The conspiracy theorists in France will have a field day with this development. And I must say, with good reason.
The New York Times reports that even though the forensic evidence makes clear there was a sexual encounter between the former head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the prosecutors (!) have found the witness to have told enough lies to them to put their case in jeopardy. She may have connections to drug dealers and criminal rings.
From the Times (hat tip Scott):
The sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn is on the verge of collapse as investigators have uncovered major holes in the credibility of the housekeeper who charged that he attacked her in his Manhattan hotel suite in May…
Since her initial allegation on May 14, the accuser has repeatedly lied…Among the discoveries, one of the officials said, are issues involving the asylum application of the 32-year-old housekeeper, who is Guinean, and possible links to criminal activities, including drug dealing and money laundering….
[T] he woman had a phone conversation with an incarcerated man within a day of her encounter with Mr. Strauss Kahn in which she discussed the possible benefits of pursuing the charges against him. The conversation was recorded.
That man, the investigators learned, had been arrested on charges of possessing 400 pounds of marijuana. He was among a number of individuals who made multiple cash deposits, totaling around $100,000, into the woman’s bank account over the last two years. The deposits were made in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia and New York.
They also learned that she was paying hundreds of dollars every month in phone charges to five different companies. The woman insisted she only had a single phone and said she knew nothing about the deposits except that they were made by a man she described as her fiancé and his friends.
In addition, the official said, she told investigators that part of her application for asylum included a previous rape, but there was no such account in the application. She also told them that she had been subjected to genital mutilation, but her account to the investigators differed from what was contained in the asylum application.
According to the article, his bail restrictions are likely to be eased in a hearing scheduled for tomorrow and the prosecutors are apparently trying to get DSK to agree to plead guilty to lesser charges. Given the damage to his name, and the fact that he has a very rich wife, I imagine he’d fight since the credibility of the witness appears to be nada.
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So the maid was a front for drug-running, that’s why she worked for minimum wage in a hotel? So that when she was raped by DSK she would run immediately to the police?
Surely we can invent better stories than this?
Please read the article. These disclosures were made by the prosecution, not the defense.
The witness has apparently told a TON of lies to the prosecution. And this bit is key:
Although forensic tests found unambiguous evidence of a sexual encounter between Mr. Strauss-Kahn, a French politician, and the woman, prosecutors do not believe much of what the accuser has told them about the circumstances or about herself.
That’s damning.
Without any shame rating agencies, banks and politicians in the US are are putting themselves up for sale, so why not prosecutors and judges?
But apparently this is the society the Americans have in mind to leave to their children.
Now, THAT’s damning.
Troy,
This is from Marcy Wheeler, who is agnostic on whether DSK is guilty of not:
If they believe she has lied to them on multiple occasions, as the report says they do, then the prosecutors have no case. They’ve already premised much of what they’ve done–like the bail conditions on DSK–on what they claimed was her credibility. If they were proven to have been duped in that, then they will have a tough time presenting this to a court w/o damaging their own career/standing in the bar.
Let this be a lesson to you, Yves – by indulging ignorant, prejudiced ranters here, you have cultivated a comment culture in which facts that do not fit with their simplistic narrative are simply dismissed.
Really? Seriously? How daft are ya, Reb?
Please, do point me to all the communities, large and small, that *don’t* have humans who dismiss all the facts that won’t fit with their simplistic narrative. Oy…
Of course, I really don’t want you to point me to all those non-existent communities. I’d prefer to say…pot, meet kettle.
Dear Reb;
One: How about all those knowledgable, esoteric ranters?
Two: How about let’s let our hostess decide whom she wants at her party?
Three: Most conspiracy theorists, (aka: nutters, paranoids, finance ministers, etc..) I have encountered tend not to have a fondness for Occams Razor.
Four: If my rememberance of higher education serves me aright, facts are quite inconvenient things. They tend to stand alone, the original ‘individualists’ as it were.
Five: Thanks for stirring the pot. That’s what we’re all here for anyway.
It is crazy how the story took off. And it was fun. I see no reason to put comment in a straight jacket of only informed reason. And, hey, we can turn on a dime. We will now be very happy that the perp (now apparently the maid) has been caught. Anybody remember her ultra-creepy lawyer who made the fastest appearance on TV of any lawyer in history. A high priced lawyer at that. He looked like bad plastic surgery and his dishonesty was radiant. Betcha he’ll disappear soon, if he hasn’t already.
Short version, she set him up for profit.
All the forensics show is that his body fluid in her cavities. Gee, is there any way other than rape for that to
occur?
On the topic of rape and courts and accusations, there is the detailed statement of the man who set him self on fire to protest the kangaroo courts of America…
worth reading, unfortunately posted at a silly website but the text is all there.
http://www.inmalafide.com/blog/2011/06/17/tom-ball-new-hampshire-man-who-burned-himself-to-death-the-ex-wife-lawyer-wants-me-jailed-for-back-child-support/
Boy, you are making stuff up. The allegation was oral sex. She cleaned another room and cleaned DSK’s room before telling management. Ya really think she kept his “bodily fluids” in her mouth all that time? I’m not about to track it down but the report was clear that the semen was found either in the suite or on her clothing.
@Jeff “Short version, she set him up for profit.”
and as she had it all prepared in advance she:
“…had a phone conversation with an incarcerated man within a day of her encounter with Mr. Strauss Kahn in which she discussed the possible benefits of pursuing the charges against him”
Awkward timing.
There is a report today at the NYT post the hearing. It includes a letter from the prosecutors. Their reservations are NOT related to the call to the imprisoned boyfriend, but that she lied about a past gang rape (!) and changed her story re what happened re DSK (she first said she went straight to management, but then said she cleaned another room and went back a cleaned DSK’s room. The latter destroyed a lot of forensic evidence). And she also lied re her housing application, on her taxes, re her phones, etc.
From the NYT: “According to the two officials, the woman had a phone conversation with an incarcerated man within a day of her encounter with Mr. Strauss-Kahn in which she discussed the possible benefits of pursuing the charges against him. The conversation was recorded.”
So, when the grand jury proceedings are held a government official in some capacity knows the alleged victim is communicating with a prisoner about the benefits of going forward, yet fails to disclose this information. The prosecuting attorney was probably insulated form this damning information, yet someone knew and attempted to cover it up. Now, therein lies the real crime.
@ScottW
And I suppose that yourself you would never dare to seek advice in such a difficult situation? And seeking advice from an incarcereted friend makes you a criminal?
Excellent point, Noemie.
This screams of the following scenario:
DSK is guilty, but the witness against him (hotel maid) wasn’t a pristine witness, which the DA knew going into this.
And the DA coordinated this process until a new IMF chairman was hired or sworn in.
Now, the process is being wound down.
I”ve been through the ‘vetting’ process when i sued the us government [successfully as it happens]
I was stunned by my own attorneys,.. they sifted through my background about marriages, children, jobs, — if I had stolen a car as a teen… I would not have prevailed against the government… which means they can abuse us at will – and only a squeaky clean litigant can get redress.
the questions were insulting… and had I been a tattoo artist or any number of disqualifying characteristics… I would have had NO CASE
it’s appalling – especially since the dirtbags in the robes are not unlike that perv that attacked a maid.
but you and me? need not apply for justice
The prosecution’s backpedaling has nothing to do with the call to the boyfriend. See this comment for details
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/06/dsk-prosecution-on-the-verge-of-collapse.html#comment-419169
It appears that Mr. Strauss-Kahn has become a character in a David Ignatious thriller – maybe it could be titled “Body of Lies”. It will be interesting to see how this one ends. We are probably only in Chapter 3 or 4 right now, so lots to go.
Maybe Ignatious could use this as the basis of one of his chapter by chapter story contents instead of the one he is running now.
Yup…
“The conspiracy theorists in France will have a field day with this development. And I must say, with good reason.”
French, living in Montreal I was always convinced DSK was framed by political ennemies or financial interest (banksters…).
It is only the beginning…I know Africa a lot and the lady came from a country where young girls are routinely rapped at age 12….they know what to do in this situation…
I am pretty shure that even charge for sexual encouter will be also dropped. Everything has been set up from the beginning…
DSK has lost the possibility, to be a candidate for the next election in 2012 and I can not discount that secret service or political gangster working for Nicolas Sarkozy were behind this sordid affair.
May be “The Perv..” is back in business…
I will be the lady I will be now fearfull for my life…
My gut instinct told me something was wrong with this DSK case.
Something tells me this is not an isolated incident either. I’m always suspicious when I see the story start off with a brief text caption, which doesn’t ring true,at the bottom of Bloomberg TV. Later on it turns out somebody powerful is in a shit storm on controversy like they pissed off the wrong people.
Lesser charges? What’s lesser than a rape and greater than consensual? Is it an Assange-style rape?
There’s no way on earth a powerful banker is going to jail for raping a woman. She may questionable but my first sentence stands.
Why do you think you have superior knowldege of the case? Have you other sources than the media?
How curious that the charges seem to collapse just after Lagarde is appointed. This is clearly a Sarkozy-lead maneuver, and, as in Libya, with full complicity of the US establishment.
I’d dare bet that the two issues are somehow related, because they are coincident in time and the ominous presence of Sarko.
Disclaimer: the last thing I mean is to dismiss a true rape but there are also very strange cases that are not such thing most likely and this is one of them.
I also hold no sympathy for Strauss-Khan (not at all) but I strongly suspect that this is an adjustment within the Imperial Circles and lo, Sarkozy got it all: attack Libya, get his protégé as new IMF head, what now?
Beware of Sarko but also beware of his US best friends. Can anyone name me them?
I’m savoring this: “How curious that the charges seem to collapse just after Lagarde is appointed.”
Curious indeed.
http://nypdconfidential.com/columns/2011/110530.html
Dear Maju;
What next? How about the French banks get the lions share of the Greek “Privitization” business? As for who gets the other countries, Financial Risk anyone? (“A six! Let’s see, I think I’ll move a hedge fund division and an IMF restructuring brigade into Sub-Saharan Afrique. Yeah! That should stop Fengs Pan Asian Commodities Extraction Cartel!OK! Listen up! What am I bid for the next roll?”)
It has been established that there was a sexual encounter. Only two people know the truth and they disagree. One says consensual the other says forceful. If the accuser has no credibility, then DSK wins.
Strauss Kahn’s troubles actually began when he suggested using the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights to replace the dollar as the international reserve currency. That was probably viewed as a bit crude by powerful peeps in Washington. The way the press leapt into ranting and raving instead of taking stock of the strangeness of the “facts” during his arrest seemed a bit wild. Now it’s starting to look a lot like the Jullian Assange scandal, which has faded away a bit…
The US now has a very good replacement for Mr. Strauss Kahn, Christine Lagarde.
To show her open-minded flexibility in the position, Lagarde told a French TV interviewer concerning austerity protests in Greece “that her message to the country was to “call to the Greek opposition for it to join in national unity with the party which is currently in power”.
I think that would be the Wall Street party.
Bravo -Ka-Ching-
I totally agree.
They got what they wanted.
DSK is out of the IMF.
The day will come when the greenback is no longer the GRC.
When that happens all hell will break loose.
TICK-TOCK
Some folks think heaven is hell and vice versa.
The IMF is shuffling deck chairs on the good ship inherited rich.
Evolving to the SDF would mean admitting weakness and there would be step downs along the way but no we need more extend and pretend backed up with war mongering.
I agree that some day, I say in less than 5 years some country or combination is going to call BS on continued US financial “leadership”. It could cause some disruption among those extend and pretender folk.
Super short version…
Lagarde worked for Goldman? DSK didn’t.
“””Keynes has been called an elitist, because he was an intellectual with expensive tastes, wealthy friends and banker affiliations, but like Roosevelt, he had a strong streak of the can-do Populist spirit.
Keynes was thinking like the Greenbackers by the end of World War II, when he proposed a debt-free Greenback-style currency called the “Bancor” to serve as the reserves of the International Monetary Fund (the fund established to stabilize global currencies).
The Bancor lost out to the U.S. dollar, which would become the world’s reserve currency along with gold.””” ((Web of Debt))
So at this point is the maid going to be prosecuted for lying to prosecutors and law enforcement? I assume that is a crime in New York. The case has been sufficiently tainted that it will collapse. We will never know what happened, if there was a rape. We can certainly see who benefited. If this wasn’t a setup, it bears more than a passing resemblance to one. And even if it was, Strauss-Kahn was and is a sh*t and set himself up for it.
I think the real casualties here are the victims of sexual assault because incidents like these undermine, unjustly, their credibility.
>> So at this point is the maid going to be prosecuted for lying to prosecutors and law enforcement? I assume that is a crime in New York. <<
Or, if they find that she lied on her asylum application, she could easily be stripped of her green card and immediately deported. This would also have a chilling effect on immigrants, telling them in no uncertain terms to keep their heads down and their nose to the grindstone. Plus, it would make Obama look even more anti-immigration than he already is, and thus help him secure at least 10 or 15 Tea Party votes in 2010.
How's that for political psychoanalysis?… :)
Psychoanalystus
Never heard the perineum being refered to as a ‘grindstone’ before.
My Dear Psych;
Add five zeros to those two figures you threw out there. You underestimate the potential for demagoguery inherent in the “illegal immigrant” narrative today. With jobs down here on “Main Street” disappearing at an amazing rate, playing the ‘unfair competition’ card re the ‘swarthy masses’ will gain traction this election cycle.
Sorry, you’re wrong about the Tea Party votes. Nothing ever makes them happy.
If the prosecution is leaking this kind of stuff to the press, then who does that leave to look into the bank accounts of the investigators and the prosecution? Surely someone has considered that carrots (and sticks) would be applied to all and sundry in a case like this…
Although forensic tests found unambiguous evidence of a sexual encounter between Mr. Strauss-Kahn
DSK would have talked himself into a life sentence had he not abandoned his alibi defense and admitted he had sexual contact with alleged victim. The more he insisted he was not there, despite the DNA and other physical evidence, the more the jury would have overlooked inconsistencies in the alleged victim’s story and concluded he was guilty.
Remember this?
IMF CHIEF HAS IRONCLAD ALIBI, His Lawyers Say
IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, better known as DSK, was having lunch with his daughter at the time when the sexual assault he is alleged to have committed supposedly took place, his lawyers say, according to French radio RMC.
According to this item, DSK checked out of the hotel at noon, hours before the events allegedly took place. He was scheduled to have lunch with his daughter, a graduate student at Columbia University in New York, that day.
DSK is the kind of guy who can afford $1000 a night hookers. He probably fucked one and the black maid pilfered his semen from one of the condoms.
There are still breath taking wonders in this world.
I think not enough is being made of this part:
“He was among a number of individuals who made multiple cash deposits, totaling around $100,000, into the woman’s bank account over the last two years.”
The maid got money *before* meeting DSK?
Right, this is the most damning piece of evidence if confirmed. A person receiving large (for her, not for Blankfein) sums of money before being supposedly raped is suspicious in the extreme. Maybe, she will end up in jail, not Strauss Kahn.
Agreed.
Yes, a woman receives cash payments over TWO YEARS, and has five cell phones to boot. Obviously this is damning evidence that she was paid to accuse DSK of rape, and not that she’s somewhat involved with the drug trade.
Folks;
You’re missing an important point here. She gets large deposits into her bank account for two years prior to. That’s only one side of the equation. Where is this money now? If she was a conduit for a drugs ring, the money would have been forwarded somewhere. Even drugs gangs aren’t that free spending, much less philanthropic. The cell phones would suggest that she was a communications ‘cut out’ for the narcos. A true long range conspiracy theory isn’t needed here. given DSKs track record, all an adversary would have to do is wait for the right opportunity to present itself, and act on it. The man shot himself in the foot, or a bit higher.
Interesting stuff, indeed. It is a great tragedy for rape victims and the “little people” all over the world. If the case falls apart, it will severely damage the willingness and ability of authorities to pursue rape charges. Additionally, it will infuriate all those who believe it is just another Rich White Man getting away with more crime.
DSK is no doubt a plutocrat with an overactive libido and a history of sexual predation and abuse. It is possible the maid knew this and hoped to blackmail him
Of course, it is also possible that she is telling the truth. Her “lies” about her refugee status were probably made up to help her case but I can’t blame her for that. Given her status, education, background, and position, it is possible she has no choice but to assist her “fiancé” in his money-laundering. She may be a lifetime victim like so many third-world women.
I suspect this case will be dropped. After all, DSK was really have lunch with his daughter and not having sex with the maid, right?
I agree. We simply don’t know and probably will never know the full facts of the case. But this may have an impact on the willingness of genuine victims to bring forward real charges against people in a position of power. That is a tragedy. As such, even though there is a case for bringing perjury charges against her (or immigration charges), I think it would have such a chilling effect on willingness of genuine victims to come forward that I think it should not be considered. But the prosecution is in a very bad situation in any case.
The real crime of this case is that the police and district attorney’s office pushed this case forward, declaring guilt, before performing a competent investigation. Do lots of rapists avoid prosecution because of the “he said she said” problem? Yes. But that is no excuse for concluding that because a crime is alleged it was undoubtedly committed. And that is exactly what happened in this case.
The moment Strauss-Khan became a serious contender for the French presidency he should’ve known that he would become the target for a set up like this.
His first mistake was staying in a French owned hotel in Manhattan, an obvious hang out for the agents de la faction Sarkozy.
And the next time he orders a prostitute, he needs to check her ID at the door and call the escort service back to confirm that this woman is on their payroll and not President Sarkozy’s. That was his second mistake.
Strauss-Khan just made too many casual assumptions about his modus vivendi.
Assumptions that someone swimming in the metaphorical shark tank that he and his ilk inhabit should not make.
I never cared if he was guilty or not. He’s already guilty of crimes against humanity. Running the IMF is Nuremburg shit. Whatever we can railroad him on I’m fine with so long as it involves a lengthy prison term with a hulky man named “Big Jerome.”
You’re insane. And by the way, it’s Nüremberg, not Nuremburg.
Oh yes, prison rape, always good for a larf.
No, actually, in German it’s Nürnberg, not Nüremberg. It’s Nuremberg, no umlaut, in English.
I wasn’t sure on this at first — I mean, people rape people, just because they’re in positions of power doesn’t mean that they are somehow insulated from the tendencies of the rest of humanity (how often do we hear about weird judges taking their ‘linus’ out in public?).
But now I’m fairly convinced. Here’s my theory:
I think he was calling peoples’ bullshit on the Eurozone crisis and pointing out that it was an extend and pretend policy that would only end in tears. Remember, as head of the IMF he didn’t have to worry about the great unwashed turning up to the voting booth — so PIIG-bashing was unnecessary.
How about the fact that DSK was convicted in the media via calculated prosecution leaks, and how everyone in the blogosphere went along for the ride because he was a white male and the victim was a female person of color. Disgraceful that you can even talk about a conspiracy, when this was clearly a monstrous episode of a media lynch mob. Disgraceful.
Sudden Debt needs to work more on his/her Latin. It’s “cui bono” (literally, “to whom the good,” or “who benefits”), not “qui bono.”
My level of suspicion was raised when the plane was stopped within, what, 2 hours? That is some kind of “effective” police work in a rape case.
From Hellasious today, Sudden Debt:
Il n’y a aucune coincidence dans la (haute) finance (pronounce in French for maximum rhyming effect).
Well, well, well… the prosecution is furiously back-pedalling on its charges against Mr. Strauss-Kahn. It seems the chambermaid is not exactly the unspoilt lily of veracity she claimed to be. As the Reuters article in the link puts it: “Case against Strauss-Kahn near collapse”.
Being in the field for over a quarter century I have learned, often the hard way, that weird coincidences simply do not exist in finance. If it seems too good (or too bad) to be true, it is safe to bet that it’s not true.
So, let’s make no mistake here: there were way too many and powerful interested parties that wanted Mr. Strauss-Kahn out of the way. Who? In Latin, we ask: qui bono? (who stands to benefit?).
I’m not going to bother with the obvious French presidential race political stuff. Instead, I think it was NOT a coincidence that the European debt crisis got much worse right after Mr. Strauss-Kahn, a confirmed euro-booster, got arrested and paraded publicly in manacles.
http://suddendebt.blogspot.com/
Hey, mission accomplished. DSK is purged and the IMF’s American acting scalped Greece for the banks.
Here’s an interesting nugget from Simon Johnson, who knows the institution well, having worked there:
http://bit.ly/kIDhiR
“To be fair, the control this time was partly about organizing early and unanimous support for Ms. Lagarde – and there was an understandable desire to appoint a woman, given recent events.”
Is it too much to suggest that this was intentional? Crafty politicos knowing that Lagarde was waiting in the wings and knowing that rape allegations against the former boss would mean an added push to give the job to a woman?
I mean, do you remember that awful stuff that was being run in certain newspapers — and, I’m sorry to say, Yves linked to here — about the IMF being a sexist hellhole where ass-grabbing and closet fondles were the rule, rather than the exception? Like it or not, that stuff has an impact.
YS:
I never credited this case. Why?
1. White man rapes black woman? Get off it. This is an invention of the infantile left.
2. Sarkozy and the big European banks pushed this to further the Greece bailout and Sarkozy’s reelection prospects.
3. The dog which did not bark from Sherlock Holmes. Whaaat? Al Sharpton kept mum on this? Why? He concluded there was no multi-million dollar shakedown possible of the IMF. He saw almost immediately this was another Tawana Brawley case on which he should not expend any effort.
IA
Yves, you should be proud of your comment section.
Sex and money bring out people’s true colors. Talking about sex is almost as effective.
sometimes it freaks me out when I’m out driving at 6 am and I drive by a street light and it turns off.
i start thinking about what I was thinking about when the light went dark and I wonder “Is this a synchronicity? Did my aura jam the electric circuits in teh light due to the nature of my thought cloud?” then I think there are billions of people in the world and why would any higher intelligence waste its time on me, at 6 am, with a public street light, trying to send me a revelatory message about my little life.
strange how you can invent stories to tell yourself. and they even make a certain lurid sense, maybe the world works in a way that we just don’t comprehend, you wonder.
it seems possible. anything is possible. just wonder where we’d all be in this fiasco. prrobably stillin an orange jumpsuit, unless you’re one of the Naked Cap multi-multi-multim millionaires who drinks sherry and reads blogs all day, you’d be in a townhouse with staff waiting it out. Me, I’d be dead or on Xanax and Jack. But I wouldn’t chase a hotel maid anyway. I’m too lazy. :)
the only thing I take away from this is: New POlicy for tres cher hotels. 2 maids to the room at all times and legalize prostitution, please, so these episodes can occur in a scripted way, like a Moliere play. this should boost the job market, if not the BJob market.
@ Craazyman – The street light probably went off because you had your headlights on, and this triggered its lights-off sensor. Or, you have a REALLY strong aura !
DSK came out and said the world needed an alternative to the US dollar. Two weeks later he was publicly humiliated. What a surprise.
Lots of figures have called for alternative currencies. US policymakers know this is just bluster because actually instituting a new reserve currency is remarkably difficult — EMU, anyone?
If Strauss-Kahn was set up — and I’m coming to think he was — it was in relation to the Eurocrisis. So fragile is the situation in Euroland right now that if a leading figure were even to threaten to come out calling BS on the handling of the crisis, it might derail a lot of political careers.
Close relations between Sarkozy and NYPD chief Kelly.
http://nypdconfidential.com/columns/2011/110530.html
So if you are a helpless immigrant being used and abused by a criminal gang from your native country, it is OK for the rest of the world to use and abuse you as well.
What a country.
By the way, it seems appropriate that peoples’ attention should be called to an excellent political thriller from 1988 that was commissioned by Channel 4.
The story is based on the fact that Tony Benn almost became leader of the Labour Party in 1981. In the series a very left-wing leader takes power in Britain. Meanwhile a conspiracy to take him down is concocted behind the scenes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Very_British_Coup
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/a-very-british-coup/4od
Not to compare DSK to Tony Benn, of course, but this is a top notch thriller and should be seen by anyone interested in politics.
Michael Chossudovsky wrote a very good summary of the “frame-up” theory, which yo can find here:
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=189180
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24866
or here:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7565485.html#ixzz1MfFWFlnY
“Regime Change at the IMF: The Frame-Up of Dominique Strauss-Kahn?”
And there’s also a far-out theory that makes for fun reading, even if it’s not true:
“A new report prepared for Prime Minister Putin by the Federal Security Service (FSB) says that former International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was charged and jailed in the US for sex crimes on May 14th after his discovery that all of the gold held in the United States Bullion Depository located at Fort Knox was ‘missing and/or unaccounted’ for.”
http://www.eutimes.net/2011/05/russia-says-imf-chief-jailed-for-discovering-all-us-gold-is-gone/
It’s amazing how many stories disparaged as “conspiracy theory” by mainstream media have turned out to be true over the 11 years, since Bush and big business took over the country.
Oh my God! That article has a major scoop, but the author seems to have missed it. DSK actually tried to sexually assault Geithner:
http://cache.20minutes.fr/img/photos/20mn/2011-04/2011-04-15/diapo_dsk.jpg
Hmmmm… the plot thickens!
Geithner looks a little shy maybe in the pic, but it does look consentual to me.
Yeah, maybe Geithner is just being coy — that girlish laugh and everything.
Methinks Strauss-Kahn is availing of the classic Irish seduction technique, the ‘look and lunge’. See 0.40:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaXFsHMvTWk
I assumed DSK gave Timmy the tried and true “groin grope”, which elicited Timmy’s response. But maybe you are right about the lock and lunge. We’ll need more pictures to know for sure.
Well, DSK claims it was consensual and I am inclined to believe him. Just look at their faces!
About an hour ago, on BBC TV, there was a panelist who started bringing up Greek default / Lagarde appointment timing of the whole thing, the BBC moderator berated her for mentioning it, she held her ground, and then they abruptly went to a station break and disappeared her from the panel without comment.
I found the episode noteworthy.
Yves, before there is an opposite rush to judgement, you need to first deal with the statements of the victim’s attorney, and sort out those dramatic claims. He basically says, that regardless of her past, there is still overwhelming physical evidence that a rape took place. So, do you find the victim guilty because her past is not perfect? If someone rapes or kills a prostitute, do you then forgive the perpetrator because the victim had a criminal history of prostitution?
Along those lines, what happened to the story that DSK had a fairly serious wound in his back from the attack? If that was not true, it adds to the conspiracy side. If true, it supports the accuser.
I’ve seen more recent stuff that suggests he had no injuries.
I’m NOT saying he didn’t abuse her. I have NO idea. What DOES stink was trying him in the media. He should have been detained until the prosecution checked her and her story out. They clearly didn’t.
Bravo Yves, the whole perp walk thing is perfidious. What ever happened to the presumption of innocence in this country?
Clearly the prosecution just needs some different attorneys. Mike Nifong is available, I’ve heard.
I can’t help but think of the post and commentary on this here same blog when the DSK story first broke.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/05/imf-chief-strauss-kahn-arrested-for-alleged-sexual-assault.html
It really is amusing. There’s Yves quoting one of her email correspondents—as if DSK was already convicted—with this rapist blast: One of my e-mail correspondents commented: “As it is, the IMF economically assaults every country they’re involved with, so I guess having a rapist at the helm is appropriate.”
Then, in the 130(+) comments that followed, it was just so obvious that DSK was guilty.
[One Commenter, Suite at 4:47am, even had the temerity to suggest that people shouldn’t rush to judgement and convict DSK before trial. The replies to his comment are hilarious.
One moron even wrote this in response to Suite: “Eewww. That was quite a revolting string of words to read. What are you, some kind of criminal defense lawyer, a member of the privileged elite, or a previously accused rapist?”
[“Eewww”?! Are you f*cking kidding me? Who, above the age of 9, either says or writes “Eewww”?]
And now comes many of the same crew, utterly forgetting they were wrong the first time, hitting us with uber-confident assertions of Conspiracy. Freaking awesome.
Yeah, yeah, yeah…I know, it’s wrong of me to be skeptical. I mean, there’s no way that this is simply a case of a sexually aggressive man in a powerful position finding himself in a compromising situation with an opportunistic woman who has a sketchy past….
NO. Rather, it’s a case wherein the President of France, has a close relationship with the NY Chief of Police and the NY DA. And they set this whole thing up …only to have it brought down, not by the heroic work of DSK’s legal team, but rather,by the DA’s own prosecution team.
So maybe there’s a conspiracy within the ranks of the prosecution to bring down the original conspiracy.….Ooohhh, how exciting!
“So maybe there’s a conspiracy within the ranks of the prosecution to bring down the original conspiracy.….Ooohhh, how exciting!”
Y’know, the odds are that this isn’t a conspiracy.
But Big Time conspiracies actually do happen sometimes, and if this was a Big Time conspiracy, the damage is already done.
If this was a Big Time conspiracy, there is nothing in letting Cy Vance’s office figure out they were unwitting dupes that undoes the work of the conspiracy.
In short, nothing exciting in today’s news.
It helps to generalize less.
He could easily be guilty. But with Lagarde at the helm, they can now stop prosecuting him.
It was all a big misunderstanding. I think that’s the real point here.
Dan,
You are at risk of getting yourself banned with this one. Deliberately mischaracterizing my views is not tolerated here. I expressed skepticism re the notion that someone could be forced to have oral sex (particularly in light of the fact, which I did not mention, that DSK is not physically imposing). That was both in the post proper and in the comment thread. If you had read the post and comments as you claimed you had, there is no way you could have missed it.
This is your last warning. From the post:
Update: One of my e-mail correspondents commented: “As it is, the IMF economically assaults every country they’re involved with, so I guess having a rapist at the helm is appropriate.”
Update 2 (11:45 PM). Boy, does the Journal have interesting definitions. The Post, which broke the story, says it was oral sex. But I’m having trouble with the notion of how one could have non-consensual oral sex (absent a credible threat of violence in the event of non-compliance)….particularly since any man who managed to force himself on a woman in that manner is putting himself at risk of grievous bodily harm. [Later update: readers tell me that the legal definition of sodomy in most states does include oral sex]
I wonder what they paid her to back off? The revolution has come full circle, and the French aristocrats are back.
As a former forensic psychologist, I have this to say: lock up your daughters and your wives, because there a ruthless sexual predator back on the streets… and he comes from a nation that largely condones such behavior. Honestly, I think he’s a pathetic human being from a pretty immoral and confused nation.
Any comments from French readers are welcome…:)
Who am I to say you are wrong, but do you believe she was lying on her tax returns, asylum application (about the rape), police interrogation, grand jury testimony, housing application (understated her income), etc.? Read the D.A.’s letter posted on the NYT’s site. Curious how so many people conclude DSK committed the rape because of his past sexual exploits, but have no problem believing this woman despite her extensive and pervasive lies–even about this case.
In forensic psycholovy (or forensics in general), one of the first rules you are taught is that past behavior is the best predictor for future behavior. DSK’s past sexual crimes (because “crimes” is the proper term, at least for the blogosphere) is the best indicator that he is guilty as charged. On the other hand, cheating on one’s tax return is not an indicator that person is inclined to lie about being raped.
Fortunately, unlike in his native France where rape is viewed as a minor crime, in the US this animal is likely to do some hard time in penitenciary… where he’ll end up being some gang banger’s bitch.
She lied to the cops about a past gang rape, she claimed that was why she got asylum. And I think the NYT said the cops found her account of it very credible, which made them concerned re her current allegation.
And whether or not she was abused, she has told so many lies she has no credibility as a witness. So there is no case here, it depended on her testimony.
I wonder if the gang rape happened in her country of origin. I think that would be necessary in order to get asylum here based on “persecution” and fear to return to one’s country of origin.
I have a theory. I’m thinking that if she was raped before, she may have been seriously traumatized ever since, and as a result may have unconsciously been wearing the “victim demeanor” (which is common among victims of rape). Sexual predators can often pick up on and are attracted to that “victim vibe”, which is why DSK may have raped her too.
In the past I had to do forensic evaluations of sexual predators (serial rapists, pedophiles). These type of criminals usually present as mild-mannered and introverted persons, however, their victims and the police reports usually described them behaving viciously and very aggressively during the crime, more like mad men. Kind of like DSK chasing this woman down the hall, trying to take off her underwear – how weird is that for the head of the IMF!
Another thing about sexual assaults is that it rarely is about sex. It usually is about control and about exercising power over other people. Which is why castration and therapy don’t usually work with this type of criminals.
But as you say, given the victim’s credibility, her case may be weak at this point.
Didn’t the IMF/World Bank rape Argentina too?
on the other hand, this may be another round of blame the victim
http://www.newshoggers.com/blog/2011/07/you-cant-be-raped-if-youre-a-bad-girl-but-you-can-walk-if-youre-rich.html
I won a lawsuit against the US government many years ago – and I remember the grilling I received by my attorneys – not about the case… but my personal life.
The standard is that ONLY SPECIFIC demographics can prevail in a court of law. Had I been a tattoo artist I would have lost… had I stolen a car as a teen… NOPE… can’t get redress.
the system stinks… and even as a privileged demographic… I am stunned by the bigotry of the courts.
Luckily, I didn’t have any outstanding warrants, unpaid child support or other stigmas that would have disqualified me as a successful litigant.
Only the squeaky clean need apply…. although the judges are never scrutinized for same — mine was a dirty old pervert.