Do You Trust Them?

Every now and then something really scary comes across my desk. I don't mean the normal things: global warming, impending starvation for much of the world, the end of species I care about. I mean 1984-like politically scary things.

A free society is going to take a few hits-- I've said this before. But I'm beginning to think a free society is its own worst enemy. One example from a few years ago is Jose Padilla. Padilla is an American citizen and (now) a convicted terrorist conspirator. His case wound through the courts and he was convicted. The system worked.

Or did it? Padilla was arrested in 2002 as an enemy combatant even though he was an American citizen and arrested on American soil. This was the position of the Bush administration until 2006 when he finally went to trial. That's four years he was held without counsel, without habeas corpus, in violation of the US Constitution. Okay, people might say. But he was guilty.

Yes. But we must remember why the constitutional safeguards were created in the first place. It was because the Founding Fathers had first hand experience of the oppression of their own government. The Founding Fathers were not American citizens. They became American citizens.

A more recent example of oppression in the name of liberty is the 2004 story of Robert Farrell and Steven Kurtz, as told in the October Aetiology. Robert Farrell was working with some harmless bacteria-- bacteria considered so innocuous that they are commonly cultured in high school biology courses. Farrell sent some bacterial samples to Steven Kurtz, a fellow science and artist, who used them in an art exhibit regarding genetically modified foods.

Kurtz' wife, Hope, died of heart failure. Kurtz unsurprisingly called 911. The police came to the house and saw all of these petri dishes lying around and were understandably a little suspicious-- that's what police are paid for, after all. The FBI retained Kurtz on the way to the funeral home the next day. Up to this point, it seems fairly normal-- no weirder than how Boston reacted to the LED displays of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force a while back. Boston authorities went on high alert, got a little ticked at the advertising agency that both placed the LED displays in sensitive areas and failed to inform the police, but then pretty much let it go. I think News Corp was fined.

Kurtz, on the other hand, was held for 22 hours. No Miranda was read to him. No counsel. People stomped through his house in hazmat suits. A plague was brought down upon his house. (Pun intended.) The details are all in the Aetiology article and its follow up, as well as here. There is also a movie that has been made.

Perhaps even this was perhaps understandable. But it has now been three years going on four. Farrell gave up after three strokes and two battles with cancer-- a fine, suspended sentence and turning evidence on Kurtz. Kurtz is still-- still-- being prosecuted. Heck, if they want to see where disease threats are going to be, check here. Or maybe they should be using scientists to help as is the case here.

Anybody that has been following the shenanigans of the Bush administration has seen harassment of scientists right up there with Cheney being a government in his own mind. But the cases above are things we normally expect in police states.

This is what the constitution is all about, to protect ourselves from the government we elected.

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