DR. STEVEN KURTZ

My name is Stephen Kurtz.  I teach art at the University of Buffalo and am a member of a group of artists called the Critical Arts Ensemble.

In May 2004 a horrible thing happened.  I woke up to find my wife dead in bed of a cardiac arrest.  I frantically called 911.  When the police arrived they called the Joint Terrorism Task Force to come to my house because they were suspicious of the test tubes and other equipment I was using for an art installation about genetically modified food.  The installation was supposed to be displayed at Mass MoCa, a gallery in Massachusetts. 

The Joint Terrorism Task Force searched my home and office under a section of the USA PATRIOT Act. They impounded my computers, my car, my books and correspondence and even my cat.  They took away my wife's body.  I was in a terrible state.

Later on they tried to indict me as a "bioterrrorist".  They sent subpoenas to seven members of the Critical Arts Ensemble and the independent publisher Autonomedia.

Finally, they downgraded the charges against me.  I was no longer seen as a terrorist. Instead I was charged with mail and wire fraud for obtaining biological agents under false pretenses.  A former University of Pittsburgh professor who helped me obtain material for an art exhibit critiquing US involvement in germ warfare experiments was also charged.  

We could face up to 20 years in prison!