If the FBI wants to help protect scientists from bioterrorism, strategy needs to be first on this list, not last. Unless the FBI understands that, they won’t get anywhere. Scientists will be justifiably reluctant to work with law enforcement until they can be assured that the policies and procedures that led to the Steve Kurtz persecution have been fundamentally changed. Any lab that messed up as badly as the FBI did in that matter would take years to get its reputation back, and “PR and marketing” wouldn’t do the trick. It’s chilling that anyone thinks the FBI or any law enforcement agency can get what it wants just by selling itself better. This is an attitude I saw over and over again during my military career: “don’t fix the problem, just spin it.” The culture of science is uniquely suited to see through such chicanery.
Daniel Dvorkin University of Colorado ...
