Perjury
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Perjury is lying under oath.
Contents
Legal status
Perjury is a crime in most if not all legal jurisdictions. However, this does not reflect the consequences of the lies, but is dependent upon legal technicalities. For example:-
![](/w/images/thumb/2/28/Nayirah_testifying.jpg/266px-Nayirah_testifying.jpg)
In 1990 Nayirah al-Sabah testified to a non-governmental Congressional Human Rights Caucus about the behaviour of Iraqi soldiers in Kuwait. This boosted anti-Iraq sentiment in the USA which facilitated the US invasion of Kuwait. Although later proved to be part of a multi-million dollar PR campaign by Hill & Knowlton, her testimony was not under oath and she was not charged with perjury.
In 2005, Steve Wilson and Jane Akre were being asked to lie on air by their employer, Fox News. They took legal action but the judge[Who?] ruled that Fox News had not acted illegally, since US law imposes no requirement on commercially-controlled media to speak truthfully.[1]
Variable penalty
The penalty for perjury varies widely according to the context, and it has been ruled not worthy of punishment, notwithstanding the logical difficulty this presents for the legal process as a whole. The following comparison will illustrate the importance of position within the social hierarchy as far as impacting on penalty.
Briggs Affidavit
- Full article:
Arms for Libya
- Full article:
Charles A. Briggs was a senior spook in the US intelligence community. He had, for example, served five years as Chairman of the Board for the Central Intelligence Retirement Association. As Inspector General of the Central Intelligence Agency, signed an affidavit that Edwin Wilson had set up the Arms for Libya deal without any knowledge of the CIA. After evidence surfaced 20 years later that this was a fabrication, and that Wilson had had at least formal 80 meetings with CIA staff, he was released and brought a counter suit. US judge Lee Rosenthal accepted that Briggs' sworn testimony was untrue, but ruled that he and his co-perjurors were immune from prosecution.[2]
Franklin child prostitution ring
- Full article: Franklin child prostitution ring
- Full article: Franklin child prostitution ring
Paul Bonacci, a victim of the Franklin child prostitution ring, was indicted for perjury in 1999, but later acquitted and awarded $1,000,000 in damages. Alisha Owen, another victim of the same ring, was sentenced to 9-15 years for perjury after she testified in court, but served only 4½ years.[3]
Examples
Page name | Description |
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Richard Helms | |
Walther Kiep | Politician, financial fraudster, perjurer, attended 4 Bilderbergs from 1974 to 1980 |
Related Quotation
Page | Quote | Author | Date |
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Ludovic Kennedy | “the adversarial system of justice in the UK and the United States "is an invitation to the police to commit perjury, which they frequently do"” | Ludovic Kennedy | 2003 |
An official example
Name |
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Carl Beech |
Convicted of Perjury
Person | Born | Summary | Description |
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Michael Cohen | 25 August 1966 | Lawyer Fraudster | A fraudulent US lawyer "who came out of nowhere to occupy a prominent spot in Trump’s orbit," found dead in 2021. |
References
- ↑ http://www.projectcensored.org/11-the-media-can-legally-lie/
- ↑ https://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Ex-spy-dealt-setback-in-fight-to-clear-name-1232806.php
- ↑
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