By Adam S. Miller
he banner headline couldn't be missed. In 48-point type, the 3 Feb. 1995 Ann Arbor News proclaimed "U-M expelling student for Internet fantasy."1 Jake Baker, a University of Michigan sophomore, had written a "snuff fantasy," posted it for worldwide distribution to a part of the Internet known as Usenet, and was then suspended for writing it. University officials removed Baker from campus for his naming of another University student as the victim of his erotic "Internet fantasy". In the next month, the Jake Baker Scandal joined the O.J. Simpson trial, as one of the most talked-about news items in Ann Arbor. Internet users and non-users alike had opinions on the case, which just last week, changed legally from a controversy about the content of his story to incriminating evidence discovered in his personal email.
The scandal surrounding the discovery, suspension, arrest and re- indictment of Jake Baker illustrates a curious blend of American cultural activities, including: Constitutional issues, the public's obsession, and a general fascination with "kinky sex," of which this has to at least obliquely relate. Also central to the scandal is how this "pervert's" brush with authority would impact the lives of other cyber-citizens. Many people consider Baker's actions to be abnormal, even "foreign" to our value system, however many people also consider his treatment by authorities as atrocious.
How It All Began | Why the Fascination | Constitutional Concerns | No Safe Place? | Baker, the Foreigner | Epilogue | Notes | Bibliography
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
By executive order under the authority of Regents Bylaw 2.01, citing a need to protect the health and safety of the student body, University of Michigan President James Duderstadt, suspended Jake Baker on February 2nd. University Public Safety representatives met Baker as he finished a class and gave him notice that he had 15 minutes to pack a few possessions and leave the campus. What Baker did not know was that an U-M alumnus in Moscow had discovered one of his stories, penned on January 9th (in a section of the Internet reserved for such tales) posted to the Usenet group alt.sex.stories. The story described the rape, torture and murder of a woman whose name matched that of an actual U-M student. The Muscovite alumni then alerted Duderstadt, and after a short investigation - one which Baker naively had helped - Duderstadt acted to remove the "threat" from the campus.
Thus sprang the Ann Arbor News story. The next day, Baker made Page A1 of the combined Detroit News and Free Press,2 and the campus newspaper,
The Michigan Daily, began its coverage the following Monday.3 The Jake Baker Scandal became the topic for Michigan students, and even a national story as Time Magazine and CNN converged on the campus.4 U-M students discussed it in informal meetings (personal observation) and on no less than five on-line "conferences."5 To date, there have been over 750 responses on the topic on the U-M system alone, and Baker even has an area of the Usenet devoted to discussion of his situation: alt.jake-baker (which, interestingly enough, is not available through the U-M connection to the Usenet).
Circumstances of Baker's arrest raised as much intrigue as the violent kidnapping, rape, torture and death story he concocted. One wondered: who is this alumnus in Moscow and how did he find the story. The details of this part of the case remain sketchy, with some versions of the story naming the 16-year old daughter of the alumnus finding Baker's story. Since the story was posted to the part of the Usenet reserved for such stories - one couldn't have come across it by accident. Furthermore, some have questioned the suspension procedure used to remove Baker from campus, as Duderstadt wasn't even in Ann Arbor and his secretary signed the suspension order. Rule by Proxy rubs many the wrong way.
Meanwhile, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) became involved in the case when administrators, who Baker cleared to check his email account, discovered that he had been conversing with an Ontario man who operates under the pseudonym of Arthur Gonda apparently planning for an actual abduction. Gonda is not listed in tax records as a resident of Ontario, and his last name can be unscrambled into Gonad, hence leading authorities to question his identity. 6
FBI agents arrested Baker February on 9th, accusing him of the felony of transmitting threats across state lines based on the combined evidence gathered from his email and Usenet posting. Federal Judge Bernard Friedman ruled that Baker was too dangerous to be on the street, and denied him bond.7 "I would not want my daughter on the streets of Ann Arbor or Ohio with a man in the condition I believe he is in now," Friedman said.8
Usenet participants responded voluminously to the controversy surrounding Baker. Several posters to the sexual stories group expressed their support of him, while others reacted against his story. A California woman, Tanith Tyrr, even wrote a snuff story where she tortures and kills a "Joey Baker" out of revenge for his torturing of women. Other copycat stories soon followed, as posters to the Usenet dared authorities to arrest all of them.
Baker was finally released on bond from Milan Federal Prison after more than a month in custody. In one of the case's stranger turns (see Epilogue), a grand jury decided to drop any charges against Baker that were based on his USENET posting. Instead the Grand Jury moved to indicted Baker on five counts of transmitting a threat, based on his correspondence with Gonda alone.9
WHY THE FASCINATION?
Despite the FBI flip-flop, the Scandal has been about Baker's story and the consequences of it, and the question remains: why are people so obsessed with the whole affair? Though they reportedly held no animosity to him previously,10 most people, even his own hall mates, describe Baker as "disgusting," "perverted," "sick" and even "dangerous," citing his fixation with his East Quad room's proximity to the woman's restroom.11 Regarding Baker's story, users of the Internet labeled Baker as being "stupid", noting that if he hadn't used this classmate's name, (which makes the story more than an average sexploitation and murder tale), or had used an anonymous mailing program that he wouldn't be in trouble in the first place (or maybe not, see below). Even now as the legal action against him turns to focus on his email, it is only Baker's consent that allowed investigators to find incriminating messages. Had Baker simply refused to allow them to see his files, his email would have been considered private and protected by law.
The text of Baker's stories (as posted to USENET) are available. These stories contain explicit sexual content.
If this were just a case of an extreme criminal act, Jake Baker would not continue to receive the intense and sustained attention that the scandal continues to receive today.12
Instead, Baker's story touches on fears that we have about ourselves. In a "perversion of logic," we claim Baker to be an outsider to our social system but realize that condemning him too harshly legitimizes threats to our own cherished rights and values: the right to free speech, to due process and being innocent until proven guilty, and to privacy. The privacy issue is particularly thorny, for if authorities can't prove Baker intended to carry out his words but was just "fantasizing" on-line (both in his stories and his private messages to Gonda) we may not even be free from government intrusion in our writing, our fantasizing and in that most private of places, the bedroom.
CONSTITUTIONAL CONCERNS
There are few more valued documents in America than the Bill of Rights.14 It defines who "We" are, and what unique rights we have as Americans. "Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press …" reads the First Amendment. It has been questioned whether Baker's First Amendment rights were violated with his arrest by being detained for "expressing himself." The removal of Baker's story and the focus on his email is an attempt by Federal investigators to avoid this issue. However, the fundamental situation remains: it matters whether he was engaged in "self-expression" or whether he was issuing a "threat". Hate speech, and words that have the force of action against another, are not protected by the First Amendment,15 and transmitting a threat is a Federal felony. Beyond the legalities, a more Right-wing moralist may want Baker sanctioned for just writing the "obscene" matter in the first place.
Along similar lines, Americans cherish the right to due process, guaranteed by the Fifth and Sixth Amendments. Beyond the legal technicalities lie the principles of a fair trial. We assume an individual has the right not to incriminate him- or herself and that the person won't be deprived of "life, liberty or property, without the due process of law," and that the individual will be innocent until proven guilty. Baker, on the other hand, was snooped, snitched, suspended and snared by the FBI without so much as a preliminary hearing. Duderstadt, with Marshall-Law-like authority to control an unruly public, quickly removed him from campus. An after-the-fact University hearing was later held behind closed doors, but wasn't based on the University's code of student rights and responsibilities.
By itself, this fact is disturbing, but when added to the fact that Baker was denied bond and ruled "too dangerous" for the street by the legal system - it's alarming. Again, nothing has been proven yet, and Federal investigators just switched their focus faster than the O.J. defense team loses a witness. If Baker was arrested only on the threat some feel from his writing's very existence, and there is really only fantasy to his writings, then everyone in this country who uses the Internet is potentially at risk.
NO SAFE PLACE??
Internet power-users suggest we could avoid future Jake Baker scandals by using the anonymous mailing servers or encryption to send mail and postings to the Usenet. But even those methods are quickly falling under governmental scrutiny. Time Magazine reported that the most popular anonymous server, known as Penet, or by its full address, anon.penet.fi, was breached by Finnish authorities who sought the identity of an email user who had used the server to steal documents from the Church of Scientology. "Can anybody be sure that the police, armed with search warrants from other aggravated parties, won't be back?" asked reporter Quittner. "`I would hate to get caught up in the frenzy if and when investigators start anonymous witch hunts,' a user wrote …."16
The Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review has published the transcripts of its panel discussion of the Baker case.
As for encryption, the free email encryption package known as PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is gaining some acceptance on the Internet now. However the U.S. government wants to replace all such encoding devices with Clipper technology - an encryption scheme that would allow government agents to monitor communications devices if issued a warrant to do so. The Internet, the world's largest anarchy, suddenly takes on an Orwellian cast. If our future is, as Vice President Gore assures us, on the Information Superhighway, such over-arching control is a scary prospect indeed.
Due to these far-reaching implications, we must identify with Jake Baker's struggle. Internet users - electronic-mail users and Usenet posters alike - are the most directly affected, and have the most to lose by the result of Baker's case. However, others must worry too. A threat to American freedoms may get a foothold in society with this case, and it is not clear that it would stop with just the Internet.
"THE FOREIGNER"
At the same time we worry about the implications of the Baker Scandal, we move to quickly distance ourselves from him. The tension between identifying with his plight and condemning him was evident in the Michigan Student Assembly resolution that condemned both Baker and U-M's action against him. A member of the assembly was quoted as saying "What he did was gross and reprehensible. What the administration did was worse."17
Writing in Newsweek, computer consultant Steven Levy named the Internet itself as the ultimate the source of this tension, encouraging not just the use, but abuse, of freedoms:
There's a real question as to whether our current social structures can accommodate (the Internet). As this century closes and we enter the first computational millennium, one of the great conflicts in civilization will be the attempt to reorder society, culture and government in a manner that exploits this digital bonanza yet prevents it from running roughshod over the checks and balances so delicately constructed in those palmy pre computer years.18
Indeed, this fear has been shown by the tendency to "foreign-ize" Baker, and locate him outside of our value system. Many stories in the popular press have focused on the graphic details of what he wrote - highlighting his fascination with tools, ceiling fans, curling irons and sodomy. Also his email to Gonda, where he describes "need(ing) to do it," has received extensive play. The image created by this is that Baker is sick, perverse, sadistic … plain and simple, he's just Not "Us". The spectacle of fellow students, teachers and even media personnel distancing themselves from Baker was one of the key features of the early part of the Scandal. The Michigan Daily noted a "media circus" had developed in Ann Arbor, with corespondents from both local news organizations and national ones such as CNN covering the case.19We can also see the "foreign-ization" of Baker in the prominent reminders that his last name is really Al-Khabaz, a Kuwaiti name. The unspoken message being portrayed is that Jake Baker is not one of Us good-ol' American boys from Boardman, Ohio, but Abraham Jacob Al-Khabaz, the Outsider, one of Them. Ed Garsten, in his CNN report on February 10th, emphasized this distinction.
Garsten's segment is the best example of the discourses of exclusion working against Jake Baker. Reid Collins, the anchor in Atlanta, introduced the story as a "sort of bizarre case" which "raised the question whether new technologies require some new laws to regulate them." He cut to Garsten after warning readers that the segment "does contain some graphic language." From the very first sentence, Garsten works to separate Baker from Us:
His computer name is Jake Baker. His real name is Abraham Jacob Al-Khabaz. Under his nome de plume, the University of Michigan sophomore posted stories on the Internet fraught with sexual violence, using the real name of a classmate. Here are some examples of his work …His computer name is Baker, but he's really Al-Khabaz? Garsten has misrepresented the facts, where Baker had his name legally changed before coming to Michigan, and while he tries to sound factual, we see his ideological beliefs at work already.
View the Point-by-point media transcriptions of Baker's
arrest warrants, legal precedents and press releases as they pertain to the case.
But he continues. Garsten presents several "experts" and involved persons during his piece: Saul Green, U.S. Attorney; David Cahill, Baker's Attorney (identified on CNN as "Al-Khabaz's attorney"); Howard Simon, ACLU representative and Herschel Fink, lawyer for the Detroit Free Press, appearing here as a "First Amendment lawyer." As the subjects start talking, a division between those entitled to talk "common sense" and those representing "non-sense" becomes apparent. Green states that Baker was discussing "how to actually fulfill some of the things outlined in the story." Cahill replies, "He never bothered her. He never contacted her at all," a defense framed to appear, well, defensive.
After a transition, Simon gives the obligatory ACLU response on how it was Baker's "constitutional freedom to publish" the story, a notion Fink seconds. However, Garsten's closer makes sure we don't miss the segment's thrust:
But clearly federal authorities believe Abraham Alkhabaz, aka Jake Baker, not only abused his First Amendment privileges, but used his keyboard to level an electronic threat. Ed Garsten, CNN, Ann Arbor, Michigan.21
Baker has been made into an alien, but if Jake Baker was not issuing a threat then he too has been unfairly demonized while exercising his rights as an American citizen.
EPILOGUE
Late in the afternoon of Wednesday, 15 March, a grand jury superseded the indictment against Baker for writing the story with a five-count indictment against him (with three of the counts co-defended by Gonda) based solely on the email between the two. Ann Arbor News reporter Stephen Cain called the re-indictment "the U.S. Justice Department's attempt both to refine its charges in this first-of-a-kind Internet case and to avoid having the case thrown out on the grounds that Bakers communications are protected under the First Amendment freedom of speech provision."30 In essence, the government attempted to move away from the perversion of logic that has been central to the Jake Baker Scandal into a realm it could more easily justify.
The University of Michigan WWW server is the host of the official Jake Baker home page.
Missing from the revised charges is the accusation that Baker threatened a specific individual. Instead, the five counts charge Baker with the more-nebulous "threat to injure another person." Cain said, "that means the government will have to establish that a threat against a class of people, such as young women in Ann Arbor, is sufficient to make it a federal crime."31 U.S. Attorney Ken Chadwell said the re-indictment was to "clarify the exact language we find unlawful in this case" and that the story was relevant as "part of the context that leads up to the charges against him. [But] the words that Gonda and Baker exchanged over email are the violation of the law."32
This completely changes the case. From the moment of his discovery and subsequent suspension, Baker had been accused of issuing a threat against the woman named in his story. Now, the government's case against him doesn't refer to the story, or even the named woman, except in passing during the fifth count only as contextual evidence, not as a basis for a charge.33
Legally, this means everything Jake Baker was being prosecuted for, and even suspended for (Duderstadt's order refers to the stories as cause for suspension) is no longer the issue. David Cahill, one of Baker's attorneys, took a positive spin on the re-indictment and stated that "the government no longer believes he threatened a U-M student."35 However, such a switch by the prosecution is not likely to affect the views expressed about Baker, which are grounded more in personal beliefs than legal fact. Culturally, the re-indictment will probably add another level to the ongoing debate, instead of supplanting it. As of last week, it was too early to judge how the change in charges against Baker would affect the Scandal surrounding him. The only certainty was that it would continue.
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NOTES
1. Branam, J. (1995, 3 Feb.). U-M Expelling Student For Internet Fantasy. Ann Arbor News, p. A1+.
2. George, M. (1995, 4 Feb.). U-M Ousts Student Over Rape Fantasy. Detroit News and Free Press, p. 1A+.
3. Glassberg, R. (1995, 6 Feb.). Student Suspended for E-mail Fantasy. Michigan Daily, p. 1+.
4. E.g. Levy, S. (1995, 27 Feb.). Technomania. Newsweek, p. 24-29; DeWitt, P. (1995, 2 Feb.). Snuff Porn on the Net. Time, n.p.; Grogan, D. (1995, 6 Feb.). Terror by Email. People, p. 58-60.
5. Meet-Students, Meet-Us, Mich-Daily, Daily, Meet-Planners and probably many others, though I do not subscribe to those.
6. I am somewhat hesitant to admit that People magazine was the source of the information on the correspondent's name. Grogan, D. (1995, 6 March 1995). Terror by Email. People, p. 59-60. Also see Schaeffer, J. (1995, 16 March) Mysterious Internet user indicted along with Baker. Detroit Free Press, p. 6D, where Baker discusses a hallmate (in Cain's account she was a Boardman resident, not a Michigan student; such uncertainty on the details typifies the case) with Gonda as being "real pretty, with nice long legs, and a great girly face … I'd love to make her cry."
7. Berndt, J. (1995). The Trail of Jake Baker. Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan Daily.; White, J. (1995, 13 Feb.). Student Judged `Too Dangerous' to be Released. Michigan Daily, p. 1A+.
8. White, J. (1995, 13 Feb.).
9. Schaefer, J.(1995, 16 March).
10. See below.
11. Grogan, D. (1995, 6 March 1995).
12. A limited search of the Usenet 16 March 1995 discovered over 200 messages on Baker posted that day.
13. Reeves, J. L. a. R. C. (1994). Cracked Coverage: Television News, The Anti-Cocaine Crusade, and the Reagan Legacy. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. pp. 38-42.
14. It seems only appropriate to the subject matter that the copy of the Bill of Rights used for this paper was gathered off the Internet (http://www.whitehouse.gov).
15. Murphy, J. e. a. (1942). Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (Per curiam). United States Supreme Court; Rehnquist, W. e. a. (1993). Wisconsin v. Mitchell (Majority Decision). United States Supreme Court; Sanford, J. (1925). Gitlow v. New York (Majority Decision). United States Supreme Court.
16. Quittner, Joshua. (1995, 6 March). Unmasked on the Net. Time, p. 72-73.
17. Klein, A. (1995, 8 Feb.). MSA Condemns Suspended Student, `U' in Resolution. Michigan Daily, p. 1.
18. Levy, S. (1995, 27 Feb.).
19. Atkin, P. (1995, 13 Feb.). Reporters Flock to A2 in Media Free-For-All. Michigan Daily, p. 1+.
20. Reeves, J. L. a. R. C. (1994). p. 57.
21. Garsten, E. (1995). Michigan Student in Trouble for Electronic Stalking. Ann Arbor, MI: CNN.
22. Wendland, M. (1995, 17 Feb.). High Tech Talk. Detroit: WDIV-TV4.
23. DeWitt (1995) notes that Baker had enjoyed a reputation as "gentle, conscientious and introverted" among his classmates before he was suspended.
24. Simmel, G. (1908). The Stranger. In C. Lemert (Ed.), Social Theory: The Multicultural & Classic Readings (pp. 200-204). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
25. Reeves, J. L. a. R. C. (1994). p. 36.
26. Cain, S. (1995, 16 March). Grand Jury Sets New Indictments Against Writer. Ann Arbor News, pp. A1+.
27. Kaplan, E. A. (1992). Feminist Criticism and Television. In R. C. Allen (Ed.), Channels of Discourse, Reassembled: Television and Contemporary Criticism (pp. 247-283). Chapel Hill, N.C.: U. of N. Carolina Press.
28. Kaplan, 275.
29. Ibid.
30. Cain, S. (1995, 16 March).
31. Ibid.
32. White, J. (1995, 17 March). Attorneys Reassess Jake Baker Case. Michigan Daily, p. 1.
33. ---. (1995, 16 March). FBI Changes Jake Baker Indictment. Michigan Daily, pp. 1A+.
34. Glassberg, R. (1995, 17 March). Duderstadt Defends Baker Suspension. Michigan Daily, pp. 1+.
35. Cain, S. (1995, 16 March).
Atkin, P. (1995, 13 Feb.). Reporters Flock to A2 in Media Free-For-All. Michigan Daily, pp. 1+.
Berndt, J. (1995). The Trail of Jake Baker. Info-graphic. Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan Daily.
Branam, J. (1995, 3 Feb.). U-M Expelling Student For Internet Fantasy. Ann Arbor News, pp. A1+.
Cain, S. (1995, 16 March). Grand Jury Sets New Indictments Against Writer. Ann Arbor News, pp. A1+.
DeWitt, P. (1995, 2 Feb.). Snuff Porn on the Net. Time, n.p.
Garsten, E. (1995). Michigan Student in Trouble for Electronic Stalking. Ann Arbor, MI: CNN.
George, M. (1995, 4 Feb.). U-M Ousts Student Over Rape Fantasy. Detroit News and Free Press, pp. 1A+.
Glassberg, R. (1995, 17 March). Duderstadt Defends Baker Suspension. Michigan Daily, pp. 1+.
-. (1995, 6 Feb.). Student Suspended for E-mail Fantasy. Michigan Daily, pp. 1+.
Grogan, D. (1995, 6 March 1995). Terror by Email. People, pp. 59-60.
Kaplan, E. A. (1992). Feminist Criticism and Television. In R. C. Allen (Ed.), Channels of Discourse, Reassembled: Television and Contemporary Criticism (pp. 247-283). Chapel Hill, N.C.: U. of N. Carolina Press.
Klein, A. (1995, 8 Feb.). MSA Condemns Suspended Student, `U' in Resolution. Michigan Daily, p. 1.
Levy, S. (1995, 27 Feb.). Technomania. Newsweek, pp. 24-29.
Quittner, J. (1995, 6 March). Unmasked on the Net. Time, pp. 72-73.
Reeves, J. L. a. R. C. (1994). Cracked Coverage: Television News, The Anti-Cocaine Crusade, and the Reagan Legacy. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.
Schaeffer, J. (1995, 16 March). Mysterious Internet user indicted along with Baker. Detroit Free Press, p. 6D
Simmel, G. (1908). The Stranger. In C. Lemert (Ed.), Social Theory: The Multicultural & Classic Readings (pp. 200-204). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Wendland, M. (1995, 17 Feb.). High Tech Talk. Detroit: WDIV-TV4.
White, J. (1995, 17 March). Attorneys Reassess Jake Baker Case. Michigan Daily, p. 1.
---. (1995, 16 March). FBI Changes Jake Baker Indictment. Michigan Daily, pp. 1A+.
---. (1995, 13 Feb.). Student Judged `Too Dangerous' to be Released. Michigan Daily, pp. 1A+.