Interim Directeur named for AFLD-Département des analyses

[See below this story for some other items,
treated as 'updates' as our time commitments
lay elsewhere...]

Greetings from LandBase1... apologies to our faithful family of readers, for having taken a long week to migrate across the Atlantic Ocean, to the land of liberty, 24/7 Terror newscasting, and the USADA headquarters. Flights were smoother than the skin on these wretched fingers, damaged (and in need of a damn-good Denver manicure) by a series of sub-zero (C°) moving days, cardboard cuts and general abusive heavy-lifting practices. But force of habit exists: the news of this last week requires instant updating.


And many sad thoughts for the people in poor, abused, neglected, shaken Haiti. (A personal, ten-minute YouTube témoignage in French, from the Swiss TSR).. crises such as we have seen demands re-thinking US Foreign policy, driven by Pentagoniacal manias for wars, occupations and 'liberationizing'. This US Citizen would bring 130,000 US troops out of both Iraq and Afghanistan, and have that force available to Save Lives...


Diversions aside, the mourning over the abrupt death of Jacques de Ceaurriz on 5 January has not prevented the AFLD from naming an interim Directeur to run the laboratoire formally known as LNDD. The AFLD 'département des analyses' produced a document eight days ago, naming Madame la Docteur Françoise Lasne to the post. This news, which apparently has not even made the pages of the former 'AFLD press office', as we've annointed French sporting daily, l'Equipe in times past, has been officialized in the translated document below. Our photo of Dr. Lasne comes from the web site SCIENCE ACTUALITÉS.


Interestingly, the Ministry under Rosalyne Bachelot has not even issued any remembrance for the long-standing Directeur that passed away; this link (page in FR) shows all current January press announcements: the death of Philip Séguin is well-documented (an icon in French politics, for whom the word 'irascible' may well apply; most eulogies noted his acerbic wit and force, as well as a love of soccer), but not the loss of the eminent Dr de Ceaurriz.


A Ww service/translation of these complete, formal French legalities:

Deliberation n° 142 of 7 January 2010
bringing designation of the Director par interim
of the Department of analyses of the French
Anti-doping Agency (AFLD)

The French Agency for the fight against doping,

In view of legislation of the Code of sport, notably its articles L. 232-8 and L. 232-18,

In view of regulations of the Code of sport, notably its articles R. 232-14 and R. 232-18,

In view of the deliberation n 4 of 5 October 2006 concerning designation of the Directeur of the Department of Analyses of the Agency,

In view of the deliberation n. 133 of 18 June 2009 bringing new prorogation of the deliberation n° 4 of 5 October 2006 on designation of the Directeur of the Department of Analyses of the Agency,

In view of the decease of Professeur Jacques de CEAURRIZ,

On the proposition of the President of the Agency,

Decides:

Article 1st: The nomination of Docteur Françoise LASNE in the functions of Directeur par interim of the Department of Analyses of the Agency is pronounced counting from the 7th January until the nomination of the next directeur.

Article 2nd: This deliberation will be published in the Official Journal of the French Republic and on the internet web site of the Agency.

The present decision was deliberated the 7 January 2010 with the participation of M. Pierre Bordry, President and Mssrs. Jean-François BLOCH-LAINE, Claude BOUDENE, Jean-Michel BRUN, Laurent DAVENAS, Guy JOLY, Jean-Pierre GOULLE, members.

President
Pierre Bordry

{sig.}

[Ww: italics added // published 15 January 2010]

Dr Lasne's name should be known to the avid followers of the eternal pathos between the French Agency and the cycling world, as she is listed as co-author for nearly every scientific journal article on which Jacques de Ceaurriz' name was found. WADAwatch retains the full hope that new objectivity will come forth with Madame la Docteur's interim nomination.


Our last article, which briefly announced the news of the passing of Dr de Ceaurriz, did not include one thought, which came upon this author through this last week. It is truly sad that Dr. de Ceaurriz will be more widely remembered for positions taken against Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis, as trumpeted by l'Equipe... those shots 'heard around the world' through certain sports journalists' scorn-filled amplifications, rather than for the hundreds of scientific articles that he generated, with their scientific validities in Black and White.


Dr Lasne's long-standing role in the hierarchy of the LNDD/Département des analyses offers mysteries and hopes: will AFLD honour her position by removing its 'interim' aspects? When?


Will 'Science' take ascendance over 'Agenda' and 'Suspicion'?

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Laurent Fignon has gone through two chemotherapy sessions since last year's Tour de France, where this author was nearly in tears when he burst out sobbing himself, taking the entire squad of France 2/3 personalities with him, as the realization (we presume, with sensitivity and compassion) that he could be very well participating, as announcer, at the last Tour de France he would ever see. It was sad: more than one can describe.

In an article in l'Equipe, they excerpted an interview from magazine Paris-Match, regarding his medical treatments, his outlook on 'success' of those, and some personal reflections. Quick ly summarized, his first treatment was basically ineffective, necessitating a second process, which reduced his tumours "17 per cent", yet Laurent couldn't handle the physical effects of one of two medications that produced that good result: and it was the better of the two! Since recent scans revealed increasing growth, Laurent became philosophic, and we honour his courage by offering you his words, in French, and translated for his many English-language fans:

«J'espère que ce prochain traitement marchera, a-t-il déclaré. Quelles que soient ma bonne volonté et la force de me battre, si l'on ne trouve pas le bon médicament, il y a un moment où ça va m'emmener et je vais y passer. Je n'ai pas envie de mourir à 50 ans, mais si c'est incurable, qu'est-ce que j'y peux ? J'aime la vie, j'adore rigoler, voyager, lire, bien bouffer, comme un bon Français. Je n'ai pas peur de la mort, je n'en ai juste pas envie !»

"I hope that this next treatment will work, he declared. Whatever be of my good will and the force to fight, if one doesn't find the right medication, there's going to be a moment where this will take me and I am going to pass (away). I do not want to die at 50 years old, but if it is incurable, what can I do about it? I love life, I adore laughing, travelling, reading and eat well, like a good Frenchman. I do not fear death, I just don't want it!"

[sniff...]


WADAwatch believes, based on a FR3 interview last year (YouTube excerpt) in which the host Michel Drucker had brought in Laurent Fignon, on TV remote feed, to add drama to the pre-Tour telecast, that Lance and Laurent are working (through the Livestrong foundation) to find the drug, find the cure and find Laurent a future free from the pains of cancer.


If not, time is running out for the last French victor of the national Fete-race-Fetish: the Tour de France, and no one wants that.

Lance? Please?

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Whatever is going to happen to Alejandro Valverde, via an appeal to CAS/TAS, won't be known for two months yet. CAS has apparently (its Panel of Arbitrators, of course) proposed to publish its decision in March, and 'previewed' that this decision would or may announce the CAS Panel's legal 'incompetence' to entertain the extension of the suspension to a UCI-imposed worldwide status. The appeal is addressing whether Valverde can be banned on Italian soil, from an Italian suspension based on evidence provided from the Operacion Puerto 'sting' in Spain. As Valverde's original appeal was against CONI, the Italian Olympic Committee in charge of Italian anti-doping efforts, and CAS permitted joinder of UCI and WADA appeals seeking that extension, we await the legal reasoning for a clearer understanding of what CAS can, and cannot do, to address the decisions taken (or sought) against the Spanish cyclist...

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Lastly, concerning Stephan Schumacher, the French word 'pagaille' seems à propos (one could roughly and rudely translate the word as 'clusterF**K'). His hearing, in March 2009, has not yet produced any decision from the CAS Panel which heard his appelate pleas and arguments. Nine months later, the Panel just announced that their 'pre-Noël' decision, which had been bumped back to January 11, was now to be issued January 25th. See the French version in L'Equipe, where Schumacher's quoted as saying "They seem like they have to declare me innocent, but don't want to... I think there are intense discussions occurring between the Panellists, and that (legal) foundation is lacking for this suspension, due to procedural errors..." (obviously from the 2008 Tour de France, the 'renegade' Tour which banned the UCI and trumpeted the AFLD/Département des analyses 'glorious mastery of anti-doping science')

Interestingly, this is also a case where the UCI has sought 'universality' of the country-based decision to ban (it was the French AFLD that had banned Schumacher for two years; it was the UCI that sought 'world-wide extension' of that ban, similar to the Valverde Italian 'procedure' above).

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From our new roving Headquarters, now eight hours behind this Parisian 'Epicenter' of sports-doping news, we thank you for 'migrating' with us! Soon reports will be coming to you about Country X's speed skaters, or cross-country skiers, as we approach the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver...


Donate to WADAwatch: send an email and fund our presence in Vancouver. Surely WADA itself would like to have a legally-trained, former Treaty Committee drafts-person performing such a similar 'Independent Observer' service? All expenses included...

..........@......... WADAWATCH

one hundred percent pure
copyright 2010 Ww

Death in the Family: Dr Jacques de Ceaurriz, LNDD

As opposed as WADAwatch has been continuously, to the observed operations of the French lab under its Director, Jacques de Ceaurriz, we are saddened by the news of his death yesterday, and wish that his family remembers him for the qualities they found in him.

There is no joy in relating this news. He could have (he was aged 60, "too young, too young") done much with the quest for WADA standardization, in the few years of a career that remained (In France, retirement comes earlier than in the USA... A matter of some contention in the French politcal debate...).

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WADAwatch is on the move! When next we report, it should be from the Colorado Rockies... in the state which hosts the United States Anti-Doping Agency, and the state in which USADA's favourite attorney, Richard Young, hangs his hat. Not intending to lose our 'Flair for French', we will continue to provide you with the in-depth side of a 'HEADLINE!!!'-Dominated 'industry'.

Enjoy your mid-January weather(s)...

..........@......... WADAWATCH

one hundred percent pure
copyright 2009 Ww

WADA Monday: the Landis - Landeluce prelude

In the research of new topics, involving the ever-pressing question of how a certain laboratoire can function in a system that claims rigorous oversight of its 33 accredited progeny, WADAwatch was slightly bemused, to find in the first 11 results from a Google search on the terms:

• 'de Ceaurriz directeur LNDD 19'

... Put our sister blog crystelZENmud on the first page of Googleness, and which web-retrievable document followed right behind? A link (top of the second page) to the UCI link, where you can download the Vrijman report. (and for self-promotion, this is the link Google originally provided, which has a remarkable series of anti-Bush, Clockwork Orange-based cartoons: February 2007...)

Flattery, auto-induced or otherwise, is a great thing on our seventh gloomy wet rainy Monday, au but du lac Léman (at the tip of Lake Geneva)...

Stand by for more news from the world ...

... watching WADA,

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed by WADAwatch are
strictly formed with the purpose of inciting WADA to adhere
to its Fundamental Rationale, achieve its goals and fulfil
the aspirations of its Signatories, in achieving the
highest possible level of objective, neutral
science in sport-doping control.

.................@...............WADAwatch

2008 all copyrights reserved

Was the French Lab ... ON STRIKE?

Anyone following the now-world-famous Iban Mayo EPO test fiasco is surely aware by now, that the French Lab formerly called the LNDD (now the AFLD département des analyses: "D.d.A.") was, perhaps irregularly, replaced as a testing facility, to administer the Mayo 'B Confirmation sample' testing.

This action came about by executive decision of the UCI, which contracts for testing services at the races being run under its rules, on a daily basis for those participating elite riders. This is standard, and done as such because the pro cyclists are holding UCI licenses through their national Cycling Federations.

But at WADAwatch, a new theory is brewing, that the D.d.A., which suffered brutal and embarrassing exposure to its "laissez-faire" hiring and training of technicians through the Floyd Landis 'testosterone' hearings in May of 2007, has simply, and irrevocably....................
gone bureaucratically..............
insane.

(OR! Maybe I have watched too many Kubrick films?)


How does one provide electroshock therapy to a group such as the D.d.A.?

Forgive my extremely-expressed doubts, but this is certainly becoming an intolerable situation, for the world that watches, and the cyclists who are fearing to participate.

For an accredited laboratory to call up that International Federation that is paying it to perform testing, at the singular most prestigious annual sporting event, the Tour de France, and inform them that...

"the doors are to be shut, and that the work-in-progress cannot be finished, because 'Zees ees ze time for ze vacations."

...is absurd.

Or... pathetic?

If only Stanley Kubrick were still alive, among us to write a script with ZENmud productions...


Taking Humbert Humbert from Lolita, Dr Strangelove from... yes, the movie itself, or Dr Ludivico from A Clockwork Orange, and our favorite HAL9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey; there is truth in art, as surely if not more than that 'truth' found in the recent WADA-accredited laboratory 'fiascos'... a word that cannot oft enough be repeated.

But how did UCI, which has known about the apparent failures in the French LNDD-D.d.A. laboratory for some three years or more, take the actions that sent the Mayo 'B Confirmation sample' to Ghent, a separate lab, in a differenct country?

As previously cited, here and elsewhere, Anne Gripper, the relatively recently-appointed UCI anti-doping Czarina, has been cited in discussing, in a somewhat uncomprehendingly (to this author) manner, the consequent steps of a potential AAF.

The fall-out from this Summer's Tour de France certainly left the Union Cycliste Internationale with some strange questions to answer, from Tour de France organizers, competitors, teams and the Press.

Was the strain too much?

Or... a SWAG (Stupid, wild-ass guess) moment: did the D.d.A. simply go on strike?

Could Professeur Jacques de Ceaurriz have taken a vacation, along with his entire staff, at the same August period last summer when they were feverishly claiming Floyd Landis' culpability?

It doesn't flow, in WADAwatch-think, that we've never heard discussion of the then-LNDD being under constraints by a national French vacation ritual.

Where will the truth fall, who wins and who loses, when the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) rules are not followed by those whose jobs depend on their continual scientific accuracy, their unwavering ethical priorities, or is their 'Stick it!' attitude towards a world that doesn't comprehend, what is the dominant factor?

There are only three weeks until the WADA World Conference in Madrid, and frankly, WADA has a lot of un-drafted modifications necessary to perform the task it has taken on.

WADAwatch believes that the first order of business in Madrid, on November 15th, is to entertain a motion NOT to approve the newly-revised WADA CODE 2007.

For the betterment of sport, it is imperative that similar discussions to append and improve the work of laboratories take precedence over any tightening of controls on the Athletes who are reeling under the weight of mis-applied testing procedures and un-harmonious standards around the world...

Please contact your national laboratory, if you reside in one of the countries that has one or more of the now-33 accredited laboratories, and ask them to respond to the questions that they were presented weeks ago, in the crystelZENmud Questionnaire for WADA laboratories.

And never EVER stop thinking that we must, together,


Watch! WADA
..........@..........WADAwatch