But the thing is, if you look throughout history, this kind of stupid action on the part of high level officials happens all the time. You can just rattle off the names of people – generally men – who got into major trouble because of stupid sexual adventures. Quite often it killed a brilliant career.
So just because it was something stupid to do does not mean in any way that he didn’t do it.
Here’s an interesting CS Monitor articleabout differences in U.S. and French justice systems in this case. Apparently- if this article is correct- if this happened in France Strauss-Kahn’s name would be kept out of the press but not his accusers. (In America the accusers name is being kept out due to custom but not by law; it’s easily google-able due to smaller papers and blogs and French papers that have revealed it.)
I don’t find it at all inconceivable that DSK may have committed the crime although I’m withholding judgement for the moment.
Back in the day, I was harrassed by a very powerful businessman who had held a prominent political position here in Texas.
The nature of my job forced me to have contact with him and while he never raped me, he constantly made suggestive remarks.
It culminated when I found myself alone in my office with him and he grabbed me, groped me and dry humped my leg. I pushed him away and told him that if his behavior continued, he was toast. I don’t know what would have happened if the environment had been different and we hadn’t been in a building with other people in the vicinity.
I don’t think he was into forced sex but he sure had a very difficult time taking no for an answer.
This man could have bought a woman easily, were he inclined to take that route.(And for all I know, he did).
He was also engaged to be married to an attractive young lawyer within the month.
And no, I’ve never been Playmate of the Month material so I don’t think my overwhelming beauty was a factor. :rolleyes:
He was a pig,he liked to fuck around, he was used to getting his way and he had a real hard time accepting that any woman he wanted wasn’t available.
I think it had everything to do with power and little to do with sexual attraction.
At 3000.00 a night room, he probably thought she came with the amenities. Was she wearing a french maid’s outfit ? The rich and famous are used to people sucking up, when a sports team is in a hotel the young ladies that work there volunteer for double shifts and room service duty just for the chance a millionaire athlete might find her attractive. Tiger’s wife was a damn nanny, now she’s one of the richest people in sweeden. That movie “officer & a gentleman” is based on the truth, The girls crawl over themselves to get into the Officer’s Clubs.
I keep hearing about the 3000 a night room. Has this actually been verified? What hotel? Was the IMF paying for the trip or was this a personal expense?
I can think of tons of politicians who got caught in sex scandals, but at the moment I am failing to thing of even one other who’s been accused of forcible rape.
I see in the French press some people are saying that it’s unusual for a maid to go into a room alone; usually they go in teams of two. That’s B.S. I’ve been to hotels all over the world, and maids almost always go into rooms alone to clean them. Certainly, that’s the standard practice in New York City.
The ex-Prez of Israel was already mentioned, not only accused but convicted of rape. But your right its not exactly common compared to more ho-hum sex scandals.
The Sofitel. No word yet on why he was even in NY, though.
Thanks that was helpful.
The IMF put out a statement saying he was on personal business, they only reimburse for up to approximately 400usd for New York Hotels.
Looking online at their suites I can get up to $1400 a night, I tried to find more expensive weekends to stay but just couldn’t find a 3000 dollar room. I have no status with them and have no idea if they offer suites exclusive to members.
I remain curious as to who first put out the $3000 figure and how they came upon that number.
As to him ‘trying to flee the country’ His flight was already booked in advanced and it was him who called the hotel and informed them he had left behind his phone and asked that they send it to the airport, where the police found him.
The way the fact are coming out, keeps making me more skeptical as they seem loaded to even more vilify him(as if rape wasn’t enough)
Why is the $3000 dollar figure being thrown out and why it being made out like the police had to track him down to stop his getaway, he wasn’t exactly hard to find, he called the hotel looking for his missing phone and told them where he was. Admittedly if he was stupid enough to rape this women he might be stupid enough to botch his own getaway but I’m interested in hearing more before coming to a conclusion.
A lot of guys really DO think that women can’t say no to them, either because the guys think that they are irresistible, or because the guys think that women don’t have the right to say no.
I think that this guy thought both…that he was irresistible AND that women don’t have the right to say no.
I’m not sure it’s 13 in many countries. Nava cited Spain, but I’m pretty sure they raised the age of consent some years ago (by the way, the age of consent at 13 was intended to accomodate Gitanos’ customs, if I’m not mistaken).
Yes. Medias in France aren’t allowed to publish pictures of handcuffed suspects (because of the negative impact it would have on public perception). Also, if the press is present, police officers typically cover the face of suspects with some garnment so that they can’t be identified. That applies to anonymous people and I’ve no doubt it would doubly applies for a public figure.
As I read somewhere, even if DSK was freed tomorrow with deep apologies for the mistake, his pictures in front of the judge, unshaven, dazzled, apparently half-absent, would be enough to put an end to his political career.
It doesn’t apply in the same way to UN officials or representants of countries to an UN body. The most absurd example of this has been a French guy involved in an illegal weapon trade in Africa. Nigeria (if I remember correctly) appointed him as her representant to the UNESCO (whose seat is in Paris). The guy immediatly got diplomatic immunity (note that he wan’t an official of the UNESCO, contrarily to DSK for the IFM, but the representant of a country), despite being a French citizen residing in France.
The host country didn’t have in this case the option to refuse diplomatic status, because he wasn’t representing his country in France but in an UN institution that happened to be situated in France.
Bill Clinton and Bush II, for starters, although neither of those accusations led to arrests.
And she was, according to Le Figaro, a practicing Muslim who wears a head scarf to obscure her hair, so the kinky-maids-outfit seems unlikely.
In Maureen Dowd’s column on this in the Times yesterday, she notes that his lawyer claims it was consensual, partly because the fact that she entered by herself and not with one or two others was telling. Dowd says she stays at the Softel all the time, and never has seen multiple maids coming in. She also repeated the $3,000 number. I suspect that there are suites which can’t be reserved on-line, but are kept for VIPs of various types. (I’ve actually stayed in one of these when running a big conference.)
Numerous commentators have noted that in some countries the alleged victim would have been told to shut up if she wanted to keep her job. If he was used to this behavior, and if he had done it before, he might well not have acted as someone guilty.
By the way, do you have cites about him having reserved his flight or him calling back? Not that I doubt you, but I haven’t seen this before. His lawyer claims he had some meetings between the time of the incident and him boarding the flight, but I didn’t hear where they were.
As for the reason for him being in New York, I had read that it was to visit his daughter, which is quite plausible.
I really, really hope that winds up being his defense - “She came into the suite alone while I was naked in the bathroom! Obviously that gives me an irrevocable license to fuck her in any way I please! How could anyone think anything different?”
I also read that there was almost an hour delay between when the accuser reported the incident to her boss and when the hotel called 911. Sounds like possibly hotel management sat around for a while, trying to figure out if they really want to go through with this. Wouldn’t be surprised if they also viewed surviellance footage during this time before concluding that they couldn’t get away with not reporting it.
What’s telling is that this argument is what is being used to demonstrate consent, and not something more explicit. If it’s true that his lawyer said this, then I don’t think things are going to go well for him, and it’s hard to feel sorry about that.
I mean, at least say that she started undressing upon sight of his naked bod. That is evidence of consensual sex. “The maid entered my room alone” is an experience shared by 99% of all regular, late-sleeping hotel patrons, and somehow none of us assume this means sex is being offered. At least I don’t, and I have maids walk in on me all the time. (Even sometimes when I’m half naked.)
Exactly. I mean, here is Dowd quoting Bernard-Henri Lévy, a friend of the accused: "It would be nice to know — and without delay — how a chambermaid could have walked in alone, contrary to the habitual practice of most of New York’s grand hotels of sending a ‘cleaning brigade’ of two people, into the room of one of the most closely watched figures on the planet.”
This guy either never stays in hotels, or is incredibly self-deluded.