Slashdot Mirror
Bioterrorism Charges Brought Against Professor
gnetwerker writes "Wired
and others are reporting about artist Steve Kurtz, professor at Univesity of Buffalo (NY), and member of the
Critical Art Ensemble will face a Grand Jury in two weeks on bioterrorism charges over artwork that used samples of harmless bacteria to make a statement about genetic engineering and food safety. He is charged with BioTerrorism under Section 817 of the PATRIOT Act. Apparently
John Ashcroft can't tell a weapons lab from an art installation. There is more info and a
Defense Fund on the CAE Defense Fund Site."
This man is an activist! What the hell is our government smoking? The man's wife died, which probably had an effect on his life and goals. Since when is a political statement grounds for federal charges? What will be next - will I br imprisoned for life without trial in solitary for burning a flag?
Who else here thinks the government has gone too far? Is there no way to stop this insanity?
Ads? What ads?
This guy was arrested for things in his own home. The Police are treating this just like finding a huge cache of explosives or something, when in fact its what (he claims) is harmless bacteria.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Where did it mention anything about a security checkpoint? Where did it mention smuggling?
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
I read both linked articles. I've searched them for patriot as well as 817. No hits. It sounds like this guy is being charged with a law signed 15 years ago, brought to attention by a mysterious death of his wife. From the Wired writeup, I'd say he's done activities which would make me slightly suspicious. Enough to warrant an investigation at least.
So where's the PATRIOT act charges come from? Because Slashdot isn't showing it.
CAE's latest project, included a mobile DNA extraction laboratory for testing food products for possible transgenic contamination. It was this equipment which triggered the Kafkaesque chain of events.
FBI field and laboratory tests have shown that Kurtz's equipment was not used for any illegal purpose. In fact, it is not even _possible_ to use this equipment for the production or weaponization of dangerous germs. Furthermore, any person in the US may legally obtain and possess such equipment.
If that's true (and the quote does come from the CAE defense fund page - obviously a biased source), it doesn't seem to me like anyone could have much of a case against him.
I think this is just a symptom of a more general problem - most people don't understand the biology of transgenic food, and ignorance breeds fear and suspicion. There's also the conflation of ideas between transgenic plants and bioterror organisms. Yes, some of the same lab techniques of gene manipulation might be used in both, but "transgenic" seems to get confused with "harmful".
I would be awfully surprised if this guy was growing something in his home that caused the death of his wife. And if he did, chances are it came in on whatever material he was studying - in which case that's who should be investigated.
On the one hand, I think Mr. Kurtz probably should have set up a lab in his university rather than doing it in his home. But to lose your wife (most likely to some freak of chance - an undetected heart problem, or whatever) and your livelihood as well, is a steep price to pay.
So Kerry's actually more at fault for the Patriot act than Ashcroft or even GWB himself (on the theory that a 99-1 or so would override any attempt at a veto, not that W would have even thought of doing that...). Ashcroft's charged with enforcing the laws, not making them.
dude, the only thing they do is provide a test, so people can check if their food contains genetically modified food. That's not exactly vandalism or destruction of somedy else's property. You can't do any harm with the equipment they use.
- Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
>But I think creating genetically-modified foods in the first place are terrorist activites!
"We're 6.6 billion people now. We can only feed 4 billion; I don't see 2 billion volunteers to disappear."
-- Norman Borlaug on Penn and Teller's Bullshit! - "Eat This!", speaking on the effects of removing modern farming techniques and genetic engineering from the food supply.
Sorry. I'm gonna have to take the word of a man who is estimated to have saved 1 billion lives and has a nobel peace prize over yours. Hope you understand. Don't take it personally.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
Shit like this is only going to continue to happen more and more often...
I've said it before, and I'll say it again(I wasn't first to say this, mind you)...
if you want an unlimited source of free energy, just attach a turbine to George Orwell's body
Orwell's vision is coming true, little by little by little... and if the American people don't stand up and do something about it, pretty soon it will be too late (if it's not already).
There's an election coming up folks... think long and hard about whether the people you're voting for are FOR or AGAINST this kind of shit. My suspicion is that any major party candidate is FOR this shit, personally.
// TODO: Insert Cool Sig
Do you need a license to have sex too?
If you have AIDS and know it, and don't tell your partner, you can't even (legally) have sex -- license or not. And that's the kind of case we're talking about.
If you're breeding Anthrax in your basement (not saying he was -- maybe his stuff was harmless, and maybe it would have remained so -- or not) I want you stopped.
Sorry, your right to pursue your interest in your home stops when that interest might get out of control and kill everyone in the neighborhood.
everything in moderation
Thanks for the clarification. I hope you can also help clarify how E. coli, Serratia and Bacillus globigii are "mainly related to some equipment used to extract dna."
Oh, and while you're at it, please reconcile:
You can't do anything harmfull with [E. coli, Serratia and Bacillus globigii]
. . . with:
Even harmless bacteria can become harmful under certain, but extremely rare, circumstances, said Richard Roberts, a leading DNA researcher.
everything in moderation
They investigate. They indict or not after their investigation.
This is a perfect case for a grand jury. There was a lot of stuff going on. Some of it seems criminal at first, but may not be.
The grand jury is there to decide what to do.
How should they decide whether to indict? Coin flip? Slashdot poll?
Also: The FBI is involved because there's an investigation to determine whether a Federal law has been broken. I is for Investigation. F is for Federal.
Prevent email address forgery. Publish SPF records for y
I have personally been approached by the feds demanding all records we have on certain students at the university I work for. In the past the standard response was to reply with "sure thing, as soon as we see a warrant for that data". Under the Patriot Act (and don't kid yourself into thinking parts of it are not classified) if I tried that now I personally would be charged with obstruction of justice. I am literally not allowed to request a warrant if the Patriot Act is brought up. Nor am I allowed to tell anyone that the request happened. This is real "secret police" kinda stuff people.
Anonymous Coward (accept no substitutes)
This is up there with FBI's alert about people with maps and or almanacs.
And the FBIs' investigation of a book that contained 100yr old smallpox scabs and launched an investigation as to whether or not it was bioterrorism.
The fact is a woman died and the fact is the womans death was ruled "due to natural causes". So pardon me, but I do not see how a jury grand or not could be a better judge than a doctor trained to perform an autopsy and atoxicilogy lab. Perhaps if they ordered a few additional autopsies and toxicology tests... but a grand jury should not be concerned with a procedure so mundane as to have already been done by the police department.
That and the additional fact that no cultures have been found at said lab that pose any threat.
Overall, this does not add up.
It seems once again those who have brains and initiative should bee feared. Why doesn't Ashcroft just come out and say it? "All people with higher education than a highschool degree are a potential threat and should be watched closely".
Next thing you know the DoJ will be demanding the banning of home chemistry sets currently available at Toys 'R' Us and Walmart due to a "A very present and significant threat by educated youngsters against the free people of the world."
I don't claim to know anything about biology - at least, nothing more than I learned in an AP class some three years ago.
And nobody on Slashdot knows from these brief summaries the full story behind the case. For instance, when the police say they think bacteria have nothing to do with the death, are they only saying that because they're legally compelled not to accuse someone? Or do they really think that bioterror is an essentially implausible option and this fellow is just an activist a little too extreme to let slide? (His emotional state re: having a wife suddenly die is, apparently, not terribly important especially if he might have done it.)
Still, from the summaries alone - and this is a big caveat - the bioterror thing strikes me as a very familiar kind of alarmist angle used and supported by people that don't know any better. It's the kind of attitude that kept Kevin Mitnick (according to John Markoff of the New York Times an FBI Most Wanted List star, although he can't prove it) in solitary confinement for some eight months. Otherwise, a judge was convinced, he might start global thermonuclear war by whistling at NORAD through a payphone.
In the war against terrorism (can you wage war on a method?), letting our own ignorance make us deathly afraid of one another is tantamount to conceding defeat.
We recently had heard in the office over one of the Yellow Machine that's made by Anthology Solutions.
Tell that to the guy who bred the first mule.
When you talk about ecological destruction, are you talking about the overpopulation "problem" that these technologies will create or the unfounded fears of watermellonpeace who are actually so anti-business that they'll delibertly mislead consumers or destroy crops. Study the introduction of the potato in the old world for some insight on how this planet's population ceiling has been raised over the past 10,000 years of agriculture and animal husbandry. As for convicing the environmentalists, I'm waiting for them to wrap their minds around the basics of GE/GM technologies, as the bulk of their arguments have been based on hatred for profit making business.
09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
Should whomever rated your commend 5:Informative be banned as well? You seem misinformed on legal matters. He hasn't been charged with ANYTHING at this point. That's what a grand jury does. For "capital, or otherwise infamous crime(s)" a grand jury indictment is required prior to charges. What that means varies state to state but murder ALWAYS counts. So for something like shoplifting, the prosecution just charges you with it by themselves. However stuff likemurder they have to present a case to the grandy jury, who has to return an indictment for murder. If they don't you don't get charged.
It's a pre trial thing to keep people from being brought up on big charges with no evidence. The standard isn't very high, all the grand jury must find is legally sufficient evidence and reasonable cause to believe and they can return an indictment.
So a murder charge may well be pending. Depends on what the grand jury finds. They may find there is no evidence of anything, and refuse to indicte him at all. They may indicite him on murder, and other charges.
Yeah, well, some of the things they've been putting into plants aren't even plant genes.
For example, in plant life there exists tons of herbicides and insecticides, developed to help the plant survive. Nicotine, and caffiene, for example.
But, they're going after fungus, and getting the BT toxin gene, putting it into corn and tobacco and the other cash crops. This is something that would quite likely never be developed in these species. Even after millions of years of cross breeding. Yeah, BT is killer stuff to bugs. In larger doses, it's not good for humans (or fungus for that matter).. Who knows what the long range impacts are from the large scale introduction of another toxin into our food chain.
I think it is silly to imagine he hasn't done any genetic modification. Infact every student who takes AP Biology in high school today does genetic modification of E. Coli to be resistant to a certain antibiotic, to express green fluorescent protein, or to express luciferase from fireflies to glow.
The only equipment needed for genetic transformation of "competent" strains of E. Coli is a hot water bath. They suck bacterial plasmids right into the cells and their genome.
You can go to a web site, enter in a gene nucleotide sequence, and get a vial of bacterial plasmid with your custome gene in a few days for as little as $500.
I'm not saying this guy is dangerous, there really isn't evidence that people can cook up anything worse in their kitchens using genetic modification than they could not using genetic modigication, but with a bit of soil and an incubator.
> What pisses me the fuck off here, what really drives the rage with
> which I've been posting lately, is that you folks have co-opted a
> political movement and philosophy that was once associated with
> patience, humility, and honor, constructed a bizarre mythology of code
> words in which anyone who disagrees with you is a Stalinist, that has
> wrapped a lust for power and wealth in the American flag.
Sigh. Guess you don't get out much.... or even watch TV. Socialists have a long history of wearing out one label and 'reinventing' themselves under a new one. Back around the turn of the 20'th Century 'Socialist' was a perfectly respectable political label. But as it actually went into practice and rapidly descended into the horrors of Stalinism in Russia and then National Socialism in Germany it fell out of favor for reasons which should be obvious to all. (If it isn't obvious to you, get off slashdot and pick up a history book!)
Thus the modern 'Liberal' was born. Swiping the name made respectable by the Classical Liberals of the 18 and 19th Century was a genius stroke of marketing. But by the 1970s and 1980s it had become obvious that people had caught on to the fact that the modern "Liberals" where the same old income redistributionists and group rights race baiters under a new name and if an opponent hurled the label "Liberal" and made it stick a pol was toast.
The Democratic party didn't start to face that reality for another decade when the "New Democrats" were born and Bill Clinton ascended to the White House. Then promptly set out to govern as caricitures of Liberalism, leading the voters to respond by creating Speaker Gingrich and Pres. Clinton stuffing a sock in Hillary's mouth and tacking towards the center a bit. But the "New Democrats" had an element in their movement who actually wanted to change the soap, not just design a new box with "New & Improved" on the label.
We now know which side won that battle for the Democratic Party. So now we have the Howard "I have a scream" Dean phenom and the "Progressive" movement, which is the same Socalists/Liberal ideas fired by anger now that the Democrats are nominally out of power for the first time in recent memory. Disagree with my assessment? Well then name some major policy differences between the three labels?
I'm not yanking code words out of my ass and seeing Commies under every rug, I'm reading their fucking webpages you silly twit. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to read a few of the fringe nutjob's webpages to confirm for yourself that 'critical theory' prattle almost always appears on pages by obvious crackpot Marxists. After all, they needed a new name for Marxism since even the Russians don't want anything to do with it anymore.
Which brings us to this specific asshat. He is making very public statements threatening to release chemicals to DESTROY CROPS! Should we really wait until he actually does it? Or knowing the gutless nature of most academic green terrorists, gets one of his young and stupid students to do it for him.
Democrat delenda est
The state I live in had a catch all piece of legislation known as the "drugs misuse act", which gave "Patriot" style powers. No warrents, prisoners could be held for some time without charge etc - it was abused a great deal by members of the local police force until it was repealed, such a thing will be abused by some even if it is set up with the best intentions. Removing the checks and balances unleases all kinds of actions. Alarm bells should have run the second it was called the "patriot" act - vote against something with a name like that and you'll look bad, no matter what the contents of the bill are, since you would obviously not be a patriot.
As for the bioweapon shadow jumping, what really happened with the anthax? There's been a lot of sideshows and distractions since then.
Depends on what you think the point of journalism is. If the point is to get people excited and sell papers, then perhaps it's excellent journalism. And they didn't even have to lie this time.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.