Hue - Afternoon Observations

Brunet announces they will need until Wednesday to finish evidence and will close at a later date, to be chosen and announced. There will be work tomorrow as well.

Cyclist Joseph Papp appears. Because he is being examined by Barnett, we know his testimony will be marginally relevant but highly controversial. Apparantly, Barnett's 15 minutes aren't up.

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Papp came back to cycling after leaving in 1996, in 2001. The peloton speed was faster. his teamates told him to see a doctor to catch up to the speed of the peloton. the doctor told him to take EPO. I get it, cyclists need to dope and they do not just to get by but to win. Nebulous and time wasting, a Barnett feista.

He learned to use testosterone from a Spanish rider to aid recovery and improve performance. He got the testosterone from a doctor in California (BALCO connection? Oh, joy). He actually has some juice here. Maybe we CAN SEE IT. Yes, Barnett puts the Andro-Gel on the screen!!!!

You put the gel on your body and it lasts 4 hours, then it leaves. I certainly wish we could see it demonstrated on someone but I'm afraid that would scare the entire audience. He beat the T/E screen using this method.

A lawyer is here and Papp is looking at him for clues. Lawyer says it is ok for Papp to say the Whistle (?) team in Italy made him dope when he joined them in 2006. Unfortunately, he tested for exogenious testosterone in the Tour of Turkey. He knew he doped and still wanted to fight it. This is the culture of cycling. It is expected.Deny, fight, protect (the Omerta). I'll bet this is completely new to these experienced Arbitrators (not) and I'm getting pretty upset with this stuff. It is useless.

When Papp got nailed, he was abandoned by his team. Why is that a surprise, are they supposed to keep relations with him? Doesn't that violate the WADA Code? He was a cooperative witness in an ongoing federal investigation (which one might that be, I wonder?).

Barnett roles out the Landis brief concerning Power Output data and particularly the PowerTap. you canput out consistant power if you use the testosterone.

Papp doesn't know Landis and has no opinion about this case. Why is he here? Matthew Barnett continues, attempting to poke holes through the argument in the Landis briefs. Papp says testosterone is a substance you use in small quantities to beat the tests. Here's your science, racing fans. Here's your tax dollars at work.

Barnett leads now and tries to get Papp angry. He can't work. He's mad that Landis would deny Papp's reality. I would too. Poor guy. He's lost everything cheating.

Suh cross-examines. Papp is cooperating with the US Attorney in San Diego.Papp does not know if he is a subject of the US Attorney's investigation. Papp does not know Landis, hasn't raced with him, been his teamate or knows any of his teamates. Papp didn't ride in any Tour de France (Just Tour of Turkey). He has not raced in the Tour of California, Tour of Georgia, Paris-Nice and hold no championships. he has raced with the Pittsburgh Power, owned by Franco Harris and KHS prior to 1996.

Suh is examining Papp on EPO use. The clock is ticking down. Papp took EPO from 2001 to 2006 and had been using it until he tested positive. Poor guy, he now has to list all the performance enhancing drugs he took. USADA set him up for this. it is hard to watch. Papp's a pawn in this little power play. I feel bad for him. Suh is asking him to name names and Barnett's objection to that is over-ruled. WADA wants names. Barnett wants the lawyer to get away from an open mike. Barnett hardly cares. Papp has been been used. He's been served.

Landis may run into a roadblock here because Papp may refuse to "name names", probably as a result of attorney's advice and exposure to liable civil remedies. Should he stop, then once again the Panel cannot compel him to continue and then effective cross examination has been terminated. There will be another motion to strike the testimony.

Suh continues. Sando Biacci (?) the brother of the owner of the team gave him the drugs from his back-pack that had a cold pack. Another one bites the dust. He got HGH , insulin, anabolic steroid and cortizone, throid hormone. He got more drugs from South America. He brought them back without FDA authority. This may be drug trafficing. Good Lord! What has Barnett exposed this man to?

I forgot, he took amphetamines too. And other stuff, because it was in Italian. He is not an MD and is not a scientist.

He resolved one anti-doping case yesterday, prior to coming here. But he hasn't resolved any other potential doping case. He gave back no titles, he has none but he agreed to do so.

Barnett's back up. Gets him to admit EPO, cortisone and caffeine use. Barnett goes to his "feelings" from his testosterone use. Again, this could be established by a scientist but then a human being couldn't be sacrificed that way. What a shame. I'm sorry for Mr Papp. The bus is right there, Mr Papp, can you get under it, please?

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Hue-Morning Observations Day 5

Suh and Barnett are going at each other. Barnett tries the "Young Ruse" (which consists of coaching the witness by a lengthy speech tipping the witness off to the "correct" answer) but Suh will have none of it today. Barnett is clearly pleased with his big day yesterday, feeling his oats as it were.

Young, the consummate professional, brings Barnett's argumentative objection into focus using three words "asked and answered". I really like Mr Young.

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Young and Dunn seem to have turned over the "objection" duties to Barnett. They are working while he is listening. Is his work otherwise done?

Brunet is back at the helm today, making all rulings and controlling the proceedings. He is also trying to help the interpreter, as are many members of the audience. That is funny to everyone.

Mr Campell had to have a break (we ALL needed it) and we are back in session.

Mr Jacobs is establishing through Ms Ayotte, a number of other mistakes with the LNDD testing graphs. Not a single one nor their total mean anything negative about those procedures to her .

The lab experts are all saying that anything missing doesn't affect the results. But it clearly affects fairness. The machine is working and there is a test for the machine to see if it can identify a known positive.The results of that are not in the packet of information given to the athlete. But that is not neccessary because the machine works. Circular, n'est pas?

Similarly, Dr Ayotte doesn't need to see the controls, because she has the test results which appear to be reasonable and in the appropriate ratio. Thus the assumption seems to be that the controls upon which the testing was based must have been accurate without ever have having to see them for confirmation. The athlete need not see them either because they are not in the document pack.

At the end of the hearing, Mr Barnett raised the Will issue and suggested in open hearing that Suh was hiding the witness. Suh corrected the notion and all 3 Panel members independently, made staements that he had a right to counsel, that they adjourned to let him seek legal advise and that Barnett should take it up with counsel Will has retained. Barnett wanted the Panel to know Suh told him a "friend" of his would help will. Barnett got another 15 minutes of fame from that but the results, this time were not good for him.

UCLA WADA lab head Henson has been helping USADA lawyers with their examination of Montreal WADA lab head Ayotte and confers with her after lunch. Rome WADA lab head Botre is helping the Panel as their "Independent" expert, to evaluate Ayotte's testimony. Anyone see any problems? I thought not. The system views it as perfectly ok as well.

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Hue - Watch the Monkey

And the lawyer lets the monkey out of its cage and it begins to dance around. He turns to the jury and says: "Look at the monkey, look at him dance. Isn't he funny? Look at him go!"

The monkey dances and all are spellbound..... other evidence is quickly forgotten. The lawyer smiles.

This courtroom trick is known as the "dancing monkey" and USADA lawyer Matthew Barnett got to use it yesterday. USADA attorney Richard Young took advantage of it in a real and meaningful way.

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While the cycling world spins over the Lemond testimony, little of it having much relevance, our foreign correspondent Marc points out (with some editing and additions by me):

"The day began with an LNDD technician admitting to errors--but only to record keeping errors. Then we get the blockbuster LeMond testimony. USADA got lucky with Will's call, but I think they were ready to pull out all the stops with a view to an equivalent effect with Floyd's DPF threat to reveal Greg's secret. (At this moment we'd say, Well that wouldn't have had anywhere near the same effect. But that's because we're really shocked by Will's call. Without that, the Landis threat might have seemed almost as shocking, played with the appropriate indignation, and might have been quite emotionally powerful enough.)

Now, after LeMond's bombshell, surely an adjournment was appropriate. But Young saw an opportunity and that was perhaps correographed. Instead of adjourning, we storm ahead with Ayotte's testimony. She comes in and says: Record keeping doesn't matter.

Young first shows the arbitrators an admission that certain errors were made. After Lemond's testimony, they are thinking, "Still, it's the science we're here to focus on"; then while everyone is emotionally unsettled Young makes sure the last thing they hear before going home is an expert witness who says the errors in #1 don't matter--and that's science.

This is a way of getting maximum bang for the USADA rebuttal of the only admission LNDD will make of having committed any error, and the arbitrators will think they're just reacting to the scientific testimony, not realizing how their hearing of that testimony may have been manipulated by the soap opera that preceded it."

"Watch the monkey as he dances, look at him, isn't he funny????" Your tax dollars are paying for the monkey and 3 lawyers to unchain him. What was once about science has turned into spectacle.

"We are searching for the truth", Travis Tygart said at the beginning of this case.

Oh, really?

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