Justice Department's Bio-terror Mistake

destinyland writes "University professor and artist Steve Kurtz publicizes the history of chemical weapons with performance art pieces. The day his wife died of a heart attack, 911 responders mistook his scientific equipment for bioterrorism supplies. After he was detained for 22 hours, Homeland Security cordoned off his block, and a search was performed on his house in hazmat suits, they found nothing. Now they're prosecuting him for "mail fraud" for the way he obtained $256 of harmless bacteria."

Re:Terror is winning

[SueAnnSueAnn]

Actually the terrorists are in our government.

This is one of over a hundred such cases.

Hale to the Fatherland.

Sue

This story is very very very very very very old.

[rafael_es_son]

Like three years old [washingtonpost.com].

Re:This story is very very very very very very old

[Nasarius]

And unfortunately, it's still very very ongoing. The mail fraud charges are new, IIRC.

Re:Terror is winning

[Foobar of Borg]

These *really did* look just like the weapons they thought they were.

The problem is that, after they discovered that he did not have WMD, they still tried to pin something on him. Why can't they just admit that they were mistaken and let it go? Welcome to America. When the police think you have done something wrong, then come hell or high water they will try to find something they can charge you with.

Re:Terror is winning

[whoever57]

Did you skip the part about the guy recreating 50's Germ Warfare experiments?

Did you skip the part about them using harmless bacteria?

Re:Terror is winning

[Anonymous Coward]

HAHAH f@#$%ing stupid overly-paranoid ignorant American sheeple. Oh, wait, I'm an American.

Re:how did he commit fraud?

[Odin's Raven]

What was in the package and what was claimed to have been in the package are identical... that's not fraud.

The fraud claim wasn't about the contents of the package - instead, it was based on how the order was placed. According to an article on AlterNet, "The $256 Question" [alternet.org] :

[Steven] Ferrell, a geneticist and professor at the University of Pittsburgh, allegedly provided Kurtz the organisms for use in an artwork, rather than using them in his own research, thereby violating an agreement he had signed when he purchased the cultures for $256 from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC).

I think that's an accurate description from Kurtz's point of view, since I found the Alternet article via a link on the Critical Art Ensemble Defense Fund's press release page [caedefensefund.org].

So yeah, seems like there was mail fraud, but in a technically-correct-but-really-lame sense of "fraud" that reeks of desperation to pin something - anything - on Kurtz.

Re:Terror is winning

[Dak RIT]

I picked Taiwan. Most of the population here is still actively fighting for ever-increasing rights.

Dickhead

[Max Littlemore]

along with some photocopied manuals in Arabic, I would have that observer drop a dime on you as fast as it falls...

And shit for brains.

Do you wonder why Americans and the "free world" are threatened with terrorist activity? I mean it obviously couldn't have anything to do with how you select arbitrary groups of people around the world, demonize them to make it appear moraly okay to rob them, persecute, terrorise them and kill them to further your interests?

Could it be that so many of your most vocal and prominant figures are so obviously either corrupt or stupid? Or the fact that you insist on challenging other nations for their transgressions with regard to international law and being the world's police force while your own agencies completely disregard the rule of law, as this case highlights?

No, it's probably because every one else is jealous of your freedom.

Big fucking rant here, but I am so sick of seeing absolute shit like that re-inforcing propaganda on a site that is supposed to be a bit more intelligent than the usual fare. Terrorist manuals are avaliable in many languages. Copies of the SAS handbook, anarchist cookbook, etc are out there and they are not in arabic.

I personally feel safer about Iran having a nuclear program than I do about the US having one. How many wars have Iran started in the last 50 years? How about the United States? In those wars, which nation has used WMDs? Which nation has supplied more WMDs to other nations to fight proxy wars? Which nation has taken a decade to go from cooperation to war with at least two former allies?

Sure, Iran has threatened Isreal, but Isreal is a state born from terrorism with a total lack of regard for international law. It is a state that continues to commit human rights abuses on the population it has displaced through the theft of land. It has developed nuclear weapons, refused to sign the NNPT and given it's total disregard for the humanity of any nation around it, and the fact that Iran supports the Palestinian people, I think it is much more likely that Isreal will be the agressor in any nuclear exchange in the middle East. I support Irans nuclear program if for no other reason than to keep Isreal in check.

Your own government commits human rights abuses and supports foreign governments that commit human rights abuses. The most extreme abuses are of course reserved for non citizens, but I believe in the rule of law and a crime is a crime. Please fuck off with your propaganda, it insults my intelligence. And don't come back with that fucking US centric democrat voting liberal shit. I don't understand your political divisions and I don't want to. My opinions are my opinions, this post is predominantly fact.

Sincerest apologies to any intelligent americans who can see through the propaganda but feel insulted by the strong language in this rant.

Help 'em out

[c3ph45]

The website for the defense [caedefensefund.org] From the site: "We anticipate going to trial in the Summer of 2008, if not sooner. Your support is needed more than ever." and "We must raise at least $90,000 in the next 10 months to defeat the DoJ's abuse of power in this precedent-setting case!" You can go here [caedefensefund.org] to donate.

Re:Terror is winning

[Oligonicella]

Dude, you are full of shit. 61,472 due to influenze/pnemonia, 2004.

Re:Dickhead

[KevinIsOwn]

For someone calling other people stupid and claiming to have such a grasp of the actual facts, it would do you service to actually consider the facts regarding Israel's creation and not call it a terrorist state. The creation of Israel was far from ideal, but it was also far from terrorism. (Any logical and even handed consideration of the state's formation acknowledges major problems with Arab leadership during that time period, mainly the fact that they went directly to war)

While you have many points in your post I can agree with, the suggestion that Iran is a suitable nation for nuclear weapons is ridiculous. His abuses of human rights within Iran, especially with regards to women, prove that that administration would be willing to do things to other nations that even America wouldn't consider.

And how many wars has Iran started in the last 50 years? Since there's no point in considering anything before the Iranian revolution, we can just go with 1979 onwards. They couldn't start a whole lot of wars considering they were at war with Iraq from 1980 until 1988 (Which Iraq started), leaving their military and country in a fairly weak state for many years after that. They have, however, said they want to take Israel off the map. And you think that they should have nukes to keep Israel in check? It's bad enough that Israel has nuclear weapons, the last thing we need is for two countries in the region to have them. The solution to nuclear proliferation isn't more nuclear proliferation!

Re:Terror is winning

[toganet]

Jose Padilla
Yasser Esam Hamdi
Kevin James

Were born in the US, and are just a few of the US Citizens in Gitmo [cageprisoners.com]
I'm not saying any of these men are innocent -- just that they deserve due process under the law like any other citizen, regardless their religion or hairstyle.

Re:Terror is winning

[tmosley]

Pnuemonia is caused by Pseudomonas aeurgenosa, which is present on the skin and could be isolated by anyone with just a little bit of microbiology experience. I guess that makes us all terrorists now. Hell, most of us have even worse stuff crawling around on our skin, bugs that could kill if they got into your body and multiplied, but he body is designed to defend against them. Just having them around in a vial is no more dangerous than leaving a stool sample in a closed container on your table. This case is somewhat similar to the "plague professor" from Texas Tech Health Sciences Center a few years ago. The local prosecutor had a vendetta out on this guy because he caused a scare, and ended up putting him in jail for quite a while for not filling out the right paperwork on shipping some bacteria samples from Africa. This is something that ANY professor could be taken down for. From speaking with the professors there, I can tell you it has had a real chilling effect on research at that institution. Everyone is so uptight that it's hard to get anything done. Most labs have been forced to hire inventory personnel in an attempt to stay "legal", which takes away from money that should be spent doing research and curing disease.

Re:Terror is winning

[gosand]

Unless they say you're a 'terrah' suspect and ship you off to guantanamo bay without any kind of trial.

And leave you there. From Wikipedia: "Since the Afghanistan war 775 detainees who have been brought to Guantanamo, approximately 420 have been released. As of August 09, 2007, approximately 355 detainees remained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. More than a fifth have been cleared for release but may have to wait months or years for their freedom because U.S. officials are finding it increasingly difficult to line up places to send them, according to Bush administration officials and defense lawyers. Of the roughly 355 still incarcerated, U.S. officials said they intend to eventually put 60 to 80 on trial and free the rest."

Re:Terror is winning

[jackspenn]

Umm, those people were not picked up by the police in our country. They were picked up by our military overseas, many times in combat circumstances.

You do recognize that under your logic (or lack there of), every German officer, soldier and spy picked up during WWII, could not be held, without first being read their rights, shipped to the US, and then having before a Judge and been convicted of fighting in the German army.

When you consider to hold the trial, we would obviously had to ship back US, British or French fighters to testify (and thus hurt our war effort) and you also consider that the capture happened in a war zone where defense lawyers could argue that destruction of evidence prevents a fair trial; well, then you would recognize how illogical your comment and the views that produced it are.

You should be aware that your argument lacks any Constitutional foundation. The Constitution states very clearly the Judicial branch doesn't deal in foreign matters or things that happen outside the US. The Constitution puts that power largely in the Executive and to some extent the Legislative branches, but clearly says the Judical has no power in this area.

Re:Terror is winning

[Bacon Bits]

No, power without ethics is tyranny.