DOJ: Cypherpunk Threatened Feds. “A federal prosecutor said on Wednesday that an Internet essayist spent
months illegally compiling information about IRS agents through CD-ROM databases and conversations
with members of a mailing list of ‘cypherpunks.’

Robb London, an assistant U.S. Attorney, said in court that Jim Bell was not conducting a legitimate
investigation of government wrongdoing last year but instead was a disturbed person who had never
renounced a political treatise he wrote entitled ‘Assassination Politics‘, (a) long-winded thought experiment predicting how future
technologies including untraceable digital cash, encryption and anonymity should allow
anyone upset with the feds to bet on when a certain government agent will die. The
winner, presumably the assassin, wins the pool of money… Bell has pleaded not guilty to five counts of interstate stalking that allegedly took place
last year, saying he was legally assembling information about government agents he
thought were participating in a conspiracy involving illegal surveillance. ” Wired Wired correspondent Declan McCullagh, who has covered the Jim Bell affair and is covering the trial, was forced to testify over his objections that he might be compelled to reveal the identities of confidential sources of some of his information. The Register McCullagh describes the first day’s proceedings here. cluebot.com