CDR: Re: Jim Bell

[Tim May]

At 1:19 AM -0500 11/28/00, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>The affidavit/complaint we link to at cluebot.com contains an
>allegation from the Feds that Bell only 'fessed up to (in previous
>interviews with l.e.)  authoring the AP essays.
>
>I do not recall reading about, or writing about, Bell being charged
>with deploying a working AP system. No, they've been prosecuting him
>using far more mundane allegations of SSN misuse, stinkbombs, and
>stalking. AP just gives it all spice, I suppose.

More than spice, I think. I think _this_ time they plan to make AP 
part of their case.

As your own article said,

"When the feds searched Bell's home earlier this month, according to 
a one-page attachment to the search warrant, agents were looking for 
"items which refer to Assassination Politics.""

I won't engage in the kind of speculation about how they might build 
their case, but I think this is where they are going.

Granted, they will not try to claim that Bell was running a real AP 
lottery. But they may make claims that he was planning an 
assassination. Some jurors might be swayed by the language in AP and 
by the (alleged) utterance:

"Say goodnight, Joshua."

(Wasn't Joshua the computer in "War Games"?)

>
>On Mon, Nov 27, 2000 at 11:46:14PM -0500, R. A. Hettinga wrote:
>>  At 7:45 PM -0800 on 11/27/00, Tim May wrote:
>>
>>
>>  > (I think any of
>>  > us could be called as witnesses to refute a state claim that he was
>>  > deploying a real system!)
>>
>>  Which, unfortunately, and IIRC, he actually *pled* to, nonetheless.
>>
>  > Sheesh.


No, I don't recall any such plea. Inasmuch as AP is some years off 
into the future, as even Bell would probably acknowledge (and may 
have acknowledged, if one dredges up all of his posts and looks at 
them carefully), I doubt he'd make a plea agreement that he had 
deployed a working AP system.

I think AP was just hovering on the periphery in the first two rounds.

This time they may try to make it a more central part of some case. 
Hence my comment that some of us may be called by the defense to 
explain why AP could not possibly be an operational system at this 
time.


--Tim May

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