Robb Joins the Cypherpunks

[Eric Cordian]

Robb London writes:

> Attorney General Ashcroft personally approved your subpoena, and that
> of another reporter who published admissions by James Dalton Bell.

I'm sure he did.

> The Government is not seeking any source material, notes, or other
> unpublished material from you by virtue of this subpoena.  The limited
> purpose of the subpo ena is to have you review two of your published
> articles, acknowledge your auth orship, review several of the statements
> which you attributed to Bell in your a rticles, and have you verify that
> he in fact told you those things.

What's always struck me as odd is that Declan, who I have said previously
seems to be spending far too much time eating at the King's table these
days, seems to delight in publishing outrageous self-incriminating quotes
from Bell, in lieu of any factual discussion of the issues raised by the
case.

I guess Declan must feel that as long as it's James Dalton Bell, and his
elderly parents, who are the only likely victims of the anal plungering
such comments engender, that it's great journalistic fun to put
"Cypherpunk Terrorist Vows Revenge" articles at the top of Wired News to
celebrate Bell's release from coercive mistreatment at the hands of the
state apparatus.

It is hardly surprising that these ill-chosen quotations resulted in a
subpoena, so that they may be presented as evidence of motive as the
government fabricates yet another laundry list of charges to hurl at Mr.
Bell, in its neverending quest to manufacture terrorists to frighten the
public with.

As I've also said in the past, absent the government's persecution of Mr.
Bell, AP would have been discussed briefly, like numerous other things on
the Cypherphnks list, and quickly forgotten.

The points Declan leaves out of his articles, and which I think are the
more germain ones, I listed briefly in an April, 1999 message after Bell's
first state-sponsored screwing.  John Gilmore also pointed out that a lot
of things people think are protected speech on Cypherpunks, actually
aren't when you examine the case law used against Bell and similar
defendants.

As I wrote...

<<The other thing I find interesting in this brief is the citing of case
law which seems to gut the First Amendment with regard to politically
motivated satire which discusses hypothetical violence against public
officials.  Indeed, while the statutes cited seem relatively
straightforward with regard to what constitutes a threat, cited case law
apparently permits the interpretation of a threat even if the defendant
had no means or intent to carry it out, it was not communicated to the
person allegedly targeted, and the person allegedly targeted would not
have regarded it as a threat.

<<So apparently, a non-threat can land you in jail as long as a ficticious
"reasonable person" invented by the court, completely unaware of the
context of the remark, can be hypothesized to have found it threatening in
some way, even if neither you nor the person alleged to be threatened
would have interpreted it in such a context.

<<Under such an interpretation, Bell's mock trials of public officials,
clearly designed as political theatre, could be considered criminal in the
complete absence any genuine intent to do harm to public officials, and in
the complete absence of any apprehension on the part of public officials
that they might be harmed, as long as some hypothetical non-existent
"reasonable person" could be deemed to have found the performance
"threatening." This seems to tread dangerously close to outlawing pure
political speech, which, according to the government, we do not need
anonymity for, because we live in a "free society.">>

It's would be real nice if Declan would someday write a Jim Bell article
which explored the above issues, and didn't just quote Jim on what he
intended to do to the pigfuckers next.

As for Treasury Agent Jeff Gordon using anti-stalking laws, originally
invented to protect terrified wives and girlfriends against psychotic ex's
intent on killing them, as his current excuse to drag Mr. Bell into court,
let me just say that I believe that my prior characterization of Mr.
Gordon as the "World's Biggest Pussy" is still both Constitutionally
protected and accurate.

-- 
Eric Michael Cordian 0+
O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division
"Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"