The FBI's hazardous-materials unit raiding Steve Kurtz's home in 2004

Cleared - the artist the FBI branded a bio-terrorist

His wife died and the paramedics immediately notified the police

The Joint Terrorism Task Force swooped in, detaining Kurtz on suspicion of bio-terrorism

Agents in bio-hazard suits - from the FBI, the Department of Defense and Homeland Security, among others - sealed off the street

Within a week the Commissioner of Public Health announced that the seized cultures were harmless

Kurtz's wife had died of natural causes

His lawyer called the FBI's response "a colossal overreaction"

only now, four years later, has the case finally been dismissed

FBI, with its curious knack for groundless tenacity, went ahead and indicted Kurtz for mail and wire fraud

upped from five to 20 years by the USA PATRIOT Act

I, as an American citizen, am ashamed to inform you

an acronym for the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act