Teachers Are Terrorists

“Artist falls afoul of Patriot Act

Artist's use of 'harmless' bacteria spurs investigation

by Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

In a highly unusual use of the USA Patriot Act, which its creators say was designed to prevent terrorist attacks in the United States, The New York Times reports that three artists have been served subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury June 15. The grand jury is considering whether or not to charge Stephen Kurtz, an art professor at the University of Buffalo whose art involves the use of biology equipment, with "possession of biological agents."
Mr. Kurtz's problems with the Patriot Act began in May when he dialed 911 to report his wife of 20 years was unresponsive. When paramedics came to his house, one of them noticed that Kurtz had laboratory equipment, which he used in his art exhibits. The paramedics reported this to police and the FBI sealed off his house.

Authorities later said that Kurtz's wife had died of "heart failure," but he wasn't allowed to return to his home for two days while the FBI confiscated his equipment, and biological samples. They also carted off his books, personal papers and computer. Eventually his home was declared "not a danger to public health," but the FBI did not return his equipment.


Kurtz founded the Critical Art Ensemble, an artists' collective that produces artwork to educate the public about the politics of biotechnology. The group has used "harmless" transgenic [genetically modified] forms of the E.coli bacteria [some strains of E.coli can be deadly] in past exhibits. A member of the collective, Beatriz da Costa, an art professor at the University of California, Irvine, said the FBI served her a subpoena last week to appear at the grand jury hearing.

Ms. da Costa told the Times that the bacteria was produced legally in "cooperation with a microbiology lab in Pittsburgh to create a transgenic E. coli that was completely harmless."

continued...”

“DANG!

I meant to call this "Artists Are Terrorists".

Well... you get the idea...”

“Did we all laugh at the "Red Scare" paranoia? I think we are really outdoing ourselves.”

“You all are eternal pessimists!”

“Pretty wacky art, there.

Still, here's a guy with his wife dead of a heart attack and the FB1 crawling all over the place...

Stranger than fiction, for sure.”

“I smell a CBS Miniseries movie here somewhere...”

“That's why you have to have all yer porno, drugs, cem lab, 55 gallon barrels, haz mat suits, etc all in a Lock Box...just incase ya get a quick visit!”

“So, how long until we round up all the artists?”