Sunday, May 04, 2008

FLE

Fabricated 'Bioterrorism' Case Collapses After a four-year legal battle, a US federal judge has dismissed all charges against an avant-garde artist who public officials condemned as a bio-terrorist in a case critics are calling "a persecution, not a prosecution." The artist is Dr. Steven Kurtz, a professor of Visual Studies at the University of Buffalo, and a founding member of the award-winning collective Critical Art Ensemble (CAE). The case started in May of 2004. While Kurtz was preparing for an exhibition of an art installation at MASS MoCA, a museum in North Adams, Massachusetts, his wife of 20 years died in her sleep. When police responded to his 911 call, they noticed a small food-testing lab and petri dishes containing bacteria cultures. The lab was part of the scheduled installation, which would have allowed museum visitors to see if their store bought food contained genetically modified (GM) organisms. The cultures were part of a multimedia project commissioned by the British-based art-science initiative, The Arts Catalyst, and produced in consultation with scientists from the Harvard-Sussex Program. The project used the harmless bacteria Bacillus subtilis and Serratia marcescens in an installation, performance, and film dedicated to demystifying issues surrounding germ warfare programs and their cost to global public health. Some of CAE's work is designed to protest the potential risks of genetically modified (GM) food. Local police called the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). While politicians and federal prosecutors rushed to trumpet the thwarting of a major threat, Kurtz was detained under the PATRIOT Act on suspicion of bioterrorism. The street where Kurtz's home was located was cordoned off, his house searched, and his property seized. Federal agents confiscated Kurtz's art projects, computers, and all copies of a book manuscript Kurtz was working on, as well as his reference books and notes. The book, Marching Plague: Germ Warfare and Global Public Health, had to be entirely reconstructed and was finally published in 2006. The then governor of New York, George Pataki, lauded the work of the FBI for disrupting a major bioterrorism threat. And the then US attorney in Buffalo, Michael A. Battle – the lawyer who was later to become the Department of Justice employee who notified eight US attorneys that they were being fired – praised the work of the Buffalo Joint Terrorism Task Force. But after a several-month-long investigation, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) failed to provide any evidence of "bioterrorism." On the contrary, FBI tests revealed within a few days of the incident that there were no harmful biological agents in Kurtz's house and that his wife had died of heart failure. Forced to drop its charges of weapons manufacture, the government instead accused Kurtz and Ferrell of mail and wire fraud. The government claimed that when Dr. Ferrell gave the cultures to Dr. Kurtz, this violated a contract between the University of Pittsburgh and the supplier, American Type Culture Collection (ATCC). Neither the university nor ATCC had brought any complaint, and observers pointed out that scientists routinely share non-hazardous cultures. The Department of Justice further claimed that this alleged contract discrepancy constituted federal mail and wire fraud. Because the charges against the two academics were brought under the PATRIOT Act, the maximum penalty was increased from five years to 20. Earlier, Dr. Ferrell pled guilty to a lesser misdemeanor charge rather than facing a prolonged trial for the mail and wire fraud felonies. During the legal wrangling, he had two minor strokes and a major stroke that required months of rehabilitation. He was indicted as he was preparing to undergo a stem cell transplant, his second in seven years. But Kurtz rejected any plea deal, instead demanding a public trial. Most of the art world has rallied behind him. His colleagues in the Critical Art Ensemble set up a website and a legal defense fund, and Kurtz continued to teach at the University of Buffalo. When the case finally arrived in a courtroom this month, Federal Judge Richard J. Arcara ruled to dismiss the indictment. It is unclear whether the government will appeal the dismissal....Looks like another CYA operation by the FBI and DOJ.
Audit: Up to 400 State Department laptops missing The State Department has lost track of as many as 400 laptop computers, an internal audit ordered by the Inspector General has found. "The importance of safeguarding official laptops and office equipment containing sensitive information is not a new concern," said State Department overseer Rep. Nita M. Lowey (D-NY) through a spokesperson to CQ Politics. "I intend to review the facts about this situation." The computers belong to the Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program, run by the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which protects diplomats during stateside visits and trains and equips foreign police, intelligence and security forces. Anonymous sources say that officials are "urgently" scouring offices in the Washington, D.C. area to account for the equipment. The State Department is not keeping good records of its inventory, official John Streufert told a panel at a February 6 meeting on the security of "personal identification information," citing a "significant deficiency." Mark Duda, the Inspector General's representative, also warned of scandal like the one that erupted in May of 2006, after the home of a Veterans Administration employee was burglarized and a laptop he was using for a work project, containing names, Social Security numbers and birthdates of more than 26 million people, was taken....Don't worry, we can still trust them to protect all the data they are collecting on us. Right?

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