While I agree that in many retellings the severity is overplayed, I disagree that this crime is obviously trivial.
First we should note that this is not the first time they did this, based on their emails and what they said, this is habitual. It was not a one time lapse in judgement.
This was routine, intentional, evasion of import controls. *This time* the material seems to not have been dangerous, but we also know they work with material that is.
Laws exist for a reason, this sort of thing is not at Munster's discretion.
It should also raise serious questions about his behavior at the lab: does he follow protocol, or does he just rely on his own discretion and deviate from proper protocol when he thinks it's not needed?
Then there's that he seems to have tried lying when he was caught. This also raises serious questions for someone whose profession reliés heavily on trust (deservedly or not).
I also don't think this was targeted. There are all kinds of stories of overzealous CBP personnel that make Europeans and others hesitant to come to the USA.
Compared to what I hear going on with average tourists, complaining that CBP personnel detained someone for an actual crime seems to be unjustified.
He got caught by normal CBP operations, not a targeted conspiracy against scientists.
Maybe before he could have called Fauci and after a few more calls, charges would be dropped, but I don't see charging him with a crime that he definitely committed as some fascist move.
The Trump administration has done lots of other reprehensible things, to act like this is one of the worst (dagger at the heart blah blah) as Rasmussen does, is to trivialize the actual authoritarian actions of the Trump administration.
While feds certainly have 1001’ed people for political purposes and the FBI regularly interviews people they intend to catch in lies, à la Martha Stewart, this really didn’t happen here if you believe the FBI’s affidavit.
I mean, are we to believe that the security and DHS officials who first found these guys even knew who Munster was even after looking into him? Was there some pre-existing dragnet to find cases like this? Very clearly not.
But certainly he should be punished in some way. Alarmingly, he claimed he does this all the time if I remember right. As to what's proper punishment for Munster, that's best left to the experts.
Munster lied about the contents by declaring primers and dNTPs, but no mention of viral DNA or inactivated virus:
When asked what the materials were specifically, MUNSTER said that they were a fast RADI Mpox kit from KH Medical company. MUNSTER also said that the materials were an “assay” and were a mixture of ingredients. MUNSTER identified the ingredients as “dNTPs nucleotides, Forward Primer 1, Reverse Primer 2, Probe-Fam labeled, and mg magnesium chloride.”
MUNSTER was asked to write down the ingredients of the materials in his possession. See Figure 1.
Good catch. It's still not risky stuff but that note sure looks like he tried lying about it rather than give a straight answer. Suspicious behavior, and really dumb.
While I agree that in many retellings the severity is overplayed, I disagree that this crime is obviously trivial.
First we should note that this is not the first time they did this, based on their emails and what they said, this is habitual. It was not a one time lapse in judgement.
This was routine, intentional, evasion of import controls. *This time* the material seems to not have been dangerous, but we also know they work with material that is.
Laws exist for a reason, this sort of thing is not at Munster's discretion.
It should also raise serious questions about his behavior at the lab: does he follow protocol, or does he just rely on his own discretion and deviate from proper protocol when he thinks it's not needed?
Then there's that he seems to have tried lying when he was caught. This also raises serious questions for someone whose profession reliés heavily on trust (deservedly or not).
I also don't think this was targeted. There are all kinds of stories of overzealous CBP personnel that make Europeans and others hesitant to come to the USA.
Compared to what I hear going on with average tourists, complaining that CBP personnel detained someone for an actual crime seems to be unjustified.
He got caught by normal CBP operations, not a targeted conspiracy against scientists.
Maybe before he could have called Fauci and after a few more calls, charges would be dropped, but I don't see charging him with a crime that he definitely committed as some fascist move.
The Trump administration has done lots of other reprehensible things, to act like this is one of the worst (dagger at the heart blah blah) as Rasmussen does, is to trivialize the actual authoritarian actions of the Trump administration.
Erik-I agree with everything you wrote there and will slightly modify the blog.
While feds certainly have 1001’ed people for political purposes and the FBI regularly interviews people they intend to catch in lies, à la Martha Stewart, this really didn’t happen here if you believe the FBI’s affidavit.
I mean, are we to believe that the security and DHS officials who first found these guys even knew who Munster was even after looking into him? Was there some pre-existing dragnet to find cases like this? Very clearly not.
Agreed, it was unlikely to be a setup. But the big public ruckus is way out of proportion.
Yeah of course. Once Paul heard about this, there’s going to be a political PR push. There’s gambling in the casino!
But certainly he should be punished in some way. Alarmingly, he claimed he does this all the time if I remember right. As to what's proper punishment for Munster, that's best left to the experts.
Munster lied about the contents by declaring primers and dNTPs, but no mention of viral DNA or inactivated virus:
When asked what the materials were specifically, MUNSTER said that they were a fast RADI Mpox kit from KH Medical company. MUNSTER also said that the materials were an “assay” and were a mixture of ingredients. MUNSTER identified the ingredients as “dNTPs nucleotides, Forward Primer 1, Reverse Primer 2, Probe-Fam labeled, and mg magnesium chloride.”
MUNSTER was asked to write down the ingredients of the materials in his possession. See Figure 1.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZTM-xVjkvDDHlk3Fi1VQaEJIVwNonsYA/view
Good catch. It's still not risky stuff but that note sure looks like he tried lying about it rather than give a straight answer. Suspicious behavior, and really dumb.
"What needs to be banned is the practice of making new potential pandemic pathogen viruses." Well said, Michael!