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."

Comments

The USA needs a new motto

[Chuck Chunder]

"Land of the free" seems a bit passe.

How about:

"We're shitscared!"

He asked for it....

[clarkkent09]

Any artist whose art can be mistaken for a biological weapon ought to be detained imho. What was so bad about paintings and sculptures of people and nature that they had to be completely abandoned by modern artists in favor of making mostly stuff that a scrap yard would turn down as too hideous.

Back on topic, the mail fraud charge really smells of them trying to find something, anything to charge him with to justify all the damage they did to the guy. Hope he has a good lawyer because if the facts are as they seem from a casual reading of the article (a big IF) he might have a good case for a lawsuit.

Re:Terror is winning

[timmarhy]

Did you skip the part where he hadn't actually commited a crime? The mail fraud charge is totally bogus, why is this totally obvious to everyone except you?

Re:Terror is winning

[timmarhy]

what part of harmless bacteria don't you understand?

Re:Terror is winning

[ThatsNotFunny]

lemmie correct that for you:

Power without ethics: US terrorism.

Re:Terror is winning

[fork_daemon]

lemmie correct that for you:

Power without ethics: US terrorism. Spot on.

Re:how did he commit fraud?

[ivan256]

Haven't you ACLU types done enough to weaken this country?

Oh, spare me the ACLU crap. Yes, that's right, I wrote that original post, and I'm going to say bad shit about the ACLU.

Where is the ACLU on this stuff? They only get involved, it seems, if whoever is involved is a minority, or there's actually a grey area, and the person may have actually broken a law. They push an agenda, and that agenda is a distinct subset of "civil liberties". They're the reason why somebody like me can say what I said, and somebody who *isn't* being sarcastic really can say what you said and be taken seriously. I honestly think the ACLU does more harm than good.

Re:This is why the US is falling behind

[Anonymous Coward]

What happened to the greatness of the WWII generation?

The same generation that imprisoned most of the American population with Japanese ancestry just because they were paranoid whack-jobs, and sold out Czechoslovakia and Poland thus precipitating the whole mess in Europe? The same generation that didn't want to get involved in Europe at all until some completely unrelated country knocked over a military base on the opposite side of the planet and then suddenly dedicated the vast majority of their military forces to Europe? The same generation that decided Stalin was somehow trustworthy, put half of Europe under a cloud of terror for fifty years, and lost China to the Communists?

This business of "the greatest generation" is in many ways true, but let's be honest, that era had as much bumbling incompetence and paranoia as today.

Re:Terror is winning

[jackspenn]

Thanks for the information, after reading about the Geneva Convention, it is clear that the detainees do not satisfy the requirements in the Geneva Convention.