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Clemens, Pettitte named in baseball steroid report

NEW YORK (CNN) — Illegal steroids have been in widespread use in Major League Baseball for more than a decade and used by some of the game’s top stars, former Sen. George Mitchell said in releasing a report Thursday.

Those who have illegally used these substances range from players whose major league careers were brief to potential members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Mitchell said.

This has not been an isolated problem involving just a few players or a few clubs, Mitchell said. Many players were involved. Each of the 30 clubs has had players how have been involved with such substances at some time in their career.

Mitchell said while action should be taken against the most egregious abusers, it will be in baseball’s best interest to put the past behind it.

The commissioner should give the players and everyone else the chance to make a fresh start, Mitchell said. That’s what baseball needs. Watch Mitchell report on steroid use in baseball

Dozens of current and former major league baseball players, including Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens, Yankee teammate Andy Pettitte, sluggers Mo Vaughn and Gary Sheffield and reliever Eric Gagne, are named as being linked to steroid use in the report.

CNN is in the process of seeking comment from all named players and their clubs.

The report describes how Clemens got injections of the steroid Winstrol in Clemens apartment in Toronto’s Skydome in 1998, according to Brian McNamee, named in the report as a possible distributor of steroids.

McNamee injected Clemens approximately four time in the buttocks over a several week period with needles that Clemens provided, the report states.

During this period of improved performance, Clemens told McNamee that the steroids ‘had a pretty good effect’ on him, the report says. What are anabolic steroids?

McNamee injected Clemens with testosterone and human growth hormone after Clemens moved to the New York Yankees in 2000, the report says.

McNamee also became Pettitte’s personal trainer in 1999, the report says.

McNamee recalled that he injected Pettitte with human growth hormone … on two to four occasions in 2002 to help Pettitte recover from elbow tendonitis, the report says.

While steroid use was widespread Mitchell said, it was far from the norm.

The illegal use in baseball of these substances also victimizes the majority of players who don’t use them, Mitchell said.

One former player told us that one of the biggest complaints among players was that a guy is using steroids and ‘he’s taking my spot,’ Mitchell said.

The former Senate majority leader said the players are setting a bad example for the nation’s young athletes who look up to them.

Hundreds of thousands of our children are using performance enhancing drugs, he said. Every American, not just baseball fans, ought to be shocked into action by that disturbing truth.

Mitchell embarked on his multimillion-dollar task at the behest of Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, who felt a probe was necessary after reading Game of Shadows.

The book was written by two San Francisco newspaper reporters who chronicled the alleged drug use of home-run king Barry Bonds. Game of Shadows is credited by some with prompting congressional hearings in which lawmakers chastised pro baseball for its weak drug-testing policy.

Bonds, who faces federal perjury and obstruction charges for allegedly lying in 2003 about his steroid use, swatted 73 home runs in 2001 to top McGwire’s 1998 record. Before the McGwire-Sosa race — which McGwire won with 70 homers to Sosa’s 66 — Roger Maris’ record of 61 home runs in a season had stood for 37 years.

Mitchell’s investigation was a difficult one because he had no subpoena power, meaning he had no way to force players or witness to cooperate with his investigation. Watch how fans are divided by Mitchell’s quest

Because players would not cooperate, it is believed Mitchell used two sources to compose his list of offenders: Kirk Radomski, a former New York Mets clubhouse attendant accused of selling steroids, and the results of an ongoing investigation into a Florida anti-aging clinic accused of selling performance-enhancing drugs.

A probe of the clinic’s records showed that it had sold performance enhancers to several Major League Baseball players, some of whom have been named. Radomski agreed to cooperate with investigators after pleading guilty in April to illegally distributing performance-enhancing drugs.

David Segui, who retired in 2004 after 15 seasons, is on Mitchell’s list of players linked to steroids. Segui has admitted to using steroids and human growth hormone during that time.

Segui, who played for seven teams in his pro career, told The Baltimore Sun that he refused to help Mitchell because he didn’t want other players to think he was talking about them.

Baseball didn’t begin testing for steroids until 2003. In a CNN interview, Victor Conte, the disgraced founder of the Bay Area Laboratories Co-Operative, said pro baseball’s drug-testing policy is a farce.

Conte said the World Anti-Doping Agency lists 60 stimulants as banned substances, only half of which are recognized by Major League Baseball. By not including the other 30 substances on the list, baseball is essentially promoting their use, he said. Watch Conte explain why tougher testing is needed

To date, Rafael Palmeiro, who is the fourth player in major league history to amass 500 home runs and 3,000 hits, is the highest profile athlete to fail a drug test. His failed drug test came in 2005, five months after he told a congressional committee he had never used steroids.

Despite the steroid controversy, Major League Baseball enjoyed record revenues of $6 billion this year, and for the fourth year in a row, the league set a total attendance record. E-mail to a friend

CNN’s Larry Smith contributed to this report.

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EU, U.S. in climate deal standoff

BALI, Indonesia (CNN) — Negotiations over a new agreement on global warming were expected to go down to the wire as the United States and the European Union remained at loggerheads over how to replace the 10-year-old Kyoto Protocol.

The United Nations climate change conference in Bali is in its final hours, and negotiations are expected to last well into the night as the summit wraps up mid-day Friday local time.

The Europeans are pushing for an agreement that contains specific numbers for emissions cuts, but Washington wants to leave room for future negotiations, including next month’s U.S.-sponsored climate talks in Hawaii.

The EU delegation has balked at that stance, saying it would render January’s major emitters meeting meaningless. Watch efforts to encourage fruitful talks

We are disappointed that having reached this stage of the negotiations we still haven’t heard from the United States — what is their exact level of ambition or of engagement in the Bali roadmap?, said Humberto Rosa, a member of European delegation and Portuguese secretary of state for the environment.

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, fresh from accepting the Nobel peace prize for his work on climate change awareness, sided with the Europeans.

My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali. We all know that, he said. But my country is not the only that can take steps to ensure that we move forward in bali with progress and with hope.

Gore accepted the Nobel peace prize on Monday, alongside the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change .

In an interview with CNN, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon leaned toward the United States’ position, stressing that Bali negotiations have to be based on realistic and practical assessment.

Somewhere down the road, quantifiable targets on emissions reductions would be discussed, he said, adding that launching the process (is) very important.

Japan and Canada have taken positions in line with the United States, while Australia’s position is uncertain.

Washington is balking at suggestions by the EU that any agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol on global warming should require developed countries to cut their emissions by 25 to 40 percent of 1990 levels by 2020.

The Bush administration says Europe is moving too fast in its efforts to find a replacement for the Kyoto treaty, which expires in 2012.

The main effort here in Bali is to get all of the countries to agree, in concept, that they will collectively support a long term global goal for reducing emissions, said James Connaughton, the chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. That’s the first step before you can then sit down and work through the specifics of what that goal might be.

The shrill tone of Thursday’s public statements indicated the behind-the-doors negotiations were difficult.

Rosa said the European delegation said it is not blackmailing Washington, but said it is logic(al) that if no deal is completed in Bali, it can not be built upon in Hawaii.

The Kyoto Protocol was passed 10 years ago by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change with the goal of limiting greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.

While 175 parties — including the European Union — have ratified it, the United States has not.
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Aide: Clinton apologizes to Obama

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Hillary Clinton apologized to rival Sen. Barack Obama for an adviser’s comment that Obama’s admission of past drug use would hurt his chances in a general election matchup, a Clinton aide told CNN on Thursday.

Obama earlier brushed aside the adviser’s remarks, saying they were probably the result of the latest poll numbers, which show the two candidates tied in the first-primary state New Hampshire.

I just think people are feeling a little worried about the polls, Obama said Thursday.

Bill Shaheen, co-chairman of the Clinton campaign in New Hampshire, told a Washington Post reporter Wednesday that the Republicans would exploit Obama’s past admission of drug use should he win the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination and might even suggest Obama once dealt drugs.

The Republicans are not going to give up without a fight … and one of the things they’re certainly going to jump on is his drug use, Shaheen said. It’ll be, ‘When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?’ There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It’s hard to overcome.

Shaheen, husband of former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, apologized for his comments and said in a statement late Wednesday they were not authorized by the campaign in any way.

Obama said he did not think it was Shaheen’s intent to plant such a rumor. The candidate said he is not worried the remarks may damage his campaign since it’s not true.

I don’t think the American people are concerned about what I did when I was a teenager. They’re concerned about what I’m going to do as a presidential candidate, he said.

Clinton on Thursday said she did not approve of Shaheen’s comments. I don’t in any way condone that, and it was certainly not authorized or approved at all. It was inappropriate, and he’s apologized, the senator from New York said.

Obama’s camp quickly responded to Shaheen’s comments.

Obama spokesman David Plouffe called the remarks desperate, saying the campaign is recycling old news that Barack Obama has been candid about in a book he wrote years ago, and he’s talked about the lessons he’s learned from these mistakes with young people all across the country.

Obama wrote in his 1995 book Dreams of My Father that he was once headed in the direction of a junkie and a pothead.

Referring to his emotional struggles as a young man, Obama wrote, Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though.

Obama has not shied away from bringing up his past use of drugs while on the campaign trail. He spoke candidly about his past experimentation at an event in New Hampshire last month, acknowledging that he did inhale and that it’s not something I’m proud of.

And in a statement that proved popular with the crowd, Obama said he never understood then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton’s contention in 1992 that he did not inhale marijuana.

I never understood that line, he said. The point was to inhale. That was the point.

The latest back-and-forth between the two Democratic campaigns on the issue of Obama’s electability came as a new CNN/WMUR poll showed the two candidates statistically in a dead heat in New Hampshire.

Clinton stands at 31 percent, with Obama 1 percentage point behind, well within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
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House investigates alleged congressional page sex incident

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The inspector-general of the House of Representatives will investigate recent allegations of sexual misconduct among congressional pages, the Democratic and Republican leaders of the chamber announced.

Two pages — usually high school juniors who serve Congress as messengers — have been dismissed for allegedly having oral sex in public areas of their Capitol Hill dormitory.

It wasn’t kissing and hugging — let me put it that way, said Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Florida, last week. It did go beyond that. There were not only a young male and female involved, but there were also observers and other page participants who were, let’s say, enablers.

To protest what they called lax oversight, Brown-Waite has resigned from the House Page Board, along with Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. Watch more on alleged page misconduct

Brown-Waite said her resignation was meant to send a loud and clear message to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders.

Pelosi, a California Democrat, and Republican Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio issued a joint statement on the matter Wednesday.

We expect the inspector-general to gather the facts and recommend the appropriate and necessary corrective actions to be taken by the House, it said.

In 2006, Florida GOP Rep. Mark Foley was forced to resign after his sexually suggestive e-mails to male pages were made public.

The House Ethics Committee later found that some people who knew about Foley’s questionable communications chose to remain willfully ignorant rather than confront the matter.

Then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, promised an overhaul of the program, which Pelosi pledged to pursue after Democrats gained control of the House of Representatives in the 2006 elections.

Apparently Democrats didn’t learn from the Mark Foley incident that pages need better supervision, Brown-Waite said. Apparently they haven’t learned anything.

No members of Congress are involved in the current controversy, and House Clerk Lorraine Miller, who administers the programs, said the students involved were dismissed.
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Thanou may go legal in gold claim

LONDON, England — Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou will considering legal action against the International Olympic Committee (IOC) if it refuses to award her Marion Jones’ 100 meters gold medal from the Sydney Olympics.

Jones has been stripped of her five medals from 2000, but the IOC is yet to decide how to reallocate them.

Thanou, who was embroiled in a drugs controversy of her own at th 2004 Athens Olympics, finished second in the 100 to the now disgraced American sprinter.

She believes she has to be awarded the gold, according to her lawyer Gregory Ioannidis who told BBC Sport: If not, we would have to consider (if) legal action needs to be taken.

The IOC formally stripped Jones of her five Sydney medals on Wednesday.

It followed the American’s disclosure in October that she had taken the banned steroid THG from September 2000 until July 2001.

However, the IOC has delayed a decision on how to reallocate the prizes, because it wants to find out if more of the athletes from the races were involved in the Balco laboratories doping scandal.

Ioannidis said he found the comments unnecessary and unreasonable and insisted there was no evidence linking Thanou with the Balco case.

There’s no evidence to substantiate any allegation against Katerina Thanou in relation to the Balco case, he said. Thanou and compatriot Kostas Kenteris missed drugs tests on the eve of the 2004 Games.

It was the third time they had missed tests, resulting in a two-year suspension, which expired at the end of last year.

We are carefully monitoring the situation. We have to consider the evidence at the appropriate time. We do hope Katerina Thanou will be treated in a fair and equal way. If that is the case, there is no need for any litigation, he added. E-mail to a friend

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