| -Caveat Lector-
Witness Grilled in CIA Leak Case By Matt Apuzzo AP 10/26/06 Washington
"Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald took on the first witness in the CIA leak
case Thursday, dissecting an expert witness until she acknowledged errors and
misstatements in her research....When it came Fitzgerald's turn, the veteran
prosecutor launched into a nearly three-hour cross-examination of the witness _
psychologist Elizabeth Loftus _ that had some members of the audience shaking
their heads. It was the first public courtroom confrontation between Fitzgerald
and Libby's defense team and foreshadowed a contentious trial. Libby wants to
use a memory expert to help argue that, when he made false statements to
investigators about his conversations with reporters regarding CIA operative
Valerie Plame, it was because of faulty memory. Prosecutors say he lied. Loftus
testified that many jurors don't understand how memory works and how unreliable
it can be. Fitzgerald challenged the validity of memory research. Citing
footnotes in her publications, presenting conflicting statements and questioning
her methodology, Fitzgerald got Loftus to acknowledge that a statement in one of
her research papers was taken out of context and that a figure in one of her
books was incorrect." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/26/AR2006102601134.html
In the Libby Case, A Grilling to Remember 10/27/06 "With withering
and methodical dispatch, White House nemesis and prosecutor Patrick J.
Fitzgerald yesterday sliced up the first person called to the stand on behalf of
the vice president's former chief of staff....But when Fitzgerald got his chance
to cross-examine Loftus about her findings, he had her stuttering to explain her
own writings and backpedaling from her earlier assertions. Citing several of her
publications, footnotes and the work of her peers, Fitzgerald got Loftus to
acknowledge that the methodology she had used at times in her long academic
career was not that scientific, that her conclusions about memory were
conflicting, and that she had exaggerated a figure and a statement from her
survey of D.C. jurors that favored the defense. Her defense-paid visit to the
federal court was crucial because Libby is relying on the "memory defense"
against Fitzgerald's charges that he obstructed justice and lied to
investigators about his role in the leaking of a CIA operative's identity to the
media. Libby's attorneys argue that he did not lie -- that he was just really
busy with national security matters and forgot some of his conversations. When
Fitzgerald found a line in one of her books that raised doubts about research
she had cited on the stand as proof that Libby needs an expert to educate
jurors, Loftus said, "I don't know how I let that line slip by." "I'd need to
see that again," Loftus said when Fitzgerald cited a line in her book that
overstated her research by saying that "most jurors" consider memory to be
equivalent to playing a videotape. Her research, however, found that to be true
for traumatic events, and even then, only 46 percent of potential jurors thought
memory could be similar to a videotape. There were several moments when Loftus
was completely caught off guard by Fitzgerald, creating some very awkward
silences in the courtroom. One of those moments came when Loftus insisted that
she had never met Fitzgerald. He then reminded her that he had cross-examined
her before, when she was an expert defense witness and he was a prosecutor in
the U.S. attorney's office in New York." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/26/AR2006102601612.html Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/ <A HREF="">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om |
