From: IRSNWPR@net.insp.irs.gov
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 1997 17:40:11 -0800 (PST)
To: Interested_Parties@net.insp.irs.gov
Subject: Something of interest...
Message-ID: <199704012018.PAA00555@net.insp.irs.gov>
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The Oregonian, Wednesday, April 2, 1997

20 armed federal agents raid home in Vancouver

- The occupant is investigated for an Internet essay he allegedly wrote on killing government 
officials




By John Painter Jr. of The Oregonian staff

VANCOUVER, Wash. - About 20 armed agents from at least three federal
agencies in four states raided a Vancouver home Tuesday, apparently
looking for evidence of a plot to kill government officials.

Sources said James D. Bell, who reportedly lives with his elderly
parents at the home at 7214 Corregidor Road, was the subject of an
investigation involving an essay he allegedly wrote and circulated
on the Internet.  The essay promotes a way to win money by correctly
predicting the time of death of selected government agents.

The essay - "Assassination Politics" - has been the subject of both
serious discussion and pointed derision in Internet forums.  One critic
described it as "nothing more than a plan to commit murder for political
purposes."

Agents, guns drawn, boiled from a dozen-vehicle caravan before it
stopped rolling just after 9 a.m. and entered the McLoughlin Heights
neighborhood home to search it.  The FBI, Internal Revenue Service and
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms raiders were accompanied by
members of the Portland Police Bureau's bomb squad.

Bell, described in a federal document as armed and dangerous, was seen
chatting with agents outside the house after agents entered the home.
The raid reportedly was planned by the IRS Inspection office in Walnut
Creek, Calif., which does criminal investigations for the agency.

Most of the agents at the scene drove cars bearing Oregon plates.
Others had plates from Washington, California and Nevada.

The Internet essay speculates on a complicated procedure to kill
government agents who violate the "Non-Aggression Principle," which
was not explained.

The essay suggests creation of an organization that would manage a
list of people who "had seriously violated the NAP, but who would not
see justice in our courts due to the fact that their actions were
done at the behest of the government."

The essay mentions the federal agents involved in the Waco and Ruby
Ridge actions as examples.

Each name would have a dollar figure attached to it.  That amount-
received as contributions-would be awarded "for correctly `predicting'
the person's death, presumably naming the exact date," the essay says.
"Predictions" would go into a computer file, it says, then be encrypted.

The death-date prediction then would be delivered to the organization
by an untraceable method, such as putting it on a floppy computer disk
in code and mailing it.

In effect, the source said, when the pool got big enough someone
would kill the targeted person and collect the pool money by telling
beforehand when the target would die.

Agents at the scene refused to comment on the probable cause for the
search warrant, as did the IRS office in California and the
U.S. attorney's office in Seattle.

However, a source familiar with the investigation suggested that IRS
agents believed they are among the potential targets.

In March 1989, the house was raided as a suspected methamphetamine
lab, but drug agents found only a chemical used in making the drug.

James Bell was charged with manufacturing illicit drugs and possessing
phenyl acetic acid with intent to manufacture methamphetamine.  The
felonies were later dismissed, and Bell was allowed to plead guilty
to a misdemeanor and pay a $2,500 fine.