Strauss-Kahn: "You KNOW this has been in his past!"
(1) The arrest of Strauss-Kahn: a very Jewish Affair
(2) Strauss-Kahn's semen found on Maid's blouse
(3) You KNOW this has been in his past!
(4) Strauss-Kahn assembles team of ex-CIA spies, criminal investigators & PR specialists
(5) Strauss-Kahn's lawyers are digging into Maid's past to discredit her
(6) Strauss-Kahn was highest-paid public official in the world; his Zionist role via Cercle Léon Blum
(7) Strauss-Kahn, Jewish by birth and by identity (identifies with the fight against antisemitism)
(8) Far-right strengthened by Strauss-Kahn assault arrest
(9) Both sides engage Jewish lawyers: Ben Brafman vs. Jeff Shapiro
(10) Strauss-Kahn's 'Golden Parachute': $250,000 severance payment
(11) For such a powerful man to fall, Strauss-Kahn must have enemies higher up - (Trotskyist) Sherry Wolf
(12) Well-connected Americans are not charged with rapes; Strauss-Kahn lacked Friends in Wall St
(13) Wall St bosses demand sexual favors from staff, but escape indictment with friends in high places
(14) Strauss-Kahn led Keynesian Spending revival at IMF - rather than Austerity - to combat GFC
(15) Christine Lagarde, touted as new head of IMF, has close ties to US Corporations
(16) WSWS Trots defend Strauss-Kahn's presumed innocence
(17) Paul Craig Roberts upholds Strauss-Kahn's innocence until proven guilty
(18) Strauss-Kahn's fall is like Eliot Spitzer's before he could get the Wall St banksters
(19) Greenspan and Strauss-Kahn clash on regulation
(20) Strauss-Kahn, in the Soros camp, proposes a global regulation strategy to the G20
(21) Strauss-Kahn canvasses "insurance levy" on banks, and possibly a tax on financial trading
(22) Era of self-regulation by markets is near the end - Strauss-Kahn
(23) Strauss-Kahn set up for trying to reform the IMF - Chossudovsky
(24) Left's defence of DSK as a victim of 'elite conspiracy' is degenerate - James Petras
(1) The arrest of Strauss-Kahn: a very Jewish Affair - Peter Myers, May 30, 2011
The arrest of Strauss-Kahn, like the Regime-change movements in Libya and Syria, has split the Left. I have found it difficult to decide what line to take, mindful of the saying "fools rush in where angels fear to tread".
On the one hand, it does seem that Strauss-Kahl tried to rape the hotel maid ("bad guy"). On the other, he had been trying to make the IMF less draconian, and his departure suits the "Washington Consensus", which he opposed ("good guy", relatively).
Strauss-Kahl belongs to the Soros faction in high finance, in opposition to the Greenspan faction. Soros has long campaigned for the replacement of Market Fundamentalism with a Managed approach to world finance.
Others in the Soros camp include Joseph Stiglitz, Herman Daly and Robert Skidelsky. Many are Jewish, like Strauss-Kahn, but there are Jews on both sides of this titantic struggle.
Christine Lagarde, touted as his replacement as head of IMF, has close ties to US Corporations (item 15).
Strauss-Kahn was the highest-paid public official in the world (item 6). That such a powerful figure would be publicly humiliated is astonishing, especially when Wall St bosses have been getting away with demanding sex from staff without publicity or penalty (items 12 & 13).
Given the likelihood that Strauss-Khan did try to forcibly have sex with the maid, the question arises, how could he make such an error of judgment, jeopardising his IMF position as well as his chance of becoming President of France.
My explanation is in terms of the difference between the Conscious mind and the Unconscious mind. The latter takes over when we act by habit - by "automatic pilot" as it were. I have long puzzled that these two parts of the mind can be out of sync. For example, one can move an object from the table to the cupboard (such deliberate putting-away behaviour is done by the Conscious mind), then, five minutes later, look for it on the table (done by the Unconscious mind, remembering that the object used to be on the table).
Our habits in sex, once acquired, operate on "automatic pilot". My guess is that Strauss-Kahn's Unconscious mind, on first sight of the maid, assumed that she was a Call girl. Given his sexual proclivities, it's likely that such have visited him in the past, so the appearance of a strange woman in his hotel room would have prompted his usual response.
Once she started resisting, his Conscious mind should have alerted him that she was not a Call girl after all. But, by that time, his impulses were hard to control. Quite possibly he had "had his way" with women in the past, without recrimination, so he ignored the flashing warning lights.
(2) Strauss-Kahn's semen found on Maid's blouse
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304520804576341780296769862.html
MAY 23, 2011, 6:50 P.M. ET
Strauss-Kahn DNA Matches Semen on Maid's Shirt
By SEAN GARDINER
Tests found a match between a DNA sample submitted by former International Monetary Fund director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and semen found on the shirt of the hotel maid who told police she had been sexually assaulted by Mr. Strauss-Kahn, law-enforcement officials said.
Benjamin Brafman, one of Mr. Strauss-Kahn's attorneys, declined to comment when told of the DNA test results.
The French economist and presidential hopeful was indicted Thursday for sexual assault and attempted rape.
He submitted to the DNA test after his arrest. Lawyers for Mr. Strauss-Kahn have said in court that there is no evidence of a forced sexual encounter.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62 years old, was taken off an Air France flight on May 14 after a 32-year-old maid at the Sofitel New York hotel in Midtown Manhattan reported to police that she had been sexually assaulted around noon that day after she entered Mr. Strauss-Kahn's room to clean it. Mr. Strauss-Kahn subsequently resigned his position with the IMF but has maintained his innocence.
On Friday, after spending most of the week being held without bail at Rikers Island jail, Mr. Strauss-Kahn was released on a bail package that required him to post $1 million cash, a $5 million bond and that be placed under 24-hour, guarded-home confinement.
Write to Sean Gardiner at sean.gardiner@wsj.com
(3) You KNOW this has been in his past!
From: Ann Kehoe <Jither@hughes.net> Date: 25.05.2011 06:34 PM
Subject: getting a bead on some issues
> I have various stories pending - Libya,
> Ivory Coast, Strauss-Kahn etc - but
> it's hard to decide on a line to take.
The older I get, the more info I get, the more difficult it is for me to decide on a line to take! Why the governments have whole departments and think tanks! So I'm cultivating a more 'considerate' attitude to ideas I had in the past, am trying to get better at re-forming and then re-forming again, certain ideas. I think I'm becoming more Leftist. This doesn't sit well with some folk! It's not the natural progression!
I saw DS-K in an interview with Charlie Rose and thought he was smug, arrogant. But I recognize I have a built-in dislike of the French mannier. And I remember that he was known for being a dirt baguette on several occasions, where his latest wife almost left him (Ann Sinclair?). So there is credence on this one. And, you know, even if it was a honey trap, well????? He got stung. That is not an Olde English pun, btw. And if the woman was a maid, not a 'tute, there's more to dislike in him, the more the distance in power. Add to all this, the guy's a Zionist? AND an IMF official? Not good at all. Glad he's cooling his … heels.
It's always interesting in these situations to see the difference in attitude, men vs. women. My Hub always says something like, 'So what? He can still do his job, OK?' While I say something like, 'The bastard! Step down! No platform!' and it taints everything about the guy, for me. Same with Schwarzenegger; the Hub says, 'Give the guy a break. He didn't kill anybody.' And I say, 'He's the Devil Incarnate.' Isn't that something? But I think the men are more correct; it's like a friend of mine told me years ago - for a guy, sex is always good, there's no such thing as 'bad sex'. Whereas for a woman, there's the Good kind and the rest, which is awful or next to awful (which would be impersonal, I think).
So I'm trying to moderate my gut feeling on Men Behaving Badly in the Romper Room department, in favor of being a little more objective, less shocked. I still think the worst part about DS-K is the Zionist part, not the floogling part.
> His sperm was found on the maid's shirt.
> But could he have been set up, as some say?
Yes, you're right. He could have been set up. I think it unlikely. Did he hold a gun to her head? No. Were there bruises on her? Don't know, but that would be very, very telling, if so. I don't think the NYPD would pursue this if there wasn't something convincing from the maid, like bruises. Which still could have been part of the set up, I suppose. But there have been rumors of him doing this sort of thing for many years.
> Perhaps he thought - on seeing her - she
> was a call girl? Perhaps such have visited
> him in the past.
You KNOW this has been in his past! Very likely! BUT, on seeing her, say he was mistaking her for a call girl, if she puts up a fight, gets bruised, well, that's all she wrote. It was either a set up, in which case he fell right into it and so be it, he will pay the price of being a rapist, or it was rape. It will be interesting to watch the proceedings. Only way he gets off is on some technicality (perhaps to be pre-arranged?), don't you think?
> As for Libya and Syria, I oppose intervention,
> but accept that some of the revolutionaries
> are genuine dissidents.
Yes, I'm with you on this, too. I was told that, at least in Libya, the 'rebels' are all professional men- doctors, lawyers- and most, if not all, from Benghazi. I'm a little suspicious about them only because their identities have been so secret, we have almost no knowledge of them, no history. Angels come to earth! It's a miracle! Plus, the timing of it all is suspicious to me. I first thought it was the Wikileaks release of the Palestine Papers (no Right of Return) that got them so upset, in several countries, at roughly the same time. Strange that they would care, but I think they DO care about the Palestinians. Glad someone does. But now, I rather think it's part of the Clean Break strategy, more 'false flags'. Some people say Google was manifestly involved, if only by supplying the hardware for the 'dissidents'. But let's remember who started Google. I also remember top officials from Google met with the Israeli gov't in Tel Aviv last year. So I'm still thinking it over. I generally oppose intervention, like you.
Did you know that B. Netanyahu's father was secretary to Vladimir Jabotinsky (Betar)? Did you know Bibi's paternal grandmother was a Lurie, from Warsaw (real last name of Yuri Larin/Larine)?
My country is almost totally owned … by others.
(4) Strauss-Kahn assembles team of ex-CIA spies, criminal investigators & PR specialists
http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE74S1L520110529
Strauss-Kahn assembles crisis team to fight back
Sun May 29, 2011 5:46pm GMT
By Mark Hosenball and Brian Love
WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) - Faced with a legal and media onslaught, Dominique Strauss-Kahn is pulling together a crack team of investigators, former spies and media advisers to fight back against charges he sexually assaulted a hotel chambermaid.
The former IMF chief's advisers will have their work cut out for them, and they may have to use different approaches to handling his legal problems in the United States while trying to bolster his reputation in his native France and beyond.
This may be why the range of damage-control specialists being assembled is so diverse. People consulted or hired so far include ex-CIA spies, experienced New York criminal investigators and some of the best-connected public relations specialists in the French-speaking world.
Strauss-Kahn, who is under house arrest in New York, has denied charges of a criminal sexual act, attempted rape, sexual abuse, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching. The case could take several months to come to court.
The Frenchman has just found a more permanent place to stay following four days in jail and several more in an apartment besieged by media hordes. A person close to Strauss-Kahn's entourage, who asked to remain anonymous, said only now that he and his wife Anne Sinclair have finally settled in a two-story townhouse in Manhattan's TriBeCa neighborhood are they and their lawyers able to start mapping out a defence strategy.
In Washington, the team is in the process of signing up TD International, a "strategic advisory" firm which offers both public relations and investigative services and is staffed and run by former CIA operations officers and U.S. diplomats.
In New York, according a person familiar with the arrangement, the team has hired a private investigations firm experienced in criminal cases. The firm, Guidepost Solutions, describes itself as a "full-service investigations and security consulting firm."
In Paris, Strauss-Kahn's team has sought counsel, at least informally, from some of his long-time personal advisers affiliated with Euro RSCG, one of France's best-connected PR outfits. While the firm has denied it is involved, a source close to Strauss-Kahn's entourage said at least some of the advisers who have worked with Strauss-Kahn in the past are quietly advising him again now.
(5) Strauss-Kahn's lawyers are digging into Maid's past to discredit her
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/dominique-strauss-kahns-lawyers-are-digging-into-the-past-of-a-chambermaid-who-accused-him-of-attempted-rape/story-e6frg6so-1226062568064
Dominique Strauss-Kahn's lawyers are digging into the past of a chambermaid who accused him of attempted rape
Charles Bremner The Times May 25, 2011 11:42AM
LAWYERS for Dominique Strauss-Kahn have turned their focus on his accuser's siblings and mother in the hope of finding something in her past to undermine the attempted rape claim against the former IMF chief.
Guidepost Solutions, the New York private intelligence firm that is working for Mr Strauss-Kahn's attorneys, is believed to have sent investigators to Guinea, where the alleged victim was born and lived before emigrating to New York more than a decade ago, French and Guinean media said.
Their mission is to unearth anything in the background of the 32-year-old Manhattan chambermaid that would erode her claim to have been the innocent victim of an unprovoked attack.
"Along with local lawyers, they would be under orders to uncover flaws in the partial and imprecise account" of her early life, Le Monde reported. New York investigators told other French media that the ideal would be to find that the victim had previously made false accusations against a man or demanded money in connection with a sexual relationship.
Since news of the New York incident reached Guinea, the country has talked of little else, said L'Observateur de Conakry, a newspaper in the capital. It worried that the victim, whose name has been freely published in Africa and France, could come under pressure from Mr Strauss-Kahn's entourage.
"Will she be able to resist the financial, well-connected steam-roller of her powerful adversary?" it asked. Le Lynx, a Guinean satirical weekly, called the story "David against Goliath".
In Paris sources in Mr Strauss-Kahn's circle said that they did not believe rumours that his friends could be trying to suborn the African family in order to have the accuser retract her allegations and drop the case.
"That would be too crude and certain to backfire," one source said.
Guinean journalists have visited Tchakul, the village nine hours' drive from the capital where the alleged victim spent her early years as the youngest of six children of a farmer. She married at 15 and had a daughter before her husband died when she was 17.
She moved to Conakry and may also have lived for a period with her mother in Senegal before emigrating to the US at the invitation of a sister to join New York's Guinean community of some 4,000. Her family said that they had had no contact with her since she emigrated. .
Reporters who went the village at the end of last week broke the news of the alleged attack to the family. Abou Bakr, the editor of Le Lynx, quoted a half-brother, Boubacar, as saying that his sister had been a hard-working girl and a devout Muslim.
"She does not talk much and likes working. She spent most of her time doing the dishes, the laundry and cleaning the house," he said. She had not attended school or learnt to read. She had been in love with her young husband, who was also a pious Muslim.
A newspaper in Senegal interviewed Adja, the alleged victim's mother, who insisted on her daughter's good character. "I did not bring into the world a bad woman," she reportedly said.
As the French polity began to recover from the shock of Mr Strauss-Kahn's position, more details emerged of his previous brushes with the law over sex.
Le Monde reported that President Sarkozy had leaked the fact that police had found Mr Strauss-Kahn apparently with a prostitute in a car in western Paris in 2006.
Mr Sarkozy, who was the Interior Minister at the time, had been immediately notified that police had identified Mr Strauss-Kahn "in an embarrassing situation in a car at a popular spot for paid sex", the newspaper said.
No action was taken and Mr Sarkozy promoted Mr Strauss-Kahn to the IMF after he became President in May 2007.
In recent months, as Mr Strauss-Kahn emerged as the Socialist party favourite to beat Mr Sarkozy, the presidency leaked word of the police report to reporters, Le Monde said.
Mr Sarkozy has been predicting for the past two years that the Socialist star would be defeated because of his reputation as a libertine. Mr Strauss-Kahn denies any wrong-doing.
Friends of Strauss-Kahn offer Hush Money to Maid via her Family in Guinea
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/24/friends-strauss-kahn-reportedly-offered-hush-money-alleged-victims-family/
Friends of Strauss-Kahn Reportedly Offered Hush Money to Alleged Victim's Family
New York Post
Published May 24, 2011
Friends of alleged hotel sex fiend Dominique Strauss-Kahn secretly contacted the accusing maid's impoverished family, offering them money to make the case go away since they can't reach her in protective custody, The Post has learned.
The woman, who says she was sexually assaulted by the disgraced former head of the International Monetary Fund, has an extended family in the former French colony of Guinea in West Africa, well out of reach of the Manhattan DA's Office.
"They already talked with her family," a French businesswoman with close ties to Strauss-Kahn and his family told The Post. "For sure, it's going to end up on a quiet note."
Prosecutors in Manhattan have done their best to keep the cleaning woman out of the reach of Strauss-Kahn's supporters, but the source was already predicting success for the Parisian pol's pals.
"He'll get out of it and will fly back to France. He won't spend time in jail. The woman will get a lot of money," said the source, adding that a seven-figure sum has been bandied about.
(6) Strauss-Kahn was highest-paid public official in the world; his Zionist role via Cercle Léon Blum
http://www.voltairenet.org/article170083.html
Obama, financial war and the elimination of DSK
by Thierry Meyssan*
28 MAY 2011
[...] The French were dumb struck at the arrest in the United States of the most popular political leader of their country, Dominique Strauss Khan. Former Economy Minister, he had become the highest-paid public official in the world (base salary, excluding bonuses and expenses: 461 510 USD) and was, reportedly, about to enter the French presidential race. ...
As is happens, the French are unaware of DSK's ties [1] or, for that matter, Sarkozy's when they voted for him [2]. The media have never informed them that in the 1990's, during his political wilderness, he was hired as professor at Stanford University by a certain... Condoleezza Rice. They also don't know that he and his lieutenants Pierre Moscovici and Jean-Chrisophe Cambadélis were in charge of raising funds for the Socialist Party from the National Endowment for Democracy - a legal CIA front [3]. Nor did they follow his activities and various contracts with Atlanticist think-tanks, such as the German Marshall Fund of the United States [4] or the Bilderberg Group [5]. Finally, they are oblivious about his commitment to integrate France and Europe into a vast transatlantic market dominated by the United States.
Nor do the French know anything about DSK's close links to Israel. Within the Socialist Party, he steers the Cercle Léon Blum, named after a former Jewish prime minister. The role of this discreet and powerful lobby is to eject from the political scene any individual who is likely to criticize the Zionist project. Thus, it can make heads roll, like that of political scientist Pascal Boniface who highlighted the electorally counter-productive implications of supporting Tel-Aviv in a country where 10% of the population is of Arabic culture. Yet, DSK is very open about it. Without beating around the bush, he asserted: "I deem that every diaspora Jew must support Israel. For that reason, it is important for Jews to take up political responsibilities. In short, in my functions and in my everyday life, in everything I do, I endeavor to make my modest contribution toward the construction of Israel." It's rather disconcerting from someone who aspires to become president of France. But who cares? He's so jovial!
However, Dominique Strauss-Khan and his loved ones were spared no humiliation: while kept incommunicado under protective police custody, the New York prosecutor's office was distributing to the media copies of the detailed indictment.
It contains a clinical description of the alleged crimes: "The defendant engaged in oral sexual conduct and anal sexual conduct with another person by forcible compulsion; the defendant attempted to engage in sexual intercourse with another person by sexual compulsion; the defendant subjected another person to sexual contact by forcible compulsion; the defendant restrained another person; the defendant subjected another person to sexual contact without the latter's consent; and in that the defendant intentionally, and for no legitimate purpose, forcibly touched the sexual and other intimate parts of another person for the purpose of degrading and abusing such person, and for the purpose of gratifying the defendant's sexual desire.
The offenses were committed under the following circumstances:
Deponent states and deponent is informed by an individual known to the District Attorney's office that defendant 1) shut the door to the above location and prevented informant from leaving the above location; 2) grabbed informant's breasts without consent; 3) attempted to pull down defendant's pantyhose and forcibly grabbed informant's vaginal area; 4) forcibly made contact with his penis and informant's mouth twice; and 5) was able to accomplish the above acts by using actual physical force." ...
(7) Strauss-Kahn, Jewish by birth and by identity (identifies with the fight against antisemitism)
http://www.thejc.com/dominique-strauss-kahn/7260/how-jewish-dominique-strauss-kahn
How Jewish is Dominique Strauss-Kahn?
October 23, 2008
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French head of the International Monetary Fund, has hit the headlines not over the way he is dealing with the world's ailing finances, but rather because he has been embroiled in a fling with a subordinate. We thought it was worth checking that there was definitely nothing Jewish about him.
For:
Sacre bleu - according to our team of halachic researchers, Strauss-Kahn is half-Ashkenazi, half-Sephardi, but completely Jewish by birth. He has associated himself with the fight against antisemitism - he was MP for Sarcelles, an area with France's highest density of Jews, and said: "Antisemitism in our country is growing and it would be wrong not to see it." His wife, Ann Sinclair, is also Jewish. Strauss-Kahn follows in a tradition of Jewish bosses of international financial institutions becoming embroiled in scandal ... No, stop, we're really not going to go there. Not helpful to the Jews. So we won't even mention the trouble Paul Wolfowitz had at the World Bank last year.
Against:
Not a huge amount here, we're afraid. His girlfriend, Piroska Nagy, does not seem to be Jewish, although you do not get a higher score for having a Yiddishe mistress anyway. Kahn sounds a bit Indian - sorry, we're scraping the bottom of the barrel here.
Verdict:
Il est un Juif.
So we say he is 89% Jewish
(8) Far-right strengthened by Strauss-Kahn assault arrest
http://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/48948/far-right-strengthened-strauss-kahn-assault-arrest
By Jennifer Lipman, May 16, 2011
The derailment of IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn's political career over sexual assault allegations could strengthen the influence of France's far-right.
Mr Strauss-Kahn was arrested and charged with the "criminal sexual act, unlawful imprisonment, and attempted rape" of a 32-year-old chambermaid at a New York hotel yesterday.
The Socialist Party politician, whose Jewish parents moved to Morocco when he was a child, had been tipped as a viable challenger to current French President Nicholas Sarkozy at next year's elections.
Mr Strauss-Kahn's lawyer Benjamin Brafman said his client would plead not guilty to the charges, but the case could drag on past the July deadline for Socialist party candidates to declare for the election.
According to recent polls Marine Le Pen, the head of France's National Front party and the daughter of former far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, trails behind Mr Strauss-Kahn.
But without a strong Socialist contender, her position would be stronger.
She told French television channel i-Tele: "The case and the charges...mark the end of his campaign and pre-campaign for the presidency and will most likely prompt the IMF to ask him to leave his post."
Mr Strauss-Kahn's wife Anne Sinclair said the claims were untrue. "I have no doubt his innocence will be established," she said.
Last updated: 10:52am, May 18 2011
(9) Both sides engage Jewish lawyers: Ben Brafman vs. Jeff Shapiro
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2011/05/get-know-your-dsk-lawyers-ben-brafman-jeff-shapiro/37872/
Get to Know Your DSK Lawyers: Ben Brafman vs. Jeff Shapiro
BY ADAM MARTIN
MAY 18, 2011
In the New York criminal case against International Monetary Fund director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, two personal attorneys with very different backgrounds have been brought in. While they're not directly opposed yet, they may soon end up on either side of a courtroom. Strauss-Kahn quickly secured high-profile criminal defender Benjamin Brafman to help him through the arrest and arraignment process, and presumably his grand jury hearing and possible trial. His alleged victim, on the other hand, has engaged Jeffrey Shapiro, a personal injury lawyer, to look out for her rights, leading to speculation that she plans a lawsuit. ...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/dominique-strausskahn-maid-gives-her-side-of-the-story-to-grand-jury-2286075.html
Dominique Strauss-Kahn maid gives her side of the story to grand jury
By David Usborne in New York
Thursday, 19 May 2011
[...] Jeffrey Shapiro, a lawyer for the alleged victim, denied that she had willingly entered into sexual relations with Mr Strauss-Kahn, and said she only discovered his identity the day after the alleged incident. "There was nothing consensual about what took place in that hotel room," he told NBC News. "This is a woman who is a rape victim – the victim of a physical assault – who since this has taken place and since she has reported it to security at the hotel, has not had a moment of peace. She has not been able to return home. She has not been able to seek any help." ==
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/strausskahn-dna-found-on-maids-clothes-reports-20110524-1f19e.html
Strauss-Kahn DNA found on maid's clothes: reports
Paola Messana
May 24, 2011 - 7:39AM
Investigators found traces of DNA from former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on the clothes of a hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault, US media reported on Monday.
The DNA was found on the shirt of the 32-year-old worker at the Sofitel in New York who has accused Strauss-Kahn of attempting to rape her, according to NBC and ABC television.
DNA testing on other evidence from the hotel suite used by the French politician is continuing. ...
But Strauss-Kahn again denied the accusations in an email message sent to IMF staff late Sunday in which he expressed "profound sadness" at the way he left his $450,000-a-year tax-free post. ...
His lawyer Benjamin Brafman has said Strauss-Kahn will plead not guilty and that he is confident his client will go free.
"He has impressed me very much. Despite the circumstances, he's doing well," Brafman told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in an interview.
The defense team has hired a posse of private investigators who, according to media reports, are already sifting through the 32-year-old accuser's personal history in New York and her native Guinea in West Africa.
Prosecutors told Strauss-Kahn's bail hearing last week that they are also building a "strong" case in support of the accusations.
Strauss-Kahn was arrested on an Air France flight just as it was about to leave New York's John F. Kennedy airport, a few hours after the alleged attack. He spent the first days in detention at the notorious Rikers island jail. ... ==
Benjamin Brafman is Jewish: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Brafman
(10) Strauss-Kahn's 'Golden Parachute': $250,000 severance payment
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/05/24/lawmakers-raise-concern-ex-imf-directors-golden-parachute/
Lawmakers Concerned About Ex-IMF Director's 'Golden Parachute'
By Judson Berger
Published May 24, 2011
The former head of the International Monetary Fund accused of sexually assaulting a New York hotel maid will receive a $250,000 severance payment -- paid in part courtesy of the American taxpayer -- unless U.S. lawmakers can stop the "golden parachute" from landing in the French politician's bank account. ...
Jim Specht, spokesman for House Appropriations Committee member Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., said his boss will request hearings in the Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs on the IMF directorship, and review what leverage the U.S. might have over operations. Lewis is a member of that subcommittee. ...
"The IMF isn't doing what it's really supposed to be doing ... creating economic opportunity in undeveloped countries," Specht said.
The United States does not support the IMF in the same way it supports organizations like the United Nations. Rather than appropriate money on an annual basis, the U.S. has what amounts to a bank account with the monetary fund. While paying the U.S. interest, the IMF can then use that money on deposit to finance lending elsewhere. ...
(11) For such a powerful man to fall, Strauss-Kahn must have enemies higher up - (Trotskyist) Sherry Wolf
http://sherrytalksback.wordpress.com/2011/05/17/le-rapist-is-a-socialist-non/
Le Rapist is a Socialist? Non!
Posted on May 17, 2011 | 30 Comments
by Sherry Wolf
[...] 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.
In coming weeks we'll see the institutions he represents and his former hangers-on scurry about to cover their asses, but for now we can take a bit of pleasure in the political, social and personal collapse of such a man. Let's use his fall to shine a light on the organizations that have protected him all these years.
Au revoir, Monsieur Pig! FSP and IMF, j'accuse!
(12) Well-connected Americans are not charged with rapes; Strauss-Kahn lacked Friends in Wall St
http://blackstarnews.com/news/123/ARTICLE/7395/2011-05-25.html
Strauss-Kahn: No "Friends In The Right Places" In New York
By Edward Manfredonia
05-25-11
{caption} Strauss-Kahn; doesn't have much clout in New York's judicial system...maybe in France {end}
The current imbroglio involving Dominique Strauss-Kahn, ex-Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, brings to mind the striking difference between the treatment accorded to Strauss-Kahn by the office of the Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., and the treatment accorded to one Robert VanCaneghan also an alleged sexual predator by Vance's predecessor, Robert Morgenthau.
There could not be a greater contrast.
Strauss-Kahn allegedly attacked a hotel worker at the Sofitel, a luxury hotel in New York City. The press has described her as a maid. Yes, she was a room cleaner and an immigrant. But she had one of New York City's most powerful unions, Local 6 of the Hotel Workers Union, behind her.
Strauss-Kahn was one of the most powerful individuals in international finance. As Managing Director of the IMF he literally controlled the fate of countries- and of the Euro. This was accomplished by the power of the IMF in lending billions of dollars to countries, which are having severe economic problems - including such Western countries as Greece and Ireland.
Robert VanCaneghan was a member of the Board of the American Stock Exchange and a partner in the Amex specialist firm, Miceli-VanCaneghan. While VanCaneghan was a millionaire, he did not have the wealth and status of Strauss-Kahn. But he had friends in high places, who had raised millions of dollars for President Bill Clinton. And in the plutocracy, which rules America, it is your friends, who can save you from prison.
And while VanCaneghan admitted to the alleged rapes and sexual assaults of female employees to members of the Board of the American Stock Exchange, including such heavyweights as Paul Volcker, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve; Richard Ravitch, former Lieutenant Governor of the State of New York; Herbert Allison, current Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability; Harvey Silverman, a billionaire and former managing director of Spear Leeds and Kellogg; and other such heavyweights, Strauss-Kahn has denied the charges of sexual assault and unlawful imprisonment.
But there was one statement, I learned, which VanCaneghan made to his victims that was chilling. VanCaneghan boasted to his alleged victims that Morgenthau --then the Manhattan District Attorney-- would never charge him with rape and sexual assault. VanCaneghan even boasted that Morgenthau was a good friend of Arthur Levitt, then Chairman of the Amex.
VanCaneghan also warned that the Amex would ruin their families. One alleged victim's father was employed by a Wall Street firm. Another alleged victim's brother was a partner in a small Amex specialist unit, which was involved in major tax fraud. The livelihoods of their relatives would be ruined.
So having been warned that Morgenthau would not investigate the alleged rapes, I went to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Several of the alleged victims of VanCaneghan's sex crimes assured me that they would cooperate with the FBI.
Even though I provided the name of an individual, who had witnessed one alleged sexual assault that occurred on the premises of the Amex to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the names of six alleged victims of VanCaneghan's predations, to United States Attorney General Janet Reno, no grand jury was empanelled to charge VanCaneghan with violation of the civil rights of these women in addition to the charges of rape and sexual assault.
VanCaneghan was never charged with the rapes. He had boasted of the influence of Levitt and Morgenthau. As revealed in one of my previous columns both also failed to investigate the alleged laundering of drug money by VanCaneghan and his partner, Louis Miceli.
So it is here that the most important difference between VanCaneghan and Strauss-Kahn must be emphatically stated. Strauss-Kahn was not a friend of powerful people on Wall Street who could help him or in the Manhattan DA's office.
So in the U.S. we have the worst kind of crony capitalism - one in which millionaires can get away with practically all sorts of crimes.
So much for lecturing Muslim countries about democracy and women's rights.
Manfredonia was a trader on Wall Street who was ousted after he became a whistleblower.
(13) Wall St bosses demand sexual favors from staff, but escape indictment with friends in high places
http://blackstarnews.com/news/135/ARTICLE/7402/2011-05-28.html
Strauss-Kahn Should Have Consulted Monderine And Other Wall Street "experts"
By Edward Manfredonia
05-28-11
In my previous column, "Strauss-Kahn: No Friends In The Right Places In New York," which was published in The Black Star News on May 25, 2011, I showed how well-connected Americans are not charged with rapes.
I showed how Robert VanCaneghan, a former member of the Board of the American Stock Exchange who was alleged to have committed several rapes was protected when the office of then Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau took no action.
Yet, Dominique Strauss-Kahn was charged with attempted rape and sexual assault and illegal imprisonment by Cyrus Vance, the current Manhattan District Attorney.
But VanCaneghan was not the proper paradigm.
Richard Monderine was an even better example. Monderine was not a partner in an Amex specialist unit. Monderine was not an Amex member. Richard Monderine was a floor supervisor at the Amex when Arthur Levitt was Chairman of the Amex. And Monderine never had to tell his victims: "Do you know who I am?"
Everyone at the Amex knew who Monderine was. As a floor supervisor, Monderine determined which of his female subordinates would get promoted. And Monderine used this to his advantage.
Strauss-Kahn, thinking of the French colonies in Africa, believed when he attempted to rape that woman from Guinea, West Africa, that she would be grateful for an introduction to French culture.
Monderine was not as educated as Strauss-Kahn. Monderine could not speak French - the language of culture and love.
Just as Strauss-Kahn allegedly attacked an African woman, Monderine forced his predominantly African-American women to have sex with him in order to remain employed at the Amex.
How do I know this? One day when I was a member of the Amex, an Amex employee was cursing and saying he wanted to kill Monderine. I asked him what was wrong. He told me that Monderine threatened to have his eighteen year old cousin fired if she did not have sex with him. He wanted to beat up Monderine.
He told me that I was probably the only person on the floor of the Amex that did not about the allegations that Monderine forced many of his African-American subordinates to have sex with him.
I told him to forget about Monderine. I would take care of it. I went to Arthur Levitt's office, but Levitt was out of town.
I told two Amex supervisors who said they would take care of it.
There was a seismic event on the floor of the Amex. Many Amex members were furious. I was taking away their free sex- a prerogative that came with their membership. In French it is called "troussage de domestique," which refers the entitlement of the French upper class to demand sexual favors from domestic staff.
Two weeks later I saw Arthur Levitt. I told him what had happened- but he had already been notified by the governors.
Monderine had the backing of the Amex floor governors, past and present.
So Levitt bowed to the wishes of the governors and Monderine was not fired. I reported the alleged sexual misconduct to a Federal District Judge in writing.
Some years later Monderine was even promoted to be in charge of floor operations. A cocaine and alcohol abuser, who allegedly forced his African-American subordinates to have sex with him, was rewarded.
Monderine had the backing of Arthur Levitt, who was a personal friend of Morgenthau.
Monderine like Strauss-Kahn --who before his recent hotel alleged sexual assault had a coerced "affair" with a subordinate at the IMF-- believed that he was entitled to sex from those, whose employment was dependent upon his performance evaluation.
Monderine did not speak French but apparently was also a firm believer in "troussage de domestique."
(14) Strauss-Kahn led Keynesian Spending revival at IMF - rather than Austerity - to combat GFC
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/commentary/heavy-price-for-going-all-the-way-with-dsk/story-e6frgd0x-1226063675037
Heavy price for going all the way with DSK
Tony Makin From: The Australian May 27, 2011 12:00AM
[...] Strauss-Kahn certainly raised the profile of the IMF but, as it has turned out, mostly for the wrong reasons. Midway through his term, the North Atlantic banking crisis, better known as the global financial crisis, struck.
In response, along with advocating useful monetary and financial measures, the IMF strongly promoted naive Keynesian fiscal policies on a grand scale through the G20 process, policies followed by harmful aftershocks for the world economy.
Though combined with internationally co-ordinated monetary policy action, it often has been baldly claimed that it was the internationally co-ordinated fiscal response that saved the world from another Great Depression.
However, this will always be debatable and impossible to prove.
At the time senior IMF officials declared how surprising its Keynesian conversion must have seemed to those familiar with the advocacy of fiscal rectitude that distinguished IMF policy in the past. The IMF's exhortation to governments during the crisis to spend their way out of, but sadly for some subsequently further into, trouble was also at odds with much solid research undertaken by IMF economists through the years. This emphasised the macro-economic perils of profligate public spending and excessive public debt.
The Keynesian policies advocated under Strauss-Kahn's stewardship have left a woeful legacy of budget deficits and mountains of public debt worldwide, especially in the advanced economies, and precipitated the sovereign debt crisis afflicting numerous economies in western Europe.
Ironically, the IMF itself is now lending more to Europe than any other region, with Greece as the largest beneficiary with emergency loans exceeding $40 billion.
Meanwhile, in the US and Britain, budget deficits peaked at about 10 per cent of their respective gross domestic product and public debt levels skyrocketed because of a combination of budgetary cash injections into their stricken banking systems and excessive IMF-endorsed Keynesian fiscal responses.
Until now, the US has managed to avoid a subsequent full-blown public debt or currency crisis.
This is because East Asian and oil exporting countries refuse to allow their exchange rates to appreciate against the US dollar and quite irrationally use their excess US dollars to soak up US government bonds, despite the interest rate paid on them being unrealistically low.
Under Strauss-Kahn the IMF's lending standards were also apparently relaxed, which can only worsen the so-called moral hazard problem. This means that other economies in the future will err on the side of fiscal laxity, knowing full well that the IMF will be there to bail them out as necessary. ...
Tony Makin is professor of economics at Griffith University and a former international consultant economist with the IMF.
(15) Christine Lagarde, touted as new head of IMF, has close ties to US Corporations
http://www.voltairenet.org/article30512.html
With Christine Lagarde, US Corporations Enter the French Government
29 JUNE 2005
Unknown to the French, lawyer Christine Lagarde became the Foreign Trade Minister of the government of Dominique de Villepin. Only a few years ago, she was defending the interests of US multinationals to the detriment of French companies. Her political positions perfectly match her status as a member of the CSIS, the think tank of the oil lobby in the United States. ...
(16) WSWS Trots defend Strauss-Kahn's presumed innocence
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/may2011/left-m23.shtml
The American "left" and the Strauss-Kahn affair
By David Walsh
23 May 2011
[...] The American media has set about poisoning the atmosphere against Strauss-Kahn. The New York Times, the liberal newspaper of record, has been at the front of the pack, treating the French politician's guilt as an accomplished fact.
Public opinion is formed quickly in such matters, and Times executive editor Bill Keller knows perfectly well what he is doing, helping to contaminate the pool from which Strauss-Kahn's jury will eventually be selected. One of the Times' most recent contributions was the May 20 piece, "At I.M.F., Men on Prowl and Women on Guard," which described the institution as "a sharp-elbowed place ruled by alpha male economists."
From the point of view of the American media, the affair has become the latest opportunity to divert attention from the social calamity at home and neocolonial wars abroad. Characterizations of the IMF "big shot" as a bestial, serial "rapist," with their anti-French and anti-Semitic subtext, are aimed at whipping up the basest sentiments in the population.
The campaign in the New York media is receiving support from a shameful, if predictable, source. The American liberal left (the Nation) and "far left" (the International Socialist Organization) have added their voices to this retrograde campaign.
As we say, outside of allegations communicated by the police and the authorities, too little is known that could help anyone form a definitive opinion of the case.
What is known, however, is the context of Strauss-Kahn's arrest, which takes on a special significance in this case and guarantees that it is not a routine celebrity scandal. These are fraught times in the ongoing economic crisis. The position of IMF director is at the center of bitter conflicts between different countries and between different sections of the ruling elite. ...
The presumption of innocence, that the burden of proof lies with the state, is not a minor issue, to be paid lip service to and then dismissed, as with Pollitt. It is one of the foundations of any democratic legal system, set out in numerous law codes and constitutions, including the Declaration of the Rights of Man adopted by France's National Assembly in August 1789, a fruit of the great revolution.
The presumption of innocence is not referred to as such in the US Constitution, but legal scholars argue that the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments, with their emphasis on the right of the accused not to incriminate him- or herself, to "due process of law," to "an impartial jury" and to confront one's accuser clearly lead in that direction. Pollitt treats the presumption of innocence as an inconvenience.
Individuals or entire social layers indifferent or hostile to elementary democratic principles, in the supposed name of "feminism" or anything else, play a politically befouling role, and serve as adjuncts to the capitalist state as it builds up its machinery of repression.
The arguments of Sherry Wolf ("Not even close to a socialist") of the International Socialist Organization, posted on socialistworker.org, are in no way superior to those of Pollitt's; they are simply more hysterical.
Wolf, an associate editor of the International Socialist Review, the ISO's theoretical journal, hardly pays lip service to the presumption of innocence. She knows what went on in Strauss-Kahn's hotel room; her middle-class identity politics are her unfailing guide. <http://sherrytalksback.wordpress.com/2011/05/17/le-rapist-is-a-socialist-non/>
Strauss-Kahn, she informs her readers, is "a serial misogynist who raped a maid in a hotel—he's not in jail for an affair. Assuming that every female subordinate he's ever come in contact with is not a liar, Strauss-Kahn is an arrogant pig with enormous power who has gotten away with the sort of crimes that can get you 25 to life in most states. ...
(17) Paul Craig Roberts upholds Strauss-Kahn's innocence until proven guilty
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24931
Does America have a Culture?
by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts
Global Research, May 24, 2011
The culture of the United States is said to be a youth culture, which is defined in terms of entertainment: sex, rock music or its current equivalent, violent video games, sports, and TV reality shows. This culture has transformed the country and appears on the verge of transforming the rest of the world. There are even indications that secularized Arab and Iranian youth can't wait to be liberated and to partake of this culture of porn-rock.
America's former culture--accountable government, rule of law and presumption of innocence, respect for others and for principles, and manners--has gone by the wayside. Many Americans, especially younger ones, are not aware of what they have lost, because they don't know what they had.
This was brought home to me yet again by some reader responses to my recent columns in which I pointed out that Strauss-Kahn, the IMF director (now former) accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid, was denied the presumption of innocence. I pointed out that the legal principle of innocent until proven guilty was violated by the police and media, and that Strauss-Kahn was convicted in the media not only prior to trial but also prior to his indictment. ...
(18) Strauss-Kahn's fall is like Eliot Spitzer's before he could get the Wall St banksters
From: Steve Campbell <callstevec2@gmail.com> Date: 21.05.2011 10:04 PM
http://www.infowars.com/the-establishment-eliminates-a-threat/
The Establishment Eliminates A Threat
Paul Craig Roberts
Infowars.com
May 20, 2011
The police and the prostitute media have made it impossible for Dominique Strauss-Kahn to get a fair trial. From the moment of the announcement that he had been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a hotel maid, and before he was ever indicted, the accounts given by the police were designed to create the impression that the director of the International Monetary Fund was guilty. For example, the police told the media, which duly regurgitated to the public, that Strauss-Kahn was in such a hurry to flee the scene of the crime that he left behind his cell phone. The police also put out the story that by calling airlines and demanding passenger lists, they managed to catch the fleeing rapist just as his plane was departing for France.
A New York judge denied Strauss-Kahn bail on the basis of police misrepresentation that he was apprehended fleeing the country.
Once he was imprisoned, the police announced that Strauss-Kahn was on suicide watch, which is a way of suggesting to the public that the accused rapist might take his own life in order to avoid the public humiliation of a guilty verdict from a jury.
But what really happened, assuming one can learn anything from press reports, is that Strauss-Kahn, upon arriving at JFK airport for his scheduled flight, discovered that he did not have his cell phone and telephoned the hotel, the scene of the alleged crime. It boggles the mind that anyone could possibly think that a person fleeing from his crime would call the scene of the crime, ask about his left behind cell phone, and tell them where he was.
Then in rapid succession, reeking of orchestration, a French woman steps forward and declares that a decade ago she was nearly raped by Strauss-Kahn. This was followed by Kristin Davis, the Manhattan Madam of the prostitute who did in Eliot Spitzer before he could get the banksters on Wall Street, stepping forward to announce that one of her call girls refused to service Strauss-Kahn a second time because he was too rough in the act.
With hunting season opened, any woman whose career would benefit from publicity, or whose bank account would bless a damage award, can now step forward and claim to have been a victim or near victim of Strauss-Kahn.
This is not to deny that Strauss-Kahn might have an inordinate appetite for sex that did him in. It is to say that long before a jury hears from the maid, or from a prosecutor speaking for the maid "who is too traumatized to appear in court," the jury has been programmed with the verdict that he is guilty.
Why would he run away if he didn't do it?
Look at all the women he has accosted!
You get the picture.
I have written about the anomalies of the case. One of the most striking is the confirmed reports in the French and British press that a political activist for French President Sarkozy, Jonathan Pinet, tweeted the news of Strauss-Kahn's arrest to Arnaud Dassier, a spin doctor for Sarkozy, before the news was announced by the New York police.
Pinet's explanation for how he was the first to know is that a "friend" in the Sofitel Hotel, where the alleged crime took place, told him. Is it merely a coincidence that the men assigned the task of removing the Strauss-Kahn threat to French President Sarkozy's re-election had a clued-in friend in the Sofitel Hotel? Did the police clue-in the "friend" before they made the public announcement? If so, why?
What bothers me about the Strauss-Kahn affair is that if the police have evidence that supports their insistence on his guilt, it is pointless for the police to set Strauss-Kahn up in the media. Generally, set-ups like this occur only when there is no evidence or when the evidence has to be fabricated and cannot withstand examination.
As a person who had a Washington career, I find other aspects of the case disturbing. Strauss-Kahn had emerged as a threat to the establishment. Polls showed that as the socialist candidate, he was the odds-on favorite to defeat the American candidate, Sarkozy, in the upcoming French presidential election. Perhaps it was only electoral posturing to help defeat Sarkozy, but Strauss-Kahn indicated that he intended to move the International Monetary Fund away from its past policy of making the poor pay for the mistakes of the rich. He spoke of strengthening collective bargaining, and of restructuring mortgages, tax and spending policies in order that the economy would serve ordinary people in addition to the banksters. Strauss-Kahn said that regulation needed to be restored to financial markets and implied that a more even distribution of income was required.
These remarks, together with a likely win over Sarkozy in the French election, made Strauss-Kahn a double-barreled challenge to the establishment. The third strike against him was the recent IMF report that said China would surpass the US as the world's first economy within five years. ...
(19) Greenspan and Strauss-Kahn clash on regulation
By Alan Rappeport in New York
Published: October 1 2009 19:26 | Last updated: October 1 2009 19:26
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b95babbc-aea8-11de-96d7-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1N1KJYDxJ
Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chairman, continues to argue that even financial products that led to the economic crisis should not be banned, affirming his belief that markets should be the final arbiter over which tools work.
Mr Greenspan, who has faced criticism for making decisions that allowed the economic crisis, maintains that the market should judge these products. He disagrees with those, such as George Soros, who has called for an outright ban on tools that may have led to the crisis, and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, director of the International Monetary Fund, who has called for tougher regulation.
"I think you have to allow the market to make those judgments," Mr Greenspan said at last week's Yalta European Conference, explaining that many practices would naturally find themselves "off the table".
In spite of his pro-market mantra, Mr Greenspan said he thought capital requirements for financial institutions needed to be increased, regulators needed to crack down harder against fraud and that the problem of companies being "too big to fail" needed to be addressed.
Mr Greenspan's remarks came almost a year after he acknowledged at a Congressional hearing that he had "found a flaw" in his thinking and that he was wrong to assume that banks would protect themselves from financial market chaos.
Mr Strauss-Kahn, at the same conference, disputed the notion that the market was a sufficient remedy and argued that better enforcement of regulations was necessary to prevent future crises, which in low income countries can be "a question of life or death". Relying completely on the market, he said, came with a "huge human cost" in terms of lost economic output and unemployment.
"I don't think that it's possible to ban, totally, some kind of financial innovation," Mr Strauss-Kahn said. "On the other hand, I don't think that we can totally rely on market forces to do that."
The comments came as regulators fight to keep the economic recovery on track and central bankers review global financial regulation. A key question will be how to design an exit strategy to unwind from bold stimulus measures without rattling the markets.
On Thursday, Ben Bernanke, the current Fed chairman, proposed an oversight council that would monitor emerging risks to the financial system and called for a "holistic" approach to supervision. Meanwhile, the IMF said that the world economy was growing again, but that the recovery would be sluggish unless countries with large trade surpluses drive demand.
In the US, Mr Greenspan warned that the Federal Reserve must be free to tighten its monetary policy in spite of political pressures to keep interest rates low. Although there would be downward pressure on prices through next year, "serious inflation problems" loom in the longer-term.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
(20) Strauss-Kahn, in the Soros camp, proposes a global regulation strategy to the G20
http://www.imf.org/external/np/vc/2008/103008.htm
Dominique Strauss-Kahn: "I will propose a global regulation strategy to the G20"
Interview published in Le Monde, October 30, 2008
When will the downward spiral of the world's stock markets end?
The extreme volatility of the markets is evidence that the financial crisis is still having an impact. I am fairly confident that this volatility will subside because the American and European plans are sound; they just need a little time for their full impact to be felt. I am more concerned, however, about the slowdown of the global economy and its social repercussions. This is why the IMF cannot merely act as a firefighter, putting out balance of payments fires but must also be a builder helping to rebuild growth. We expect that global growth will be 3 percent in 2009, 0 percent for the advanced economies and 6-7 percent for the emerging countries. Since February, I have advised those countries that were in a position to do so, to anticipate the need for cyclical budgetary support.
You kept silent for a long time. Why were you not the one to prepare the Brown Plan, which has been a model for other bailout plans?
You do not have the whole picture, and that's normal. When a banking crisis erupts in a country, the IMF does not play a direct role but acts as an advisor to the government. Armed with our unique analysis of 122 past crises, we hammered home two recommendations: first, to end the case-by-case approach and develop a comprehensive plan; and then to recapitalize the banks, because an injection of liquidity would not suffice. Up until mid-September, the effectiveness of this plan required discretion. Since then, given that our advice has been heeded, we have been able to speak out publicly.
What do you think of Gordon Brown's proposal to make the IMF a world central bank with increased financial resources?
Gordon Brown is right to want to reform the world's financial architecture. With globalization, when the real estate market collapses in Virginia, Hungary suffers because the decline in the U.S. housing sector causes problems for U.S. banks and then for all banks around the world, because the U.S. banks repatriate their money from these foreign banks and cut credit to countries further afield. The domino effect ensues. The IMF can counteract this. To be able to do so, its needs to have its role as global regulatory coordinator reaffirmed. This is the approach Nicolas Sarkozy has taken. I would therefore propose a new governance plan or "global regulation strategy" to the G20 that would revolve around the following five key ideas:
1. Develop a new loan to relieve the short-term liquidity problems some economies face; we have already defined the features.
2. Increase the IMF's resources, which could prove insufficient in the medium-term in light of the scale of the needs; this is what Gordon Brown has proposed.
3. Draw lessons from the economic policies that have repeatedly caused these "bubbles," which destroy the real economy when they burst; this is the mission we were given a few days ago by the 185 member countries of the Fund.
4. Oversee the implementation of the new financial regulations drafted, in conjunction with the IMF, by the Financial Stability Forum, which brings together mainly the major central banks.
5. Contribute to redesigning a simpler, more effective world system that would be more coherent and better coordinated as a result. In addition to its roles as fireman and builder, the IMF could also play the role of architect for a period of time. ...
This is a time of great change. To varying degrees, all countries - including the United States - recognize that the market only functions if it is organized and that globalization cannot be expected to yield any benefits if its defects are not corrected.
Our meeting on October 11 in Washington was a turning point in this regard: our 185 member countries unanimously agreed to a cooperative system, which paved the way for European unanimity in Paris on October 13. You will recall that only a few days earlier, countries were viewing the situation exclusively through the prism of their national interests. ...
(21) Strauss-Kahn canvasses "insurance levy" on banks, and possibly a tax on financial trading
http://blogs.reuters.com/financial-regulatory-forum/2009/11/09/exclusive-imf-exploring-insurance-levy-on-banks/
IMF exploring insurance levy on banks
NOV 9, 2009 07:45 EST
By Brian Love
PARIS, Nov 8 (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund is exploring the idea of making banks pay insurance fees to fund any future rescues in the sector, IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Sunday.
He said such a tax would be in line with a proposal at the weekend by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who urged world governments to consider imposing a levy on banks.
Strauss-Kahn, speaking by telephone to Reuters, said his organisation was not pursuing a global tax on financial transactions — a so-called "Tobin tax" — which was one of several options floated by Brown.
But British media reports suggesting there is a split between the IMF and Britain on the fundamental idea of imposing a levy are wrong, Strauss-Kahn said.
"We're not working on a Tobin tax at the IMF" because such a tax would risk being unworkable, he said.
"We're working on a tax on the financial sector which, in line with what Gordon Brown said, would solicit an insurance premium from a business activity that is riskier than others."
The IMF will present concrete proposals for the tax next April to finance ministers of the Group of 20 leading economies, for review before submission to G20 leaders in June.
POLICY SHIFT
Brown's statement at a G20 meeting in Scotland on Saturday marked a shift for Britain, which had previously backed away from supporting a global tax on banks given London's pre-eminence as a financial centre.
Facing public criticism for spending tens of billions of pounds in bailing out British banks, Brown said it was time for banks to give something back to society.
"There have been proposals for an insurance fee to reflect systemic risk or a resolution fund or contingent capital arrangements or a global transaction levy," he said.
Soon after Brown spoke, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner rejected the idea of an across-the-board tax on financial trading. ...
(22) Era of self-regulation by markets is near the end - Strauss-Kahn
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/markets/imf-chief-questions-free-market-ideal/story-e6frg916-1225700288059
Era of self-regulation by markets is near the end, says IMF chief
From: AFP April 20, 2009 10:43AM
THE financial crisis has also led to a substantial revision of ideas regarding the market economy, IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said.
"I would not say that we are seeing the end of the market economy," he said.
"But we are certainly seeing the end of the idea that the market can regulate itself."
The IMF chief said: "A market economy needs rules. And this simple idea was forgotten, at least in the past decade."
At the same time, he said that world governments were too slow in cleaning up their banks' balance sheets.
"In Germany, other European countries or in the United States, everywhere, we are being too slow to deal with this topic," Mr Strauss-Kahn said in an interview with business daily Handelsblatt published today.
It was more important to find a way of helping banks rid themselves of their toxic assets, he said, than pumping money into the economy through economic stimulus packages.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will hold a crunch meeting tomorrow to thrash out a plan to remove toxic assets from banks - an issue that has become a political hot potato in Europe's largest economy with an election looming.
Mr Strauss-Kahn said he saw no pick-up in the global economy until the second half of 2010 and played down the risk of inflation, after massive stimulus packages being implemented by almost all major economies.
"In the short-term, the inflation risk is about zero. Today, we have more of a deflation problem," the former French finance minister said, adding that deflation could also have a sizeable impact on growth.
(23) Strauss-Kahn set up for trying to reform the IMF - Chossudovsky
From: Sandhya Jain <sandhya206@bol.net.in> Date: 22.05.2011 09:32 AM
Regime Change at the IMF: The Frame-Up of Dominique Strauss-Kahn?
Michel Chossudovsky
22 May 2011
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24866
http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=1790
The arrest of IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn has all the appearances of a frame-up ordered by powerful members of the financial establishment, in liaison with France's Nicolas Sarkozy, whose presidency has served the interests of the US at the expense of those of France and the European Union. While there is for the moment no proof of a plot, the unusual circumstances of his arrest and imprisonment require careful examination.
Immediately following Strauss Kahn's arrest, pressures were exerted by Washington to speed up his replacement as Managing Director of the IMF preferably by a non-European, an American or a handpicked candidate from an "emerging market economy" or a developing country.
Since the founding of the Bretton Woods institutions in 1945, the World Bank has been headed by an American whereas the IMF has been under the helm of a (Western) European. Strauss-Kahn is a member of elite groups who meet behind closed doors. He belongs to the Bilderberger. Categorized as one of the world's most influential persons, he is an academic and politician rather than a banker. In contrast to his predecessors at the IMF, he has no direct affiliation to a banking or financial institution.
But at the same time he is the fall guy. His "gaffe" was to confront the Washington-Wall Street Consensus and push for reforms within the IMF, which challenged America's overriding role within the organization. The demise of Strauss-Kahn potentially serves to strengthen the hegemony of the US and its control over the IMF at the expense of what former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called "Old Europe".
Blocking Strauss-Kahn, the Presidential Candidate
In recent years, a major shift has occurred in Europe's political landscape. Pro-American governments have been elected in both France and Germany. Social Democracy has been weakened. Franco-American relations have been redefined, with Washington playing a significant role in grooming a new generation of European politicians. The presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy has, in many regards, become a de facto US "client regime", broadly supportive of US corporate interests in the EU and closely aligned with US foreign policy.
There are two overlapping and interrelated issues in the DSK frame-up hypothesis. The first pertains to regime change at the IMF, the second to Strauss-Kahn as a candidate in France's forthcoming presidential elections. Both these processes are tied into the clash between competing US and European economic interests. Strauss-Khan as a favorite of the Socialist Party, would have won the presidential elections leading to the demise of "Our Man in Paris" Nicolas Sarkozy.
As documented by Thierry Meyssan, the CIA played a central undercover role in destabilizing the Gaullist party and supporting the election of Nicolas Sarkozy (See Operation Sarkozy: How the CIA placed one of its agents at the presidency of the French Republic, Reseau Voltaire, September 4, 2008)
A Strauss-Kahn presidency and a "Socialist" government would have been a serious setback for Washington, contributing to a major shift in Franco-American relations. It would also have contributed to weakening America's role on the European political chessboard. It would also have changed the balance of power between America and "Old Europe" (namely the Franco-German alliance). It would have had repercussions on the internal structure of the Atlantic Alliance and the hegemonic role of the US within NATO.
The Frame-Up?
Fifty-seven percent of France's population, according to a May 17 poll, believe that Strauss-Kahn was framed, victim of a set-up. ...
Challenging the Washington Consensus
What is at stake in the immediate wake of Strauss Kahn's demise is "regime change" at the IMF. The Obama administration has demanded his replacement by a more compliant individual. US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, former CEO of the New York Federal Reserve Bank is pushing for the replacement of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, "suggesting he can no longer perform his duties" as IMF Managing director.
"Geithner called for greater formal recognition by the IMF board that John Lipsky, the fund's second-in-command, will continue serving as temporary managing director for an interim period. Although Strauss-Kahn has yet to resign, sources say the IMF is in touch with his legal counsel to discuss his future at the organization."
What lies behind the frame-up scenario? What powerful interests are involved? Geithner had a close personal relationship with Strauss-Kahn. On the floor of the US Senate (May 18), Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois, called for the resignation of DSK while calling upon the IMF's deputy managing director John Lipsky to "assume full responsibility of the IMF" as interim managing director. The process of "permanent replacement should "commence at once," he said. John Lipsky is a well connected Wall Street banker, a former Vice Chairman at JPMorgan Investment Bank.
While the IMF is in theory an intergovernmental organization, it has historically been controlled by Wall Street and the US Treasury. The IMF's "bitter economic medicine", the so-called Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), imposed on countless developing countries, essentially serves the interests of creditor banks and multinational corporations. The IMF is not the main architect of these devastating economic reforms which have served to impoverish millions of people, while creating a "favorable environment" for foreign investors in Third World low wage economies. The creditor banks call the shots. The IMF is a bureaucratic entity. Its role is to implement and enforce those economic policies on behalf of dominant economic interests.
Strauss Kahn's proposed reforms while providing a "human face" to the IMF did not constitute a shift in direction. They were formulated within the realm of neoliberalism. They modified but they did not undermine the central role of IMF "economic medicine". The socially devastating impacts of IMF "shock treatment" under Strauss-Kahn's leadership have largely prevailed.
Dominique Strauss Kahn arrived at the helm of the IMF in November 2007, less than a year prior to September-October 2008 financial meltdown on Wall Street. The structural adjustment program (SAP) was not modified. Under DSK, IMF "shock treatment" which historically had been limited to developing countries was imposed on Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Under the helm of DSK as Managing Director, the IMF demanded that developing countries remove food and fuel subsidies at a time of rising commodity prices on the New York and Chicago Mercantile exchanges.
The hikes in food and fuel prices, which preceded the September-October 2008 Wall Street crash, were in large part the result of market manipulation. Grain prices were boosted artificially by large scale speculative operations. Instead of taming the speculators and containing the rise in food and fuel prices, the IMF's role was to ensure that the governments of indebted developing countries would not in any way interfere in the "free market", by preventing these prices from going up. These hikes in food prices, which are the result of outright manipulation (rather than scarcity) have served to impoverish people Worldwide. The surge in food prices constitutes a new phase of the process of global impoverishment.
DSK was complicit in this process of market manipulation. The removal of food and fuel subsidies in Tunisia and Egypt had been demanded by the IMF. Food and fuel prices skyrocketed, people were impoverished, paving the way towards the January 2011 social protest movement:
Fiscal prudence remains an overarching priority for the [Tunisian] authorities, who also see the need for maintaining a supportive fiscal policy in 2010 in the current international environment. Efforts in the last decade to bring down the public debt ratio significantly should not be jeopardized by a too lax fiscal policy. The authorities are committed to firmly control current expenditure, including subsidies,... (IMF Tunisia: 2010 Article IV Consultation - Staff Report; Public Information Notice on the Executive Board Discussion; and Statement by the Executive Director for Tunisia)
"[The IMF] encouraged the [Egyptian] authorities to press further with food and fuel subsidy reforms, and welcomed their intention to improve the efficiency and targeting of food subsidy programs [meaning the selective elimination of food subsidies]. Consideration should be given to introducing automatic adjustment mechanisms for domestic fuel prices to minimize distortions [meaning dramatic increases in fuel prices without State interference], while strengthening cash-based social programs to protect vulnerable groups. (IMF Executive Board Concludes 2008 Article IV Consultation with the Arab Republic of Egypt Public Information Notice, PIN No. 09/04, January 15, 2009)
Under the helm of DSK, the IMF also imposed sweeping austerity measures on Egypt in 2008, while supporting Hosni Mubarak's "efforts to broaden the privatization program". (Ibid)
The Frank G. Wisner Nicolas Sarkozy Connection
Strauss-Kahn was refused bail by Judge Melissa Jackson, an appointee and protégé of Michael Bloomberg, who in addition to his role as Mayor is a powerful figure on Wall Street. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. charged (using scanty evidence) Strauss-Kahn "with seven crimes, including attempted rape, sexual abuse, forcible touching and unlawful imprisonment".
Who is Cyrus Vance Jr.? He is the son of the late Cyrus Vance who served as Secretary of State in the Carter administration.
But there is more than meets the eye. Nicolas Sarkozy's step father Frank G. Wisner II, a prominent CIA official who married his step mother Christine de Ganay in 1977 served as Deputy Executive Secretary of State under the helm of Cyrus Vance Senior, father of District Attorney Cyrus Vance Junior.
Is it relevant? The Vance and Wisner families had close personal ties. In turn Nicolas Sarkozy had close family ties with his step father Frank Wisner (and his half brothers and sisters in the US and one member of the Wisner was involved in Sarkozy's election campaign).
It is also worth noting that Frank G. Wisner II was the son of one of America's most notorious spies, the late Frank Gardiner Wisner (1909- 1965), the mastermind behind the CIA sponsored coup which toppled the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran in 1953. Wisner Jr. is also trustee of the Rockefeller Brothers Trust.
While these various personal ties do not prove that Strauss-Kahn was the object of a set-up, the matter of Sarkozy's ties to the CIA via his step father, not to mention the ties of Frank G. Wisner II to the Cyrus Vance family are certainly worth investigating. Frank G, Wisner also played a key role as Obama's special intelligence envoy to Egypt at the height of the January 2011 protest movement.
Did the CIA play a role?
Was Strauss-Kahn framed by people in his immediate political entourage including President Obama and Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner?
Fair Trial? Innocent before proven guilty? The US media has already cast its verdict. Will the court procedures be manipulated?
One would expect that Strauss-Kahn be granted a fair trial, namely the same treatment as that granted to thousands of arrests on alleged sexual aggression charges in New York City. How many similar or comparable alleged sexual aggressions occur on a monthly basis in New York City? What is the underlying pattern? How many of these are reported to the police? How many are the object of police follow-up once a complaint has been filed?
What is the percent of complaints submitted to police which are the object of police arrest? How many of these arrests lead to a judicial procedure? What are the delays in court procedures?
How many of these arrests lead to release without a judicial procedure? How many of the cases submitted to a judicial procedure are dismissed by the presiding judge? How many of the cases which are not dismissed are refused bail outright by the presiding judge? What is the basis for refusing bail?
How many are granted bail? What is the average amount of bail? How many are imprisoned without bail based on scanty and incomplete evidence?
How many of those who are refused bail are sent to an infamous maximum security prison on Rikers Island on the orders of Michael Bloomberg?
Diplomatic Immunity
Press reports state that full diplomatic immunity does not apply to officials of the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions, namely that the US did not ratify the protocol. "UN convention on privileges and immunities for international agencies that most countries have ratified. It gives the heads of UN agencies broad immunity in the countries where they are based. But the US government never became a party to that treaty. Employees of international agencies are covered by a US statute that gives only limited immunity."
The relevant question is how has this limited immunity provision been applied in practice? Namely how many people with limited immunity (UN officials, officials of the Bretton Woods institutions) have been arrested and sent to a high security prison? Has Strauss Kahn been given the same treatment as those arrested under the provisions of "limited immunity"?
Does the Strauss Kahn arrest fit the pattern? Or is Strauss Kahn being treated in a way which does not correspond to the normal (average) pattern of police and judicial procedures applied in the numerous cases of persons arrested on alleged sexual assault charges?
Without a frame-up instrumented by very powerful people acting in the background, the head of the IMF would have been treated in an entirely different way. The mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg and Timothy Geithner would have come to his rescue. The matter would have been hushed up with a view to protecting the reputation of a powerful public figure. But that did not happen.
© Copyright Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, 2011; courtesy GlobalResearch.ca
(24) Left's defence of DSK as a victim of 'elite conspiracy' is degenerate - James Petras
Dominique Strauss-Kahn: The Colonial Predator Legacy
James Petras
23 May 2011
://www.lahaine.org/petras/index.php?p=1856&c=1
The attempted rape and sexual abuse of an African cleaning woman by the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) embodies, in microcosm, the entire historical and contemporary legacy of colonial neo-colonial relations. Efforts to portray this criminal act as an individual obsession or a personal failing or a "Latin idiosyncrasy" fail to take account of the 'deep history' in which these psychological pathologies are embedded. ...
Contemporary Neocolonialism: They Come, They Plunder, They Rape
The IMF and their imperial financial accomplices take advantage of the debts and crises of corrupt and complicit rulers to dictate terms for loans. The top officials seize sovereignty and impose economic policies, which privatize and de-nationalize the entire economy, reduce wages and pensions, worsen working conditions and retain a veto on all local economic appointees. The IMF and Central Banks re-colonize the debtor country: All earnings from trade and investment are primarily directed outward and upward. The neo-colonial division of labor involves imperial capital and black labor. ...
DSK, the imposing ruler over the major global financial institution, did not expect his sexual advances to be resisted by an immigrant, a former French colonial subject. Initially denied submission, DSK relied on force and violence. ...
Not surprisingly, the majority of French "Socialist" opinion has defended DSK and accused his victim, the black African working woman, of being part of a sinister capitalist conspiracy against the principle chosen mouthpiece and enforcer of international capital. ...
One has only to look at the French Socialists and US Liberals support for Israeli colonialist over the Palestinians "terrorists"; or NATO occupiers against the Afghan resistance; or Tunisian autocrats over pro-democracy protestors.
The fact that sectors of the 'left' in France and America can claim DSK as a victim of some 'elite conspiracy' is a clear sign of their total and complete degeneracy and the perversion of any semblance of progressive sentiment. Under Strauss-Kahn's dictates the IMF has imposed the most reactionary social cuts in recent history on Spain, Greece, and Portugal: Unemployment is 45% for under-30 year-olds in Spain and overall 22%; in Greece 16% and Portugal 13%. Pensions have been reduced by 15% and wages by a similar or greater amount. Vast sectors of the Greek economy, valued at 50 billion Euros are to be privatized, as DSK plays to the private multi-nationals. Under IMF austerity policies Southern European economies are regressing – as public investments and private consumption shrink and negative growth rates hover between 5% - 10% over the past 3 years with no end in sight.
If there is any 'conspiracy' to frame DSK it certainly does not come from any 'elite' or 'banking cartel'. What is much more likely, is that after the initial jailing and indictment, the financial powers backing DSK will move into action – they have secured his conditional release under bail; the victim and accuser has been subject to intense police interrogation and more 'media' and legal pressure can be expected to force her to retract charges. The legal system rarely ever works in favor of working-class victims facing a high powered legal team backing a millionaire predator, especially one who speaks and works for the international capitalist class. ...
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