From: rlpowell@calum.csclub.uwaterloo.ca (Robin Lee Powell)
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 1997 23:22:09 -0700 (PDT)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: IRS raids a cypherpunk
In-Reply-To: <v03007807af6a270a11d5@[168.161.105.191]>
Message-ID: <RLPOWELL.97Apr9022157@calum>
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The followiing is an article that didn't even brng a hiccup to cypherpunks.   


WHERE IS EVERYBODY??

-Robin, sniff :-(

In article <v03007807af6a270a11d5@[168.161.105.191]> Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> writes:

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   From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
   Newsgroups: csc.lists.coderpunks
   Date: 3 Apr 1997 23:41:04 -0500
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   [I've attached some excerpts from the article. Check
   out the URL below for the whole thing. --Declan]

   ********

   http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/editorial/0,1012,800,00.html

   The Netly News Network
   April 3, 1997

   IRS raids a cypherpunk
   by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com)


	Jim Bell's first mistake was publishing an
   essay describing how disgruntled citizens could
   kill off Federal government agents by using
   anonymous betting pools and digital cash. His
   second mistake was informing the IRS that the
   agency had no legal authority to tax him.

	About twenty armed IRS agents and other
   Federal police swarmed into Bell's home in
   Washington state on Tuesday morning, hunting for
   evidence that Bell's "Assassination Politics"
   essay had come to fruition. They expropriated
   Bell's three computer systems, two guns and even
   a solitary mouse cable. The Feds were taking no
   chances: Since Bell's voluminous Net postings
   mentioned tax collectors, agents from the BATF,
   FBI, DEA, and local police forces joined the
   raid.

   [...]

	The raid stemmed from a six-month tussle
   between Bell and the IRS, which began in November
   1996 when the 38-year old computer engineer
   demanded a hefty tax refund and threatened to
   convene his own "common-law court" if it was
   refused. That grabbed the Feds' attention. (So
   did the actions of the "Multnomah County Common
   Law Court," which apparently met in January to
   convict IRS agents and Attorney General Janet
   Reno of "theft by deception.") In February, IRS
   agents seized Bell's 1986 Honda as payment for
   back taxes -- and found inside it a printout of
   his "Assassination Politics" essay. "

   [...]

	And it was, ultimately, a Federal magistrate
   who signed the search warrant on 9:02 am on March
   28 at the request of the IRS. Jeffrey Gordon, an
   inspector in the IRS' Internal Security Division,
   details in an 10-page affidavit how he traced
   Bell's use of allegedly fraudulent Social
   Security Numbers, how he learned that Bell had
   been arrested in 1989 for "manufacturing a
   controlled substance," how he found out that Bell
   possessed the home addresses of a handful of IRS
   agents. Gordon's conclusion: Bell planned "to
   overthrow the government." The IRS investigator
   says in his affidavit that Bell's "essay details
   an illegal scheme by Bell which involves plans to
   assassinate IRS and other government officals...
   I believe that Bell has begun taking steps to
   carry out his Assassination Politics plan."

   [...]


   -------------------------
   Time Inc.
   The Netly News Network
   Washington Correspondent
   http://netlynews.com/