Not too long ago, Alt Film Guide published a q&a with filmmaker Lynn Hershman-Leeson, whose Strange Culture (above) deals with the bizarre case of Steve Kurtz, a professor of Visual Studies at the University of Buffalo and a founding member of the award-winning collective Critical Art Ensemble (CAE), who was accused by the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department of being a bioterrorist. Kurtz and Lucia Sommer, coordinator of the CAE Defense Fund, also took part in the q&a, which discussed both Hershman-Leeson's film and Kurtz's legal battle against a justice system blind to the (obvious) facts.
After four years, a U.S. federal judge has finally dismissed all charges against Kurtz. At Inter Press Agency, William Fisher has written a thorough article on the absurdity of the case.
Below are a couple of quotes:
"The then governor of New York, George Pataki, lauded the work of the FBI for disrupting a major bioterrorism threat. And the then U.S. attorney in Buffalo, Michael A. Battle — the lawyer who was later to become the Department of Justice employee who notified eight U.S. 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 [co-defendant Dr. Robert] Ferrell of mail and wire fraud."
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What a waste of taxpayers' money. Why am I not surprised?