I had thought this would be a quiet time, Landis-wise, with all of the maneuvering happening very quietly behind the scenes. I even predicted as much some time back, only to be proved wrong.
Over the last month a number of interesting developments have occured, starting with the mysterious Ferret documents and leading up to the latest, serialized revelations that are coming out daily on Trust But Verify. The next installment, to come out tomorrow, will show that although USADA proposed to shift the arbitration directly to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), when they realized Landis and company were serious about an open hearing, USADA scuttled the idea.
TBV has turned into the source, hands-down, when it comes to all information Landis. If he hasn’t gotten it directly, he’s got the links to the places that do. He’s definitely the clearinghouse for any and all information on the case. If you’re following the Landis story and you’re not reading his daily updates, you’re missing out on a lot.
TBV has cultivated some very good sources, as he’s getting information directly from one or more very closely connected participants in the saga. We now know that Ferret was none other than Floyd, himself. I’m wondering, too, if the documents that are filtering out daily are coming from Floyd, or one of his team, or perhaps even someone from the other side. And he’s certainly got me wondering what new revelations will be appearing on his site over the coming weeks and months.
Whatever the case, TBV is the place to go for any Landis updates. If it’s not there, he’s either not found it yet, or it doesn’t exist.
And you’ve got to give him credit. He’s really generating a good buzz for his site (and for the whole story) with these carefully timed releases. Martin Dugard teases his readers at the end of his latest post about major revelations coming out in the next few weeks. You can bet where they’re going to appear: Trust But Verify.
I am a bit behind in my TBV reading, but apparently I need to get there post haste! Your rant about USADA not sharing the documents seems so beyond the pale (“we’re not going to, and you can’t make us”)…does Freedom of Information come into play at all, since they are a government agency? Or is that under the privacy act, since it’s a “health” issue? I will try to send out some emails to my Beings of Congress in the next few days…
Debby,
I think that USADA is an independent agency that happens to get the bulk of their money from the Federal government. But I’m not sure. FOIA probably won’t apply if it’s not a government agency, and even if it were, HIPAA might still prevent the release of certain information. When I wrote the rant, I hadn’t seen the full list of what Howard Jacobs was asking for. After looking at it, he’s looking for a lot of other information besides Landis’ test results from the other times during the Tour that he had to submit samples to the doping control people. What Jacobs is asking for is reasonable, and I believe much of it could be helpful (or even crucial) to Floyd’s defense. That USADA won’t release (and apparently won’t try to facilitate the release) of that information to Landis’ defense team makes me seriously doubt their fairness and impartiality in the case. Up to now I thought they were navigating the currents pretty well. Now I’m not so sure.
– Rant