SALON

Tuesday, Jan 29, 2013 9:45 PM UTC

WADA calls UCI ‘deceitful’ in doping probe

By

Topics: From the Wires,

LONDON (AP) — The World Anti-Doping Agency called the UCI “deceitful” Tuesday for shutting down its independent doping panel and said it won’t participate in an amnesty commission set up by the cycling governing body.

WADA said the UCI has “again chosen to ignore its responsibility to the sport” by disbanding the panel looking into claims that cycling leaders helped cover up Lance Armstrong’s suspicious doping tests and accepted $125,000 in donations from him.

Instead, the UCI announced Monday plans to set up a separate amnesty-style “truth and reconciliation commission” (TRC) that it claimed was supported by WADA President John Fahey.

“This is not only wrong in content and process, but again deceitful,” WADA said in a statement. “The fact is that WADA was awaiting a reply to the correspondence when the UCI release was delivered.

“WADA has not and will not consider partaking in any venture with UCI while this unilateral and arrogant attitude continues.”

The anti-doping agency added that it will not “pay for or contribute to any collaborative effort with UCI into investigating UCI’s long-standing problems with doping in its sport and its alleged complicity.”

UCI President Pat McQuaid issued a response Tuesday to the WADA statement, which he called “blatant and aggressive misrepresentations,” and released private email exchanges with the agency.

“The UCI is perplexed that WADA has now chosen to rebuff and attack the UCI’s willingness to establish a TRC, having just demanded that the UCI establish exactly such a commission,” McQuaid said in a statement.

McQuaid claimed that Fahey supported the independent panel being replaced by a TRC, and released an email that included the anti-doping chief saying the “process should start over from a new beginning.”

McQuaid urged Fahey to set aside his apparent “personal vendetta and crusade against cycling” and support the TRC.

“Our aims are the same: to rid cycling and indeed all sports of the scourge of doping,” McQuaid said.

“The UCI is determined not to dwell on WADA’s inconsistent behavior,” he added. “We wish to reaffirm our commitment to establishing the TRC.”

Accusations against the UCI emerged in the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency report that detailed doping and led to Armstrong being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles. Armstrong recently confessed to doping after years of denials.

In justifying the reason to disband the independent panel, the UCI cited WADA’s refusal to cooperate with the inquiry.

But WADA on Tuesday said it would not participate because of the “inadequacies of the terms of reference and the timelines.” It also didn’t want the UCI to scrutinize or edit the findings before they were released.

WADA said it hopes the UCI’s independent commission will still meet as previously planned on Thursday, despite being disbanded. The three-person body said Tuesday the UCI never provided the cooperation — promised by McQuaid — to allow it to function.

“This failure to cooperate makes our task impossible,” the commission, which was chaired by British judge Philip Otton, said in a statement. “Therefore, the proposed hearing on (Jan. 31) will not take place.”

More By Rob Harris.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Oklahoma senator: Tornado aid “totally different” from Sandy aid
3064 points3065 points | 2292 comments
vote
Anyone Regret Slashing National Weather Service Budget Now?: With GOP-backed cuts to forecasting agency, experts warn future storms will go undetected and more lives lost
1009 points1010 points | 538 comments
vote
Oklahoma senator wants to offset tornado aid with other cuts
149 points150 points | 59 comments
vote
Horrifying new trend: Posting rapes to Facebook " In Chicago this weekend, prosecutors announced three teenaged boys will tried as adults for aggravated criminal sexual assault after allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl — and posting a video of the attack on Facebook."
30 points31 points | 15 comments
vote
New campaign compares gun control to anti-LGBT discrimination
27 points28 points | 11 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations