DSK: New York sex scandal orchestrated by political opponents

[shawn703]

Source: The Guardian

The former head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has accused political enemies linked to Nicolas Sarkozy and his ruling UMP party of destroying his bid for the French presidency by choreographing the scandal that erupted last year when he was accused of assaulting a New York hotel maid.

Strauss-Kahn told the Guardian in an exclusive interview that he believes the highly public undoing that followed his encounter with the housekeeper at the Sofitel hotel's presidential suite, and his imprisonment on charges of attempted rape, were orchestrated by his political opponents.

While he does not believe the incident with Nafissatou Diallo was a setup, he said the subsequent escalation of the events on 14 May into a criminal investigation that destroyed his chances of winning the presidency had been "shaped by those with a political agenda" and that "more was involved here than mere coincidence".

Strauss-Kahn, 63, alleges that he was put under surveillance by French intelligence weeks before he was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting Diallo. He accuses operatives linked to Sarkozy of intercepting phone calls and making sure Diallo went to the New York police, thus sparking an international scandal.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/27/dsk-sex-scandal-political-opponents?mobile-redirect=false

[closeupready]

1. Give it up, Dom. The list of charges against you is as long as

the Amazon, and comes from so many different people, it compares with GHWB's Thousand Points of Light.

[grahamhgreen]

2. Sounds about right. They hate Socialists.

[bluesbassman]

3. Well, choreography only goes so far. You still have to know how to dance.

[truthisfreedom]

4. Haha.

[sabrina 1]

6. THEY have to know how you dance. Like Clinton eg. THEY knew his weaknesses and used them to try to

get him impeached.

If you are one of them, you can dance all you want and they will look the other way, until you threaten them in any way.

DSK was a threat to the Global Corps and Bankers as head of the IMF. His policies on how to resolve the financial Meltdown were not approved of as he would have put more of a burden on the Bankers. He was also a threat to the Rightwing Sarkozy administration, friend of the Global Corps.

True that both he and Clinton played into their hands, but then that's what opposition researchers do, they find weaknesses in powerful people to use if necessary. Funny thing is, DSK's weaknesses were well known and no problem until he began talking about not going along with the Austerity policies that were intended to absolve the Banks of all blame for the Global Meltdown. Goldman Sachs in particular. Had he played along, we never would have known about his 'weaknesses'.

I'm sorry they succeeded. Europe is a mess, people are now committing suicide as they were doing in India for the same reasons. One man's weaknesses are less important imho, than that of millions of human beings.

But they know the public well. Hopefully Sarkozy will lose anyhow, as the people have had enough of his rightwing policies

[bluesbassman]

7. I agree with your assessment Sabrina, but these are smart people.

The examples of Clinton and DSK are prime. Both of these men are highly educated, and by all outward appearances deep thinkers, so for them to not anticipate these actions against them is disturbing. I fully understand the egocentric personalities men of power are often possessed of, but you would think that these guys would be smart enough to know that they're in their enemies' cross hairs, and in this day and age of instant global information sharing that any dirt on them will be public knowledge in minutes. It's almost like they want to get caught.

Clinton gave the right wing a gift that they used to derail his presidency. I believe he could have accomplished much, much more had he not had to deal with the sex scandal. Unfortunately it appears that DSK has followed the same path. And that is truly a shame.

[sabrina 1]

8. I agree with you, bluesbassman. I will forever be puzzled by both of those men

who knew full well how many enemies they had and that their enemies knew of their propensities towards women. Yet both tempted fate which to me seems irrational. But I can't pretend to know what having that kind of power does to someone's psyche. History is filled with stories like these, yet many of those who had these weaknesses did an awful lot of good for the world.

DSK eg, predicted that his enemies 'would try to set me up and accuse me of rape'. He even outlined the kind of scenario he feared they would use.

I'm not excusing them btw. Just pointing to the reality that what they got caught doing, we would never have known about, had they not appeared to be a threat in some way to the status quo.

I'm not sure of the timeline on this, but Clinton signed some bills back then that no Democrat should have signed, eg, the Gramm/Blilely Act and the dereg of the airwaves eg.

I saw a speech by DSK about a while ago and was super impressed with his take on the issues and how 'human' he appeared to be wrt to ordinary people, so unlike Sarkozy.

Shame on him for playing into the hands of his enemies. However, if they had not caught him with sex, they would have found another way. It was imperative to them that they be able to implement their 'austerity' programs to help save the bankers. That too, is something he probably should have known and how they would react to anyone who got in their way.

Someday maybe, studies will reveal why this happens so often. Meantime I am angry still at Clinton, and at DSK, because they let all of us down and handed victory to the worst people who could possibly have it.

[kwassa]

5. DSK desperately tries to resurrect his career after abusing women for years.

What a weak-assed lie he has come up with now.

[Javaman]

9. LOL no one even knew who this guy was until he groped the housekeeper.

yes, everyone is against you and your ilk.

In other news: "Paranoia. Is it just me?" News at 11.

[sabrina 1]

10. Wrong, he was well-known Internationally and to anyone familiar with the IMF, the World

Bank, French politics and Global affairs in general. He was the hope of the 'left' not only in France, but in terms of ending some of the practices of the IMF against people who ended up indebted to them.

Few are against his 'ilk' even still, few that is who understood the ramifications of the political coup that was orchestrated against him leaving Europe, Greece in particular, at the mercy of the IMF with no one to counter some of the devastating policies imposed on them once they got rid of DSK.

Try looking him up sometime, and it may become more clear after listening to him speak on these issues, why he was targeted.

[Javaman]

12. before the "incident" no one outside money circles or the IMF knew who this guy was

that's what I meant.

I have looked him up, he usurped himself by running prostitution ring and groping women.

He could have been a saint, but once that crap came out, I could careless about him.

I draw the line at sexual harassment.

[sabrina 1]

13. He was the head of the IMF. He was well known to anyone who is involved in politics

Perhaps the US was not familiar with him, but that would not be a surprise since we do not get much actual news. After all, Americans knew little about Saddam Hussein while the rest of the world knew all about him and how he was supported by the US. Demonstrations around the world against his regime were commonplace but not here in the US. We are very isolated from the rest of the world, and our media consistently rates around 47% of the World's Free Press. But to say because Americans were not familiar with a world figure, does not mean the rest of the world was no very familiar with him.

Keeping Americans isolated works very well. The reaction to the charges against him here eg were completely different from the reactions of people elsewhere. And as it turned out, they were right. Those charges were false, and have been admitted to have been false by the prosecutors. But the mission was accomplished.

The prosecutors and the NYPD led by that paragon of virtue, and friend of Sarkozy, Ray Kelly, kept the information they had that exonerated DSK to themselves until after a new IMF chief had been installed and the date to enter the French Presidential Primaries had passed.

I wonder, eg, how much the average American knows about our 'friend and ally' Karamov of Uzbekistan? The rest of the world is very familiar with him, but how many people here have any clue who he is or why the US continues to support him? I would be willing to bet that very few are aware of that 'friendship' and as a result, when one day the US announces that he is 'an evil dictator' and produces the evidence, there will be the same knee-jerk reaction we saw with Saddam Hussein, with literally no information about how we have been and are still, propping him up right now. That part will be erased from the history of our relationship with him for the consumption of the American people.

It is more than likely that billions of people knew who DSK was. It's sad how little Americans know about world affairs.

Edited to add, DSK's biggest crime was that he spoke out against Goldman Sachs. That is why Timothy Geithner called for his removal as IMF as soon as the NYPD did their part. Had his crimes only involved women, he would still be IMF and possibly the future President of France.

[4th law of robotics]

15. He was pretty famous

maybe not a household name but for political junkies and people in power the head of the IMF is someone you are aware of .

Besides, you don't have to be a superstar to have political enemies.

I'm sure the head of the department of agriculture has enemies even though most people can't name that person without googling it.

[oilpro2]

11. We have enough pervs and leches in the USA

I don't really care about this guy, but it goes to show, pervs and leches are the same worldwide.

[Prometheus Bound]

14. The man is accused of pimping prostitutes while head of the IMF.

Pimps are basically slaveowner/drivers.

There aren't too many rungs lower than that on the human social ladder.

[Odin2005]

16. Fuck off you lecherous creep.

[waddirum]

17. Yeah... whatever...

Fuck him and his privileged, entitled ass.