FREE SPEECH AND COMPUTERS CENTRAL TO BOMB-RECIPE CASE ----------------------------------------------------- By JOHN M. MORAN; Courant Staff Writer Hartford Courant Sep 27, 1993 at 12:00 am The Deth Vegetable can't believe anyone took his old bomb-making recipes seriously. Many of the explosives he described in "Anarchy for Fun and Profit," two computer text files, don't even work, he said. And the others were simply lifted from college chemistry textbooks. "The files are actually rather pathetic. I was 15 years old when I wrote them," said "Veggie," who is really Lucas Benfry, now 19, of Tewksbury, Mass. "I kind of thought of it all as a big joke." It might have stayed that way, too, if the "Anarchy" files hadn't turned up on The Ware House, a computer bulletin board run by Michael Elansky, a 21-year-old West Hartford man with a fascination for explosives. Police, who knew Elansky well from previous arrests on charges ranging from manufacturing bombs to carrying a pistol without a permit, busted him again Aug. 2 after downloading the "Anarchy" files from his bulletin board. With bond set at half a million dollars, Elansky has spent the last eight weeks behind bars at the Hartford Correctional Center. Meanwhile, Elansky -- whose computer nickname is "Ionizer" -- is becoming a martyr of the electronic world. National electronic magazines are portraying Elansky as the victim of those who don't understand computers and freedom of speech. Messages of support are crisscrossing computer networks across the country. Lawyers are offering free advice. Contributions are being raised for a defense fund. "If it's as it appears -- that he's in jail for these two files -- I see that as a miscarriage of justice," said Jim Thomas, co-editor of The Computer Underground Digest, an electronic magazine. The digest is itself a computer text file, distributed across networks to 80,000 readers nationwide. " `MacGyver' has far more detailed instructions [on bomb-making] than you'll ever find in any of these files," Thomas said, referring to the popular television show. "I see it primarily as a First Amendment issue." Lance Rose, a lawyer and author focusing on technology and intellectual-property issues, also is spreading word of the Elansky arrest in a national magazine for computer bulletin board users and operators. "What the police are doing here just cannot be acceptable under any concept of what our civil rights are here in this country," Rose said. The official charges against Elansky are inciting injury to persons or property, a felony, and risk of injury to a minor, a misdemeanor. Although the case remains sealed at Hartford Superior Court, other court documents indicate that the "Anarchy" files were in fact the basis for Elansky's latest arrest. A separate violation of parole charge, for example, cites in part the following grounds: "Michael Elansky violated [state law] when he operated a computer bulletin board system over which he promoted and encouraged the unlawful injury or assault of police officers and public safety personnel. "That Michael Elansky accomplished this goal by providing to his bulletin board users explicit instructions for the illegal construction of highly dangerous explosives, incendiary devices, and flammable or explosive chemical and powder compounds. "That such violation constituted the crime of inciting injury to persons or property." The same court file also says Elansky's activities posed a risk of injury to minors because young people, who had access to the bulletin board, could have been hurt if they tried to follow the bomb recipes. Joan Alexander, the assistant state's attorney who is prosecuting Elansky, said the file remains sealed because of a "continuing investigation" and because of "safety issues." She declined to elaborate. Det. Capt. James Gustafson, of the West Hartford police, said he could not comment on the case. "Anarchy"-type text files are actually quite common on some computer bulletin boards. They generally contain information about ways to construct homemade bombs or conduct malicious pranks. But authorities appear to have taken the files on Elansky's bulletin board especially seriously, both because of Elansky's record and because of references to law-enforcement authorities. Superior Court Judge Richard A. Damiani, summarizing the contents of the sealed arrest reports, said Elansky was accused of disseminating advice on how to "evade, injure and kill bomb technicians" and "injure, kill and maim law-enforcement personnel." "One could equate this with what's going on in New York, where terrorists are targeting particular buildings," Damiani said of Elansky's activities. "He belongs in jail." Advertisement Copies of the "Anarchy" files obtained by The Courant contained these statements: "Note to Law-enforcement type people: This file is intended to promote general havoc and *ANARCHY*, and since your going to be the first ... up against the wall.. there isnt a ... thing you can do about it, pigs!" And: "Note: To any Law Enforcement agency: ... OFF! This file is intended to promote General havoc and *ANARCHY* , and you cant do a ... thing about it, PIGS." Benfry, the acknowledged author, said these statements are a parody of the disclaimers usually found in "Anarchy"-type text files. Such disclaimers often warn that the files are "for information purposes only," and that the author accepts no responsibility for the contents. He denied that the disclaimers in "Anarchy for Fun and Profit" actually threaten police. Benfry also defended his right to create the "Anarchy" files and said they contain no information that is not already a matter of public record. "This information is easily accessible. I got almost everything in it from a college textbook and from other files I've read," he said. "You can get it from your public library." The remainder of the files contain descriptions of how to make a wide variety of different bombs and explosives, including pipe bombs, plastic explosives, grenades, smoke bombs, gunpowder and napalm. Some -- such as the "Acetyline Bomb" -- warn that making them is extremely hazardous. One recipe is titled "Quick Suicide Method #1." The bomb instructions themselves are laid out like recipes found in any cookbook, with ingredients listed at the top and directions below. An example is this smoke bomb recipe, printed as it appears on the bulletin board, misspellings included. The ingredients have been omitted. SMOKE BOMB mix: [Ingredients] heat over low flame until mixture is melted. stir well. pour into container. Before this solidifies place a few matched in it as fuses. I have found that another good way to get this to start burning is to pur the melted mixture into a paper cup, these are usually layred in parrafin wax, and there for burn very well, so all you have to do is set the cup on fire.... Several recipes found in the two "Anarchy" files do indeed resemble the contents of books readily available at some libraries and bookstores. For example, "The Anarchists Cookbook," which contains explicit directions for bomb-making, is listed in the holdings of at least two public colleges in Connecticut and can be ordered from most bookstores. This apparent double standard between printed text and The Deth Vegetable's computer text files is precisely what makes the Ionizer case so important, say public-interest groups familiar with the Elansky case. "It's pretty clear that the First Amendment's been trampled on the way to the riot in this case," said David Banisar, a policy analyst for Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. "It appears that the prosecutor doesn't realize that electronic publications have the same protection as printed publications." Ralph G. Elliot, a Hartford lawyer who has represented The Courant on First Amendment issues, agreed that the Elansky case does raise free-speech questions. He likened it to a well-known case in which The Progressive, a Wisconsin magazine, was found to have the right to publish publicly available information about how to construct a nuclear bomb. Mike Godwin, legal counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, another advocacy group, said Connecticut's "inciting injury to persons or property" charge is unconstitutional. "Traditionally, we've understood the First Amendment to apply to all forms of expression," Godwin said. "I think the prosecutor in this case has shown monstrous disregard for the Constitution that he has sworn to uphold." "There are very few law-enforcement actions that qualify as genuinely evil, but I think this is one of them," he said. Elansky's lawyer, Richard Brown, said he is examining the First Amendment implications of the charges in preparing his defense. "The information that's contained on the computer that they're upset about is taken from various books that are readily available in any bookstore," he said. "There may be some restrictions on the First Amendment, but they're very limited." Elansky's case has been complicated by a variety of other criminal charges -- past and present. For example, Elansky was arrested last November on charges of conspiring to break into West Hartford's Hall High School and steal dangerous chemicals. In addition, Elansky is still on probation from a conviction for manufacturing bombs. He's also been arrested in the past on charges of unauthorized use of credit-card numbers, computer crime, larceny, possession of fireworks, having weapons in a vehicle and carrying a pistol without a permit. That history may have given police reason to be leery of Elansky, computer enthusiasts say, but it doesn't justify the arrest of a bulletin-board owner for possession of legal text information. "Our point is simple, this material is publicly available almost everywhere and the last time we checked ..., we still lived in a FREE country with the constitutional right of free speech," said the International Information Retrieval Guild, a New Britain-based computer club, in Phantasy, its electronic newsletter. The main purpose of the club, to which Elansky belongs, is "to distribute information that normally wouldn't be available," according to Mercenary, a club founder and operator of the Runestone bulletin board, the club's home base. Mercenary, a 28-year-old electronics technician from New Britain, said it is important to separate Elansky's record from the criminal charges relating to the "Anarchy" files. "We know Michael isn't a saint," he said. "We just felt that they were railroading him. We just felt that they were looking for anything they could use against him." Asked why he insisted on remaining anonymous, Mercenary cited Elansky's arrest and said he feared police might seek to arrest him and other club members. Elansky, meanwhile, remains in jail. His next court date is Oct. 12. Courant staff writer Matthew Kauffman contributed to this story https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-1993-09-27-0000004261-story.html