http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2011/07/strauss-kahn-nafi-diallo-accuser-newsweek-interview/40336/ The hotel maid who is accusing Dominique Strauss-Kahn of raping her is named Nafissatou ("Nafi") Diallo, and she is speaking out. Her media debut has arrived with a bang: she granted an exclusive, cover story interview to Newsweek on Saturday at the office of her attorneys, Thompson Wigdor. Then a major interview with ABC will air in full on Tuesday, with a portion shown on Good Morning America on Monday.
We begin with the Newsweek interview: in depth, fact-based, written in a dispassionate tone, with few descriptions. The writers put in observations, but not too many -- just enough to keep it from being a pure transcript -- and each observation in favor of Diallo seems to be balanced by one against her, as though to ensure the interview is as fair as possible. If anything, the interview reads like Diallo's trial, with the reader as the jury, so that we may each draw our own conclusions as to whether or not Diallo is guilty of the crime of lying. The sexual assault (which she describes in detail, this time for the public) is a lesser issue. So what do we learn?
1. For one, we learn what she looks like. Soon we will see her on television. For the moment we have this description:
“Nafi” Diallo is not glamorous. Her light-brown skin is pitted with what look like faint acne scars, and her dark hair is hennaed, straightened, and worn flat to her head, but she has a womanly, statuesque figure. When her face is in repose, there is an opaque melancholy to it.
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