Robb Joins the Cypherpunks

[Eric Cordian]

Declan McCullagh wrote:

>> 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.

> That wasn't the headline, and in any case I don't write headlines
> for my articles.

Since I said "articles," which is plural, and each article has its own
headline, I think it should be clear to the clueful reader that the single
descriptive phrase "Cypherpunk Terrorist Vows Revenge" was an opinion of
the tone of the articles, as opposed to their actual captions.  My
apologies if this was unclear.

> If anyone was in a position to object to the article -- which you seem
> to think is unfair to Bell -- it was in fact Bell, and he did not.

I'm not sure Bell is the arbiter of how well the articles you wrote
address the real issues of the case.  Bell could very well be happy with
endless articles talking about himself, and saying nothing about the
issues, and this would not suggest that Bell was all-important and the
issues were not.

I quite frankly find it embarrassing that the US government's search for
genuine terrorists has gone so poorly that it must manufacture them from
tax protestors who live at home with their elderly parents, and itinerant
musicians with Tourette's Syndrome.

Add to this government shills screaming in mock horror that a chemist was
actually found in possession of (gasp) Nitric Acid, and I think an article
which doesn't at least question how much the taxpapers are being billed
for this expensive continuing circus, and for what degree of protection
against what probable terrorist acts, kind of misses its mark.

Granted, your articles don't rise to the level of the US News and World
Report distortion of the Bell case, which deliberately gave the impression
that early concerns over Bell's rights being violated were misplaced, and
that in retrospect, the government saved us all from destruction at Bell's
hands in a massive terrorist attack by arresting him just in the nick of
time.

Nonetheless, I think you could have done a better job of shining light on
the more sordid aspects of the government's case, the harmlessness of
Bell, and pointing that the charges against Bell were place-holders for
the real goal of intimidating him into not continuing to exercise his
First Amendment rights in ways the government didn't like.

The US Government claims it has no political prisoners, because the law
books of the United States have no purely political crimes.  Of course
this is false, and political prisoners in the United States are simply
convicted of non-political crimes, with evidence of their political acts
being introduced to poison the outcome of their trials, after which
exceptional sentences are imposed, again using their political acts as
justification.

Pulling such antics off is not particularly hard.   You just need enough
laws to ensure that everyone is guilty of something, in case they rock the
boat and need to be dealt with. 

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