What Do You Think?

[John.hergy]

I do not want to trivialize a possible sexual harassment case as it is a very serious matter. But after reading the post "Secrets of the CIA's Global Sex Slave Industry"
at http://bbs.troach.net/viewtopic.php?t=1766
if even a fraction of the post is true . . .


since Strauss-Kahn has often been reluctant to "play ball" with the United states at least not the way the US wants him to play the game
and since he is or was running for France's presidential office (and apparently was expected to win).

Then if we consider how fast government went after and had a hearing for this guy verse how long it would normally take to get just the paper
work processed by the police, I have to say I have a huge question mark in my mind that this wondering if he was set up. Cause even if everything he is accused of doing is proven to be 100% false his political career is ruined.

I will also say that if he is guilty of the assaults then he should be strung up by his privates but everything seemed to go to neatly, to quickly and to be blunt much to efficiently.

From what I have observed except when there has been a preplanned event the Us government is rarely that efficient.

He might be guilty and if he is he should be "strung up" but everything just seems much to convenient.




copied from:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13420440

Strauss-Kahn arrest: IMF head detained at Rikers Island

17 May 2011
BBC

IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been remanded in custody at New York's notorious Rikers Island jail on charges of sexual assault.

The judge said Mr Strauss-Kahn, 62, was a flight risk. He was arrested on Saturday after boarding a plane and accused of trying to rape a hotel maid.

He faces seven charges and could be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison.

Mr Strauss-Kahn, who had been seen as a favourite in France's 2012 presidential elections, denies the charges.

His lawyer expressed disappointment at bail being denied, but said his client would be exonerated.

"This battle has just begun," defence lawyer Benjamin Brafman told the court.

Mr Strauss-Kahn had been due to attend an EU finance ministers' meeting in Brussels to discuss financial bail-outs.

The IMF has played a central role in organising rescue packages for the troubled economies of Portugal and Greece.

Click to play

Defence lawyer Benjamin Brafman spoke after the hearing

The BBC's Chris Morris in Brussels says the IMF chief has gained the trust of countries in Europe which are giving financial assistance, and those which are receiving it.

The European Union says the scandal should not affect bail-outs for eurozone countries.
Bail offer denied

Jean-Claude Junker, the Luxembourg prime minister said: "I am very sad and upset. He is a friend of mine... Mr Strauss-Kahn is in the hands of American justice, it's not up to us to comment on this, but it makes me deeply, deeply sad."

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde described Mr Strauss-Kahn's predicament was "crushing and painful".

The IMF said in a statement that it had been briefed on the charges against its managing director, and that it would "continue to monitor developments".

Prosecutors told the court it was not the first time Mr Strauss-Kahn had been involved in such an incident and argued he had been arrested attempting to flee the country.

Mr Strauss-Kahn's lawyer Benjamin Brafman contested this, saying the defendant had not tried to flee the scene and was actually rushing for a lunch appointment.

He added that Mr Strauss-Kahn later called the hotel to say he was at the airport and had left a mobile phone in his room.

However Judge Melissa Jackson denied the defence's offer to post $1m (£617,000) bail and agree to Mr Strauss-Kahn staying with his daughter in New York until the next hearing on Friday.

"When I hear your client was at JFK airport about to board a flight, that raises some concerns," Ms Jackson said.

The charges relate to an alleged assault at the Times Square Sofitel hotel in New York.

According to the New York Police Department, a 32-year-old maid told officers that when she entered his suite on Saturday afternoon, Mr Strauss-Kahn emerged from the bathroom naked, chased her and sexually assaulted her.

The woman was able to break free and alert the authorities, a NYPD spokesman added.

Later on Saturday Mr Strauss-Kahn was detained on board an Air France flight at New York's John F Kennedy airport minutes before take-off.

The IMF chief underwent medical examinations on Sunday. Police were looking for scratches or any other evidence of his alleged assault.

He was later charged with a "criminal sexual act, unlawful imprisonment and attempted rape". Police say the maid formally identified him in a line-up.

'Thunderbolt'

Until he was arrested, Mr Strauss-Kahn was considered a favourite to become the Socialist candidate for the French presidency next year.

Opinion polls gave him a good chance of defeating President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Socialist party president Martine Aubry described his arrest as a "thunderbolt" but called for Mr Strauss-Kahn to be presumed innocent.

Mr Strauss-Kahn's wife, French TV personality Anne Sinclair, has also protested his innocence.

Meanwhile, another allegation against Mr Strauss-Kahn has emerged. A French writer says she may file a complaint for an alleged sexual assault in 2002.

Tristane Banon, 31, says Mr Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her when she went to interview him for a book she was writing.

"We're planning to make a complaint," Ms Banon's lawyer told AFP news agency. Mr Strauss-Kahn's lawyers have so far not responded to the allegation.

[John.hergy]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1387621/Tristane-Banon-says-subjected-attempted-rape-IMF-chief-Dominique-Strauss-Kahn.html?ito=feeds-newsxml


'He was a rutting chimpanzee': French journalist says IMF boss held for hotel maid sex assault tried to rape her TOO

By Peter Allen

16th May 2011

Dominique Strauss-Kahn underwent forensic tests today following his arrest on sex attack charges in New York - as a second woman in Paris reported him for attempted rape.

The 62-year-old head of the International Monetary Fund, who was tipped to become the President of France next year, ‘vigorously’ denies the claims made by an unnamed American chamber maid.

But now Tristane Banon, the 31-year-old god-daughter of Strauss-Kahn’s second wife Brigitte Guillemette, said he attacked her almost a decade ago.

Ms Banon will now tell French detectives about the alleged attempted rape, which took place in an anonymous studio flat in Paris in 2002.

Strauss-Kahn lured the then 21-year-old trainee journalist to the property under the promise of an interview, and then started to rip her clothes off, it is claimed.

‘I kicked him, I called him a rapist, he didn’t seem to care,’ said Ms Banon in earlier interviews, in which she also described Strauss-Kahn as acting like a ‘rutting chimpanzee’.

Ms Banon’s mother, Anne Mansouret, said the only reason she did not press charges at the time was because 'she was just starting out in journalism' and was afraid of being 'defined by the story' of being attacked by a senior politician.

Mrs Mansouret has now confirmed that her daughter is making a report to Paris police, and may hold a press conference about an ordeal which left her 'traumatised'.

Lawyer David Koubbi said that his client, Ms Banon, is 'considering filing a complaint'.

Strauss-Kahn today appeared in court charged with performing a criminal sexual act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment.

He was arrested on an Air France jet as it sat on the runway at JFK just hours after the alleged attack took place at the luxury Sofitel New York.

One of the establishment's maids, a 32-year-old African American, claims she was dragged into Strauss-Kahn's £1,855-a-night suite on Saturday.

She told police she was forced to give him oral sex before he started to rip her clothes off and tried to rape her.

The alleged victim then claimed she managed to free herself and fled.

Strauss-Kahn, who is known in his home country as the ‘Great Seducer’, is said to have left the hotel in a hurry, forgetting a mobile phone and other items.

He was dramatically captured by plain-clothes detectives on-board the First Class cabin of Air France flight 23, which was 10 minutes from take-off.

Strauss-Kahn is said to have asked: 'What is this about?'.He was then bundled away in front of startled fellow passengers.

The maid, who is said to be slightly injured, identified Strauss-Kahn at an identity parade at the special victims unit in Harlem, and was later driven from the station in a police van with a blanket over her head.

If found guilty of the attack, Strauss-Kahn faces up to 15 years in prison. Even if he is acquitted, his political and financial career are in tatters.

As well as heading up the IMF, he was favourite to take the French presidency from the unpopular Nicolas Sarkozy.

The Frenchman's allies have claimed he may be the victim of a plot to discredit him. It emerged today that he had once said he feared political opponents would pay a woman more than $1million to say he had raped her.

He has, however, had a long held reputation as a ladies' man with voracious appetites. Three times married, he was forced to apologise in 2008 following an affair with a junior colleague at the IMF.

Aurelie Filipetti, a respected French Socialist MP, said in 2008 that she was groped by Strauss-Kahn and would 'forever make sure' she was never 'alone in a room with him'.

In the same year Strauss-Kahn admitted to a sexual relationship with one of his subordinates, Piroska Nagy.

He was cleared of harassment, favouritism and abuse of power following an inquiry - but kept his job, while Ms Nagy move on.

Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer Benjamin Brafman said: 'He intends to vigorously defend these charges and denies any wrongdoing.'

William Taylor, another member of his legal team, said: 'Our client willingly consented to scientific and forensic examinations at the request of the government. He’s tired, but he’s fine.'

Strauss-Kahn’s third wife, Anne Sinclair, 63, is also sticking by him, saying she 'does not believe for a second' the allegations, adding: 'I have no doubt that his innocence will be established.'

Some allies in the French Socialist Party even say that Strauss-Kahn is the victim of a ‘smear campaign’ orchestrated by President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Socialist politician Jean-Marie Le Guen said: ‘There is now a totally structured and orchestrated campaign, which has already been announced by Mr. Sarkozy and his closest allies, to attack the character of Strauss-Kahn.’

Strauss-Kahn’s official biographer, Michel Taubmann, said he was a well-known seducer, but added: ‘I can’t believe he would force himself on an unwilling woman. That doesn’t make sense.

‘If anything he was the one harassed, not the reverse — I’ve seen time and again women MPs, party workers, brazenly passing on notes, hoping he would notice them.’

Strauss-Kahn was due to go head-to-head against Mr Sarkozy in the 2012 presidential elections, with Elysee Palace sources indicating that Mr Sarkozy was ‘quietly delighted’ that his chief rival had ‘blown up before the campaign has even got underway’.

Pollster Stephane Rozes said: ‘Mr Strauss-Kahn’s political career is finished. He is, of course, presumed innocent until proven guilty, but even suspicion of attempted rape will make it impossible for him to stand.’

[John.hergy]

I really hate thinking this but it seems that now we know why the police clicked their heals and snapped to.

"Slate.fr, citing relatives of the accuser, said the woman was from the Fulani ethnic group and a Muslim."





copied from:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43073200/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/#fullstory



Hotel maid who accused IMF chief of attempted rape goes into hiding



32-year-old widow is 'very much afraid ... feels very threatened by this,' lawyer says

NEW YORK — The hotel maid who IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is accused of trying to rape has gone into hiding, and she was unaware of his identity until a day after the alleged attack, her lawyer said Tuesday.

The 32-year-old Sofitel hotel maid is a widow with a 15-year-old daughter, her lawyer Jeffrey Shapiro said.

They moved to New York from the West African nation of Guinea about seven years ago, he said.

"She didn't have any idea who he was or have any prior dealings with this guy," Shapiro, a New York City personal injury lawyer, told Reuters.

The attack is alleged to have happened about 12 p.m. (1600 GMT) on Saturday and the woman was unaware of Strauss-Kahn's identity until Sunday.

"A friend called her and said 'do you have any idea who this guy is?'" Shapiro said.

Prosecutors have accused Strauss-Kahn, 62, of attacking the maid when she entered his suite, apparently unaware it was occupied, at the luxury Sofitel hotel near Times Square.

During Strauss-Kahn's first appearance at Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday, prosecutors said he had sexually assaulted the maid, attempted to rape her and then, when unsuccessful, forced her to perform oral sex on him.


Strauss-Kahn's lawyers denied the charges of a criminal sexual act, attempted rape, sexual abuse, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching. He was denied bail on Monday and is due to reappear in court on Friday.

He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted. Strauss-Kahn has been placed on suicide watch in jail on Rikers Island, where he is being kept apart from his fellow prisoners in a unit that normally houses inmates with contagious diseases.

'No agenda'
Shapiro said that after the woman "escaped from the room she reported it to security, the New York City police were called, they interviewed her, they investigated the scene."

"She is someone who respects the fact that the laws exist in this country. She came from a place where laws are few and far between and not readily enforced. She felt it was her obligation to report this," he said.

Shapiro said there was no truth to suggestions that she had fabricated her account, describing her as an honest woman.

"She has no agenda in this other than to answer the questions that are asked of her, to tell the truth," he said.


The woman, who is not a U.S. citizen but says she has a visa to work in the United States, has a limited education and experience, but had worked hard to obtain her job as a maid at the Sofitel, Shapiro said.

Shapiro, who was introduced to the woman by a friend on Sunday, said that since the incident, she had not returned to her home in the New York City borough of the Bronx and saw her daughter for the first time only on Tuesday.

"She's been the victim of a rape and physical assault, she hasn't had a chance to deal with that personally," he said, adding that he was organizing for her to see a counselor.

"Her life has now been turned upside down. She can't go home. She can't go back to work. She has no idea what her future will be, what she will be able to do to support herself and her daughter. This has been nothing short of a cataclysmic event in her life," Shapiro said. He said she "feels alone in the world."

Shapiro described his role as trying to help her sort out her life and to explain the legal proceedings to her.

"She wants to remain anonymous because she's very much afraid that something could happen to her physically, she feels very threatened by this," he said of all the global attention on the case.

Her identity has been withheld in U.S. media publications, in accordance with standard journalistic practice. But media outlets in France, where Strauss-Kahn is from, began reporting her name Tuesday.

Among the outlets to identify the woman by name are Paris Match, radio station RMC, Swiss newspaper Tribune de Genève and Slate.fr, according to Slate.com. (Slate.fr is a French website that is editorially independent from Slate, although Slate does own 15 percent of it.)

Story: IMF chief's arrest may speed up succession battle
Slate.fr, citing relatives of the accuser, said the woman was from the Fulani ethnic group and a Muslim.

"She is a good Muslim. She is really pretty, like many Fulani women, but in our culture, we do not accept this type of aggression," a cousin of the woman told slate.fr.

The New York Times reported she was granted asylum seven years ago and that she was a widow.

The woman phoned her older brother in New York about an hour after the alleged sexual assault and said, "Somebody has done something really bad to me. I've been attacked," the Daily Mail of London reported Tuesday.

"No family should have to go through this," the woman's brother told the Daily Mail. "She is a hard-working woman who is just a victim. She is a wonderful West African immigrant who just wants to work hard."

Wife, ex-wife back Strauss-Kahn
Strauss-Kahn's wife, Anne Sinclair, has only issued one brief statement since Strauss-Kahn's formal arrest early Sunday — but it was staunchly supportive.

"I don't believe for a single second the accusations of sexual assault by my husband. I am certain his innocence will be proved," she said.

Friends quoted in French media who have spoken with Sinclair since her husband's arrest describe her as "very strong, very determined to fight."

"She will do anything and everything for him," French daily Le Parisien quoted one anonymous friend as saying Tuesday.

Sinclair is known as the "quiet force" who gave up her career as a television journalist to clear the path for her husband's, and whose celebrity, ambition and drive helped propel him to international renown and the threshold of the French presidency.

Throughout her 20-year marriage, Sinclair has time and again marshaled her wealth and clout to defend her husband through political, financial and sex scandals, once saying she would fight "with tooth and nail" to protect him.

Strauss-Kahn's second wife — Sinclair is his third — also has come to his defense.

"He's someone very sweet, violence is not part of his character. He has a lot of faults, but not that one," Brigitte Guillemette told Le Parisien Tuesday.

Story: Questions, answers about Dominique Strauss-Kahn
Sinclairflew Monday to New York, along with Strauss-Kahn's spokeswoman.

In October 2008, Sinclair watched as her husband was forced to apologize and admit "a serious error of judgment" for an affair with an IMF employee in Washington, D.C.

The IMF board investigation concluded that Strauss-Kahn's behavior was "regrettable and reflected a serious error of judgment," but found that the fling was consensual and did not involve any type of sexual harassment, favoritism or abuse of authority.

Afterward Sinclair posted to her blog a short comment, saying that "these are things that can happen in any couple. For me, this one-night-stand is behind us, we've turned the page. And we still love each other like on the first day."

[John.hergy]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1387847/IMF-chief-Dominique-Strauss-Kahn-sex-attack-victim-told-brother-assault.html


'Somebody did something bad to me': What IMF boss 'sex attack' victim told horrified brother about 'assault' at New York hotel

By Daniel Bates
17th May 2011


The alleged rape victim of Dominique Strauss-Kahn told a relative in her first phone call after the attack: 'Somebody did something really bad to me', he revealed tonight.

The woman phoned her older brother an hour after the alleged assault took place and gave him a horrifying account what the head of the IMF allegedly did to her.

Crying uncontrollably, she said that she had been trapped inside the hotel bedroom while the Frenchman twice tried to force himself on her.

She told him he was the first member of family to whom she had revealed the alleged attack He said he told her not to talk to anybody and immediately contacted a lawyer to represent her.
The alleged victim's brother spoke out as Strauss-Kahn, 62, spent his first night in Rikers Island prison after being refused $1million bail.
His lawyers have indicated that the IMF chief will claim the sexual encounter was consensual, according to the New York Post.

Speaking exclusively to Mail Online, the alleged victim's brother said: 'No family should have to go through this.

'She is a hard-working woman who is just a victim. She is a wonderful west African immigrant who just wants to work hard.
'I love her, she is my little sister and she is doing better now she has had a chance to talk to a lawyer. She is somewhere very, very safe and will stay that way'.

The brother, 43, a restaurant manager from Harlem in New York, said his sister, 32, called him on Saturday in the afternoon, a mere hour or so after she claimed the attack took place.
He recalled: 'She rang me and she said: "Somebody has done something really bad to me. I've been attacked".
'She was crying all the time.'

The brother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said that he wanted to see Strauss-Kahn face a trial if he pleaded not guilty.

'I trust the American justice system and will let it do what it has to do,' he said.

'I want him to see justice. Justice will be served'.

Meanwhile Strauss-Kahn was spending his first night in an isolation cell at New York's notorious Rikers Island jail after he was denied $1m bail on charges that he raped the hotel maid.
Today prosecutors revealed graphic details of Strauss-Kahn’s alleged brutal sex attack on the maid at a bail hearing in front of a female judge at Manhattan's criminal court.

Police also reportedly found blood on bed sheets in the hotel suite where the assault allegedly took place and DNA samples on carpet and fabric that they removed for testing.

A rape kit is also said to have found DNA on the victim after she reported the attack.

Looking haggard and wearing the previous day's clothes, Strauss-Kahn, who should have been meeting European finance ministers in Brussels, stood at the bench next to his lawyer Benjamin Brafman as prosecutors outlined the severity of the charges against him.

These include two counts of a first degree criminal sexual act, two counts of sexual abuse, attempted rape, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching. He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

A one-page indictment provided further lurid claims, accusing Strauss-Kahn of forcing the maid to take part in both oral and anal sex.
The court papers claim he forcibly touched the woman’s breasts, twice 'forcibly made contact with his penis and the informant’s mouth' and 'engaged in oral sexual conduct and anal sexual conduct with another person by forcible compulsion'.
It took 20 minutes for Judge Melissa Jackson to refuse Strauss-Kahn's bail offer of $1million at the hearing this morning.

He had also offered that all his travel documents be confiscated in the potential deal, his lawyer Mr Brafman said.
Judge Jackson said she was a 'fair judge' but added: 'When I hear your client was at JFK airport about to board a flight that raises concern.' Strauss-Kahn was on an Air France flight minutes from take-off when he was arrested.

Assistant District Attorney John A McConnell had earlier called Strauss-Kahn an 'incurable flight risk' and voiced concerns that if he managed to flee to France the U.S. would not be able to extradite him.
He called the charges severe and said that 'the victim provided a very powerful and detailed account' of the alleged attack and had had a full sexual assault examination in hospital.
The maid, a Guinean immigrant, told authorities that when she entered Strauss-Kahn's suite to clean it on Saturday afternoon, he emerged naked from the bathroom and chased her down a hallway before pulling her back inside.
The maid claims she then briefly fought him off before he dragged her into the bathroom and forced her to perform oral sex on him.
The woman said she was able to break free again as he tried to remove her underwear and ran downstairs to tell hotel staff what had happened.

After Strauss-Kahn rang to recover his mobile phone, which he had left in his room, detectives were able to find him at John F Kennedy airport.


Indicating that there 'may be' forensic evidence in the suite supporting the maid’s claims, Mr McConnell added that he had seen CCTV video footage of Strauss-Kahn leaving the hotel.

He appeared to be 'a man who was in a hurry', he said.

Mr Brafman, who defended Michael Jackson from child molestation charges, and has also defended Sean 'P Diddy' Combs, argued that it was ‘simply wrong’ to disallow his client bail.

He has no previous criminal record and has a daughter in New York who he was prepared to stay with, he said.

He is not planning to leave New York city and was ‘probably the most easily identifiable person in the world today,' he added.
Mr Brafman also argued that if Strauss-Kahn had appeared in a hurry it was because he had a prior lunch engagement with his daughter - a graduate student at Columbia University - before his flight to Germany, which he added had been booked before the alleged incident.
Strauss-Kahn had co-operated ‘completely’ with police requests, Mr Brafman said, before adding that all of these aspects were not ‘consistent with someone who has something to hide'.

On top of offering to post a $1million bail, Mr Brafman argued that his client would give up all his travel documents and said he would be able to stay with his daughter in New York.
He added that Strauss-Kahn's wife, the French journalist and millionaire heiress Anne Sinclair, was due to arrive in New York and had wired the bail funds through to a U.S. bank account.

Outside court, Mr Brafman said they were 'disappointed' by the court’s decision.

‘Mr Strauss-Kahn is innocent of these charges,' he said. 'It is a very defensible case. It is his intention to try and clear his name. This case has just begun.'

Strauss-Kahn, dubbed the 'Great Seducer' by the French media, will now be housed in 'protective custody' at the West Facility on Rikers Island in a cell on his own, a spokesman for the prison told MailOnline.

He will eat eat his meals alone and spend his recreation time alone, he added.

The disgraced banker was supposed to appear in court yesterday but the hearing was postponed until today after Strauss-Kahn's lawyers said their client had agreed to undergo some 'scientific tests'.

He was reportedly being searched for scratches and traces of his accuser's DNA at the unit, where prisoners are served meals costing $1.80.

French author Tristane Banon, now 31, also spoke out today to claim that Strauss-Kahn forcefully tried to seduce her ten years ago in Paris, allegedly leaving her having to fight him off.

At the time, her mother, Anne Mansouret, a regional Socialist official in Normandy, said she advised her daughter against pursuing a claim at the time.
A French lawmaker from a rival political party also alleged, without offering evidence, that Strauss-Kahn had victimised several maids during past stays at the Sofitel near Times Square.

The hotel issued a statement calling conservative lawmaker Michel Debre's claims 'baseless and defamatory'.

Sofitel management 'has had no knowledge of any previous attempted aggressions', the hotel said, adding that it had set up a hotline for workers to report incidents more than a year ago.

Assistant District Attorney Mr McConnell said in court that New York authorities are working to verify at least one other case of 'conduct similar to the conduct alleged'.

When the judge asked whether the potential other incident occurred in the United States, McConnell said he 'believed that was abroad'.

Strauss-Kahn's lawyers said they had no immediate response to the allegations emerging from overseas.
The scandal involving the IMF boss has torn France's presidential race asunder and savaged the reputation of the suave and self-assured Strauss-Kahn.

He had been considered a leading contender to run on the Socialist Party ticket against President Nicolas Sarkozy in next year’s French elections. He has topped opinion polls for months as the man most likely to become the nation's next president.

In France, for some, the arrest spells the end of his presidential ambitions and even his political career; others warned that it was too early to judge a man who denies wrongdoing; and still others suspect a plot to blacken his name just as the campaign heats up for the April 2012 first-round vote

French voters are famously tolerant of political leaders' extramarital affairs. The allegations against Strauss-Kahn are entirely different, and much more serious.

Many politicians have fallen after being caught in extramarital affairs and others have survived them, including former U.S. presidents John F Kennedy and Bill Clinton as well as former French President Francois Mitterrand.

Rarely have senior figures faced brutal assault charges like those filed against Strauss-Kahn.
Police made the revelations as Strauss-Kahn's wife said she ‘does not believe for a second’ the allegations made against her husband.
Miss Sinclair, 63, made it clear she would be sticking by him.

Calling for ‘decency and restraint’ in the coverage of the scandal, she said: ‘I don't believe for one second the accusations made against my husband. I have no doubt that his innocence will be established.’
It was not clear why Strauss-Kahn was in New York. The IMF is based in Washington DC and he was due in Germany yesterday.
The IMF said Strauss-Kahn had been in New York on private business.

Christine Boutin, president of the Christian Democrat Party, suggested Strauss-Kahn may have been set up.

'I think it's very likely a trap was set for Dominique Strauss-Kahn and he fell into it,' she told France's BFM television. 'It's a political bomb for domestic politics.'

On Saturday far-right presidential contender Marine Le Pen said that Strauss-Kahn's bid for the top job was now 'doomed'.

A French government spokesman said it was important to remain cautious and reserve judgment. 'We have to be extremely prudent in analysis, comments and consequences,' he told France 2 television.

The spokesman added that the government's position was to respect the presumption of innocence.

Strauss-Kahn has been dogged by scandal.

In 2008 he was embroiled in controversy over accusations that he had had a sexual relationship with one of his subordinates, Piroska Nagy, senior official in the IMF’s Africa Department.

The IMF hired a law firm to launch an investigation. Ms Nagy left the fund and joined the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

He was cleared of harassment, favouritism and abuse of power following an inquiry - and kept his job, though he later apologised for an ‘error of judgment’.

Strauss-Kahn, who was rejected by the French Socialists as their presidential candidate in 2006, gained international recognition as France’s finance minister from 1997-99.

He is credited with preparing France for the adoption of the euro by reducing its deficit and persuading then-Prime Minister Lionel Jospin to sign up to an EU pact of fiscal prudence.

A former economics professor, Strauss-Kahn joined the Socialist party in 1976 and was elected to parliament in 1986 from the Val-d’Oise district, north of Paris.

He went on to become mayor of Sarcelles, a working-class immigrant suburb of Paris.

Hours before Strauss-Kahn was pulled from the flight, a close Socialist Party ally claimed he was the target of a smear campaign by French President Sarkozy.

'There is now a totally structured and orchestrated campaign, which has already been announced by Mr Sarkozy and his closest allies, to attack the character of Strauss-Kahn,' Socialist politician Jean-Marie Le Guen told Europe 1 radio.

Formed at the end of World War II, the IMF provides low-cost loans to countries in financial crisis.

After 2008, it became increasingly significant after brokering rescue packages for countries like Greece, Pakistan, Iceland, Hungary and Ukraine.

France faces 'political earthquake' as DSK's presidential dreams are dashed... throwing elections into turmoil

France could face a 'political earthquake' after the arrest of presidential hopeful Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
The brilliant economist was seen as the strongest potential challenger to the conservative President Sarkozy in next year's presidential elections, despite not announcing his candidacy.
Unless the charges are quickly dropped, they could destroy his chances in a presidential race that is just starting to heat up.

The allegations over his arrest in New York dominated special editions of Paris newspapers and there was also blanket coverage on TV and radio.
It is unclear how damaging the allegations could be. A poll for Le Parisien gave him 41 per cent of the votes among supporters of the Socialist Party.
'At the top of the polls,' Strauss-Kahn tweeted proudly in French last December, linking an article that showed him ahead in opinion polls when French voters were asked whom they would choose in a primary.
At a soccer game in a Washington suburb last September, he, his wife and others were seen wearing T-shirts that read, 'Yes we Kahn'.
Strauss-Kahn also noted that he trailed only Warren Buffett and Bill Gates on a list of 100 'global thinkers' compiled last November by Foreign Policy magazine.

He was cited for his 'steely vision at a moment of crisis' - for convincing Germany to help bail out Greece's debt-laden government, and for helping to put the brakes on defaults in Hungary, Pakistan and Ukraine.

The arrest could throw the long-divided Socialists back into disarray about who they could present as Sarkozy's opponent. Even some of his adversaries were stunned.

'It's totally hallucinating. If it is true, this would be a historic moment, but in the negative sense, for French political life,' said Dominique Paille, a political rival to Strauss-Kahn on the centre right, on BFM television.

Still, he urged, 'I hope that everyone respects the presumption of innocence. I cannot manage to believe this affair.'

Candidates need to announce their intentions this summer to run in fall primary elections.

'If he's cleared, he could return - but if he is let off only after four or five months, he won't be able to run' because the campaign will be too far along, said Jerome Fourquet of the IFOP polling agency.

'I think his political career is over,' Philippe Martinat, who wrote a book called DSK-Sarkozy: The Duel, said..

'Behind him he has other affairs ... I don't see very well how he can pick himself back up.'

What now for the Euro? How DSK is pivotal to Europe's debt woes

An economics professor and former French finance minister, Strauss-Kahn took over the IMF in November 2007 for a five-year term, and won praise for helping to galvanise leaders to inject billions of dollars into the world economy during the global financial crisis.

He introduced sweeping changes to ensure vulnerable countries swamped by the crisis had access to emergency loans, and others to give major emerging market countries such as China, India and Brazil greater voting powers in the IMF.

Witty, multi-lingual, a skilled public speaker and sharp back-room negotiator, Strauss-Kahn also weighed into thornier issues by urging China to let its currency rise in a dispute with the United States.
A crisis of leadership at the fund now will especially worry European nations given Strauss-Kahn's pivotal role in brokering bail-outs for Iceland, Hungary, Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

'The chances are the successor won't be a European, and will want to rebalance the IMF's priorities away from its massive commitment in Europe,' said Jean Pisani-Ferry, director of the Bruegel economic think-tank.

Strauss-Kahn had been due to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday and join euro zone finance ministers on Monday to discuss the bloc's debt crisis and how to handle Greece, which is struggling to meet the terms of a 110 billion euro European Union/IMF bailout last year.
'This might definitely cause some delays in the short term,' a Greek official said on condition of anonymity.

[John.hergy]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43059753/ns/world_news-europe/t/french-outraged-us-treatment-imf-chief/


French outraged by US treatment of IMF chief

Parading of Strauss-Kahn handcuffed and unshaven provokes 'horror' and 'disgust'

By Alexandria Sage and Paul Taylor
Reuters

2011-05-17

PARIS — French Socialist politicians voiced outrage on Tuesday at the parading of IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn handcuffed and unshaven in the United States before he has a chance to defend himself on charges of attempted rape.

Arrested on Saturday and charged with sexually assaulting a chambermaid at a luxury New York hotel, Strauss-Kahn was made by police to walk manacled in front of cameras on his way to a courthouse, and his appearance before a judge was televised.

Former Culture Minister Jack Lang described the treatment of the Socialist presidential frontrunner -- whose political career is now in tatters -- as a "lynching" that had "provoked horror and aroused disgust."

The U.S. justice system, he said, was "politicized" and the judge appeared to have been determined to "make a Frenchman pay" by denying the head of the International Monetary Fund bail even though his lawyer had offered to post a $1 million bond.

To many Americans, the handling of Strauss-Kahn reflected an egalitarian tradition that all crime suspects get the same treatment, regardless of their wealth or power.

Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry denounced "degrading images" and said France was lucky to have a law on the presumption of innocence that bars media from showing defendants in handcuffs before they are convicted.

Former Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou, who drafted that law, called the pre-trial publicity "absolutely sickening."

"The power of these images of a Dominique Strauss-Kahn who hasn't been allowed to shave, tired, and not dressed properly, all that offends human dignity," she told Europe 1 radio.

Another respected former justice minister, Robert Badinter, who pushed through the abolition of the death penalty in France, said the IMF chief had been subjected to "death by media."

"Never forget it's not just judges that are elected (in New York), but prosecutors. And the chief of police is elected. And clearly, in public opinion, to exhibit a powerful rich man in the presence of a victim from a very poor background, electorally, it pays off."

'Perp walk'
Conservative politicians mostly refrained from commenting on the images of their political rival, heeding President Nicolas Sarkozy's call to show "restraint and dignity," according to a lawmaker who attended a private meeting with him on Tuesday.

Some media commentators and lawyers said that making Strauss-Kahn take a so-called "perp walk" — a U.S. tradition of obliging a suspected "perpetrator" to run a gauntlet of media cameras — appeared designed to humiliate him and perhaps soften him up for a plea bargain.

Previous suspects forced to take a "perp walk" included boxer Mike Tyson, pop star Michael Jackson and Kenneth Lay, the former boss of bankrupt energy trader Enron.

"I suppose there is an element of theater in it," U.S. attorney Graham Wisner of Patton Boggs in New York, told Reuters Television.

"For the most part in the United States it's a practice utilized by authorities to humiliate suspects... There is at least a perception in this case that a "perp" or suspect is guilty when he walks shamefaced in front of all of the cameras," Wisner said.

Judge Melissa Jackson ordered Strauss-Kahn to be detained in the Rikers Island prison after district attorney Daniel Alonso argued that the IMF chief could flee the United States and there was no legal way to force him to return.

In announcing her decision, the judge noted that Strauss-Kahn had been arrested aboard an Air France plane about to take off for Paris.

U.S. prosecutors cited the case of celebrity film director Roman Polanski, a French citizen whom Switzerland and France refused last year to extradite to the United States. He fled the United States while awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to unlawful sex with a minor in the 1970s.

One of Strauss-Kahn's lawyers, Dominique de Leusse, told France-Info radio that the French media were flouting the law by running footage of his client in handcuffs and in court.

"The press are having a field day with these images that are contrary to French law. They undermine visibly the dignity of Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his presumption of innocence," he said.

[John.hergy]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43069013/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/no-anonymity-france-strauss-kahns-accuser/

No anonymity in France for Strauss-Kahn's accuser

Name of NYC hotel maid who says IMF chief attacked her is published in Paris

msnbc.com staff and news service reports
2011-05-18T01:06:18

The hotel maid who accuses International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of trying to rape her is a 32-year-old immigrant from Guinea who told her brother, "somebody has done something really bad to me," according to media reports.

Her identity has been withheld in U.S. media publications, in accordance with standard journalistic practice. But media outlets in France, where Strauss-Kahn is from, began reporting her name Tuesday.

Among the outlets to identify the woman by name are Paris Match, radio station RMC, Swiss newspaper Tribune de Genève and Slate.fr, according to Slate.com. (Slate.fr is a French website that is editorially independent from Slate, although Slate does own 15 percent of it.)

Slate.fr, citing relatives of the accuser, reports that the woman is a legal immig