🚀 go-pugleaf

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eye WEEKLY                                                May 30, 1996
Toronto's arts newspaper                      .....free every Thursday
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EYENET                                                          EYENET

                        DON'T SHOOT THE SENATOR

                                  by
                            K.K . CAMPBELL 

Last week, the police were hot on the trail of the net.inspired 
Watermelon Bombers of Edmonton. "A reign of exploding fruit terror!"

Well, the terror never stops online.

Now a kid has been arrested for "terrorism" in California because he 
posted a suggestion to Usenet that a California senator who supports 
hunting mountain lions for fun should himself be declared open season 
for hunting.

On March 6, a 19-year-old college student in El Paso, Texas, Jose 
Eduardo Saavedra (zuma@primenet.com), contributed a post in a Usenet 
thread about hunting mountain lions: 

"Let's hunt Sen. Tim Leslie for sport ... I think it would be great to 
see this slimeball, asshole, conservative moron hunted down and 
skinned and mounted for our viewing pleasure.

"I would rather see every right-wing nut like scumface Leslie 
destroyed in the name of political sport, than lose one mountain lion 
whose only fault is having to live in a state with a fucked up jerk 
like this shit-faced republican and his supporters."

It seems making the hunting of mountain lions legal is a hot issue in 
California. Leslie supports such hunting. Saavedra is apparently an 
animal-rights/anti-hunter activist, and so proposed hunting the 
senator instead. And he sent that proposal to newsgroups 
talk.environment, sci.environment, talk.politics.animals, rec.pets, 
ca.politics, rec.pets.cats, rec.animals.wildlife, rec.food.veg and 
alt.save-The-Earth.

On March 13, Saavedra reappeared in the ca.general (general shit about 
California) newsgroup saying a California reporter had seen a copy of 
his original post and was just wondering if he really wanted people to 
kill the senator. Saavedra clarified his position: 

"I recently was contacted by a reporter for a northern California 
newspaper wanting to know if I really meant what I said about hunting 
Tim Leslie. Since it appears that the post has frightened some people 
-- let me offer some clarification," and he ends his post with this 
statement: "Would I hunt down Tim or anyone else -- no. Would I 
support such an action -- no. Would I be happy if some nut actually 
did such a thing? YES, just like a German Jew would have celebrated 
the death of Hitler. So -- If California would pass a law allowing the 
hunting of hunters -- then, and only then, would I go out, buy a gun, 
and become a hunter."

On the morning of May 8, Saavedra was arrested on a no-bail warrant 
based on felony charges alleging that he made "terrorist threats and 
threatened a public official," according to Sgt. Don Marshall of the 
El Paso County Sheriff's office.

The student was taken into custody in El Paso County Jail on a 
"Fugitive from Justice" warrant issued by the Sacramento district 
attorney's office.

On May 10, the Sacramento Bee ran a story headlined "Internet Threat 
to Leslie Brings Arrest." It quoted Leslie: "I hope the message to the 
public is that it is not legal to abuse the Internet." The paper noted 
that Saavedra refused to waive extradition, so California would have 
to execute a governor's warrant to drag him there for trial.

On May 11, the San Francisco Examiner ran an AP story titled "Net 
threat is traced to student."

Free speech activists everywhere couldn't believe it was true at 
first, it was so ludicrous. But it was true, so they began analyzing 
Saavedra's posts with a legal eye. On the fight-censorship list, Jay 
Holovacs (holovacs@ios.com) noted: "This statement is so obviously 
sarcastic that I don't think any reasonable person reading it would 
actually believe he is planning to kill Leslie. If however, after this 
statement was made, someone took pot shots at Leslie, then it would be 
basis for investigation."

EFF counsel Mike Godwin (mnemonic@well.com) made the comment that what 
Saavedra was doing was not very different from other "protected" 
political speech, like wearing a T-shirt emblazoned "Fuck The Draft."

Leslie, meanwhile, told the press he was "relieved" an arrest had been 
made -- whew! He says Saavedra's case raises "big new issues" about 
the net. The senator also says it's a "very serious matter" to 
"threaten or intimidate or extort others in a public forum like this."

OK, class -- having read the senator's observations, do you think he 
is a regular user of Usenet?

Ann Beeson (beeson@nyc.pipeline.com), from the ACLU's National Office, 
says the ACLU of Northern California has agreed to take Saavedra's 
case. "The ACLU attorneys in North California are strategizing with 
Saavedra's attorney, a public defender in Texas," she says.

The Sacramento DA's office says cops located Saavedra through 
information from the student's Internet provider, Arizona's Primenet.

Beeson and the ACLU understand these kinds of cases are far bigger 
than just one student angry about the slaughter of mountain lions, or 
an asshole sitting in the U.S. senate. It's about the entire structure 
of the Internet and how quickly Internet service providers will pull 
down their pants when the cops come calling. How ready is your own ISP 
to just hand over access to all your email when John Law appears at 
their door asking for "cooperation" against whatever they are 
labelling you: terrorist/child pornographer/anarchist/drug dealer, 
etc.?

"In addition to the obvious infringement on Saavedra's free speech 
rights, we are curious to learn just how much info PrimeNet of Arizona 
turned over to law enforcement to enable the arrest," Beeson says. 
"There may be a privacy issue here as well."

California Senator Tim Leslie's office can be reached at (916) 445-
5788. Timmy... get yer gun...

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