Now anti-government art is 'terrorism'!
Buffalo professor faces FBI charges
By Beverly Hiestand
Buffalo, N.Y.
Steve Kurtz, an associate art professor at the
State University of New York at Buffalo, called 911 on May 11
for aid for his wife, who later died of apparent heart failure.
The death of his spouse was only the beginning of his
nightmare.
Buffalo police made it clear from the beginning that Kurtz
was not under any suspicion in connection with the death of his
wife, who had a history of an enlarged heart.
Yet federal agents from the Buffalo Joint Terrorism Task
Force raided his home later that day.
Kurtz is an artist who uses harmless live organisms found in
the everyday environment, and laboratory equipment in his
performances that are political commentary on scientific
topics. He has been a member, since 1987, of a Buffalo-based
Critical Art Ensemble, which uses scientific equipment to
create art projects that question the relationship between
commerce, politics and bio technology. The group has exhibited
this art all over the world. (www.caedefensefund.org)
The day Kurtz's spouse died, federal agents seized from his
home computers, vials, test tubes, books on biowarfare and
bacterial cultures that were immediately found to be
harmless.
Claire Pentecost, a photographer at the Art Institute of
Chicago, says that the books on biowarfare carried off by
investigators were part of the group's latest project, "The
Marching Plague," which simulates an anthrax attack as part of
its critique of government germ warfare research. (Nature, June
17)
The equipment that CAE used to test common food products has
also been confiscated by the FBI, even though laboratory tests
have shown that it was not used for any illegal purpose, and it
is not possible to use this equipment for the production or
weaponization of dangerous germs.
"These people aren't bio-terrorists. They're artists, making
political statements" said Paul J. Cambria, attorney for Kurtz.
"Steve Kurtz is a peaceful man. But after 9/11, our country has
been ripe for paranoia about terrorism, and our government
feeds that paranoia. [Kurtz] certainly wouldn't have dialed 911
after his wife's death and invited authorities into his home if
he had any kind of equipment for terrorism in there." (Buffalo
News, June 16)
Local casualties of Washington's 'war on terror'
The case has drawn international media attention. "Art
becomes the next suspect in America's 9/11 paranoia," headlined
The Guardian, a major British newspaper, on June 11.
This is the second major effort of state repression under
the Patriot Act here in Buffalo.
The first victims of the "war on terror" were six young
Yemeni men from the industrial suburb of Lackawanna. They were
charged in September 2002 with having traveled to an Al-Qaeda
training camp in the spring of 2001, listening to an anti-U.S.
speech and receiving small-weapons training for a very brief
period.
The six were under tremendous pressure from the
Bush-Ashcroft administration. They faced the threat of being
tried for treason, a capital crime, and being designated "enemy
combatants" with no legal rights at all. Reportedly as a
result, all six separately pleaded guilty to providing material
support or resources to Al-Qaeda. In December each was
sentenced to near-maximum prison terms of from seven to 10
years.
The entire Yemeni community continues to be under state
siege. Continuous roadblocks are set up around the area and
police make searches and threats without any cause.
International support for Kurtz
An FBI indictment continues to loom over Kurtz.
His case has attracted international support. On June 15,
some 200 supporters from all over the U.S and from other
countries demonstrated in downtown Buffalo at Niagara Square
while, a couple of blocks away, a federal grand jury was
investigating Kurtz.
Other demonstrations in defense of Kurtz were held on the
same day in Vienna, Austria; Amsterdam, the Nether lands; and
Berkeley, California. Support for Kurtz is also reportedly
widespread in the art communities of Europe and the United
States.
Protestors accused the U.S. Justice Department of trying to
turn an edgy art exhibit into a terrorist plot.
They charged that Kurtz is being targeted under the USA
Patriot Act of 2001 because his art is critical of the
government. The U.S. Attorney's office in Buffalo has declined
to comment on the case.
The Critical Arts Ensemble support website states that the
group believes Kurtz's case is being pursued under the
Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989. The act was
amended under the post-9/11 Patriot Act to allow the
prosecution of "whoever knowingly possesses any biological
agent, toxin or delivery system."
One of those protesting the FBI's actions was Nato Thompson.
He's curator of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in
North Adams, where an art exhibit by Kurtz about genetically
altered food was scheduled to be shown in June.
The exhibit, entitled "Free Range Grain," consisted of a
small laboratory where patrons could explore the role of
genetic engineering in food production. "People could bring
some food, like a loaf of bread, and have it tested there, to
find out how organic the bread really was," said Katherine
Myers, a museum spokesperson. "The artist was using science as
a way to get people to investigate things, to ask
questions."
In the space where the exhibit would have appeared, the
museum has posted a sign, explaining that Kurtz's work cannot
be displayed because the FBI seized it. (Buffalo News, June
16)
Reprinted from the July 1, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe to WW by Email: wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Donate to
support pro-labor, anti-war news.
Email
this article
Printable
page