A Disservice to Mr. Bell

[Peter Hendrickson]

At 1:32 PM 11/8/1996, jim bell wrote:
>At 09:12 PM 11/7/96 -0800, Peter Hendrickson wrote:
>> ...His conviction was not reversed until 1983 in the court of one
>> Judge Patel...

> However, the fact that it took 40 years to reverse (and didn't, presumably,
> reverse the convictions of others, and didn't compensate people for lost
> property) is yet another reason to take a few pieces out of the hide of the
> SC, as well as a few pounds of flesh nearest the heart.

Many of us are guilty of a grave disservice to Mr. Bell.  I'm sure
that just about every reader of this list can only cringe when
messages such as the one above cross our screens.  ("He can't be
a paid provocateur - it would be too obvious!")

Not only is Mr. Bell apparently calling for the murder of a judge, he
is apparently calling for the murder of every justice on the Supreme
Court of the United States!

Now lots of folks are afraid that Mr. Bell's messages will be cited
as evidence that the Cypherpunks are a terrorist organization.

This does a grave disservice to Mr. Bell.  What Mr. Bell is really
doing, I think, is intentionally pushing the envelope of what is
considered to be free speech and nobly placing himself in the front
lines of cryptoanarchy.  So long as Mr. Bell can continue to
threaten the lives of our officials in the most public way without
molestation, it is safe to say that the rest of us are not going
to FBI summercamp.  (Canaries play a similar role for miners.)

Not only should we applaud his courage, but Mr. Bell's brilliance
in inventing and executing this strategy cannot go unnoticed.

Now, many of you have had some awfully hard words for Mr. Bell.  I am
sure we all regret them now that we fully understand Mr. Bell's
formerly puzzling actions.  I am going to have to ask you all to
do something very hard - apologize.  I will start:

Thank you Jim Bell for your brilliant and courageous contribution
to the Cypherpunks list!  I am sorry I ever claimed it was otherwise.

Peter Hendrickson
ph at netcom.com

"Stop and grieve at the tomb of the dead Kroisos, slain by wild
Ares in the front rank of battle."
  - Attican cemetary monument, c. 540 B.C.