Jim Bell
Jim Bell | |
---|---|
Born | James Dalton Bell 1958 (age 65–66) |
Occupation(s) | Scientist, engineer, inventor, essayist, author, political dissident |
Known for | Essay "Assassination Politics", conflict with the federal government of the United States and its agents |
James Dalton Bell (born 1958) is an American
In April 1995, Bell authored the first part of a 10-part essay called "Assassination Politics", which described an assassination market in which anonymous benefactors could securely order the killings of government officials or others who are violating citizens' rights. Following an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Bell was arrested and subsequently jailed for 11 months on felony charges of harassment and using false Social Security numbers.
After his April 2000 release, Bell publicly announced that he believed that there was extensive Federal Government corruption associated with his 1997–2000 criminal case, and that he was going to research the facts and file a lawsuit. Bell filed this lawsuit in 2003.
Background
Bell was born in
"Assassination Politics" essay
From 1995 through early 1996, Bell authored an essay entitled "Assassination Politics" in which he described the idea of using
Investigation, prosecution and imprisonment
According to testimony by a federal agent, the federal government began infiltrating the Multnomah County Common Law Court via Steven Walsh, a government agent who attended the meetings under a false name and who even began to lead the organization.[19] According to court documents, Bell attended three meetings of the group nearly a year after Walsh's infiltration.[19]
In February 1997, the Internal Revenue Service acted on Bell's tax debt, docking his wages and seizing his automobile.[7] Inside the car, investigators found bomb-making instructions, political literature and detailed information concerning cyanide and fertilizer.[7]
IRS officers raided Bell's home on April 1, 1997.[10] He was arrested in May of that year,[20] and, in July, he pleaded guilty to charges of obstruction of IRS agents and the use of a false Social Security number (officials alleged that he had used four such numbers since 1984 in order to conceal his assets;[21] Bell said that he did not believe anyone had a right to know his real Social Security number).[13]
As part of his
In Bell's June 2003 lawsuit, Bell accused the federal government of extorting the 1997 plea agreement from him.[26] Bell asserted that when he balked at that agreement in November 1997, in part due to the government's violation of the terms, government agents instructed fellow inmate Ryan Thomas Lund to assault Bell.[27] The lawsuit alleged that Lund did this at about 6:00 P.M. on November 25, 1997, for the purpose of intimidating Bell, and to keep Bell away from his family and the news media.[5] Later, in an ostensibly unrelated event, Lund filed a lawsuit stating that on December 14, 1997, two days after Bell's December 12, 1997 sentencing, Lund (who was in solitary confinement at the time due to his assault on Bell) had a "slip and fall" accident while alone in his cell, ostensibly due to a wet cell floor.[28] Lund had also been promised a 27-month sentence for his illegal possession of firearms and methamphetamine, when the relevant federal law required a mandatory 10-year sentence.[29] Bell alleged that the sentence reduction and lawsuit payoff were engineered to reward Lund for extorting Bell.[5][28] Bell claimed that he was kept under "inhumane conditions for at least ten days".[5]
Bell further alleged in his 2003 lawsuit that a forged appeal case, number 99-30210, was entered into the court record. He stated that "Ninth Circuit Court personnel ... began corruptly falsifying, forging, and improperly adding to and deleting from the Ninth Circuit Court documentary record ... with regard to appeal #99-30210."[30] Bell's October 2004 amendment[31] further alleges that, a handwritten note, "purportedly signed by Bell, but not in Bell's handwriting style", was forged to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He alleges that this notice of appeal was filed around June 20, 1999 (claim 505), and that, "... Ninth Circuit personnel agreed to and did continually add false records to that docket, and at various times they deleted some of those false records and substituted new false records, for the purposes of concealing the true events and for continuing to obstruct Bell's access to justice and his constitutional rights." (Claim 510)[31] In his lawsuit, Bell seeks to establish that over a dozen government employees were guilty of numerous felonies.
Release and conviction
I once believed it's too bad that there are a lot of people who work for government who are hard-working and honest people who will get hit (by Assassination Politics) and it's a shame ... Well, I don't believe that any more. They are all either crooks or they tolerate crooks or they are aware of crooks among their numbers.
Bell served his prison sentence at a federal medium-security prison in Phoenix, Arizona,[24] from which he was released in April 2000.[32][33] He was rearrested in June of the same year on the charge of violating several of his 36 probation conditions, and was returned in November 2000 to a federal detention center at SeaTac, Washington following a search of his home that Bell called a "disguised burglary".[25][33][34]
Bell had conducted
Bell alleged in his 2003 lawsuit that the government employees had actually planted an illegal GPS tracking device in his car months before the one ostensibly allowed by the October 2000 warrant, at least as early as Bell's April 2000 release from prison. The information from that prior device could not be used, however, because there was no warrant allowing it to be planted. Bell also alleged[36] that federal government employees had also illegally planted a GPS tracking transmitter in a vehicle he drove in June 1998, one which the government never disclosed. Bell further stated that his defense lawyers colluded to keep Bell from being able to demand disclosure of all such secretly planted devices.[5]
The double standard here is simply incredible. They simply don't like the idea that Jim Bell can simply look through a few databases, find one of their people, and publish the name on the Internet. They hate that. They're trying to make it look like I've been intimidating them. They've been intimidating me. I wasn't all that happy before, but I'm hopping mad ... if you think this is going to stop me, baloney.
Bell pleaded not guilty to violating 18 U.S.C. section 2281, a law prohibiting the intimidation of family members of federal agents and some forms of stalking.[33] The charges specified that Bell had performed Internet background checks on federal agents he asserted were harassing him, and Bell defended his actions by saying he was using public records to defend against what he saw as harassment by government officials.[13][37] Journalist Declan McCullagh wrote, "[Bell] says, and a good number of observers agree, that the Feds are prosecuting him for doing what an investigative reporter does: Compiling information from publicly available databases, documenting what's happening, and so on. This case could set a precedent that affects the First Amendment privilege of journalists."[38]
Declan McCullagh asserts that during the trial, the judge sealed the entire court file, forbade the defense from issuing
Bell's Isotope-Modified Optical Fiber patent application
In February 2012,
See also
- Anarcho-capitalist revolution
- Dead pool
- Futarchy
- Prediction market
- Propaganda of the deed
- Tontine
References
- ^ a b c d e McCullagh, Declan (2001-04-09). "Cypherpunk's Free Speech Defense". Wired. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
- ^ a b c d McCullagh, Declan (2000-11-11). "Crypto-Convict Won't Recant". Wired. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
- ^ a b McCullagh, Declan (2001-12-01). "Gay Site Halts Death 'Advice'". Wired. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
- ^ a b McCullagh, Declan (2001-04-06). "Assassinate this". Wired. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
- ^ a b c d e f James Bell (14 July 2003). "James Bell 2003 lawsuit". Retrieved 14 February 2010.
- ^ Release Date on BOP Site Archived 2013-10-31 at the Wayback Machine", 2012-04-30.
- ^ a b c d e Kaplan, David E., "Terrorism's next wave", U.S. News Online, November 17, 1997
- ^ William Englander (1984). Review: Semidisk I. InfoWorld. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
- ^ McCullagh, Declan (2002-05-25). "Busy Year for Big Brother". Wired. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
- ^ a b c "Judge Delays Bell's Sentencing", The Columbian, 1997-11-21, Section A
- ^ Branton, John. "'They're seeing demons in dark,' says Bell's mother". Archived from the original on July 10, 1997. Retrieved 2017-04-22.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). The Columbian, 1997-05-20. Accessed 2008-01-14 - ^ "USA v. James Dalton Bell – Day 4". Digital files from Court Reporter Julaine V. Ryen. 24 November 2001. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
- ^ Doherty, Brian (December 2001). "Counter-Surveillance". Reason. Retrieved 2010-02-01.
- ISBN 9781560251323.
- ^ Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969) (per curiam) ("... the constitutional guarantees of free speech and free press do not permit a State to forbid or proscribe advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action. ... "), at [1].
- ^ Murphy, Bob (2002-07-11). "The Politics of Destruction". Anti-State.com. Archived from the original on 2008-06-20. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
Murphy, Bob (2002-08-22). "The Politics of Destruction". Anti-State.com. Archived from the original on 2007-11-18. Retrieved 2008-01-13. - ^ Vernor Vinge, James Frankel. True Names: And the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier (2001), Tor Books, p.44
- S2CID 154847137.
- ^ a b "USA v. James Dalton Bell – Day 1". Digital files from Court Reporter Julaine V. Ryen. 24 November 2001. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
- ^ "Activist Bell Faces Sentencing Friday", The Columbian, 1997-11-20, Section B.
- ^ Branton, John. "Feds accuse Bell of using fibers to shut down computers". Archived from the original on July 10, 1997. Retrieved 2017-04-22.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). The Columbian, 1997-05-20. Accessed 2008-01-14 - ^ a b Painter Jr., John. "IRS Says Man From Tacoma Part of Plot ", The Oregonian, 1997-11-20, p. C02
- ^ McCullagh, Declan (2000-11-11). "IRS Raids Cypherpunk's House". Politics : Law. Wired. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
- ^ a b Associated Press, "Bell gets 11 months in prison, 3 years supervised release, fine", The Oregonian, 1997-12-12.
- ^ a b Westfall, Bruce. "Federal Marshals Arrest James Bell", The Columbian.
- ^ (claims 87–103)
- ^ (claims 105–114)
- ^ a b (claim 108)
- ^ (claim 107)
- ^ James Bell (14 July 2003). "James Bell 2003 lawsuit". Retrieved 28 February 2010.
- ^ a b James Bell (October 2004). "James Bell 2004 amendment" (PDF). Retrieved 2 March 2010.
- ^ Stamper, Chris (1999-04-20). "Guilty Verdict for Cypherpunk". Wired. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
- ^ a b c d e f g McCullagh, Declan (2000-11-21). "'Cyber-Terrorist' Jailed Again". Wired. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
- ^ Bell, Jim. "Motion to Sanction and Recuse Various Officers of the Court including Atty's Leen and London and The Court, Judge Tanner. United States District Court for the State of Washington at Tacoma.
- ^ a b McCullagh, Declan (2001-04-06). "ATF Admits Tracking Jim Bell". Wired. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
- ^ (claim 123)
- ^ a b McCullagh, Declan (2001-03-30). "U.S. v. Bell subpoena". McCullagh.org. Archived from the original on 2008-11-21. Retrieved 2010-02-01.
- ^ McCullagh, Declan (2001-04-03). "Jim Bell trial starts today in Tacoma, Washington". Politechbot. Archived from the original on 2008-11-19. Retrieved 2010-02-01.
- ^ McCullagh, Declan (2001-04-05). "DOJ: Cypherpunk Threatened Feds". Wired. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
- ^ "Isotopically Altered Optical Fiber – Bell, James, Dalton". Retrieved 1 September 2013.
- ^ Hardy, Stephen (2 May 2012). "For license: Process for 1.02 index of refraction fiber". Lightwave. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
External links
- USA vs. James Dalton Bell – Daily Trial Transcripts
- Assassination Politics – Bell's original essay