If Strauss Kahn, He Will? (Updated)

By Steve Hynd

My first reaction to the news that Dominique Strauss Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, had been accused of assault and rape by a New York Hotel chambermaid was to think that it only goes to show that there are a lot of high-function sociopaths among the world's leadership. My second, cynical reaction, was to wonder if the DGSE, the French intelligence agency imfamous for its meddling in French politics and its dirty tricks, was back at it's old games. After all the timing was just too pat - just at the beginning of the campaigning season for next years French presidential elections and effectively kneecapping the candidacy of the man most expected to be the Left's candidate and the eventual winner over Sarkozy. Now though, I'm coming back to my first reaction.

(And yes, I realise that there's a legal presumption of innocence and I respect that. I also realise that a lot of people who the law first presumes innocent are subsequently found guilty and that there's no inconsistency in a democracy between that legal presumption and my having an opinion about someone's presumed innocence. Partisan appeals to not voice personal opinions until the court has decided are just silly. But I digress.)

Strauss Kahn has now been held without bail, citing a flight risk (a la Roman Polanski). He's retained celebrity lawyer Benjamin Brafman, who successfully defended Michael Jackson and P.Diddy against sexual assault charges - which to be honest in my mind yells out "I'm in such deep shit that I'm going to need the guy with the proven track record of getting scumbags off the hook". And prosecutors say they're investigating another incident of a similiar nature that took place abroad - a probable reference to revelations from French writer Tristane Banon.

Tristane Banon previously described the attack, which happened when she was in her early 20s, in a television programme in 2007, when she called Strauss-Kahn, whose name was bleeped out, a "rutting chimpanzee."

She says she consulted a lawyer at the time, but was persuaded not to take action by her mother, a regional councillor in the Socialist party and friend of the Strauss-Kahn family. Banon is goddaughter to Strauss-Kahn's second wife.

Banon's lawyer, David Koubbi, said: "We are planning to make a complaint. I am working with her."

Like many a rapist, other victims come forward when one finally has the courage to speak out. I suspect there will be others who will now emerge to say this sociopath with power took advantage of that power.

Update: Let's remember that Strauss Khan has already been involved in one scandal for an affair at the IMF which he at first denied. Once exposed, he said that "While this incident constituted an error in judgment on my part, for which I take full responsibility, I firmly believe that I have not abused my position".

 Defenders are now citing his recent interview with Liberation magazine as warning of a smear attempt by his rivals.

Business Insider has uncovered an interview Strauss-Kahn gave to the French publication Liberation in which the IMF's chief cites "the money, women, and my Jewishness" as the three challenges to his potential bid for France's presidency.

Published just weeks ago, Strauss-Kahn's own words provide an intriguing twist on the developments of the past few days.

When pressed to elaborate, Strauss-Kahn offered the following explanation: "Yes, I love women, so what? ... For years we talk about giant pictures of orgies, but I've never seen anything out ... Let's show them!"

He imagined a scenario in which a woman is paid off to play the role of a victim of a purported assault: "A woman that he would have raped in a parking lot and to whom half a million or a million euros would be promised to make up such a story."

Essentially, he admits he "loves" women purely as sex objects. That's the kind of thinking that leads to Yale frat boys - of the fraternity George Bush belonged to - parading through campus chanting "No means yes, yes means anal!". Sociopaths in power or expecting to be.