secure e-mail. Finger whgiii@amaranth.com for PGP Key and other info - ----------------------------------------------------------- Tag-O-Matic: Rumour: NT means Not Tested -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Registered_User_E-Secure_v1.1b1_ES000000 iQCVAwUBM4UsQo9Co1n+aLhhAQF+ZQP+IAiMNloo7A5crGsGTVycb8iuSzBFE+bV VVOsW/PkINzwape65RNX9k49MQPDyjFgUHWmVqHILIYXwmQJ4dANVeU0lydq9roD jaXKrhmHcK7XCcyhRtGpcAJbpuVcMZOJQZ9Plwy82PZrz22kEXQAvyJTVkt10PKV elV2lDV1fR8= =fy2A -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- At 11:11 PM 5/22/97 -0500, William H. Geiger III wrote:
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In <3.0.2.32.19970522204359.00b37cc0@mail.teleport.com>, on 05/22/97 at 08:43 PM, Alan Olsen <alan@ctrl-alt-del.com> said:
Bell was arrested Friday on a federal complaint charging him with obstructing and impeding the Internal Revenue Service and the use of false Social Security numbers. The complaint said that documents found on Bell's computer boasted of the mercaptan attack on the office of a Portland lawyer who had sued him.
<sigh> I would have thought that Jim would be smarter than leaving such info on his computer unencrypted. I find it equally troubling that he would put such info in "writting" to begin with.
Ofcource since no inventory was done of the documents contained on his HD the FEDS could plant anything that they wanted with little hope of proving that they did.
This is one of the few stories out of the whole mess that I do believe. I was told about the above incident over a year ago by a friend who has known Jim for many years.
I'm not quite sure how one could counter against such an attack. Even if one stored all documents in an encrypted partition there are still protions of the HD that the OS will require to be unencrypted. Perhaps have a boot disk that would decrypt the OS section of the HD then boot the OS off the HD which then would use a crypto IFS to accesses the remainder of the drive. Even going to these lenghts they could just put what they wanted on a floppy and claim that they "found" it.
It is my understanding that Jim did not encrypt his hard drive at all. (Jim was not all that experienced as a computer user. (By his own admission. At least what he said the time I met him.)) If the feds has stuck to the stink bomb story, it would have been alot more plausable. But the "poisoning the bullrun" and "911" stuff is a bit far fetched for Jim. It does not fit the way he thinks.
I guess the only *real* solution is to get rid of the thugs.
Easier said than done... -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 5.0 beta Charset: noconv iQEVAwUBM4UhIOQCP3v30CeZAQEjNwf8CKbm2yZVEgPcLWBRnuxyoj3zVmzD8YnU bEPxjfgFlKTh96YP393VQDqJpd7ecqfbJ/3UpJU4XshFvy8O20x6u7CIAowY9bdY eCSsLTFSMKUOVhdHBRFxTs+yu9Cih/9AKzeBCyA18AzSMbW6HDxgBivq3qpl5MMF cvEFRCvn2E+GqUw1I4IREEKm9bP2oilhrdpsUOwFQ7L2/v+KKaqXXD3abW+iYAge Br4j89lC/cBAl/wnNIDGfEJ4Wqdluq05Y0LFnu/nm53HZm0+A/tJaQ5WVfa7Wbmb kilfTVhp1QcwbkzT3ztE9somqufOTrGLtGibea6jFoF0UK0Tk3KnVQ== =XdPa -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --- | "Bill Clinton - Bringing back the sixties one Nixon at a time." | |"The moral PGP Diffie taught Zimmermann unites all| Disclaimer: | | mankind free in one-key-steganography-privacy!" | Ignore the man | |`finger -l alano@teleport.com` for PGP 2.6.2 key | behind the keyboard.| | http://www.ctrl-alt-del.com/~alan/ |alan@ctrl-alt-del.com|
Alan Olsen wrote:
In late April 1984, someone broke into law offices at 1123 S. W. Yamhill St. and poured a liquid on a hallway run that was so odorous it made at least one of the lawyers who smelled it vomit twice.
What's the statute of limitations on stink bombs? Surely, it's too late to prosecute him for this? -- What is appropriate for the master is not appropriate| Tom Weinstein for the novice. You must understand Tao before | tomw@netscape.com transcending structure. -- The Tao of Programming |
On Thu, 22 May 1997, Tom Weinstein wrote:
Alan Olsen wrote:
In late April 1984, someone broke into law offices at 1123 S. W. Yamhill St. and poured a liquid on a hallway run that was so odorous it made at least one of the lawyers who smelled it vomit twice.
What's the statute of limitations on stink bombs? Surely, it's too late to prosecute him for this?
I think they are using it to link him to a similar attack on an IRS office in Vancouver in the much more recient past.
At 11:44 PM -0700 5/22/97, Tom Weinstein wrote:
Alan Olsen wrote:
In late April 1984, someone broke into law offices at 1123 S. W. Yamhill St. and poured a liquid on a hallway run that was so odorous it made at least one of the lawyers who smelled it vomit twice.
What's the statute of limitations on stink bombs? Surely, it's too late to prosecute him for this?
Good point! This didn't even occur to me (nor apparently to the writer of the article, nor maybe even to the cops). It sure looks like they're trying to throw a bunch of charges against the wall and hope that some of them stick...or scare Bell into pleading to a lesser charge, etc. Seems to me a good attorney could carefully dissect the "innuendo charges" (e.g., undermining the government, stink bombs long in the past, manifestos calling for AP, etc.) and separate them from each other, leaving very little of substance to get a conviction on. --Tim May There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws. Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!" ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."
I guess the only *real* solution is to get rid of the thugs.
Possibly the real solution is not to do stupid things.
The "Rodney King" effect here is amazing. Jim Bell was not quite a model citizen. I don't think most of us would consider stinkbombing office buildings normal behavior. But that was 13 years ago, and compared to what the feds did to him, Jim Bell comes out looking like an angel. All things are relative. PS For the benefit of our non-technical readers, a bell jar is a glass dome used in vacuum experiments. AFAIK, you can't make a stink bomb in one. :)
participants (7)
-
Alan -
Alan Olsen -
Kent Crispin -
nobody＠REPLAY.COM -
Tim May -
Tom Weinstein -
William H. Geiger III