On inspection, the references to '1996' in the 'Jim Bell' article are not footnoted.  (And, they never have been, since Skomorokh added them 2 years ago).  The AP essay was begun about April 1995, and eventually grew to include 10 parts.  The first 7 parts were written in 1995, and were published immediately as they were written.  Part 8 was a copy of an article by a journalist, Paul Maxwell, writing in the Asahi Evening News (English language newspaper in Japan).   It and parts 9 and 10 were written about February 1996.  You can be sure that by July 1995, 'the Feds' were well aware of the content of the (then-growing) AP essay. The Feds subsequently concealed their early knowledge of the AP article:  One technique they used, when the applied for a warrant, was for the affiant to claim something like, 'I first became aware of the AP essay on....'   That specific affiant ['affidavit writer' for you who don't know the law] may very well have 'first become aware' on some late date, but that doesn't mean that other Feds weren't aware, months or well over a year before.  It served the purposes of the Feds to make it appear not merely that the AP essay was written far closer to Bell's May 1997 arrest, but also to conceal the fact of their agent Walsh/Wilson's involvement perhaps one year prior to Bell's first attendance of MCCLC meetings.  Why?   It sounds much more like an 'emergency' if something happened yesterday, or last week:  They certainly wouldn't have wanted to have to tell the judge, 'Well, Bell wrote this TERRIBLE essay...two years ago' !!!
This explains, I believe, why Skomorokh claimed the AP essay was written in '1996', and furthermore gave no references. '1996' (at least, December 1996) sounds reasonably close to early 1997.  'April 1995', on the other hand, sounds like an eternity from May 1997, the month Bell was arrested.  71.36.117.224