CDR: Re: Declan on Bell

[Declan McCullagh]

Eric,

I invite folks to read the full article at:
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,40102,00.html
http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=00/11/11/101218&mode=nested

I'm not taking a position on Bell's case. I do need to tell my readers
why was locked up earlier, and that seemed a reasonable way to do it.
Bell was not coerced into taking the plea agreement; if anything, he
seems to have more mental resources to fight the system than other
defendants I have interviewed.

-Declan

On Sat, Nov 11, 2000 at 09:40:34AM -0800, Eric Cordian wrote:
> In a Wired News article, Declan reports:
> 
> "In Bell's 1997, plea agreement, he admitted to owning chemicals that
>  could be used to produce Sarin gas and to stink-bombing the carpet
>  outside an IRS office."
> 
> Yeah, and I own chemicals for making chlorine gas.  Sodium hypochlorite
> solution, and sodium bisulphate.  I use these "dangerous" chemicals when I
> do my laundry, and when I clean my bathroom.
> 
> I think "chemicals that could be used to produce..." is pretty sleezy
> journalism, which could describe virtually anything.  I think using the
> word "admitted" in describing a plea bargain taken in lieu of a much
> longer prison sentence is also pretty sleezy journalism.
> 
> What were the chemicals in question?  Does Bell, outside of documents the
> government makes him sign, claim to have made the IRS doormat smell bad?
> 
> Does anyone with a clue think nitric acid is a ominous chemical for a
> chemist to own?
> 
> I'm really getting tired of Jim Bell articles whose tone suggests that
> despite the egregious mistreatment of Mr. Bell, the government apprehended
> him just in the nick of time, before he killed millions with homemade
> weapons of mass destruction.
> 
> Bell's Common Law Court was political theatre, his Assassination Politics
> essays satirical commentary on political accountability, and his
> documentation of smart-assed IRS employees consumer activism.  Aside from
> not giving his government-issued Social Security number to an employer, 
> the entire compendium of alleged Jim Bell crimes is little more than 
> one of IRS Agent Jeff Gordon's more extreme masturbation fantasies.
> 
> --  
> Eric Michael Cordian 0+
> O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division
> "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"