This AP story reports: “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.”
I wish the story had more details. Jail, for links to a site (i.e. not hosting or providing the content)? Can it be true?
A chilling item in the story:
“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.”
So, does linking to the above AP story violate the Patriot Act too?
See http://www.raisethefist.com for an apparent first person account of this.
According to that site, the crime was distributing information related to bomb making with the intent of using that information in a criminal act. He originally intended to fight the charge, but he got scared of a possible 20-year ‘terrorism’ related sentence and took a plea bargain.
For a slightly different perspective, see the court transcript of his first hearing: http://cryptome2.org/usa-v-sma-dht.htm
Apparently his house contained Molotov cocktails and remote control detonators. His website urged people to ambush and kill cops. He talked about burning down the Olympics. And probably the worst thing for him is that when he was arrested in a protest outside the World Economic Forum protest in NYC, his car was found to contain more Molotov cocktails and explosives. He had driven there cross country from CA. Which kind of sounds like intent to use those explosives on something.
He’s 20. He was 19 when this happened. And he’s black, which can’t help his case. Sounds like he was a dumb kid who said and did some not-so bright things. I hope he comes out of jail okay.