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Justice Department's Bio-terror Mistake

Posted by samzenpus on from the more-deadly-than-the-mooninites dept.

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."

4 of 477 comments (clear)

  1. This story is very very very very very very old. by rafael_es_son · · Score: 5, Informative

    Like three years old.

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    HAD
  2. Re:Terror is winning by Foobar+of+Borg · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.
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    Similar to the upcoming US election results
  3. Re:how did he commit fraud? by Odin's+Raven · · Score: 5, Informative

    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" :

    [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.

    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.

    --
    A marriage is always made up of two people who are prepared to swear that only the other one snores.
  4. Re:Terror is winning by toganet · · Score: 5, Informative

    Jose Padilla
    Yasser Esam Hamdi
    Kevin James

    Were born in the US, and are just a few of the US Citizens in Gitmo
    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.