IMF managing director arrested, accused of sexual attack

[Stephen Morgan]

Im not so sure perpwalks are a great idea myself

They provide a unique opportunity for van-bangers to pursue their hobby.

Anyone speak French?

Apparently the victim is a practicing Muslim who wears a head scarf. Not exactly the sort of chambermaid outfit you'd expect to be mistaken for a disguised prostitute.

[lupercal]

^ nothing much new there except that she's tall, at least 1.8 meters which I think is about 5'10": "cette femme très grande - au moins 1,80 m." Also francophone, so there was no communication barrier. Otherwise mostly reports about her satisfactory work at the hotel etc from investigators hired by her employers, hmm. Also she's in hiding and no one's seen her since the arrest except for cops and DSK's counsel.

[Canadian_watcher]

^ nothing much new there except that she's tall, at least 1.8 meters which I think is about 5'10": "cette femme très grande - au moins 1,80 m." Also francophone, so there was no communication barrier. Otherwise mostly reports about her satisfactory work at the hotel etc from investigators hired by her employers, hmm. Also she's in hiding and no one's seen her since the arrest except for cops and DSK's counsel.

Yes! I demand that this woman make herself seen! Make the victim seen, so that we may judge her for ourselves!!!!!!!! WE are what matter, here!!~!!

[lupercal]

^ whatevs. One more thing: the comments are unanimously suspicious of Sarkozy, and Le Fig is a conservative paper!

[Nordic]

It's unpleasant to think about these things, but I wonder how a 62 year old man could force a 32 year old woman to perform oral sex on him (twice!). I'm not saying it couldn't happen, but I find it really hard to imagine, how that is physically possible, the more so since I'd think a 32 year old woman would be on average stronger than a 62 year old man. I could kinda see it if it was on knife- or gunpoint, but that doesn't seem to be the case here (?)

I didn't want to say it, but now that you have, yes, that occurred to me, too. Have you seen the pictures and video of this guy? He's tiny! He looks like he's barely five feet tall. So unless he's in really good shape, it's difficult to imagine how he could overpower a 32 year old African woman who does what basically amounts to physical labor five days a week!

But then I'm a guy, so what do I know?

And there is this:

"I suppose there is an element of theatre 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 utilised 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.

My wife lived in France for years, my stepdaughter's father is French, as is his entire family, and from what I know about them and their culture first hand, I sorta understand where they're coming from, being disgusted by this admitted theatre. France isn't the U.S. They have very different attitudes about a great many things.

[82_28]

Shit on the news today is trumpeting the mealy mouthed bullshit that this is "forcing France to look inward at what is and isn't OK in their culture" complete with footage of French people living it up in their cafes and shit.

A more refined hit ala "freedom fries"?

[justdrew]

yet so many news stories describe events like this:

The 62-year-old French politician allegedly emerged from the shower naked and tried to force himself on the woman, who fended off the attacks and ran out of the room.

which seems to imply that while some attempt was made, nothing actually happened more than a scuffle.

[lupercal]

Strauss-Kahn was set up, French say
Latest update: 18/05/2011

In the immediate aftermath of Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s dramatic arrest, the majority of French people were inclined to believe that the managing director of the International Monetary Fund was the victim of a conspiracy, an opinion poll revealed on Wednesday.

The survey, conducted by French polling agency CSA after New York City police charged Strauss-Kahn with sexually assaulting and attempting to rape a hotel maid in a luxury hotel, found that 57 percent of people interviewed thought he was set up. Just 32 percent of people thought he was not the victim of a plot and a further 11 percent had no opinion.

The poll, published by the free daily 20 Minutes, was conducted in France on Monday, before New York judge Melissa Jackson denied Strauss-Kahn bail and ordered him to remain in custody, the newspaper said.

The poll echoed the scepticism expressed by many French politicians and analysts in the press. On Monday Michel Wieviorka, a French sociologist and expert on France’s political left said that “everyone’s first reaction” had been one of “utter disbelief.”

http://www.france24.com/en/20110518-str ... inion-poll

[barracuda]

I didn't want to say it, but now that you have, yes, that occurred to me, too. Have you seen the pictures and video of this guy? He's tiny! He looks like he's barely five feet tall. So unless he's in really good shape, it's difficult to imagine how he could overpower a 32 year old African woman who does what basically amounts to physical labor five days a week!

In most of the photos I can find, Strauss-Kahn appears to be an inch or two taller than Sarkozy, who is five-foot, five inches tall. Sarkozy, though, is known for wearing heels and probably lifts to increase his height, so we can assume that he stands nearly 5'7" shod, making Strauss-Kahn about 5'8" or so. That may seem tiny to a big ol' humongoid like yourself, but really he's not very much smaller than the alleged victim. In other words, I would bet he could put up a good fight against just about any woman of a height around 5'10", considering that we don't have the complete stats such as weight and reach in order to tell the full tale of the tape.

yet so many news stories describe events like this:

The 62-year-old French politician allegedly emerged from the shower naked and tried to force himself on the woman, who fended off the attacks and ran out of the room.

which seems to imply that while some attempt was made, nothing actually happened more than a scuffle.

Well, a naked scuffle is alleged in which Strauss-Kahn touched his penis to her mouth twice, and pulled down her panties and attempted to fuck her. If true, you can't really say "nothing more than a scuffle" because I've been in a few scuffles, but as far as I'm aware, the presence of a penis on or near one's mouth during one is highly uncharacteristic of scuffles. Once that sort of thing happens, I would no longer refer to the incident as just a scuffle. Personally. Somewhere around there is where I draw the line, and it becomes something else besides the scuffling part.

[JackRiddler]

.

Bottom line, fuck the IMF and its phony reform rhetoric. I hope the next sixteen successors to Strauss-Kahn spontaneously combust at their intro press conferences, until the IMF is forced to take it as a sign from God that they should shut down. As for France, they've been given a chance to find a replacement for Sarkozy who isn't a neoliberal hitman play-acting a socialist. May they make wise use of it.

.

[Nordic]

In most of the photos I can find, Strauss-Kahn appears to be an inch or two taller than Sarkozy, who is five-foot, five inches tall. Sarkozy, though, is known for wearing heels and probably lifts to increase his height, so we can assume that he stands nearly 5'7" shod, making Strauss-Kahn about 5'8" or so. That may seem tiny to a big ol' humongoid like yourself, but really he's not very much smaller than the alleged victim. In other words, I would bet he could put up a good fight against just about any woman of a height around 5'10", considering that we don't have the complete stats such as weight and reach in order to tell the full tale of the tape.

I'm going strictly by all the news video that I saw yesterday, in which, unless the entire population of NYC's justice and police departments are giant amazons, Strauss Kahn looked extremely dinky!

Keep in mind that a short guy in the public limelight, especially a guy with an ego and a penchant for "the ladies" is quite likely to be wearing some serious height-enhancers himself when out in public. Why would he want to appear shorter than Sarkozy? But when he's doing his perp walk? Not so much. What do they wear? Socks? Sandals?

That all being said, do I know how tall he is? No. But I've got a good eye, especially from the work I do, and I would guess he's about 5'3" based on all the news video I saw. I could be wrong.

BTW the photo you provided really tells nothing. Strauss Kahn could be standing on a curb, or a step, or could have on bigger lifters than Sarkozy. Also the angle can't be trusted since it's taken with a telephoto lens which compresses the perspective and thus it doesn't show the actual angle relative to the two of them, i.e. the camera could have been pointed somewhat up, with Strauss Kahn actually a bit farther away from Sarkozy than it looks in the photo, thus giving the illusion of being slightly taller.

[lupercal]

Bottom line, fuck the IMF and its phony reform rhetoric. I hope the next sixteen successors to Strauss-Kahn spontaneously combust at their intro press conferences, until the IMF is forced to take it as a sign from God that they should shut down. As for France, they've been given a chance to find a replacement for Sarkozy who isn't a neoliberal hitman play-acting a socialist. May they make wise use of it.

This is based on what exactly? The unbearable lightness of being a jackass?

Look the problem with this story is it's nothing BUT problems. Was it sodomy or fellatio? Did he finish off in her mouth? If so she cooperated. But she says she didn't. So her story as reported doesn't hold water. And who sent her into his room? We don't know. And the whole perp-walk Riker's island business: under normal circumstances he could have shot the place up and being a foreign dignitary wouldn't get that treatment, or lard-ass Bloombag saying "if you don't want to walk, don't do the crime." What a shithole. Sorry Jacko.

[JackRiddler]

.

succinct:

http://counterpunch.org/wolf05182011.html

SNIP

Third of all, $3,000 a night?! That's a lot of mints on your pillow. Strauss-Khan calls himself a socialist (exceedingly small "s") and heads an organization, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which pretends to help the poor, but, pardon the parallel, rapes them. The exposure that he is a career misogynist tells us a fair amount about the two institutions Strauss-Kahn led until his arrest this past weekend. In brief, they suck.

From its birth, the French Socialist Party (FSP) brought to life the political concept that—again, pardon the parallel—you can't end prostitution by bringing virgins into brothels. In other words, all attempts at changing the French capitalist system from within the framework of a party that accepts the inevitability of class society, imperialism and competition has been a colossal failure.

From its bloody defense of French power in North Africa, particularly throughout the brutal Algerian war from 1954–62 and its extensive privatization of public services to its racist attacks on immigrants for being insufficiently "French," the FSP has proven that it is to socialism what Donald Trump is to refined discourse.

As for the IMF, ostensibly an institution made up of 182 member countries, even the New York Times admits that it is "the lapdog of the U.S. Treasury." The Economist explained that the IMF's purpose in providing loans was "to open doors for American business."

Its loans to poor and downwardly mobile countries are tied to "structural adjustment programs" that require privatization, deregulation and labor "flexibility," neocon-speak for smashing unions that exist or preventing any from organizing. As many leftists have noted, it operates as a global loan shark.

We rarely, if ever, see such a powerful man fall, and never for the rape of a Black immigrant woman. I can only assume that he's pissed off people much higher up who decided to cut the cord.

SNIP

[lupercal]

^yes, succinct, like most tabloid hooey, and we got it 13 pages ago. Trust Counterputz to get some lame blogger to rehearse the whole lame official story one more lame time. That p.o.s. hasn't been worth reading since the last millennium and I see he still hasn't hired a fact checker.

[vanlose kid]

^^

don't worry, the great leftist heroes, Obama, Hillary and Seal team 6 will soon enough bust the reformer out of the claws of Riker's-Bloomberg-CIA.

*