Opeation Puerto Officially Dropped

Old Runner guy the judge is not saying they can not dope. I think it is a legal ruling just saying it is against spanish law for the doping authorities to use the Court Documents in doping procedures. Sounds like the cheats are getting off because of a technicality. Someone tell me if i 'm wrong.

Another attempt by Old Runner Guy to encourage and cheer on dopers everywhere.

Mr. Obvious wrote:

Another attempt by Old Runner Guy to encourage and cheer on dopers everywhere.

Not true, you guys are not paying attention.

The cases were dropped because the evidence was simply not there.

They found the blood and the doping equipment so we know somenthing was up. The problem is we do not know who did it.

They found some documents written in code. They surmised that the codes might mean certain rides. For instance the code on one document had a name that was also the name of the dog of one of the riders. So the dope cops acted as if he was guilty. The judge stepped in and said you cannot do this. You need more than a sheet of paper that says "spot" and rider x has a dog named spot so it must be him.

Lastly, you also not getting it. I've been arguing that innocent athletes are being accused left and right and they are! Read today's front page!! Turnbull has just been added to the list of false positives.

You may live in your little let's run world, but in the real world, the dope testers are having a full blown crisis. Their credibility is almost gone, and will be gone if Landis is cleared.

If you care about catching drug cheats, you should be very upset witht he dope testers and the dope cops in Europe. They have just about ruined the system we now have. Yet you want to believe the system is fine and blame athletes and their lawyers. Nothing can be further from the truth.

DNA tests and they could've caught the cheats. But amazingly, noone agreed to a DNA test. OBVIOUSLY they were all innocent.

At least Mancebo threw his hands up and admitted it. Basso and Ullrich being back riding is a black mark against cycling.

xbcha1 wrote:

DNA tests and they could've caught the cheats. But amazingly, noone agreed to a DNA test. OBVIOUSLY they were all innocent.

At least Mancebo threw his hands up and admitted it. Basso and Ullrich being back riding is a black mark against cycling.

Not all were inncoent. But some of the 58 probably were. You ok with destroying the careers of the inncoent to catch a few cheats? If the durg testers ruin your career, I assume your ok with that as long as they bust a few cheats along the way.

Regarding DNA tests. First, in law it's not guilty until proven innocent. It's the job of the cops to prove their case. Not yours to submit to every possible premutatation of tests known to clear yourself of an allegation.

Second, having your DNA code in the wrong hands is very dangerous. It can be used against you in lots of different ways. If any rider has an issue with paternity, this codes can cause him trouble. Insurance companies would like to see your codes to see if you have markers that make you suspectible to diseases that would cost them a lot of money. This way they can drop you now before you have to pay.

Everyone, accept the naive here, understand how dangerous these codes are. Even the UCI does. As bad as the UCI wants a positive conviction, they will NOT release Ullrich's codes. Yes, they have them but understand their legal libaility and will not, or cannot, do it.

McQuaid frustrated by Puerto investigation

http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/11105.0.html

World cycling chief Pat McQuaid has launched a broadside at the handling of a doping investigation which has left the UCI virtually unable to sanction riders suspected of cheating.

A police investigation in Spain last May, dubbed Operación Puerto, allegedly uncovered a drug and blood doping network being run by a Madrid-based sports doctor, Eufemiano Fuentes, which implicated 58 professional riders, some of them top names in the peloton.

Yet three months after an apparently explosive scandal, cycling's world ruling body may well be forced to allow most of those implicated to return to racing following a Spanish judge's ruling that evidence from the investigation cannot be used to obtain sanctions.

The results of the UCI's effort to study hundreds of pages of evidence in a bid to obtain sanctions against the likes of Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich - who were suspended from the Tour de France by their teams because of their alleged involvement - appear to be on hold for the time being.

UCI president McQuaid, told AFP Saturday that of the 58 riders involved "12 to 14 are seriously implicated in Operación Puerto."

McQuaid said at least another dozen were under "some" suspicion while the rest of the 58 were implicated only because their names appeared in documents or telephone conversations, which had been tapped by investigating police.

McQuaid feels he has been let down by the authorities in Spain.

But as the sport has huge anti-doping reforms which are gaining widespread support, the Irishman is sure he will be supported by teams and sponsors alike in this instance at least by demanding that suspected riders provide DNA samples to clear their names.

"The Italians have closed the files on Basso, and he has been cleared to race. The Spanish have also closed files on riders who have been involved," McQuaid told AFP. "To be fair to the Spanish authorities, they were proactive in trying to carry on the investigation and they contested the judge's decision.

"I am more disappointed with the Italian authorities," he added, "but I blame very much the Spanish on this. The Spanish police uncovered a doping network whose sole objective was to help get riders out of the sport who were cheating, but despite all the evidence pointing to this it has all been shelved by the Spanish judge.

"It's a ridiculous situation," McQuaid said. "Our hands are tied at this point."

Giro d'Italia winner Basso, who has always denied involvement, was cleared this week to race again by the Italian cycling federation after two Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) hearings ruled that there was not enough evidence to sanction the former CSC rider.

Basso, along with Ullrich and Francisco Mancebo, had been suspended prior to the Tour de France after evidence from Operación Puertolinked them to the affair.

Since being released by his team, Basso has been talking to other teams including Discovery Channel. However the 29-year-old is not yet able to sign for a ProTour team. A major stipulation of the Pro Tour's code of ethics is that riders involved or suspected of being involved in doping affairs are theoretically barred from joining other Pro Tour teams.

McQuaid conceded that there may be riders implicated in the affair who are perfectly innocent. In an effort to clear the cloud of suspicion, McQuaid has proposed a solution to end the suspicion by demanding those implicated to provide DNA samples, so they can be compared to the results from the 200 bags of human blood seized in raids on apartments leased and owned by Fuentes.

"A lot of riders may have gone through trials by media," McQuaid said,

"but the message from the teams' representative body (AIGCP) is clear. They want riders who have been implicated to provide DNA samples. It's a reasonable solution. They don't want to welcome back riders who may have a cloud of suspicion hanging over them."

While Ullrich is reported to have supplied a DNA sample to clear his name, Basso has so far refused.

From the story above ...

McQuaid conceded that there may be riders implicated in the affair who are perfectly innocent. In an effort to clear the cloud of suspicion, McQuaid has proposed a solution to end the suspicion by demanding those implicated to provide DNA samples, so they can be compared to the results from the 200 bags of human blood seized in raids on apartments leased and owned by Fuentes.

Let me get this straight, we know we implicated innocent riders, so to solve this dilemmena, we will assume EVERYONE is guilty and let them prove their innocence.

Not a good strategy to build trust. Maybe this is why their is a civil war between the riders and the authorities.

Operación Puerto: Civil Guard implicated in public document falsification?

By Antonio J. Salmerón

Spanish judge Maria Luisa Alvarez will soon hear a lieutenant of the Civil Guard about alleged public document falsification in the doping affair around Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes, revealed by the military institution last spring. The Unidad Central Operativa (UCO) official will be heard on November 29, after the court admitted to the proceedings a claim presented by Manolo Saiz against Rafael Blanco, director of the Sport Superior Council (CSD) about prevarication and document falsification on August 13.

The former director and manager of Liberty Seguros-Würth is legally represented by Carlos Bueren, who argues that the Astana ProTour team could not participate in the Tour of France and is on the verge of losing its ProTour license because of the alleged irregularities in the investigation documents. Saiz's legal defense says that the information sent to the UCI does not correspond exactly to the deposited information in the court, with one folio presumably appearing without signature and with suppressed paragraphs.

In addition, they were supposedly forwarded without the authorization of the judge in charge: On June 29 (two days before the beginning of the Tour of France), the Spanish Civil Guard presumably transferred a report on the doping scandal to the Sport Superior Council. That day, the mentioned document was also sent to the Spanish Federation, which in turn transferred it to the UCI. The governing body of the sport then insisted on the supposed implication of the Astana team on the grounds of the ethical code signed by the ProTour teams.