Scooter Libby Forgets to Remember to Forget
We still can't quite get over how odd the new development in the Scooter Libby case is. In case you don't remember this morning's Daily Briefing (it was pre-lunch, we don't blame you), Libby's lawyers are bringing in ahypnotist"memory expert" to, uh, testify to the ineffability of time, the fleetingness of memory, and how the past is both inescapable and unknowable. We assume his testimony will be delivered in flashback, narrated by Edmond O'Brien.
Libby's lawyer's presented a summary of the expert's argument, and it reads like the notes to an undergrad neuroscience course mixed with an experimental memoir. "Human memory does not function like a tape recorder" -- nor is it a truck, we hear. "Memory research has shown that people can forget that they once remembered something" -- can we rent this guy for parties?
The basic gist: Sometimes, people forget things, then make shit up. If the judge rejects Dr. Bjork's testimony, Libby is expected to call expert military witness Cptn. Obvious.