What if the government targeted prominent Christians and asked them about infidelity under oath? What if they prosecuted those Christians who would inevitably lie to protect their community standing and their families? After all, they did break they law – they committed perjury. Would that have been a good use of taxpayer money?

Why is it any different than the witch-hunt targeting celebrity athletes who use steroids?

Imagine if United States vs. Barry Lamar Bonds set a far-reaching precedent for the use of perjury laws to prosecute so-called role models in our society who were guilty of other “moral crimes”?

Let’s don’t stop with the selective targeting of celebrity athletes. Why don’t we subpoena identifiable minority groups like top Hollywood actors/actresses, musical superstars, politicians, business leaders, religious leaders, etc? We’ll give them immunity and ask them questions about their moral behavior…

Have they used drugs? Have they cheated on their spouses? Have they downloaded illegal porn?

Then, let’s spend million of additional dollars trying to prove some of them lied in order to build federal cases against them and ask their former friends, colleagues and mistresses to testify against them.

We can smugly say this is justified (after all, they broke the law and perjury is a serious crime) while self-righteously enjoying their humiliation and shame as the government makes an example of their immoral behavior in a court of law.

I agree that no one is above the law and that Barry Bonds should be treated like anyone else. The problem is that Bonds was NOT treated like everyone else engaged in morally-objectionable behaviors.

Photo credit: guano / flickr

Here is an excerpt from Patrick Arnold’s blog:

I also read about Lance Armstrong today. Apparently there is more evidence surfacing regarding his performance enhancing drug usage. Yeah, whoopee. Of course he doped. Everyone doped in the field of elite cycling. They still probably do, at least to whatever extent that they still can. This is reality. Prosecuting Lance Armstrong will not change that reality. Prosecuting all the dopers that he beat back in the day will not change that reality.

Read more at Patrick Arnold’s Blog: I Don’t Really Think I Should Talk About This But…

Slated for publication in September under the Skyhorse imprint, the book’s working title is “BALCO: The Straight Dope on Barry Bonds, Marion Jones and What We Can Do To Save Sports.” Conte, in conjunction with co-author Nathan Jendrick, promises to share “the dirt, the drugs, the doses, the names, dates and places, and a ‘prescription’ for a brighter future.”

He promises the “complete truth in its honest, unadulterated and raw form” and says he is “ready to tell the world everything.”

Most people will be interested in hearing “the dirt” on the various athletes allegedly involved in recent years’ doping scandals. But my attention will be on  what Conte has to say about IRS Special Agent Jeff Novitsky. As Jeff Novitsky testifies on the stand against cyclist Tammy Thomas in her perjury (doping) trial, Victor Conte is working with co-author Nathan Jendrick to pen a book that is highly critical of Novitsky. Forget about the athletes like Barry Bonds or Marion Jones that have doped; Conte has told me that Novitsky is the biggest cheater in the entire BALCO steroid scandal is Jeff Novitsky. The NY Daily News confirms that Novitsky is a target.

One of Conte’s biggest targets is likely to be Jeff Novitzky, the federal agent who sniffed out the BALCO conspiracy in 2003 and has tenaciously chased down every twist in it ever since.

Conte claims Novitzky, who is on the witness stand Monday in the government’s prosecution of cyclist Tammy Thomas (the first BALCO athlete to refuse a plea bargain and take her case to trial), fabricated a confession he says Conte gave on the day of the BALCO raid, and lied in court documents.

The more we learn about doping related events like the BALCO scandal and the Floyd Landis doping scandal, the more we realize that we live in a society where “winning at all costs” is the only standard.  This not only applies to the “dopers” but particularly to the “anti-dopers.” It’s all about winning – not about following the rules, pursuing justice, leveling the playing field, right or wrong or integrity in sports. Jeff Novitsky, WADA, USADA, etc. simply want to win and will seemingly use any unfair advantage and break the rules to do so.

The inconvenient fact is that tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) and norbolethone were NOT legally classified as “anabolic steroids” until the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004 was passed; Norbolethone and THG were two of the 26 compounds added to the Controlled Substances Act with this legislation. Consequently, THG and norbolethone were NOT controlled substances until the passage of the legislation. Furthermore, THG and norbolethone were not on the WADA/IOC banned substances list at the time.

So, it appears that Tammy Thomas was, literally and legally, telling the truth in her statements.

THG and norbolethone were not anabolic steroids at the time.

THG and norbolethone were not controlled substances at the time.

THG and norbolethone were not of the banned substances list at the time.

In addition, Thomas purchased THG and norbolethone from a prominent “supplement manufacturer” (Pat Arnold develops supplements for the popular sports supplement company Ergopharm). Most people generally believe they are buying supplements when they buy products from a dietary supplement manufacturer.

There is no shortage of reasonable doubt. I am surprised the government would ever bring such a weak perjury case to federal court; it shows their obsession with targeting high profile elite athletes who have allegedly used anabolic steroids. At the very least the government could have found a case where anabolic steroids (by legal definition) were involved and not just “unapproved new drug(s)!”

I’m wondering if the government will file perjury charges against IRS Special Agent Jeff Novitsky since he is apparently falsely asserting that THG and norbolethone were anabolic steroids, controlled substances and banned substances!

He also said he wanted to call athletes because only if they’d known they were receiving steroids (i.e. controlled substances) would there be a money laundering charge, giving the IRS a reason to be involved.

If Tammy Thomas is acquitted, how will this affect the Barry Bonds case? Regardless of the outcome, many observers feel the case will help Barry Bonds’ attorneys.

Jeff Novitzky, an Internal Revenue Service special agent and a lead steroids investigator, is expected to play a starring government role in both trials. His appearance at Thomas’ trial could give Bonds’ legal team an idea of how to question him.

“The outcome of the Thomas case will inform their decision on whether they should go to trial or not,” University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias said. “It’s a good road map.”

Maybe an acquittal will finally result in the general public’s disgust with the government’s steroid witch hunt?

Here’s the problem: The proposed legislation would re-classify HGH as a Schedule III drug, increasing penalties for its illegal use and limiting access in several ways. The penalties are fine, the parents agree. Limiting access for growth-challenged kids is the deal breaker.

The Champs, for example, would need to go to Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan once every month for a new prescription, which would last 30 days. Currently with each visit, they are able to obtain a three-month supply of HGH, with two refills. They only need to go once every nine months. Meanwhile, their insurance co-pays would triple for the extra doses.

Bondy blames the athletes for this problem. However, the immediate culprit is obviously Congress’ ill-informed attempts to eliminate steroids in sport by expanding the Controlled Substances Act to include non-addictive human growth hormone.

I do not understand why Congress thinks scheduling performance enhancing drugs is an effective tool for eliminating steroids in sports. I am not aware of many any professional athletes who have been prosecuted under the Anabolic Steroids Control Act. I can not name a single athlete who has failed a doping test in the United States and was criminally sanctioned as a result. History tells us that the Controlled Substances Act is ineffective at punishing professional athletes who use steroids. Including human growth hormone on the Controlled Substances list will only be another failure in more ways than one.

Now, perjury is another story. This seems to be a highly effective tool for punishing athletes who use steroids based on perjury investigations involving Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, Tammy Thomas, and Roger Clemens.

Roger Clemens’ defamation lawsuit against former trainer Brian McNamee vaguely hints at impropriety by federal investigators, including Jeff Novitsky, during their interrogation of McNamee. There is a long trail of alleged investigative misconduct that has followed Jeff Novitsky since the beginning of the BALCO scandal.

Victor Conte has publicly shared his version of events that occurred at the BALCO raid. Conte and former vice president of BALCO, James Valente, both filed declarations in federal court containing regarding Novitsky’s behavior and tactics on the day of the raid. The allegations include “illegally coercing statements, improperly serving search warrants and using excessive force during the raid.”

Michael Rains, an attorney for Barry Bonds, claimed that Jeff Novitsky committed criminal misconduct.

Pitcher Jason Grimsley stopped short of making claims of coercion against Novitsky but changed his mind after federal investigators “wanted him to wear a wire to get evidence against Barry Bonds.”

And now, Clemens defamation lawsuit seems to suggest that the aggressive interrogation tactics and threats used by Notivsky et al may have manipulated the truth in McNamee’s allegations of Clemens’ steroid use and growth hormone use.

In spite of the lack of integrity, questionable ethics, and suspect motives that have been alleged against Jeff Novitsky, his interrogation tactics may still be perfectly legal.

However, it should be noted that baseball players aren’t the only “dirty players” in the doping game. The biggest cheaters in the entire major league baseball doping scandal may not be the ones with the balls and bats.

Victor Conte (owner of BALCO) bought a new silver Bentley Continental GT this year, his SNAC business is bringing in $300,000 a month, and some of his best customers are still major league baseball players.

I’ve recently discussed the role of the media and particularly the contextual internet ads from Google as having a big role in his success. Victor Conte attests to the power of contextual ads in the July 2007 issue of Muscular Development magazine:

It’s just incredible the attention BALCO is still getting. You can’t believe who calls me for interviews almost every day. And I’m making the most of it! Not only can I pick who interview me, but I have a marketing program where I can tap into keyword searches so that anytime anytime someone Googles ‘Barry Bonds,’ or ‘BALCO,’ or ‘baseball,’ or Jason Giambi or Marion Jones – or a ton of other keywords related to BALCO – an ad for SNAC pops up right next to the article…

Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning (SNAC) sales have increased 20% from 2006; Conte expects sales to improve even more in 2008.

Now that the worst of the consequences for my actions are behind me, I can openly say that the enormous publicity BALCO has received is great for my business… ZMA sales are stronger than ever. In fact, my entire SNAC System nutritional product line is doing better than ever before. I can’t even imagine what someone would have to pay for the type of international exposure my products have received…

Conte also acknowledges the role of the media in his success; no doubt the display of contextual ads featuring SNAC on CNN.com, NYTimes.com and USAToday.com contributed.

Of course, I would like to thank the media! They have basically turned BALCO into a household name. I now realize that I would never have received the international publicity without all of the adversity, pain and suffering that came with it…

Michael Arrington recently commented on this at TechCrunch:

The problem with automated advertising on news sites has always been the placing of inappropriate ads next to serious news issues.

Many news/media websites posted editorials complaining about the dangers of anabolic steroids and the role of the internet in facilitating steroid sales only to provide links for consumers to buy steroids (and receive payment from Google for displaying those links).

Most of the ads shown recently are not for real pharmaceutical anabolic steroids (although some ads still slip through) but OTC supplements with names that sound like steroids. Google has actually made efforts to prevent advertisers from selling steroids using their service that seem to more effective that efforts at YouTube at preventing piracy.

Victor Conte of BALCO likely made millions promoting ZMA through Google Ads. Mainstream news services published countless stories about his involvement in the recent sports steroids scandals not to mention stories about his star client, Barry Bonds. The countless stories surely provided considerable ad revenue for news sites offering coverage of the BALCO scandal courtesy Victor Conte (via Google Ads).

Another example of how all publicity is good publicity (and very profitable in some cases).

Hollywood is already promoting this as a “Barry Bonds” movie. I think everyone will be overloaded with stories about Bonds, if not already, by the time the movie is released on HBO. How many people will really want to see a movie about Barry Bonds?

Game of Shadows is well-written and interesting book that is about much more than Barry Bonds.  I hope that director Ron Shelton is able to breathe life into movie adaption with an engaging depiction of  the BALCO steroid scandal. I am hopeful as he has had some notable success with sports films:

Shelton’s sports-film directing credits include “Bull Durham,” the Ty Cobb feature “Cobb,” “Tin Cup” and “White Men Can’t Jump.”

Most are curious who will play the role of “Barry Bonds.” But I want to see who will star as “Patrick Arnold” and ”Victor Conte.” It will be a lot of fun to see actors portraying people that I have known during my time in the “bodybuilding industry!” Of course, these guys were not really major steroid distributors; they just happened to be associated with some prominent athletes thereby making it a huge scandal. Their short-term prison stints more than likely served to guarantee their future success in the bodybuilding/supplement industry.

I feel the steroid hysteria of the past several years has done more harm than good by transforming a woefully ignorant public into a largely misinformed public when it comes to the topic of anabolic steroids. But at least, all the attention given to steroids in the media has made it possible for A-list writers and producers to document the history of steroids in society and sport (e.g. Game of Shadows and Steroid Nation).

Courtesy of Variety (via Dr. Gafney’s Steroid Nation Blog).