"Educating" the Court about Cypherpunks Considered Harmful

[John Young]

Bear in mind that when I appeared before the grand jury, all
the charges against Bell has been made, and no new ones
have been lodged, AFAIK. As with CJ, there were public
warnings made by the feds through disclosures of continuing
grand jury investigations. This tactic has been described as
"witness coercion," to assure that witnesses, and prospective
witnesses who learn of the active GJ, are intimidated by 
what may be done to them if they fancy challenging the 
authorities.

The GJ did ask me about AP, though Robb London did not.
I stated the scheme was considered to be unworkable by
persons more qualified to judge it than me. Still, a juror
persisted, why did you publish it. I said for informational
purposes about evolving technology.

There were other questions from the jury, not London,
about disclosing information on the Internet about public
officials. London did question about my posting of the CIA
query, in particular the address of the alleged CIA employee.
And questioned Bell's postings on the same topic.

My assumption is that it is those postings which I will be
asked to testify about. But AP is always looming, and I think
basebuilding for a future attack is in the works despite the
recent overturn of the anti-abotionists' case. Officials believe
they deserve more protection for their privileges than the 
citizenry.

Beyond that, though, there remains the question of what
else might be coming from the grand jury, whether to
come in fact, or to come in the form of coercion to not
fuck with Sam. Sandy's note on Sam's pressure pointing
is apt -- whether Bell, Declan, me or the othjer witnesses
yet unknown. And publicly naming a cypherpunk Bell 
called from jail is typical fear-mongering as with subpoenas.

I've warned two reporters they should expect no privileged
protection in the Bell case and its likely followup cases -- 
the stakes are too high for burgeoning anti-terrorism to allow 
legacy press perks get in the way of high-reward homeland 
defense. One reporter said no way would they come after me, 
and they allegedly have. The other reporter said not me, and 
they did.

One reporter said I was too conspiratorial. And he has
repeated that here. One thing I've learned from that
simple-mindedness is be wary of disingenuous distancing
of person's kindly convictions from his vicious job 
requirements to hang your ass in the public interest,
er, to see that justice is done, er, balance viewpoints.

Sure, I'm ranting, you see the feds got a wad of my
self-incriminating material. And cpunk archives offer 
much an e-goldmine of cypherpunks movements.