F.B.I.
ROBERT MUELLER, DIRECTOR
JOINT TERRORISM TASK FORCE
WILLIAM HOCHUL JR.
Chief of the Anti-terrorism Unit for the US Attorney's Office in the Western District of New York
MICHAEL BATTLE
U.S. District Attorney
PETER J. AHEARN
Special Agent in Charge Federal Bureau of
Investigation, Buffalo, New York

AHEARN

MUELLER

The NERVE ... "...to dress up a turd and call it a CARAMEL!"

A number of artists have been served subpoenas
to appear before a federal grand jury that will consider bioterrorism charges against a university professor whose art involves the use of simple biology equipment. The subpoenas are the latest installment in a bizarre investigation in which members of the F.B.I.'s Joint Terrorism Task Force have mistaken an art project for a biological weapons laboratory.

Steve Kurtz

BACKGROUND - Early morning of May 11, Steve Kurtz, an art professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, awoke to find his wife, Hope, dead of a cardiac arrest. Kurtz called 911. The police arrived and, after stumbling across test tubes and petri dishes Kurtz was using in a current artwork, called in the Joint Terrorism Task Force. Soon agents from the Task Force and FBI detained Kurtz, cordoned off the entire block around his house, and later impounded Kurtz's computers, manuscripts, books, equipment, and even his wife's body for further analysis. The Buffalo Health Department condemned the house as a health risk. 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 able to return home and recover his wife's body. Yet the FBI would not release the impounded materials, which included artwork for an upcoming exhibition at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.

F.B.I. ART ATTACK The FBI charges in to search for WMD's in Steve Kurtz's Buffalo residence on 11 May 2004.

After the FBI obtained a criminal search warrant, agents of the 30-agency Joint Bioterrorism Task Force then spent parts of 2 days in hazmat suits searching his home and removing several items. The search team found no dangerous agents, according to Buffalo FBI spokesperson Paul Moskal. Kurtz's lawyer, Paul Cambria, said they found samples of three different kinds of bacteria, one of which was an "innocuous" genetically modified strain of Escherichia coli Kurtz used in his displays.

When the Joint Task Force on Terrorism searched Kurtz’s home, he was in the midst of researching the issue of biological warfare and bioterrorism, to assess the actual danger these weapons pose and to bring U.S. policy on such threats into public dialogue. To do this research, he had many books on the subject and had legally acquired three bacteria commonly used as educational tools in schools and university biological departments.  One might conjecture that these are the “biological agents” indicated in the charges against Kurtz. They are bacillus globigii, serratia marcenscens and e.coli. Harmless to humans, Bacillus globigii is extremely common and found easily in samplings of wind-borne dust. BG is safely used in biological studies as a stand-in for pathogenic bacteria. It is used as a biological tracer for anthrax because its particle size and dispersal characteristics are similar to those of anthrax. A household bleach-and-water solution easily kills it.

Steve Kurtz

One of the technicalities on which the prosecution will focus is the definition of a biological agent as one that has been extracted from a natural source (bear in mind that is only speculation). Even though the bacteria in question would be easy to collect in any household, the particular samples Kurtz possessed were cultured in a lab and purchased.

The accusations derive from the USA PATRIOT ACT OF 2001, SEC. 817 EXPANSION OF THE BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS STATUTE (H.R. 3162): Whoever knowingly possesses any biological agent, toxin, or delivery system of a type or in a quantity that, under the circumstances, is not reasonably justified by a prophylactic, protective, bona fide research, or other peaceful purpose, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both. In this subsection, the terms "biological agent" and "toxin" do not encompass any biological agent or toxin that is in its naturally occurring environment, if the biological agent or toxin has not been cultivated, collected, or otherwise extracted from its natural source. According to the subpoenas, the FBI is seeking charges under Section 175 of the US Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, as expanded by the USA PATRIOT Act.

Even under the expanded powers of the USA PATRIOT Act, it is difficult to understand how anyone could view CAE's art as anything other than for a "peaceful purpose." The equipment seized by the FBI consisted mainly of CAE's most recent project, a mobile DNA extraction laboratory to test store-bought food for possible contamination by genetically modified grains and organisms; such equipment can be found in any university's basic biology lab and even in many high schools.

BIOTERRORIST KURTZ AND HISEXPERIMENTS....

GenTerra bacteria release machine

Molecular Invasion

Free Range Grains

While most observers assumed the Task Force would realize that its initial investigation of Steve Kurtz was a terrible mistake, the subpoenas indicate that the feds have instead chosen to press their "case" against Kurtz and possibly others. Two of the subpoenaed artists -- Beatriz da Costa and Steve Barnes --are, like Kurtz, members of the internationally-acclaimed Critical Art Ensemble (CAE), an artists' collective that produces artwork to educate the public about the politics of biotechnology. They were served the subpoenas by federal agents who tailed them to an art show at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. A third artist, Paul Vanouse, is, like Kurtz, an art professor at the University at Buffalo. He has worked with CAE in the past. Critical Art Ensemble has very publicly and legally performed scientific processes to demystify them and make them accessible to audiences.  "Free Range Grains," CAE's latest project, includes a mobile DNA extraction laboratory for testing food products for the presence of genetically modified organisms.

The Protector F.B.I. Director Robert Mueller

The artists involved are at a loss to explain the increasingly bizarre case. "I have no idea why they're continuing (to investigate)," said Beatriz da Costa, one of those subpoenaed. "It was shocking that this investigation was ever launched. That it is continuing is positively frightening, and shows how vulnerable the PATRIOT Act has made freedom of speech in this country." Da Costa is an art professor at the University of California at Irvine. Adele Henderson, chair of the art department of the State University of New York at Buffalo, says, "This is a free speech issue, and some people at the university remember a time during the McCarthy period when some university professors were harassed quite badly"

The implications of the current charges against Kurtz, given what we know about the evidence, is that it is illegal for a citizen to possess materials commonly used for research in legitimate institutions everywhere.  If we allow the government to call this terrorism the effects will be felt not only by artists, academics, amateur scientists and researchers of all kinds but will exacerbate the chill already being felt by institutional scientific research.

In a time when there is no public authority willing to protect and inform citizens against the interests of corporations (in the case of transgenic agriculture) and when millions of public dollars are being rerouted toward a militarization of public health research, art has become a place where issues can be brought into public light, understood and discussed.  Many artists are currently training themselves in science and technological methods in order to better inform audiences of the processes affecting their health, their choices and their lives. These artists are not pretending to be scientists, but they are performing “prophylactic, protective  bona fide research” toward educational “or other peaceful purposes” (as stated by H.R. 3162 provisions under which it is legal and permissible for a citizen to possess biological agents).

Surely the government must have more evidence than it has revealed to the public that Steve Kurtz was preparing some sort of bioterrorism attack with the props he had collected for a show at Mass MoCA. Otherwise, hauling Mr. Kurtz before a grand jury for possession of simple laboratory equipment and bacteria such as is commonly found in household refrigerators makes the FBI look like the Keystone Kops -- or the GESTAPO.

Hundreds of demonstrators in Buffalo and San Franciso protest the FBI Art Attack against Steve Kurtz.

Instead of behaving like responsible law-enforcement agents and apologizing for the intrusion and returning the materials in time for the show at MoCA, the FBI convened a grand jury in Buffalo compelling Mr. Kurtz to hire a high-priced attorney. There are three possible explanations for this behavior: 1) The feds have some real evidence of a bioterror plot.
2.) They're incompetent and don't know exculpatory evidence when they see it, or...
3) They are behaving vindictively in order to harass an artist whose views they find objectionable. It's probably safe to rule out 1.

North Adams City Councilor Gailanne Cariddi is right to suggest we "turn a sharper attention to the ramifications of what's going on in this country."
The pursuit of Mr. Kurtz indicates that the FBI that failed the nation before 9/11 has not gotten its act together. It suggests that the rights Americans hold dear are being eroded in the name of the botched fight against terrorism.

UPDATE - June 29, 2004
A STEALTH INDICTMENT
Professor Steve Kurtz was charged today by a federal grand jury in Buffalo, New York -- not with bioterrorism, as listed on the Joint Terrorism Task Force's original search warrant and subpoenas, but with "petty larceny," in the words of Kurtz attorney Paul Cambria. Also indicted was Robert Ferrell, head of the Department of Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Public Health. The charges concern technicalities of how Ferrell helped Kurtz to obtain $256 worth of harmless bacteria for one of Kurtz's art projects. Cambria suggested
that the pursuit of such a minor case at the federal level was
profoundly absurd.

The U.S. District Attorney attempted to cast the issue as one of public health and safety in a public press conference called without the knowledge of either defendant's lawyers, thus eliminating the chance of rebuttal. During the conference, parts of which were broadcast on local Buffalo news channels, U.S. Attorney William Hochul and U.S. District Attorney Michael Battle (right), the assistant New York State attorney general in charge of the Buffalo regional office, repeatedly alluded to "dangerous" and "bio-hazardous material," even though the charges have nothing to do with such issues, and scientists universally regard the materials in question as safe. Many believe the attempt to cast the $256 technicality as a public health and safety issue is a face-saving measure by the government, which has already expended an enormous amount of time and money in their fruitless pursuit of this case.

Michael Battle U.S. District Attorney

ooo

Click for continued coverage of ths story >

TO SUPPORT OR CONTRIBUTE TO THE CAE Defense Fund
click below

Off with THEM to the dustbin of Art History !!!

The text of this article has been gleaned and adapted from a number of news sources.