Everything points to a false accusation against Strauss-Kahn

Brazilian newspaper “O Estado de S. Paulo”, on its May 15th, 2011 issue, page A20, tells us of the alleged sexual abuse, of which I insistently do not believe, committed by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, director of the International Monetary Fund and Nicolas Sarkozy´s strongest adversary in the upcoming 2012 French presidential election. I am not deeming the newspaper as a liar, after all the brilliant politician, jurist and economist was in fact arrested by American authorities in New York City while already inside an Air France airplane which was going to take him to Paris. The imprisonment, only minutes before take-off, of such a renowned person – a setup, in my opinion – indeed happened, it was a fact, which therefore justifies the aforementioned newspaper news report. The newspaper, however, does not question the truth of the rape accusation.

According to the victim — or “alleged” victim, a 32-year-old hotel housekeeper –, as she entered the hotel room in order to perform a routine cleanup, Strauss-Kahn left the bathroom naked and attempted to sexually abuse her, unsuccessfully, though, since she was able to disentangle herself from his hold, despite of enduring some “minor injuries”. The housekeeper then warned the hotel employees of what had happened and they called the police, which did not hesitate to arrest the politician moments before his airplane took off.

Only an incredibly high level of drunkenness – something which has not been mentioned so far – or an unbelievable mental imbalance or block would explain such an abnormal behavior coming from a potential President of France, harmful not only to himself but also to the Socialist Party, to which he belongs. With his power and wealth, it is inconceivable that the economist would, on his normal state, “attack” a stranger, in the same manner in which an illiterate pervert would, without predicting her reaction. New York is the antithesis of a nunnery; on the contrary, its harem of attractive call-girls is available through a mere phone call. A “professional” would be more than willing to satisfy the amorous desires of any “client” with complete and utter discretion, without even paying attention to who the client was – after all, such professionals, as in any part of the world, never request an ID.

It is important to emphasize that he was not “caught in the act”, i.e., “flagrante delicto”. Should there not be a secret intention to publicly vilify him – “preventing an attempted aerial escape”, as some local headlines described it - , the regular procedure of the police would be to hear the alleged victim, verify her authenticity and honesty – even through the use of a lie detector – and, once convinced of the veracity of the accusation, only then proceed with the arrest of the “pervert politician”. However, an atmosphere of a 007 movie thriller was probably a necessary factor in the probable setup.

The use of politics and justice for shady purposes is far from being a rare practice both in political rivalry and corporate competition. And this is what the present case seems to be. The French right wing, notably Sarkozy, wants to win the next election at all costs. A scandal such as this one changes everything. It is possible that a “noble-minded enemy of the left” has, on an “impulse of creativity”, devised a scheme to harm the most dangerous adversary of the current French president, making up a particularly advantageous story to demoralize the rival.

Advantageous because it combines two characteristics: first, in rape accusations – either performed or attempted -, the American people have a tendency to always take the victim´s side (alleged or not). A tearful and humiliated face instantly condemns any alleged abuser, automatically inverting the burden of proof – “the accused is the one who needs to prove his/her innocence”. Which is a difficult task, considering there are no witnesses, images or recordings. In the case of politicians, even when there is no evidence of the attemped rape and the accused is consequently acquitted, the nature of the accusation and the repeated exposure of the case by the media are enough to cast a shadow on the accused, making him/her consequently lose any elections he/she might be involved.

The second advantage of this kind of accusation is that it also benefits the alleged victims, assuring them an almost certain impunity: the case often ends without a definitive conclusion about what really happened inside the closed room. For a few hundreds of thousands of dollars it is easy to find a brave and improvised “artist” to serve as a victim, who may even want to get a million dollars, an insignificant amount considering what it means, directly or indirectly, to be the president of a country from the First World. As for the “light injuries”, this is something very easy to simulate.

I write these suspicious lines because I remember what happened in the USA before the election of President John F. Kennedy. The father of the American politician who reached the Presidency was an incredibly smart, active and daring businessman. Before focusing his abilities in electing his son to the highest position of the USA (and of the world), he was a businessman working in show business. He had, however, a rival – a Greek man, as far as I can remember – who was constantly beating him in that activity. Resentful, he hired a clever and ambitious teenager to simulate an attempted rape. The girl managed to arrange a meeting with the Greek, in his office, pretending to look for an opportunity as an artist. After a few moments she went towards the man, pulled his shirt, dismantled his hair, tore her own dress and fled the Office “in panic”, screaming and announcing she had been the victim of a sexual crime. The astonished Greek went after her, claiming innocence, but since his own clothes were disheveled and the girl emotionally insisted on the accusation, he was immediately arrested. A jury convicted him severely and his lawyers had a lot of work to acquit him in the appeal.

This story is described in a book about real crimes which I read many years ago, written by an American or Canadian author - perhaps a Canadian author named Max Haines in a series called “True Crime Stories”. I don´t recall the exact volume of the series but I am sure I have a copy in my personal collection, among the more than 6.000 books I keep unorganizedly ( “a man is the only animal who buys more books than he is capable of reading”). Should anyone raise any doubt regarding such report, I am sure I would be able to locate it, even though it has now only a historical interest. By the way, it is interesting to mention that the same author says that the aforementioned girl, “the victim”, years later, on her deathbed, confessed that the alleged sexual attack had indeed been simulated in exchange for money.

Now, it is Mr. Strauss-Khan´s place to defend himself firmly and intelligently, if indeed he has been slandered – which seems to me to be the case. Since there are plenty of months left to the election, there will be sufficient time for the lawsuit to end and for an investigative work take place, which, if properly exposed by the media demonstrating the evidence of the setup, might make the electorate progressively understand what really went on, i.e., an odious setup. Therefore, if this really is a setup perpetrated by Sarkozy´s allies, it might very well backfire, compulsorily “retiring” the always daring and imaginative President. It would be the French Watergate.

After writing the present article yesterday, today I read on the same newspaper that the housekeeper in question has been described as “a serious and competent professional who has never been involved in any problems at work”, and that has put a small shadow of a doubt in my mind. Not an absolute doubt, however, because if this whole case is indeed a setup, the female piece of the scheme could never be a woman with no morals and/or a questionable past, something which would take away all credibility of the scheme. In other words, the woman in question needed to have a good reputation in order to make the scheme believable.

If, however, it is proved in court that this has been indeed a case of an outburst of insanity from such a well-versed and sensible man, then I will concede and acknowledge my mistake. I will ask the honorable housekeeper for forgiveness, for questioning her version of the story, apparently in contrast to most of the people who have studied and have a lot to lose when they exceed the limits. I will then recognize the wisdom of the famous philosopher who once said: “Man is fire. Woman is flax. The devil comes and blows on them”.

My suspicion is that the “blow” is no more than a devilish breath with the smell of Rochefort cheese extracted from lambs and with a spicy taste.

Only a “dark spirit”, with its evil power, would be able to destroy, in one single blow and in two minutes, an incredible career carefully built during decades.

Will it be necessary, in the Western world, to castrate all politicians, so that they avoid making monumental mistakes?

(May 15th, 2011)