There is no debate about how bad things have gotten in the last 7 years under the Bush Administration. The politization of the DOJ, the increased power of the DOJ and the Bush Administration, the suppression of science, illegal wiretaps, censorship, etc. I could fill several diaries. But rare is the case that embodies or touches on all of the these abuses. That case study is Steve Kurtz as documented in the movie Strange Culture. The trailer is below:
I saw this movie for the first time last night and could not believe what I was seeing. It touched on so many things that were/are wrong in our country today. First some background.
Steve Kurtz was an of an art professor at Carnegie Mellon University and he and his wife Hope were members of the Critical Art Ensemble. From their website:
Creative Art Ensemble is a collective of five artists of various specializations dedicated to exploring the intersections between art, technology, radical politics, and critical theory.
Steve and Hope were working on a Bio Tech Art project that looked at Genetically Modified (GM) Agriculture. On May, 11 2004 Hope died of heart failure. From The CAE Defense Fund
Police who responded to Kurtz's 911 call deemed the couple's art suspicious, and called the FBI. The art materials consisted of several petri dishes containing three harmless bacteria cultures, and a mobile lab to test food labeled "organic" for the presence of genetically modified ingredients. As Kurtz explained, these materials had been safely displayed in museums and galleries throughout Europe and North America with absolutely no risk to the public.
The materials he was using for the art project were legal to own and were used in classrooms all around the US. Here's what happened next:
1. Abuse of Power
The next day, however, as Kurtz was on his way to the funeral home, he was illegally detained by agents from the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force, who informed him he was being investigated for "bioterrorism." At no point during the 22 hours Kurtz was held and questioned did the agents Mirandize him or inform him he could leave. Meanwhile, agents from numerous federal law enforcement agencies - including five regional branches of the FBI, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, and the Buffalo Police, Fire Department, and state Marshall's office - descended on Kurtz's home in Hazmat suits. Cordoning off half a block around his home, they seized his cat, car, computers, manuscripts, books, equipment, and even his wife's body from the county coroner for further analysis. The Erie County Health Department condemned his house as a possible "health risk."
A week later, only after the Commissioner of Public Health for New York State had tested samples from the home and announced there was no public safety threat, was Kurtz allowed to return to his home and to recover his wife's body.
He was also questioned extensively about an art show invitation that had "Arabic" writing on it, which seems to be the whole basis for the terrorism charge in the first place. When Steve returned home, he found the front of his yard littered with bags of empty pizza boxes, and drink bottles. In some of this trash were actual FBI notes about the case that had been thrown away. Inside was no better. Test kits were left all over the floor along with more trash. And worst of all, they left Steve's cat locked in the attic for an unspecified amount of time without food or water.
The FBI tried to charge him with bioterrorism, but the charge was thrown out. So, instead of admitting they had made a mistake, they then decided to charge him with wire fraud and mail fraud for purchasing the bacteria in the first place. And not only did they go after Steve, they went after his friends and coworkers. Handing out subpoenas, and following them and yes, even listening to their phone calls. They even went after the scientist who gave him the bacteria.
2. Censorship
Also indicted was Robert Ferrell, former head of the Department of Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Public Health, and a collaborator on several of CAE’s projects. (Since Ferrell is ill at this point, his case has been indefinitely postponed.) The charges concern technicalities of how Ferrell allegedly helped Kurtz obtain $256 worth of harmless bacteria for one of CAE's art projects. Although they are a far cry from the charges originally sought by the District Attorney, these are still serious federal charges, which – thanks to the PATRIOT Act – carry the same potential sentence as the original "bioterrorism" charges would have: up to 20 years.
The project that Steve was working on was a way to test food to see if it was genetically modified. Currently in the US, it is not required for food to be labeled to tell the consumer if what they are eating contains genetically modified material. What do you think the impact on businesses like Conagra and Monsanto would be if everyone really knew what they were eating? Steve's art was challenging Administration policies, so what better way to silence the critics by charging both the art AND the science.
3. Politization of the DOJ
Why is an Attorney General pursuing a "case" that even the company who sold the material has not bothered to pursue? Why is the Department of Justice going far outside its own guidelines in an attempt to make this into a federal "crime"? According to affidavits obtained by Kurtz's lawyer, government agents misled a judge to obtain search warrants for Kurtz’s home. The judge was never told of Kurtz's complete, cooperative and easily verifiable explanation about the harmless bacterial substances he used for his artwork, or that this material had been frequently exhibited in museums and art galleries with no risk to the public, or of the fact that Kurtz tasted the Serratia in one of the petri dishes in front of an officer to prove it was harmless. Also, in a blatant and illegal use of racial profiling, the judge was told of Kurtz's possession of a photograph with Arabic writing beside it, but not of the photograph's context: an invitation to an art exhibition at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art! The photograph, by The Atlas Group, was one of several exhibited pieces pictured on the invitation.
In bringing these charges the Department of Justice (DoJ) is acting with extreme selectivity: This is the first time in the history of the U.S. Justice system that anyone has ever been indicted or charged with federal mail fraud for allegedly breaking a material transfer agreement (MTA). In the prosecution's radical interpretation of mail fraud law, incorrectly filling in a warranty card would be grounds for federal criminal prosecution.
And here's a footnote. The same FBI team in charge of Kurtz's case was involved with the Lackawanna 6 convictions. Kind of like using a backhoe to plant a petunia.
And it's not over. Steve's future is still in limbo. Visit the The CAE Defense Fund for more information on the case and how you can help. This is a precedent setting case that will have repercussions for all of us if Steve is convicted. The movie is playing this month on The Sundance Channel and the DVD is available for pre-order on Amazon