Bioterror Blunder Explained

I caught the Hallwalls exhibit of Seized which closed yesterday.
It documents the trials and tribulations of University at Buffalo art professor Steven Kurtz. Long story short Kurtz's wife died very unexpectedly in May 2004. What should have been a very routine police call spiraled into nearly four years of nightmarish accusations. Kurtz is also a founding member of the award winning art and theatre collective, Critical Art Ensemble. When the police entered his Allentown neighborhood home, they found a small lab set up. It was to be part of an upcoming CAE exhibit. Authorities warned him that the F.B.I. would want to speak with him. The next day while on his way to make funeral arrangements for Hope, his wife, the F.B.I. detained him for 22 hours, without charge, on the suspicion of "bioterrorism". They searched his home and took several thousand dollars in equipment and other materials (most of which were never returned). They donned Hazardous Materials suits while searching his place as the TV cameras rolled (photo to the left). His home was cleared of containing any dangerous substances. The lab had non-lethal bacteria that was used in his art. Hope Kurtz died of natural causes. Kurtz and a co-defendant, Dr. Robert Ferrell, Professor of Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, were charged with wire and mail fraud for sending $256 in ordinary bacteria through the mail. Ferrell, due to ill health, took a plea deal. Kurtz stayed the course and the indictment for mail and wire fraud was ruled "insufficient on its face" by the presiding Judge Richard Arcara in April, 2008. The feds decided not to appeal that decision. When their appeal time ran out, Hallwalls displayed the exhibit.

It was small but effective. The main room played a video that had ominous music as clips for local and national newscasts recounted the story. The drama of the hazmat suits was the focal point. It culminated with a clip from the film Strange Culture, a docudrama that tells the Kurtzes' story. Oscar winner Tilda Swinton, plays Hope Kurtz. The clip shown was of a someone receiving a subpoena and filming the Feds who were presenting it. The center of the room featured the infamous pizza boxes and Gatorade bottles that welcomed Kurtz when he was finally allowed into his home. They trashed the place and locked his cat up for days on end without food and water. Bean left scratch marks in the room that she'd been locked in. (She's okay, I think they moved her to Canada for safekeeping). Other debris such as rubber gloves and a hazmat suit surround the pizza box tower, which was almost 5 feet tall. "The Willilam J. Hochul Freedom Library" was of great interest. A small shelf of books that the feds confiscated from the Kurtzes' home. They are as follows:

• Anarchist Cookbook (a perennial "what if" title in library school intellectual freedom discussions)
• Bioterrorism: Guidelines for Medical and Public Health Management by D. Henderson, M.D.
• PDR Guide to Bioterrorism and Chemical Warfare Response
• Yellow Fever/Black Goddess: the Coevolution of People and Plagues by Christopher Wills
• Biological Warfare:Opposing Viewpoints
• Understanding Germ Warfare (from the editors of Scientific American)

Sorry to ramble but the titles listed above can be found in many public libraries. Maybe they should waste our tax dollars more than they already do and seize all copies available! Kurtz's work shows that funding is being wasted on funding biological weapons. Testing shows it is rather ineffectual. He also shows the dangers of genetically modified food. Because it looked weird and the government types didn't get it, they turned his life upside down. I hope he can move on and continue with his art.


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