CDR: another J Bell report not _Wired_

[anonymous at openpgp.net]

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.