July 8, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
FBI HARRASSMENT OF ARTIST AND SCIENTIST CONTINUES
Kurtz and Ferrell face 20-year charges of mail and wire fraud in
federal court arraignment
Dr. Steven Kurtz, Associate Professor of Art at the University of
Buffalo, was arraigned and charged in Federal District Court in
Buffalo today on four counts of mail and wire fraud (United States
Criminal Code, Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1341 and 1343),
which each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
The arraignment of Dr. Robert Ferrell, Professor of Genetics at the
University of Pittsburgh, who was indicted along with Kurtz, has been
postponed for a week for health reasons.
The defendants were charged not with bioterrorism, as listed on the
Joint Terrorism Task Force's original search warrant and subpoenas,
but with a glorified version of "petty larceny," in the words of
Kurtz attorney Paul Cambria. The laws under which the indictments
were obtained are normally used against those defrauding others of
money or property, as in telemarketing schemes. Historically, these
laws have been used when the government could not prove other
criminal charges. (See http://www.caedefensefund.org/ for background
and full text of indictment.
Under the arraignment conditions, Kurtz is subject to travel
restrictions, random and scheduled visits from a probation officer,
and periodic drug tests.
EMINENT SCIENTISTS CONFUSED AND ALARMED
A great number of people are wondering why this seemingly absurd case
is still being pursued.
"I am absolutely astonished," said Donald A. Henderson, Dean Emeritus
of the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
and resident scholar at the Center for Biosecurity of the University
of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Henderson was awarded the Presidential
Medal of Freedom by President Bush for his work in heading up the
World Health Organization smallpox eradication program and was
appointed by the Bush administration to chair the National Advisory
Council on Public Preparedness.
"Based on what I have read and understand, Professor Kurtz has been
working with totally innocuous organisms... to discuss something of
the risks and threats of biological weapons--more power to him, as
those of us in this field are likewise concerned about their
potential use and the threat of bio-terrorism." Henderson noted that
the organisms involved in this case--Serratia marcescens and Bacillus
atrophaeus--do not appear on lists of substances that could be used
in biological terrorism
(http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=646).
University of California at San Diego Professor of Design Engineering
Natalie Jeremijenko noted that scientists ship materials to each
other all the time. "I do it, my lab students do it. It's a basis of
academic collaboration They're going to have to indict the entire
scientific community."
Perhaps with such an outcome in mind, preeminent science magazine
Nature has called on scientists to support Kurtz. "As with the
prosecution of some scientists in recent years, it seems that
government lawyers are singling Kurtz out as a warning to the broader
artistic community Art and science are forms of human enquiry
that can be illuminating and controversial, and the freedom of both
must be preserved as part of a healthy democracy--as must a sense of
proportion" (http://www.caedefensefund.org/press/CAEed.pdf).
FACE-SAVING MEASURE OR WARNING TO ARTISTS?
Some believe that the entire case is merely a face-saving tactic by
the FBI: "Recently, federal agents arrested University at Buffalo
art professor Steven Kurtz, implying he was a bioterrorist. Now,
officials have downgraded that to a mail fraud charge The FBI
always gets its man, even if it has to change its charge. Jaywalkers,
beware" (http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20040707/3028537.asp).
Others, like the editors of Nature quoted above, see the intent as
much more insidious. "It's really going to have a chilling impact on
the type of work people are going to do in this arena, and other
arenas as well," noted Stephen Halpern, a SUNY Buffalo law professor
who specializes in Constitutional law
(http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=646).
Professors and staff from the University of California system express
similar fears. "We are both extremely concerned and disturbed that
the prosecution of the CAE members and research colleagues is
continuing We see here a pattern of behavior that leads to the
curtailing of academic freedom, freedom of artistic expression,
freedom of interdisciplinary investigation, freedom of information
exchange, freedom of knowledge accumulation and reflection, and
freedom of bona fide and peaceful research. All of which are
fundamental rights and cornerstones of a modern academic
environment."
"Kurtz's materials are politically, not physically, dangerous," said
Mary-Claire King, the University of Washi
