Libby’s Defense: The Dog Ate My Memory
Vice President Cheney's indicted former chief of staff hires a Harvard memory loss expert for his defense, and hints in court filings that memory loss will be among the "central themes" of his defense. The National Review has a great follow-up on this.MSNBC: 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.”
The National Review has a great follow-up on this.
Wait, before you go…If you're reading this, you probably already know that non-profit, independent journalism is under threat worldwide. Independent news sites are overshadowed by larger heavily funded mainstream media that inundate us with hype and noise that barely scratch the surface. We believe that our readers deserve to know the full story. Truthdig writers bravely dig beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that tells you what’s really happening and who’s rolling up their sleeves to do something about it.
Like you, we believe a well-informed public that doesn’t have blind faith in the status quo can help change the world. Your contribution of as little as $5 monthly or $35 annually will make you a groundbreaking member and lays the foundation of our work.
Support Truthdig
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.