From: Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 02:11:01 +0800
To: Tim May <cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: The Real Bell Issue / Re: Bell, etc
In-Reply-To: <3.0.2.32.19970819175653.03657300@panix.com>
Message-ID: <3.0.2.32.19970820140006.0365b7a4@panix.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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At 03:47 PM 8/19/97 -0700, Tim May wrote:

>My bigger fear, and no doubt Jim will someday read this and perhaps take
>umbrage at my comments here, is that this several-month "debriefing" period
>is where the Feds are collecting as much incriminating information against
>some of us as they can, perhaps with an eye toward hitting various of us
>with RICO charges, sedition, etc.

Though we aren't an organization.  If they couldn't win a sedition case 
against the isolationists during WWII or the White Separatists in Alabama(?) 
a few years ago, they won't be able to get us.  RICO also seems unlikely 
because of our disorganization and lack of overt actions.

>If I were to be arrested and held without bail--perhaps because of the
>"arms cache" and "chemicals" the news media would breathlessly report--I
>rather suspect my aggressiveness would fall on deaf ears.

Don't worry.  If you were busted it would cause a real stink.  Remember 
Operation Sun Devil.  The Feds really lost it.  Aggressiveness doesn't just 
mean publicity.  It means strategy at trial as well.  They have to try you 
and that would be risky for them because we all have an easy First Amendment 
argument to hammer them with.  The List is defined by its expression and not 
by anything else so attacks on the list are ipso facto attacks on expression.

In fact, Ruby Ridge and Waco are why the Feds are tiptoeing around any 
similar "raids."  The publicity there really hurt them.  Their trial losses 
in the insider trading cases of the 1980's (they lost all but one case that 
went to trial) are why such prosecutions dropped off.  They prefer cases they 
can win.

And note that the current SC is probably stronger on the 1st than any court 
in our history.  Tough row to hoe for prosecutors.  

DCF

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