By this time next year, Dominique Strauss-Kahn might well have been president of France. The 62-year-old was by far the most popular choice to be the Socialist presidential candidate, and he was the only contender seen as capable of unseating Nicolas Sarkozy.
A local official of the Socialist party claimed that Strauss-Kahn had attacked her daughter, who is goddaughter to Strauss-Kahn's second wife, in 2002.
Tristane Banon was in her 20s and writing a book when she approached Strauss-Kahn for an interview in 2002. In a TV programme in 2007, in which Strauss-Kahn's name had been bleeped out, Banon allegedly described him as a "rutting chimpanzee" and described how she was forced to fight him off. "It finished badly Â… very violently Â… I kicked him," Banon said. "When we were fighting, I mentioned the word 'rape' to make him afraid, but it didn't have any effect. I managed to get out."
Banon consulted a lawyer, but did not press charges. "I didn't want to be known to the end of my days as the girl who had a problem with the politician."
The New York hotel maid accusing IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault has picked him out of a line-up, police revealed tonight.
A spokesman for the New York Police Department said that Strauss-Kahn and five men of a similar height, weight and appearance were asked to stand on parade whilst the woman stood the other side of a one-way mirror. The victim said: 'That's him' in a 'clear confident voice,' the spokesman said.
The potential French presidential candidate is set to appear in court this evening to answer to charges including attempted rape.
She told police she was asked to clean the spacious $3,000-a-night suite, which she was told was empty.
She then alleges Strauss-Kahn emerged naked from a bathroom, chased her down a hallway, pulled her into a bedroom and began sexually assaulting her, at one point attempting to force her to perform oral sex.
'The housekeeper went into the room and Mr Strauss-Kahn emerged from bathroom naked,' an NYPD spokesman said.
'He grabbed the woman and pulled her into the bedroom and locked the door and then attempted to sexually assault her.
'She managed to get free but he pulled her back, pulled off her trousers and sexually assaulted her.
'The woman managed again to get away and out the door and went to security and told the what happened.
The victim of the alleged sex assault is a single mother and 'a sweet lady', a friend said.
The African American lady, who is thought to be originally from Ghana, is 'reserved and quiet', the friend claimed.
'She has been at the hotel for about four years and is well liked - I think she is a single mum and just does her work quietly and goes home. Also:
There were also allegation from a young french author, Tristane Banon, who described how Strauss-Kahn had forcefully tried to seduce her, allegedly leaving her to having fight him off physically. Gotta take a look at young Tristane's pic. What a dirty old perv.
#1
I tend to believe the maid.
By all accounts all this happened within minutes.
No way to invent a fireproof false story. Police would discover flaws very soon.
Obviously they didn't. And there's the word of an Afro-American maid against a very powerful man. That takes a lot of guts. And NYPD seems to have guts, too.
I hope they can find DNA evidence. Would be terrible if he walked because it's his word against hers.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
05/16/2011 0:32 Comments ||
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#11
Morning television says they have DNA evidence to support the maid's story. Unless Mr Strauss-Kahn's lawyers can prove the laboratory produces bad results, he's toast.
#12
Hey can we cut the guy some slack? After all, as a socialist, he's a tireless advocate "for the little guy", and doesn't that absolve him for this sort of minor infraction?
#16
French press reports that the lawyers of DSK say that the victim is "very unattractive" and they will go after her to shatter her credibility
Surprise
Posted by: European Conservative ||
05/16/2011 10:03 Comments ||
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#17
Update
Lawyers for Dominique Strauss-Kahn have proof the IMF chief was at a restaurant having lunch with his daughter at the time he was alleged to be sexually assaulting a hotel maid, France's RMC radio reported on Monday.
RMC said the lawyers had pieced together Strauss-Kahn's movements and found that he left the hotel at midday, after paying his bill and handing in his key, then went to eat with his daughter and took a taxi to the airport.
The schedule meant he had already left the hotel at the time the maid alleged he chased her down a corridor, forced her into a room and assaulted her, RMC reported on its website, adding that the lawyers had material evidence and witnesses.
#18
Yes but I've also read that police now say the rape took place around noon.
Strategy: If the guy invents a false alibi you can destroy it. That's why lawyers instruct their clients to remain silent until they have gotten their story straight.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
05/16/2011 10:08 Comments ||
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#19
So an immigrant hotel maid -- one of the least powerful people in the world-- says that one of the most powerful people in the world assaulted her, and a couple of hours later the NYPD has him doing the perp walk. This would have been handled much more, uh, discreetly in so many other countries. My point being: Is this a great country or what?
Posted by: Matt ||
05/16/2011 11:30 Comments ||
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#20
Strauss-Kahn is quite the socialist. $3,000 a night hotel suites, $20K suits, first class travel on Air France. I'll bet he has a fair bit of his family on various public and NGO payrolls.
All for the little people.
Don't know if he'll survive this particular escapade, but I can only hope he's done as a politician.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/16/2011 11:34 Comments ||
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#21
As IMF chief he is supposed to fuck the poor, but only metaphorically.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/16/2011 11:57 Comments ||
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#22
It's not just the NYPD
The IMF boss, 62, who reportedly earns more than $500,000 a year, is said to have been caught after calling the hotel to ask if he had left his phone there.
A quick-thinking hotel security official lied that he had the phone and asked for Strauss-Kahn's location to meet him and return it, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Sofitel is owned by Accor, the large French hotel company that is part of the CAC-40, the French equivalent of the DJI. For that security official to do that took some cojones. Or instructions from Paris.
#23
maybe his Viagra from the night before didn't wear off so he was chagrin to walk out of the room that way so he thought the maid could help.
Posted by: jack salami ||
05/16/2011 11:58 Comments ||
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#24
I think DB (#21) walks away with the snark of the day on this one.
Maybe he figured for $3,000/night he should be allowed to rape anyone he damn well feels like raping - and they should be grateful and bow down and kiss his little head.
#30
"We think this case is very defensible" says his lawyer.
Lawspeak for "he's toast if we can't pay off the victim"
Posted by: European Conservative ||
05/16/2011 20:52 Comments ||
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#31
"We think this case is very defensible" says his lawyer.
translation: "I'm charging by the hour"
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/16/2011 21:14 Comments ||
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#32
heh, JUSTICE - speaking of "charging by the hour": your Mom owes a refund. I found graffiti in hebrew on her inner thigh. I didn't expect a virgin, but yeesh? two IDF battalions? Talk about throwing a hot dog down a bowling alley
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/16/2011 22:21 Comments ||
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Title by Bobby, text by Krauthammer.
"I'm going to do my part to lead a constructive and civil debate on these issues." - Barack Obama, speech on immigration, El Paso, Texas, May 10 The only debate he's interested in is where he wins.
WASHINGTON - Constructive and civil debate - like the one Obama initiated just four weeks ago on deficit reduction?
The speech in which he accused the Republicans of abandoning families of autistic and Down syndrome kids? The debate in which Obama's secretary of health and human services said that the Republican plan would make old folks "die sooner"?
In this same spirit of comity and mutual respect, Obama's most recent invitation to civil discourse - on immigration - came just 11 minutes after he accused opponents of moving the goal posts on border enforcement. "Maybe they'll need a moat," he said sarcastically. "Maybe they want alligators in the moat."
Nice touch. Looks like the Tucson truce - no demonization, no cross-hairs metaphors -is officially over. After all, the Republicans want to kill off the elderly, throw the disabled in the snow and watch alligators lunch on illegal immigrants. He's high on "his" recent sucess in Abbotabad.
The El Paso speech is notable not for breaking any new ground on immigration, but for perfectly illustrating Obama's political style: the professorial, almost therapeutic, invitation to civil discourse, wrapped around the basest of rhetorical devices - charges of malice compounded with accusations of bad faith. "They'll never be satisfied," said Obama about border control. "And I understand that.
That's politics." That's Obamatics.
How understanding. The other side plays "politics," Obama acts in the public interest. Their eyes are on poll numbers, political power, the next election; Obama's rest fixedly on the little children. It's for the children. Of course.
This impugning of motives is an Obama constant. "They" play politics with deficit reduction, with government shutdowns, with health care. And now immigration. It is ironic that such a charge should be made in a speech that is nothing but politics. Yet reported by the media as fact.
There is zero chance of any immigration legislation passing Congress in the next two years. El Paso was simply an attempt to gin up the Hispanic vote as part of an openly political two-city, three-event campaign swing in preparation for 2012. It's what he does best - campaign. One might think campaigning and leading were not too far apart, but we have proof of the opposite.
Accordingly, the El Paso speech featured two other staples: the breathtaking invention and the statistical sleight of hand.
"The (border) fence is now basically complete," asserted the president. Complete? There are now 350 miles of pedestrian fencing along the Mexican border. The border is 1,954 miles long. That's 18 percent. And only one-tenth of that 18 percent is the double and triple fencing that has proved so remarkably effective in, for example, the Yuma sector. Another 299 miles - 15 percent - are vehicle barriers that pedestrians can walk right through.
Obama then boasted that on his watch 31 percent more drugs have been seized, 64 percent more weapons - proof of how he has secured the border. And for more proof: Apprehension of illegal immigrants is down 40 percent. Down? Indeed, says Obama, this means that fewer people are trying to cross the border. Interesting logic. Seizures of drugs and guns go up -- proof of effective border control. Seizures of people go down -- yet more proof of effective border control. Up or down, it matters not. Whatever the numbers, Obama vindicates himself. You can believe this flimflam or you can believe the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office. Obama or the government? That's a tough call. Let's see what the GAO has to say.
The GAO reported in February that less than half the border is under "operational control" of the government. Is that with or without Arizona's 'illegal' enforcement?
Which undermines the entire premise of Obama's charge that, because the border is effectively secure, "Republicans who said they supported broader reform as long as we got serious about enforcement" didn't really mean it.
I count myself among those who really do mean it. I have little doubt that most Americans would be quite willing to regularize and legalize the current millions of illegal immigrants if they were convinced that this was the last such cohort, as evidenced by, say, a GAO finding that the border is under full operational control and certification to the same effect by the governors of the four southern border states. I could swallow that, generous person that I am, but don't expect to see it in the next 20 years.
Americans are a generous people. Upon receipt of objective and reliable evidence that the border is secure - not Obama's infinitely manipulable interdiction statistics - the question would be settled and the immigrants legalized. Certainly there are some worthy of citizenship, that have worked hard to become Americans, among the druggies and welfare queens.
Why doesn't Obama put such a provision in comprehensive immigration legislation? Because for Obama, immigration reform is not about legislation, it's about re-election. If I may quote the president: I understand that.
That's politics.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/16/2011 06:57 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
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#1
AZ's immigration law making interesting demographic changes. Various (educated) Asians are now the fastest growing demographic group, and where before they had been dominated by the Chinese (one old community coming over for the transcontinental railroad), they are now being transcended by Vietnamese, Cambodians, Burmese, Nepalese, Japanese, Koreans, Thai, Indians, and Filipinos.
Though less than 3% of the population, they do not ghettoize, integrate quickly, and create little or no fuss.
Noteworthy that some initially immigrated to California, took one look, and continued on to Arizona. Smart people.
#4
Used to be, if we caught a snake-oil salesman, we tarred and feathered him and rode him out of town on a rail. When did we start electing them President? Whenever it was, we need to revert to prior form, and soon. Tomorrow would be nice.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/16/2011 17:02 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
In this same spirit of comity and mutual respect, Obama's most recent invitation to civil discourse - on immigration - came just 11 minutes after he accused opponents of moving the goal posts on border enforcement. "Maybe they'll need a moat," he said sarcastically. "Maybe they want alligators in the moat." 
Obama then boasted that on his watch 31 percent more drugs have been seized, 64 percent more weapons - proof of how he has secured the border. And for more proof: Apprehension of illegal immigrants is down 40 percent. Down? Indeed, says Obama, this means that fewer people are trying to cross the border. Interesting logic. Seizures of drugs and guns go up -- proof of effective border control. Seizures of people go down -- yet more proof of effective border control. Up or down, it matters not. Whatever the numbers, Obama vindicates himself. You can believe this flimflam or you can believe the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office. 
