Posted on 08/05/2003 12:17:44 AM PDT by kattracks
LOS ANGELES, Aug 05, 2003 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- A federal judge sentenced a man to a year in prison Monday for creating an anarchist Web site with links to sites on how to build bombs.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson sentenced Sherman Austin to more than the prosecutor had recommended under a plea bargain.
Austin, 20, pleaded guilty in February to distributing information related to explosives.
Austin told the judge Monday he "wasn't really thinking" when he created the Web site. "I'd be devastated if someone used this information to harm others," he said.
Austin admitted posting links about bombs to enable people to build and use them during demonstrations against interstate and foreign trade. He told FBI agents he wanted the Web site to teach people about police brutality.
Austin must also pay a $2,000 fine and is barred for three years from using a computer without approval. Wilson said he also may not associate with anyone from a group that "espouses physical force as a means of change."
Austin was arrested with other protesters at the World Economic Forum in New York in February 2002 on charges of disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly. While in New York, federal charges were handed down in California.
Austin said he took a plea bargain because he feared his case was eligible for a terrorism enhancement, which could have added 20 years to his sentence. The plea deal had called for him to serve four months.
SURE you would, hypocrite. You want to "teach people about [so-called] police brutality" by showing them how to spread murder and mayhem.
Two words.
TERRORIST
SCUM.
Without the emphasized portion, I would regard this as a very dangerous precedent indeed. With it, we have intent.
You'll note that the targets of the links are not being prosecuted -- or even taken down. Only this guy. There's a reason.
It's illegal, not to talk about bombs, but to talk about bombs intending to advocate their use. Usually, that intent is nearly impossible to prove. This guy effed up by stating his intent on the website in question.
From the article:
Austin, 20, pleaded guilty in February to distributing information related to explosives.
Sounds like thoughtcrime to me. He didn't plead guilty to advocating overthrow of the government via bombs.
If "distributing information related to explosives" is a crime, then gunpowder manufacturers advertising in gun magazines are in deep doo-doo. I know a guy who (for professional engineering reasons) had an explosives manual in his house. Perhaps we should send in the Waco team and burn it to the gound.
This sounds like a major overreach in the struggle between liberty and "security".
Austin admitted posting links about bombs to enable people to build and use them during demonstrations against interstate and foreign trade.
Good Day !
It must have been the "use them during demonstrations against interstate and foreign trade" portion that did it. Just a guess on my part as I don't know what the site actually said.
Check out his own words.
Maybe I need to read a little slower next time. Also as noted in my post to myself, he wasn't charged with distributing information about explosives, he was charged with distributing information about explosives with intent.
Laz, this morning I echo your tagline !
PROUDLY LOANING OUT MY TAGLINE SINCE 1999!
BTW, I've noticed a lot of people tagging with "Proudly" this and "Proudly" that. I think I started a trend.
To: csvset
What's missing from the story is that Foday also trained in Khadafi's Libya.
"A former army corporal and radio operator, Sankoh was trained in Libya's guerrilla camps"
9 posted on 08/03/2003 10:44 AM EDT by Paul_B (Do you think that's air you're breathing?)
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Ah, no.
The left-wing media is in full-tilt-boogie-cover-the-sins-of-their-buddies mode.
This was the notorious "Raise the fist" site, where Sherman not only gave links to bomb-making instructions, but also advocated using these devices against his fellow citizens. He wanted to start an insurrection.
Funny how the media forgot that little detail. He wasn't a right-wing whacko, so that part of the story had to be covered up.
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