Scooter Libby hires memory-loss expert to assist in defense...no joke

[hang a left]

Scooter Libby's memory-loss expert
Posted by Jim Popkin, Senior Producer, NBC News Investigative Unit (12:01 pm ET, 02/28/06)

Scooter Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, has hired a renowned memory-loss expert to assist him with his legal defense. Harvard psychology professor Daniel L. Schacter tells NBC News he has been retained by Libby as a consultant. An official familiar with the Libby defense team confirms the news.

Schacter, who has been at Harvard since 1991 and who has a 29-page resume, is the author of "The Seven Sins of Memory" and "Searching for Memory: The Brain, the Mind and the Past." His books offer explanations for the "vulnerability of memory." Schacter writes that if we are distracted as an event unfolds, "we may later have great difficulty remembering the details of what happened." Time, of course, often weakens our memory. And, he writes, it is easy to "unwittingly create mistaken -- though strongly held -- beliefs about the past."

Libby's lawyers hinted in court filings last week that memory loss will be "central themes" of Libby's defense. Libby's lawyers write: "...any misstatements he made during his FBI interviews or grand jury testimony were not intentional, but rather the result of confusion, mistake or faulty memory."

Libby's lawyers say that, during Libby's hectic days handling sensitive national-security matters, "it is understandable that he may have forgotten or misremembered relatively less significant events. Such relatively less important events include alleged snippets of conversations about Valerie Plame Wilson's employment status."

more

http://dailynightly.msnbc.com/2006/02/scooter_libbys_.html#below-fold

[Che_Nuevara]

1. ...

Wow. Just wow.

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. Too bad Tim Leary isn't around anymore

He use to teach at Harvard and I hear he had some special chemicals that might help Libby's memory and if not would certainly help his POV on life.

[Catherine Vincent]

3. Is this legal?

And wouldn't it be too late to refresh his memory? He already lied to the grand jury and Fitzgerald.

[Sydnie]

4. If you don't remember something you say

"I don't remember". You don't change your story over and over unless you add "yeah, that's the ticket" to your statement each time.

Who does he think he is kidding?

[The Magistrate]

5. Perhaps, Ma'am

He could try and convince the court his persistent fantasies of bears and young girls in coitus distracted him so continuously he really did not remember what he did....

[Sydnie]

6. The Magistrate made a funny!

Good one too!

[Catherine Vincent]

10. He's made two funnies tonight.

I'm impressed!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

7. I guess all the notes and memos were a pointless pursuit.

Why not hire Hostess as a consultant? :think:

[BringEmOn]

8. Is this Reagan's memory loss expert?

Just reply with, "I can't recall" to every question.

[Me.]

9. Paging Houdini

Maybe he can make it magically appear

[mom cat]

11. That dog can't hunt.

Not even with Dick.

[meow2u3]

12. It's known as CMLS

Better known as Convenient Memory Loss Syndrome.

Symptoms include: i can't remember :D :sarcasm:

[mia]

13. Libby has selective amnesia. No doctor needed.

It's so common an ailment that it's in the Law dictionary.
Definition 1:
amnesia about particular events that is very convenient for the person who cannot remember; "why do politicians always develop selective amnesia when questioned about their transgressions?"

[hopeisaplace]

14. This EXPERT could get a lot of clients if this works

:crazy: :crazy: :think: