A tale of the Ugly IMF and the rape of Beautiful Africa
July 26th, 2011
NewsRescue- On Saturday, May 14th, 2011, an African maid at the Sofitel hotel in New York cried, rape! According to her, she was doing her rounds, when she accidentally walked into the room of the then IMF(International Monetary Fund) president, thinking it was unoccupied, only to see him come out of the bathroom, naked. She apologized and attempted to leave, but as she reported, he ran after her, grabbed her breasts, reached for her crotch and forced her to give him oral copulation.
The story of the rape allegation of Dominique Strauss-Khan(DSK), the Jewish boss of the IMF and Nafissatou Diallo, the illiterate maid from Guinea in Africa is not news anymore. We will not go into the intricate details. What we will be reviewing is the turn of events since the rape allegation, and scrutinizing relevant aspects of the encounter.
The influential IMF boss’ legal team subsequently hired ex-CIA operatives to dig up the past of Naffisatou. She was labelled a prostitute across headlines of daily papers, even though such libel was not supported with evidence.
She was also castigated for having supposedly lied in filing for asylum, manipulating her tax return papers to get more money back, and for her links to fellow Africans who were reportedly involved in certain criminal activities and had at some point transferred funds into her account. Nafissatou was painted as an unreliable accuser and the case started to fall apart.
The first point that disappoints all anti-rape advocates with this sequence of events is the fact that this type of dirt digging will further reduce the reporting of this already under-reported crime. Especially so among minorities when raped by the influential. Rape victims are already ashamed of the act, and the fear of further public embarrassment when all skeletons in their life history are brought to the fore will surely keep rape one of the most under-reported crimes.
[ad#medium]
Nafissatou’s record is not uncommon in the US. Tax evasion is a widespread crime in the US, with an estimated over $50 Billion lost by the Government every year, mostly via corporate tax evasion. Does this put all the big corporations and individuals responsible for this at the mercy of non justice in the event of rape?
On the issue of her immigration stories, this is also a common phenomenon among immigrants who manipulate their details abroad to be allowed entry and stay in the ‘great USA’. All immigrants who might have some not too accurate details on their immigration documents will also be compelled into silence in the unfortunate event of rape. Immigrants from ‘developing’ Nations sometimes argue that the western Nations colonized and robbed their Nations on false premise in like fashion, and as reparations have not been paid, their seeking any means necessary to visit and/or stay in the west is well earned. We could go on, but the reality is clear,- immigrants and other minorities are less likely to report crimes against them while in the US depending on the outcome of this case.
And then, what of the claims of her incidents of lies? Indeed if lies are a reason to be denied justice, we remember lies of presidents, and top government officials, from an illegal occupation of Iraq supported by false claims of weapons of mass destruction, to more recently the several revised, fabricated stories of the assassination of the renowned terrorist, Osama Bin Ladin that the Obama white house gave. At the time, Senator John Kerry described the lies as the work of the ‘Beast’. What is the repercussion for these powerful US citizens?
Now, how about DSK himself, the leader of the IMF, a body known for its raping of the African continent. Where his past sins dug up? How well did the media publicize his past records? We at NewsRescue did a little digging, and what we found horrified us.
DSK is known as a brutal woman hunter who is feared by women. A book written about him described him as an incorrigible seducer whose weakness for women could fatally scupper his presidential ambitions. An article in the Telegraph describes-
Excerpts:
“..has had a string of extra-marital affairs and that photographs exist of him coming out of a wife-swapping club. ..”
“…Frédéric Lefebvre, a Sarkozy adviser, boasted in 2007 that he had seen photographs of DSK, as the French call him that would wreck any presidential bid. “He wouldn’t last a week,” Mr Lefebvre said. “We’ll circulate them.” The book, Secrets of a Presidential Contender, is by an anonymous French author calling herself Cassandre, and who claims to be in DSK’s inner circle of advisers.
She writes: “He is always on the hunt for new women.
“He is a pleasure seeker. Like all great political animals, he has trouble controlling himself.
“His eye for women is sharp as a laser. When he enters a cafe, an office or any public place, the ritual is the same. ..”
“After identifying his prey, he bombards them with text messages, usually with the opening salvo ‘I want you’.“He is direct and makes no concessions.”
Mr Sarkozy – not known for his monastic tendencies – is even said to have warned DSK about his weakness for women before he left to run the IMF in New York.
“Over there they don’t joke about this sort of thing. Your life will be passed under a magnifying glass. Avoid taking the lift alone with interns.France cannot permit a scandal,” the president is quoted as warning him.
But within weeks, DSK was accused of showing favouritism to Piroska Nagy, a Hungarian economist in the fund’s Africa department, with whom he had conducted a brief affair.
One of DSK’s advisers is said to have exclaimed: “But you’ve only been here a month!”
Mrs Nagy later declared: “I believe that man (DSK) has a problem.” His wife forgave him on her blog and he was cleared of any wrongdoing.
However, the author claims the IMF affair may only be the tip of the iceberg, quoting French actress Danielle Evenou as saying: “Who hasn’t been cornered by Dominique Strauss-Kahn?” She tells of another female Socialist MP who claims she makes sure she is never alone in a room with him.
Tristane Banon, a writer, claims she had to fend Mr Strauss-Kahn off with kicks and punches(Attempted Rape!) when he invited her to a meeting in a room furnished with a double bed and a television.
When he turned up for a radio interview in France last year, the house comedian advised female staff to wear long garments to avoid “awakening the beast”. ..”
Indeed DSK was accused of the ‘Abuse of Power’, in the case with an IMF employee, Piroska Nagy. In that incident, he issued this statement, “I am grateful that the Board has confirmed that there was no abuse of authority on my part, but I accept that this incident represents a serious error of judgment”, Washington Post reported.
Piroska Nagy later lost her job with the IMF.
Further digging into the life of DSK, revealed that in 2007, he had been caught by the police in Paris engaging in public sex, with a prostitute in a car. The UK Sun headlines labelled him thus, IMF chief ‘caught in car romp with tart’.
What baffles us is, in a case of his word vs hers, why did the case appear to fall apart when the maids past errors were dug up, when the accused’s past is much worse in direct relation to the crime at hand. Indeed women have been warned to keep away from this gorilla like, out of control male.
We also ask, if indeed Nafissatou was an opportunist as she has been labelled, what are the odds that she picked this known ‘rapist’, of all guests she has every day and all year?
Secondly we ask, how was it that this illiterate maid in her description of the unique, gorilla like, animalistic attack, perfectly gave a description of the nature of this mans sexuality from his previous history. Other than this being a planned set up, and Nafissatou knowing the record of this man and her having read the book written about his sexuality, it is almost impossible for her to have made up such a perfect tale of him grabbing her breasts, running after her and forcing her into sex that fits his past activities description like a custom fitted glove. Some speculators see it as so perfect, they believe that Sarkozy, the current president of France who expected to meet DSK as a rival in the up coming presidential elections set Nafissatou up to it.
Critically examining the events of that unfortunate day, we see a maid, who like many who are raped and molested every day in hotels around the world, but are too shy and embarrassed to come forward, hiding in the lobby till she was seen and encouraged to give the tail. With much spitting, she revealed what had elapsed. The recount of the events, has DSK checking out of the hotel so fast, at 12.30, barely 30 minutes after the alleged encounter. It is reported that he was at the airport by 1.30 for a 4.40pm flight to Paris.
This part of the Timeline is beast read from TheDailyBeast:
Lawyers for the former IMF chief raise questions about the chronology offered by police and prosecutors which implied that a panicked Strauss-Kahn fled the hotel in a great hurry after the alleged assault. If the assault happened around noon, it is a matter of record that Strauss-Kahn checked out before 12:30. “He must be a very fast dresser,” says one law enforcement official. French sources familiar with the case told me the day after the arrest that Strauss-Kahn had lunch with his daughter Camille before leaving for the airport. But some members of the prosecution team tell me they are skeptical that the lunch ever took place. They believe Strauss-Kahn went straight to the airport and arrived there about 45 minutes after he checked out of the hotel, so, at about 1:15 for the 4:40 flight to Paris that he had booked several days before. Then, to everyone’s surprise, Strauss-Kahn called the hotel. He said he thought he might have forgotten one of his cell phones in the suite.
An interesting call, one must say. And highly suspicious to say the least.
The excerpt continues:
Coached by the NYPD detectives, a member of the hotel staff offered to have the phone delivered to Strauss-Kahn at the airport. The police worried at first this extraordinary bit of service would arouse his suspicions, but the hotel staff assured them that VIPs would see this sort of thing as perfectly normal. In fact, contrary to initial reports, there was no phone actually found in the room. None of Strauss-Kahn’s effects had been left behind (apparently he was as quick a packer as he was a dresser). But the delivery was made anyway. “Instead of a phone,” said one cop, “we brought him handcuffs.”
Nafissatou has started talking and describing the events as she recollects them. We do hope DSK too will come forward and recount the events, but we are convinced this will never happen for the simple reason that any and everything he says will instantly incriminate him.
What type of man goes to a hotel and tries to sleep with the staff? According to the daily beast: “..from the moment he checked into his hotel in New York City last Friday, May 13. As soon as he got to his suite, 2806, he called back down to the front desk and asked the receptionist if she would like to join him for a drink. ..” Regardless of the events that transpired, DSK can be found guilty of rape for the simple reason that by definition, rape includes any form of the ‘abuse of power‘, and/or ‘coercion‘ to make a vulnerable victim engage in sex. Was DSK powerful? Obviously, the story has it that he declared his position at the IMF to the maid. Being an illiterate maid from Africa, immediately puts her in a position of vulnerability.
She repeatedly complained that she did not wish to loose her job, to which he assured her(coerced her) that she wouldn’t. By all means she will avoid harming him, resisting violently or any other confrontation that could jeopardize her job, the best job she had ever had and a job she will die to keep. Reporting the crime would also be a big problem for her, because as we see with this case and all victims and potential victims know of rape, you are many at times more likely to get destroyed rather than the perpetrator getting fair justice. In positions of vulnerability, rape victims quickly succumb. DSK automatically had her, just as Doctors have their patients, professors have their students and Priests have their congregation, in a state of vulnerability. He had power and the ability to abuse it, as he has been accused of in the past.
Will justice ultimately be served in this case? We are yet to know, but justice has already been decreed in the court of the people. Hotel maids should be respected and protected. Nafissatou has additionally been raped of her dignity, by the so-called revelations of the ex-CIA agents of her personal life that were made public. For this, we can only but offer our deepest sympathy and solidarity.
