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|---|---|
| Criminal charge | High treason, obstruction of government officers, intimidation, fraud. |
| Penalty | Eleven months imprisonment |
James Dalton Bell (born 1958) is an American crypto-anarchist who created the idea of arranging for anonymously-sponsored assassination payments via the Internet, which he called "assassination politics". Bell attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he earned a degree in chemistry and lived in Vancouver, Washington until his arrest and imprisonment by the United States federal government. Bell, an electronic engineer was arrested in 1989 for illegally manufacturing methamphetamine, but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.
Bell had been involved in a tax dispute with the Internal Revenue Service (who adjudged that he owed $30,000), and came up with the idea of using digital signatures on electronic mail to create a dead pool game, "predicting" the deaths of IRS agents and other government employees. In effect, the idea would create an incentive for assassination of these agents, creating a "prize" that could be "won" by someone willing to submit an entry "predicting" a given agent's death at a particular time. The person could then kill the agent at about that time, thus winning the pool money. The purpose was to intimidate the IRS agents and others into no longer enforcing tax rulings and tax and other laws.
Bell published his idea in a ten-part essay on the alt.anarchism USENET newsgroup; most responses were negative. He was subsequently arrested, and in July 2007 pleaded guilty to charges of obstruction of IRS agents and use of a false Social Security number, and also admitted responsibility for conducting a stinkbomb attack in the Vancouver IRS office, and for the assassination market scheme. He was sentenced to eleven months in prison followed by three years of probation. After release, he was rearrested and sent back to prison for violations of terms of his probation.
Citations
- ^ Painter Jr., John. " IRS says suspect discussed sabotage". The Oregonian, 1997-05-20, Metro Section P-1.
- McCullagh, Declan (2000-11-11). "Crypto-Convict Won't Recant". Politics : Law. Wired. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Kaplan, David E. "Terrorism's next wave", U.S. News Online, November 17, 1997
- McCullagh, Declan (2000-11-11). "IRS Raids Cypherpunk's House" (news report). Politics : Law. Wired. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help)
External links
- Jim Bell Files - archive of news articles, essays, and other information on Jim Bell and his essays
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