Thursday, May 19, 2011

The Case for IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn Being Set-Up

Although it is very possible that IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is a mad dog and sexually attacked a maid at the Sofitel Hotel in New York City without warning, there remains the possibility that the story is more complex and that he was set-up by those who understood his weakness for women. There are facts that could perhaps resolve the question of whether a set-up occurred or not. Herein lies the curiosities of the case that suggest much more than a simple attack was going on and the facts that need to be answered that could eliminate the possibility of a se-tup or indeed make the case of a set-up stronger.

First, it is somewhat interesting that the alleged attack was reported to the police at all. From experiences I have had, I suspect hotels try to stop such incidents from becoming public.

Many years ago I happened to be in  the lobby of a Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City when I heard a commotion and then a gagging sound from the stairs leading to the level below me (For those familiar with the hotel this was by the internal entrance on 48th St to the Bull and Bear restaurant). I headed down the stairs and there was a Japanese guest of the hotel on the floor being held at knife point by a mugger. My heading down the stairs caused the mugger to flee. When security finally arrived, their main concern was to get the shaken Japanese guest from public view. They weren't interested in who I was, my description of the attacker or anything else.

I later thought about that and realized that hotels really don't want a lot of police blotter activity about their hotels. If they can keep something internal, all the better.

During another experience with a hotel, I was booked into a hotel in Los Angeles by a client, a very high profile person. You would recognize the name. I arrived at the hotel early at 10:00 AM and proceeded to see if I could get an early check-in. A somewhat surly hotel front desk agent told me that there would be no rooms available until the 3:00 PM check-in time. I had given him my name and as he was casually looking at the screen, he appeared to notice something on the screen. He became apologetic and went to get the general manager of this very large hotel. The general manager came over to me and apologized profusely for not having my room  ready and told me that the room would be ready in ten minutes. He then stayed with me for the full 10 minutes. He offered to get me coffee, offered to give me the passcode so I could use my laptop for the 10 minutes I was in the lobby. When the call came down that my room was ready, the general manager picked up my bags and carried them to my room. He didn't even look for a bellman. He just picked up the bags. You have not lived until the general manager of a major hotel carries your bags to your room.

At some point I asked the maid for something, I forget what, and I remember her actually leaving the floor to get what I asked for. I asked her why everyone was going so much out of their way for me and she showed me her room chart where I was marked as a VIP.

So I'm guessing that my two experiences are common at most major hotels, such as the Sofitel where DSK was staying. To the degree they can, they try to squelch negative reports to the police and employees may not know a person is a VIP just by name, but there is likely some kind of designation for all employees to know that someone is a VIP.

So you had two factors here working to keep the sexual attack on the down-low. Hotels don't like to appear in police blotters and employees know not to mess with VIP's.

That's why it doesn't come to me as a surprise that Reuters is reporting:
New York investigators are questioning why the Sofitel hotel in New York waited an hour to call police after International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn left the hotel...
I'm a little bit surprised the call was made at all. Now maybe hotel security simply had to locate the general manager to get approval to call the police and the manager felt the attack on an employee was horrific and a call should be made immediately to the police and it was done so. But what suddenly prompted the call after an hour should be investigated. This delay isn't the main point that proves a set-up, but it does show there was some kind of hesitancy to call the police and this hesitancy was over-ruled by someone.

It also should be noted that the accuser is Muslim and wears a head scarf. France just banned the wearing of face veils in their country. She is also originally from the very poor country of Guinea, which at one time was a French colony. This probably all means nothing but should be noted. I would be curious to know if this maid was working her regular schedule, whether this was the regular floor she worked on and anything normal or abnormal about her work on that day. It is also interesting that this woman, who lives in the Bronx, is described as shy, keeps to herself and is an immigrant from Guinea, managed to hire a midtown Manhattan attorney. The attorney refuses to say anything about how he became her attorney other than stating that it was through a "mutual acquaintance." It's possible they have a mutual acquaintance, but it would be interesting to know who that is. Again, nothing necessarily sinister going on here, but a few more facts might help to clarify things.

Now here's where things start to get interesting. Despite DSK's reputation as a "great seducer", the man used call girls when he was in New York City, as revealed by former madam Kristin Davis. Thus the elements of how a set-up could have taken place, by a group with serious assets and technology.

If it is known that DSK used hookers, at least in NYC, and you have the capability to monitor his cell phone and hotel phone activities, then you have the ability to set a trap. He calls for a pro, you send in a willing or unwilling "innocent". Thus, it would be very interesting to know if DSK made any calls to escort agencies from his hotel phine or any of his cell phones (especially the one that DSK thought was missing and appears to have disappeared). I continue to believe that the most likely explanation for him coming out of the bathroom naked is that he was expecting someone.

If he did make a call to an escort service than I fully believe a government agency could have set DSK up. What's more, this is a major French hotel, which means it his highly likely that French government agents are floating around the hotel as guests and employees.

Now as far as motive, there is certainly a reason on the part of the U.S. government to look the other way, if, say, there was a set-up by the French government. Michael Whitney writes
Strauss-Kahn had recently broke-free from the "party line" and was changing the direction of the IMF...
Whitney then quotes Joseph Stiglitz on DSK:

The annual spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund was notable in marking the Fund’s effort to distance itself from its own long-standing tenets on capital controls and labor-market flexibility. It appears that a new IMF has gradually, and cautiously, emerged under the leadership of Dominique Strauss-Kahn....Strauss-Kahn is proving himself a sagacious leader of the IMF....
 Here are DSK comments he delivered at an address at George Washington University that would certainly not endear him to the one world types:
Globalization has delivered a lot . . . but it also has a dark side, a large and growing chasm between the rich and the poor. Clearly we need a new form of globalization' to prevent the 'invisible hand' of loosely regulated markets from becoming 'an invisible fist.'
But the person with the real motive to take DSK down was French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was badly trailing in the polls against DSK, leading up to next year's election. The takeout of DSK, especially given its timing, could very easily be seen as a type of 'double tap' by Sarkozy government operatives. What do I mean by a double tap and the timing? In Cannes, a very negative biopic of Sarkozy, "The Conquest", was screened about him on Wednesday. AP said of the film:
Hyped as a behind-the-scenes glance at the private lives of the Sarkozys, "The Conquest" is arguably the most highly anticipated French movie at the Cannes Film Festival, where it screened Wednesday.
A week ago the Telegraph wrote:
The biopic of Nicolas Sarkozy that charts his rise to power and break-up of his marriage has been selected for the Cannes Film Festival, threatening to turn the unpopular French president into an international laughing stock...Mr Sarkozy now faces a dilemma over his attendance at the festival. He had been expected to walk his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, down the red carpet at the premiere of her film, Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, which will open the 10-day event.
Sarkozy and his wife were no shows at Cannes, including for a screening of the film she is in.

But what happened to the, even a week ago, much anticipated biopic? DSK happened. WSJ explains:
Call it bad timing. As the evolving Dominique Strauss-Kahn Affair continues to eclipse Cannes Festival prime-time coverage on the French nightly news, the long-awaited biopic on President Nicolas Sarkozy, by French director Xavier Durringer was met with amused chuckles but tepid applause at this morning’s world-premiere screening.
What great timing for Sarkozy! Just as a major "much anticipated" negative film is about to dominate the news about Sarkozy, Sarkozy's chief political opponent is caught in a major sex scandal that not only knocks him out of the race but results in knocking news about the Sarkozy negative film off the front pages in France.

Bottom line: Sarkozy is one very, very lucky dude, or France's Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure is pretty damn good.

(htReinhardSchwach)

29 comments:

  1. Your keen observations reminds me of how much I hear the phrase, "... but that doesn't prove anything."

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  2. Even if the entire episode was unscripted and played out as reported and there was no "setup" per se; had DSK not left the reservation and was still in the good graces of the IMF and by extension the USG and the NWO elites, the 1 hour window before the hotel called the police would have been plenty of time for alibis, coverups, and hush money to be doled out (it has happened before, apparently). Clearly, his services were no longer required and he had to be replaced. The most innocent (non-conspiratorial) case scenario is that DSK's enemies simply took advantage of a "indiscretion" for which DSK assumed he would have cover.

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  3. imagine for a moment that DSK was framed.
    how do you feel knowing that a woman calls the cops claiming that you grabbed her ass, and the cops prompty arrest you and a judge sends you behind bars without trial, regardless of who you are and if you have any criminal record?

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  4. Plausible logic and sequence of events; good job, Doc!

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  5. Thanks for this analysis! It's still curious why people like Krugman seemed so quick to slam DSK without a more critical perspective on a possible bigger picture...

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  6. Your analysis makes sense. Dominique Strauss-Kahn stood in the way of too many people.

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  7. Simply put: if he was one of the boys then no matter what he did it would have been covered up. If there was a victim she would have been kept quite one way or the other.

    He was not playing the dollar game, he was no longer one of the boys, as such he goes down.

    j

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  8. I worked at a nice, but not swanky hotel. Rule number one was that we never never never entered a guest's room while they were in it. How did we know they were in or out? We observed our guests closely; not to be nosy but to make sure we were reading the signals to serve them as well as we could.
    Aside from this rule, the woman either had no common sense or was out to cause a stir. The shower was running. One time one of our maids opened a room, heard the shower going, immediately closed and locked the door and reported herself to our manager. Before the guest left the manager sought out the guest, apologized and explained what happened. The guest said, "No problem. I didn't even notice," and seemed more amused than anything. In short, from a hotel background, I find the maid's account to be horse manure.
    And as a New Yorker, I can't believe that the police would act so quickly and harshly when a poor black woman accuses a rich white man. Who the F do they think they're kidding? Seriously. No one at NYPD gives a rat's anus what a black woman thinks, not even the black woman cops. B.U.L.L.S.H.I.T. detector is off-the-chart.
    DSK was set up. He threatened the Anglo-American banksters with Eurotrash bansters. He was in the AA Banksters' turf. He got nailed. Sarkosy and Obama will toast each other at their re-election parties.

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  9. Credible analysis and I believe DSK was set up.

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  10. Pretty weak, my friend. If I was Strauss I wouldn't hire you as my defender.

    Is it possible that Strauss thought what he got in the room was a hooker playing 'shy'? Yeah, maybe but once the woman resisted him he should have stopped and IDed her. Anyway, it's no likely. They guy's a repulsive animal and, hopefully, he'll be in a regular prison soon with lots of big guys making sweet love to him.

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  11. Anonymous @ 5/20/11 8:37 AM:

    Why have you already made up your mind before all the facts have become known?

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  12. Anonymous @ 5/20/11 7:08 AM:

    What you describe seems to be SOP even for your standard Holiday Inn. There've been times when I forgot to place the "Do Not Disturb" sign outside my room and a maid opened the door for housekeeping. Once she saw that I was still in the room (which didn't take long), she immediately left.

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  13. Maybe it's just me, but if I had just groped a hotel employee, I doubt I would call back looking for my cell phone. DSK got "Spitzered."

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  14. One problem with the "he was taking the IMF in another direction" claim: He was planning to step down from the IMF in order to pursue the French Presidency. There was no need to get rid of him.

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  15. In my view, one aspect of the event strikes me as extremely odd- there were only 4-5 hours from the time of the attack to the arrest, which must be a record for the NYPD.

    How does the NYPD manage to arrest a man, within a few hours, on a plane, after clearing immigration, who would likely be expected to have diplomatic immunity on the mere claim of the woman (which is not to argue nothing happened or that he wasn't the guy, but how would they know that then)?

    A great deal of "red tape" was cut to perform this arrest, assuming things went as described.

    Most curious.

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  16. DSK was urging that the banks take a haircut and, God forbid!, get less than 100 on the dollar for their scam "loans" and OTC derivatives. As Paul Craig Roberts notes in the piece linked below, the useful ones who play along are defended and forgiven (Clinton), but the ones who stand in the way of the international bankers are taken down (Spitzer, DSK).

    http://www.infowars.com/the-strauss-kahn-frame-up-the-amerikan-police-state-strides-forward/

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  17. That makes sense. I thought of the ho9tel "dick" That's why they have their own detectives. Steppenwolf rferences this in their song "American Band". "The hotel detective was outta sight"..a clever play on slang at the time. (This tells you how old I am!!)

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  18. One problem with the "he was taking the IMF in another direction" claim: He was planning to step down from the IMF in order to pursue the French Presidency. There was no need to get rid of him.

    LOL! Of course there was a need to get rid of him if they wanted to keep Sarkozy where he is. Now the overlords have a new head of IMF and Sarko stays where he is.

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  19. Possibly set up; yet, why would he be in such a hurry to leave his personal items in the room? The surviellence video at the check out desk showed he appeared to be rushed. With his track record of coming on to women, he's guilty in my view. The lab will check DNA on her. This guy is a sicko. For ex: Ted Bundy and Kasinsky the mail bomber, had very high IQ's; yet were "crazies".

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  20. My two cents, for what they are worth:

    1) I've been in hotels and had the maid accidentally walk in a couple of times. It happens. DSK was in a suite where the maid could not hear the shower running from the entryway.

    2) If he thinks it's a hooker, why would he need to attack her? And where is the evidence he paid her?

    3) Why would he chase her naked down the hallway? I don't think guys do that with whores...

    4) What about the rape kit evidence?

    5) What about the hotel cameras that showed her dressed as a maid, pushing a cart, and showed him rushing to leave the hotel after this incidence?

    6) Would he think a middle-aged woman dressed in a maid's uniform was a high class call girl? Really? What about her head scarf? Do hookers do that? Is there some fetish I don't know about?

    My thoughts - I think this guy, DSK, really DID try to rape this woman. It fits in with the incidents about him now being revealed by other women. Perhaps the reason it took so long for the crime to be reported was that hotel security was trying to get the woman to NOT report it, but she was adamant and they finally said, OK.

    Perhaps, once he attacked this maid, those who decided it was time for him to exit the scene took advantage of the situation by helping the woman hire an attorney, etc. Or, perhaps the system actually worked for a change - just like Al Gore was recently reported by the masseuse who claimed he tried to rape her, etc.

    IF DSK is innocent (and he might be) I hope he is exonerated. However, if he is actually a rapist, he deserves to do the time. Just because you are rich and powerful and the person you attacked is a poor person does not mean it's OK for you to rape her. Justice is supposed to be blind - and everyone deserves equal treatment before the law, regardless of race, sex or wealth.

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  21. well played Circus

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  22. Rob,

    Precisely. Even run-of-the-mill hotels would not allow maids into a guest's room. So are we to believe that a swanky place like Sofitel has staff that couldn't even abide by the rules governing a Motel 6? I can't believe it.

    That woman was in there for a reason, and it wasn't to turn down the linens and leave a mint of the pillow

    The contributor formerly know as Anonymous @5/20/11 7:08 am

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  23. Very plausible, I enjoyed reading your credible analysis of the DKS case. I believe there is a high chance he was framed, and I hope we get to the bottom of this before it is too late.

    Thank you for the article, keep 'em coming!!!!

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  24. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

    Such is the disbelief in France, that some 57 per cent believe Mr Strauss-Kahn is the victim of a dastardly plot to unseat him from the IMF or the French presidential race. His supporters have let it be known that President Nicolas Sarkozy had threatened to “sink him with an Exocet” if he sought to run against him next year. Socialist Claude Bartolone said that DSK had warned him in late April that he might be the victim of a joint strike from the French president and Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister to “get (him) thrown out of the IMF”.

    A source close to Mr Strauss-Kahn’s daughter Vanessa, who lives in Paris, told the Daily Telegraph the family is convinced it was a set-up. Mr Strauss-Kahn himself told French journalists late last month he could “easily imagine” being wrongly accused of rape by a woman paid “500,000 or 1 million euros” to accuse him.

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  25. A fellow annonymous posted the following: "One problem with the 'he was taking the IMF in another direction' claim: He was planning to step down from the IMF in order to pursue the French Presidency. There was no need to get rid of him."I think THAT was PRECISELY the need to get rid of him; just me.

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  26. Occam's Razor would require that the simplest, most straightforward explanation carry the day: that DSK - a well known whoremonger and abuser of woman - felt it his right to assault a muslim housekeeper, with the battlecry of "Don't you know who I am?" If DSK's Jewish attorney and the Jewish right seek to fabricate fanciful conspiracy theories, so much the worse for them. Fools be fools be fools. A yiddish saying.

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  27. You only approve comment you agree with.

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  28. Questions about accuser leave Strauss-Kahn sexual assault case in limbo

    By Zachary A. Goldfarb and Howard Schneider, Published: June 30


    Strauss-Kahn may be freed from house arrest Friday after attorneys for both sides requested an unexpected late-morning hearing in State Supreme Court. Prosecutors are expected to tell the court that they have found information that raises questions about the chambermaid’s credibility, the person said.


    Prosecutors, who had expressed confidence in their case and said they had physical evidence proving that Strauss-Kahn had sexual contact with the woman, now have serious doubts about what the chambermaid told them, according to the person familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity to speak freely about the confidential matter.

    Strauss-Kahn, who led the IMF through the global financial crisis and was a potential candidate for president in France, has always maintained his innocence.


    A separate law enforcement official who is familiar with the case but not authorized to speak about it publicly told the Associated Press that the issue was not necessarily about the rape accusation itself but about questions surrounding the alleged victim’s background that could damage her credibility on the witness stand. The official refused to elaborate.

    Prosecutors are questioning the woman’s asylum application with U.S. immigration authorities as well as her possible connections to a convicted drug dealer, the Times said.

    The chambermaid had a telephone discussion with a convicted drug dealer within a day of the alleged assault and discussed the possible benefits of filing charges against Strauss-Kahn, according to the Times.

    Prosecutors have found that the woman received $100,000 in cash payments in her bank accounts in recent years from the drug dealer and others. They also found she maintained multiple bank accounts.

    Kenneth Thompson, an attorney for the alleged victim, could not be reached for comment late Thursday.


    The case roiled French politics as well. Strauss-Kahn was considered a strong candidate for the French presidency and was expected to pursue the nomination of the Socialist Party. His supporters have said Strauss-Kahn was being set up.


    Staff writer Brady Dennis contributed to this report.

    © The Washington Post Company

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  29. ..and you sir are..who exactly to offer us trolls such a long dissertation..pretty logical i must add

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