Day #3: U.S. v. Jim Bell report from federal court in Tacoma

Declan McCullagh declan at well.com
Fri Apr 6 10:39:44 PDT 2001








http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,42895,00.html

   ATF Admits Tracking Jim Bell
   by Declan McCullagh (declan at wired.com)
   10:20 a.m. Apr. 6, 2001 PDT
   
   TACOMA, Washington -- The government revealed Thursday that it
   implanted a satellite-tracking device in a suspect's car and tracked
   him as he drove around Oregon and Washington.
   
   Brian Meyer, a special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
   Firearms, testified that he installed a GPS bug last November in a
   Nissan Maxima owned by defendant Jim Bell.
   
   Meyer told a fascinated jury that the device -- "high quality,
   something that military and law enforcement uses" -- continually
   transmitted Bell's exact location using a radio signal to receivers
   operated by law enforcement. Federal agents used graphical mapping
   software on a PC to plot Bell's movements in real time.
   
   Political essayist Bell is on trial here this week in a case that
   involves his alleged use of legally obtained CD-ROMs to compile
   information about Treasury Department agents.
   
   He is not accused of directly threatening them, but the government
   says that by collecting information about agents by driving to their
   suspected residences and by refusing to renounce his writings about
   how to assassinate unethical federal employees, Bell is guilty of
   violating stalking laws.
   
   The government hopes to prove that Bell crossed state lines when
   driving from Vancouver, Washington along I-205 to 14135 S. Clackamas
   Drive in Oregon City, Oregon. That address is the current home of
   Christopher John Groener, who testified on behalf of the prosecution,
   and the former residence of ATF agent Mike McNall.

   [...]


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