Jim Bell update: "AP" author moved to Lompoc federal prison

[declan at well.com]

Jim Bell photos:
http://www.mccullagh.org/cgi-bin/photosearch.cgi?name=jim+bell

Day-by-day articles on Jim Bell's trial:
http://www.cluebot.com/search.pl?topic=ap-politics

---

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,48779,00.html
   
   One of the Internet's most famous essayists is now in
   the same prison that once housed the most famous hacker.
   
   Jim Bell, the author of Assassination Politics, has been moved to the
   Lompoc ("lahm-poke"), California federal prison. It's the same place
   that convicted cracker Kevin Mitnick once called home.
   
   "I'm assigned out in the rec yard, the recreation yard, but there's
   really not much work to be done, occasionally picking up a cigarette
   butt or two," says Bell, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison this
   year for allegedly stalking federal agents. Bell says he was trying to
   investigate government wrongdoing.
   
   Bell describes Lompoc, located between Los Angeles and San Francisco,
   as "old and decrepit, and the place is corrupt and the guards are
   lazy."
   
   Previously, Bell was being held at the SeaTac prison near Tacoma,
   Washington, where his trial took place.
   
   Since he's got some time to kill, Bell has busied himself by filing
   civil lawsuits against people he alleges were involved in an
   orchestrated plot to deny him a fair trial and an unbiased,
   court-appointed defense counsel. So far he's targeted two judges, at
   least two prosecutors, and his former probation officers and defense
   attorneys.
   
   Bell says he hasn't had any response yet -- and is going to try to
   obtain a default judgment against the defendants. "I continue to
   remain astonished that I haven't received any answer out of my lawsuit
   yet. It doesn't bother me as long as I collect the money. I think I've
   hit a nerve."
   
   He's looking forward to "garnishment and putting liens on various
   people's property. If they wanted to write me a check, I'd take a
   check, I guess. But if they want me to go through the usual methods to
   collect it, I'll do that too."