From: makowsky@enuxhb.eas.asu.edu (David Makowsky)
Subject: Re: Kahan Commission
Reply-To: makowsky@enuxhb.eas.asu.edu (David Makowsky)
Organization: Arizona State University, Tempe AZ
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 11:17:50 GMT

In article <1eaapkINN21e@manuel.anu.edu.au> bdm@cs.anu.edu.au writes:

# In article <1992Nov16.141252.16632@ennews.eas.asu.edu> David Makowsky writes:

# >In article <1e74s0INNhdn@manuel.anu.edu.au> bdm@cs.anu.edu.au writes:
 
# ># Sharon only had to establish that Time could not prove what they 
# ># claimed about him.  As to what was actually proven in court, the 
# ># important evidence was heard in secret so how do you know what it was?
 
# >        It seems Brendan knows as little about the American legal system
# >as he does about the Middle East.  If evidence in a civil case like
# >this (in front of a jury) needed to be kept secret in would not have
# >been heard at all.  And if Time actually needed the evidence, the
# >judge would have directed a verdict in favor of Time.
 
# I looked up the details.  The case hinged on something that Time claimed
# was in the secret Appendix B of the Kahan report.  Israel refused to 
# provide the Appendix [reasonable] whereas Time said it was essential to 
# it's case [true].  A compromise was reached where Sharon's and Time's 
# Israeli lawyers could read the Appendix in the presence of Justice Kahan.  
# However, they were forbidden to disclose the contents to anyone, 
# including their US legal counterparts or the US court.  In addition, 
# three questions were put to Kahan.  Each question had the form "Does 
# the Appendix state that ...?"  Kahan's answers were then conveyed 
# to the court.
 
	No evidence was heard in secrect, irrelgardless of what you think.
Time did agree to something, but probably only because they knew what
the results were going to be.  Time could have argued that everything
be presented and if the judge felt that their defense depended on it
the judge would have ordered the report be used as evidence (no
evidence was kept secret because the secret part of the report was not
evidence).  If the secret report would not have been would then not
have been available for use as evidence (which would make it part of
the pulic record) the judge would have immediatly stoped the trial and
ruled in favor of Time without the case even getting to the Jury.

# The result was that the jury found that the Appendix did not contain
# what Time claimed it did.  In reply to Mark's insistence that Time
# KNEW it was lying about the Appendix, it should be noted that the
# jury found that it did not.  However, the jury did accuse Time of
# negligence and carelessness.
 
	Actually, Time was found not to have been negligent.  If they were
found to have been negligent, Sharon would have won since the jury
found the story to be false.  In an American court, for a public
figure to win a libel case, not only must the story prove to be false
but so must either negligence or malice.  A "non public" figure only
needs to prove the story false.

	If anyone does not think Time was simply making up things to go
after Sharon, irrespective of what the Jury thought, one needs only to
look at the "apology" Time printed after it was discovered nothing
damning appeared in the secret appendix.
--
	There are three types of people in the world.  Those that are good
at math and those that are not.

makowsky@enuxhb.eas.asu.edu