Saturday, May 14, 2011

Head of IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Questioned for Alleged Sexual Assault

Developing...

UPDATE: The head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, is being questioned in New York on Saturday and accused of a sexual attack on a hotel maid, NYT reported.

UPDATE 2: Strauss-Kahn was arrested minutes before he was to due to fly to Paris from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

UPDATE 3: Strauss-Kahn was to head from NYC to Paris to Germany to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss the PIIGS debt crisis.

UPDATE 4: More details from AP (ViaLaTi):
The 32-year-old woman told authorities that she entered Strauss-Kahn's room at the Sofitel near Manhattan's Times Square at about 1 p.m. Saturday and he emerged from the bedroom naked, threw her down and tried to sexually assault her, Browne said. She somehow broke free and escaped the room and told hotel staff what had happened, authorities said. They called police.

When New York City police detectives arrived moments later, Strauss-Kahn had already left the hotel, leaving behind his cellphone and other personal items, Browne said. "It looked like he got out of there in a hurry," Browne said.

The NYPD discovered he was at the airport and contacted the Port Authority, who plucked Kahn from the Air France flight that had not yet departed.

UPDATE 5 from NyPo:
Three Port Authority detectives pulled Dominique Strauss-Kahn from the plane’s first-class cabin just two minutes before it was due to depart for Paris, according to police sources said.

Strauss-Kahn, 62 — who was expected to challenge Nicholas Sarkozy in the 2012 French presidential election — was turned over to NYPD officers and brought to the Special Victims Unit’s uptown squadroom...

Strauss-Kahn allegedly threw the housekeeper on the room’s bed and forced her to perform oral sex on him, said the sources.

The maid managed to break free and ran to a hotel worker to tell what happened, said a source. Soon afterward, Strauss-Kahn got dressed and headed off to Kennedy Airport for his flight to Paris.

When he was approached on the plane by Port Authority cops, he said, "What is this about?" sources said. He was then taken off without handcuffs.

Two law enforcement sources said Strauss-Kahn was trying to flee the US. Police said he left his cellphone and other personal items in the room.

Strauss-Kahn, who had a meeting planned for today with German chancellor Angela Merkel, has a special arrangement with Air France that allows him to get on any flight and sit in first class, the sources said.
Update 6: Last week, news reports suggested that Sarkozy had begun a smear campaign against Strauss-Kahn, drawing attention to Kahn’s extravagant lifestyle. Strauss-Kahn is also currently suing a French newspaper that claimed he lived an extravagant lifestyle that included luxury homes and suits ordered from Barack Obama’s tailor.

Hours before the incident, an ally in the Socialist Party said, “There is now a totally structured and orchestrated campaign…to attack the character of Strauss-Kahn.”

Update 7: The French press have in the past called Strauss-Kahn, "The Great Seducer"

Update 8: Reuters reports that Strauss-Kahn will plead not guilty.

9 comments:

  1. I smell a set up.

    Forced oral sex with no weapons in your own room? Wouldn't he be worried about her biting? Plenty of evidence in his own room, especially if it goes badly.

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  2. Wow. Many people thought that IMF was a criminal organization, whose main purpose is to transfer wealth from developing countries to developed countries. No wonder, only criminals can run a criminal organization.

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  3. I thought the IMF only figuratively screwed countries. I did not realize they also literally screwed little people.

    What a jerk, Kahn is. He should have tried that move on Hillary, she would have given him a nice uppercut.

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  4. I wonder if he is acquainted with Eliot Spitzer?

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  5. Leon. The first scenario of Stauss-Kahn ordering a hooker dressed as a maid, and with the real maid unexpectedly walking in, the case of mistaken identification, immediately comes to mind, I instantly had same thought. This scenario, however, has to be rejected, as highly improbable, in light of the purported rape victim description of the event. If Stauss-Kahn ordered a hooker, he would have been waiting for her in the room, not in the bathroom, where he would not be able to hear a hooker's knock on the door. Also, before jumping on the woman, he would have asked her some questions about her coming from the escort agency.
    The second scenario of the consensual sex suddenly turning into the accusation of the rape by the woman, causing the man to panic and run away is much more plausible. However, such accusation could not have resulted from some other hotel employee walking in. If it happened, there would be no talk about the woman breaking free and escaping the room, she would have raised her false complaint to such employee right in the room, and in a moment hotel security would have been there, catching Stauss-Kahn in flagrante.
    In my opinion, in order to comprehend this event we need to think the frame up by the French intelligence, possibly with the american help. I am wondering, if someone in the French intelligence is getting a high promotion right now? Indeed, the operation to irreparably compromise Stauss-Kahn and remove him as the presidential contender, could have been verbally ordered by Sarkozy, and could have been easily conducted by the intelligence officer with the French mission at UN. Stauss-Kahn's habit of staying in the Sofitel hotel in New York was recorded, and a suitable woman could have been either recruited from the hotel staff, or even inserted in this staff. Notably, the Sofitel is owned by the French company, ACCOR, headquartered in Paris. This woman could have could have easily seduced Stauss-Kahn, since public servants ruling over simple mortals are notoriously gullible. Then during the pre-arranged randevu the woman would have screamed: "Rape!" causing Stauss-Kahn to panic and run away, which by itself is a good evidence of crime. Stauss-Kahn's apprehension on the plane just about to depart [sic!] provided helpful theatrics for the media. Some bruises corroborating the rape charge could have been easily arranged.
    What supports this scenario, is the fact that Stauss-Kahn was allowed to leave the hotel after the woman purportedly broke free and escaped the room, although it took Stauss-Kahn no less than 15-20 minutes to put himself in order and leave. If the woman broke free and escaped, she would have complained to the staff immediately, and hotel security would have prevented Stauss-Kahn from leaving, holding him until arrival of the police. Another supporting fact, is that Sarkozy, like his predecessor is known for playing dirty. Look at his persistent hounding of his former bosses Chirac and de Villepin.

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  6. Lawrence A. OshanekMay 15, 2011 at 5:27 PM

    The fall of the imperial American empire is evidenced by the rise again of the French and English ones. Ask yourselves how you got into Vietnam after the French left and how you got into Israel after the British left .... Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, Americans are so dumbed down that they never realize just how dumb they are. Oh, I have about as much concern for this as the IMF has had for so many ordinary people in so many places in the world. A possible set-up of an international banker ... looks good on him!

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  7. To be objective, Strauss-Kahn DOES NOT have the profile of a RAPIST.

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  8. Strauss-Kahn didn't know, at the time of living the hotel, he will later acused of rape. If he was on the run, and knew of the frame up, he would not have told, the hotel stuff, his airport position, to be arrested. He was on pre set schedule to be at the airport, that determined him to be in a hurry to the level of living behind, some easely recuperable personal things. His leaving in a hurry is not a proof that he knew about a "rape" claim.
    If Strauss-Kanhn was running away from a "rape" it would have taken him less than 15-20 minutes to live the hotel. He did not know a "maid" acusing him of "rape", so he took his time leavmg the hotel in a time frame fit for his airport schedule, not for a "rape schedule".
    If "maid'story" is true, Strauss-Kahn could not have left the hotel. He would have been held by Police or the hotel security, or stuff.

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  9. A womanizer, incapable of defending himself from a house cleaner, is unfit, to be a candidate for the Presidency of France.
    Strauss-Kahn told in public, and knew, of imminent attacks, against him.
    He failed miserably.
    How could, he defend France?
    What about, a nuclear attack, launched for the sake, of an irresistible woman, Mr. Strauss-Kahn.

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