Fathers Canada

CNN
May 23, 2011

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn sought the company of two female hotel staffers after he checked into Manhattan’s Sofitel Hotel one day before his alleged sexual assault on a maid May 14, according to a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation.

As a receptionist was personally escorting Strauss-Khan to his suite following check-in, he asked her to stay for some champagne, according to the source, but the receptionist told investigators she turned him down.

Later, according to the source, Strauss-Kahn called a different receptionist from his suite to ask if she would join him for a drink in his room after she got off duty. Like the first receptionist, she also declined the former IMF chief’s invitation.

“She described it as flirtatious,” the source, who asked for anonymity, told CNN Sunday.

Full article here

 

AFP | Strauss-Kahn getting taste of the Madoff treatment as he adjusts lifestyle from champagne socialism to battling sex crime charges.

 

AFP
May 23, 2011

Dominique Strauss-Kahn is getting a taste of the Bernard Madoff treatment as he adjusts his lifestyle from champagne socialism to battling sex crime charges.

The fallen IMF leader had to agree to become a cyber-prisoner of the same security-intelligence company which guarded notorious financier Madoff to convince a New York judge to give him a chance to plot a defense on bail.

The security firm Stroz Friedberg used one of its apartments at the Empire Building on Broadway as a temporary bolt-hole for Strauss-Kahn, when residents blocked him from moving to one his wife Anne Sinclair had found.

Read entire article

 

London Telegraph | Fresh allegations of sexual misconduct have emerged against the former IMF head.

 

Philip Sherwell
London Telegraph
May 22, 2011

Fresh allegations of sexual misconduct have emerged against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund accused of sexually assaulting a New York chambermaid.

As Mr Strauss-Kahn spent his first full day on $1 million bail at a newly-rented apartment on Broadway he faced new claims that:

* He put pressure on a married Asian administrative worker into having sex with him, a former IMF official told The Sunday Telegraph. The claim was brought to the attention of a serving IMF official by her distraught husband after the women confided details. But she declined to make a complaint because she feared losing her job. She later left the IMF when her contract expired.

* Two other employees of the Sofitel hotel in New York told investigators that Mr Strauss-Kahn made advances to them during his stay last weekend. Soon after he checked into his suite, he called the front desk and asked the receptionist to join him for a drink, according to a US news website.

* While Mr Strauss-Kahn was head of the IMF, an official paid “hush money” to a woman working at another Washington-based international institution to secure her silence over an affair.

Full article here

 

Bloomberg | IMF loan part of a joint bailout with the EU to stem the region’s sovereign debt crisis.

 

Sandrine Rastello
Bloomberg
May 21, 2011

The International Monetary Fund approved a 26 billion-euro ($36.8 billion) loan to Portugal as part of a joint bailout with the European Union in the latest effort to stem the region’s sovereign debt crisis.

The Washington-based institution will make 6.1 billion euros available immediately, the fund said in an e-mailed statement today. The IMF followed European officials, who on May 16 endorsed the 78-billion ($110 billion) joint package.

“The Portuguese authorities have put forward a program that is economically well-balanced and has growth and job creation at its center,” Acting Managing Director John Lipsky said in the e-mailed statement today. “It addresses the fundamental problem in Portugal – low growth – with a policy mix based on restoring competitiveness through structural reforms, ensuring a balanced fiscal consolidation path, and stabilizing the financial sector.”

Full article here

 

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It’s all about perception management. The media is trying to dig up as much dirt as they can on Dominique Strauss-Kahn so they can hang the man before he ever sees the inside of a courthouse.

Mike Whitney
Global Research
May 20, 2011

It’s all about perception management. The media is trying to dig up as much dirt as they can on Dominique Strauss-Kahn so they can hang the man before he ever sees the inside of a courthouse. It reminds me of the Terry Schiavo case, where devoted-husband Michael was pegged as an insensitive slimeball for carrying out the explicit wishes of his brain-dead wife. Do you remember how the media conducted their disgraceful 24 hour-a-day Blitzkrieg with the endless coverage of weepy Christian fanatics on the front lawn of the hospital while Hannity, Limbaugh and O’ Reilly fired away with their sanctimonious claptrap?

And now you’re telling me that that same media is just “doing their job?”

Give me a break.

Whoever wants to nail IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has really pulled out all the stops. Their agents have been rummaging through diaries, hotel registries, phone records, yearbooks, yada, yada, yada. The UK Telegraph even paid a visit to a high-priced DC knocking shop to get a little dirt from Madame Botox; whatever it takes to make a randy banker look like the South Hill rapist. And they’re doing a pretty good job, too. The cops have made sure that the “Great Seducer” always appears handcuffed and dressed in a “pervie” raincoat with 3-days stubble before they parade him in front of the media. On Wednesday–more grist for the mill–they released his mug-shot, an unflattering, deadpan photo that makes him look like Jack-the-Ripper. Was that the intention?

And, that’s not the half of it. The Big Money is exhuming every woman he’s ever had contact with for the last 30 years hoping they can glean some damning tidbit of information that will convince the doubters that beneath that sophisticated manner and $25,000 suit lurks a closet Bluebeard ready to snap up your daughters and defile your wives. Next thing you know, they’ll be trotting out Paula Jones and Tanya Harding claiming they spent a torrid night with the Marquis de Kahn in a trailerpark outside Winamucca.

Where does it stop? Or does it stop? Are we in for another year-long Clinton-Lewinski feeding frenzy where everyday we hear more lurid details about the sexploits of people who don’t really interest us at all?

Aren’t you at all curious about who’s behind this “lynching by media” scam? This is an all-out, no-holds-barred, steel-cage, take-down. The big boys save that kind of action for the worst offenders, that is, for the insiders who have broken “Omerta” or wandered off the reservation. I mean, they locked him up on Riker’s Island without bail, for Chrissake. What does that tell you? Even Bernie Madoff was allowed to stay in his $7 million Park Avenue penthouse while he waited for trial, but not Straus-Kahn. Oh, no. He get’s the royal treatment, even though he has no criminal record and nothing but the sketchy accusations of a chambermaid against him, he’s carted off to the state slammer where he can mingle with hardened criminals while dining on corn flakes and Wonder Bread.

You call that justice?

Can I tell you what this is all about? It’s about the dollar. That’s right. Strauss-Kahn was mounting an attack against the dollar and now the wrath of the Empire has descended on him like ton-of-bricks. Here’s the scoop from the UK Telegraph:

“Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, has called for a new world currency that would challenge the dominance of the dollar and protect against future financial instability…..

He suggested adding emerging market countries’ currencies, such as the yuan, to a basket of currencies that the IMF administers could add stability to the global system….Strauss-Kahn saw a greater role for the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights, (SDRs) which is currently composed of the dollar, sterling, euro and yen, over time but said it will take a great deal of international cooperation to make that work.” (“International Monetary Fund director Dominique Strauss-Kahn calls for new world currency”, UK Telegraph)

So, Strauss-Kahn finds himself in the same crowd as Saddam Hussein and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, right? You may recall that Saddam switched from dollars to euros about a year before the war. 12 months later Iraq was invaded, Saddam was hanged, and the dollar was restored to power. Gaddafi made a similar mistake when “he initiated a movement to refuse the dollar and the euro, and called on Arab and African nations to use a new currency instead, the gold dinar.” (“Libya: All About Oil, or All About Central Banking?” Ellen Brown, Op-Ed News) Libya has since come under attack by US and NATO forces which have armed a motley group of dissidents, malcontents and terrorists to depose Gaddafi and reimpose dollar hegemony.

And now it’s Strauss-Kahn’s turn to get torn to shreds. And for good reason. After all, DSK actually poses a much greater threat to the dollar than either Saddam or Gaddafi because he’s in the perfect position to shape policy and to persuade foreign heads of state that replacing the dollar is in their best interests. And that is precisely what he was doing; badmouthing the buck. Only he was too dense to figure out that the dollar is the US Mafia’s mealticket, the main way that shifty banksters and corporate scalawags extort tribute from the poorest people on earth. Strauss-Kahn was rocking the boat, and now he’s going to pay.

Here’s a clip from CNN Money:

“The International Monetary Fund issued a report Thursday on a possible replacement for the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

The IMF said Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, could help stabilize the global financial system….SDRs represent potential claims on the currencies of IMF members…..The IMF typically lends countries funds denominated in SDRs. While they are not a tangible currency, some economists argue that SDRs could be used as a less volatile alternative to the U.S. dollar.

“Over time, there may also be a role for the SDR to contribute to a more stable international monetary system,” he said.

The goal is to have a reserve asset for central banks that better reflects the global economy since the dollar is vulnerable to swings in the domestic economy and changes in U.S. policy.

In addition to serving as a reserve currency, the IMF also proposed creating SDR-denominated bonds, which could reduce central banks’ dependence on U.S. Treasuries. The Fund also suggested that certain assets, such as oil and gold, which are traded in U.S. dollars, could be priced using SDRs.” (“IMF discusses dollar alternative”, CNN Money)

Wow. So DSK was zeroing in on US Treasuries as well as the dollar? That’s the whole shooting match.

So, what type of progress was he making in converting USDs to SDRs? According to Reuters: “The IMF general resources credit outstanding increased to 65.5 billion Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, ($104 billion) on May 12 from 6.0 billion SDRs at December 2007. The so-called new arrangement to borrow, which came into effect on April 1, increased the IMF’s available lending resources to 269 billion SDRs on May 12 from 120 billion SDRs on March 31.” (http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/05/17/idINIndia-57083920110517?type=economicNews)

Not a bad start for such an ambitious project. It looks like DSK’s dream of dethroning the dollar as the de facto “international currency” was beginning to gain momentum. But didn’t he know that his actions would anger some very powerful and well-connected people?

Well, if he did; he never let on. In fact, he started mucking around in other stuff, too, like when he intervened on behalf of Irish taxpayers, trying to protect them at the expense of foreign bondholders. That’s a big “No no” in banker’s world. They keep a list of “people who count”, and taxpayers are not on that list. Here’s an excerpt from the Irish Times:

“Ireland’s Last Stand began less shambolically than you might expect. The IMF, which believes that lenders should pay for their stupidity before it has to reach into its pocket, presented the Irish with a plan to haircut €30 billion of unguaranteed bonds by two-thirds on average. (Irish finance minister) Lenihan was overjoyed, according to a source who was there, telling the IMF team: “You are Ireland’s salvation.”

The deal was torpedoed from an unexpected direction. At a conference call with the G7 finance ministers, the haircut was vetoed by US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner who, as his payment of $13 billion from government-owned AIG to Goldman Sachs showed, believes that bankers take priority over taxpayers. The only one to speak up for the Irish was UK chancellor George Osborne, but Geithner, as always, got his way. An instructive, if painful, lesson in the extent of US soft power, and in who our friends really are.

The negotiations went downhill from there. On one side was the European Central Bank, unabashedly representing Ireland’s creditors and insisting on full repayment of bank bonds. On the other was the IMF, arguing that Irish taxpayers would be doing well to balance their government’s books, let alone repay the losses of private banks.” (“Ireland’s future depends on breaking free from bailout”, Morgan Kelly, Irish Times)

So, Strauss-Kahn stuck up for Irish taxpayers over the banks, the bondholders, the ECB, and the US Treasury. Naturally, that made him persona non grata among the ruling throng.

And, there’s more, too, because Strauss-Kahn’s vision was not limited to currency alone, but involved broad structural changes to the IMF itself that would have reversed decades of neoliberal policies. DSK had settled on a new approach to policymaking; one that would abandon the worst elements of globalization and put greater emphasis on social cohesion, cooperation and multilateralism. Here’s an excerpt from the speech titled “Human Development and Wealth Distribution” he gave in November 2010:

“….Adam Smith—one of the founders of modern economics—recognized clearly that a poor distribution of wealth could undermine the free market system, noting that: “The disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful and…neglect persons of poor and mean condition…is the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments.”

This was over 250 years ago. In today’s world, these problems are magnified under the lens of globalization….globalization also had a dark side. Lurking behind it was a large and growing chasm between rich and poor—especially within countries. An inequitable distribution of wealth can wear down the social fabric. More unequal countries have worse social indicators, a poorer human development record, and higher degrees of economic insecurity and anxiety. In too many countries, inequality increased and real wages stagnated—failing to keep up with productivity—over the past few decades. Ominously, inequality in the United States was back at its pre-Great Depression levels on the eve of the crisis….

An immediate task is to end the scourge of unemployment….Progressive taxation can also promote equity through redistribution, and this should be encouraged….“Inequality is corrosive” ….“it rots societies from within…it illustrates and exacerbates the loss of social cohesion…the pathology of the age and the greatest threat to the health of any democracy.” (“Human Development and Wealth Distribution”, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, IMF)

Can you believe it? DSK is lecturing bankers about redistribution? That’s not what they want to hear. What they want to hear is why ripping off poor people actually makes the world a better place. DSK’s speech just shows that he wasn’t drinking the Koolaid anymore. He was becoming a nuisance and they needed to get rid of him.

Does that mean he didn’t rape the woman who was in his hotel room?

Of course not. In fact, he could be guilty. But he deserves a fair trial, and someone’s making damn sure he doesn’t get one.

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Dominique Strauss-Kahn was bailed for $1 million on Thursday night, after agreeing to live under house arrest with his wife at a New York flat, where he will be watched around the clock by an armed guard.

Jon Swaine,
London Telegraph
May 20, 2011

Dominique Strauss-Kahn was bailed for $1 million on Thursday night, after agreeing to live under house arrest with his wife at a New York flat, where he will be watched around the clock by an armed guard.

Mr Strauss-Kahn secured his release from Rikers Island prison as it was announced a grand jury had voted to have him prosecuted for the alleged sexual attack of a 32-year-old maid in his hotel room.

In a hearing at New York supreme court, Judge Michael Obus said he would allow the 62-year-old former head of the IMF out of jail despite the fact there was a “serious risk” he would try to flee.

Full article here

 

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.

Prof. Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research
May 20, 2011

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 Bildeberger. 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. He was detained on alleged sexual assault and rape charges based on scanty evidence. He was detained based on a complaint filed by the Sofitel hotel where he was staying, on behalf of the alleged victim, an unnamed hotel chamber-maid:

The 32-year-old maid told authorities that she entered his suite early Saturday afternoon and he attacked her, New York Police Department spokesman Paul J. Browne. She said she had been told to clean the spacious $3,000-a-night suite, which she thought was empty.

According to an account the woman provided to police, Strauss-Kahn emerged from the bathroom naked, chased her down a hallway and pulled her into a bedroom, where he began to sexually assault her. She said she fought him off, then he dragged her into the bathroom, where he forced her to perform oral sex on him and tried to remove her underwear. The woman was able to break free again and escaped the room and told hotel staff what had happened, authorities said. They called police.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7565485.html#ixzz1MfFWFlnY

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. U.S. 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 family 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?

District Attorney Cyrus Vance Junior, son of the late Cyrus Vance, Secretary of State in the Carter administration

Sarkozy’s Step Father Frank G Wisner II, Deputy Executive Secretary of State (1976-79)
under Cyrus Vance Senior during the Carter administration

In this courtroom drawing, Dominique Strauss-Khan, next to his lawyer

Benjamin Brafman, in front of Criminal Court Judge Melissa Jackson during his arraignment at the Manhattan Criminal Court (AP)

DSK and Timothy Geithner

DSK and Timothy 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.

“U.N. convention on privileges and immunities for international agencies that most countries have ratified. It gives the heads of U.N. agencies broad immunity in the countries where they are based. But the U.S. government never became a party to that treaty. Employees of international agencies are covered by a U.S. 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.

Rikers Island Prison where DSK was imprisoned.

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Bloomberg | Resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund after being charged with attempting to rape a New York hotel maid.

Sandrine Rastello
Bloomberg
May 19, 2011

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, once considered a leading contender to win the French presidency next year, resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund after being charged with attempting to rape a New York hotel maid.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, informed the Executive Board of the IMF of his intention to resign as managing director with immediate effect, the IMF said in an e-mailed statement.

“I want to protect this institution which I have served with honor and devotion, and especially — especially — I want to devote all my strength, all my time, and all my energy to proving my innocence,” Strauss-Kahn said in a letter included in the IMF’s statement.

Read entire article

 

A subplot to the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair has been the relative lack of outrage towards the former IMF chief emanating from French elites and French media.

Joe Weisenthal
Business Insider
May 19, 2011

A subplot to the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair has been the relative lack of outrage towards the former IMF chief emanating from French elites and French media.

Explanations for this have ranged from: Well, they’re French to it’s embarrassing to see a national leader treated like a common criminal in a foreign country.

But there’s another, more insidious aspect that’s highlighted in a note from the research firm GaveKal, and that’s the incestuous relationship between French media and the government.

First, the firm notes that government monopolies subsidize French newspapers significantly via ads. Various government-owned or partially government-owned companies (EDF, SNCF, Gaz de France, La Poste, Air France), buy extensively. That’s one reason not to piss off elites.

The other, more shocking aspect is the ownership structure of big French media.

Did you know that newspaper Le Figaro is owned by aerospace manufacturer Dassault? Imagine if the NYT were owned by Boeing!

Other publications, like Paris Match are owned by Lagardere, and insutrial company with a big stake in EADS.

And beyond aerospace, the big media outlet TF1 is owned partially by Bouygues, a construction company that’s hugely dependent on government money.

Our colleague Pascal Emmanuel Gobry confirms to us this, as well as the fact that the government subsidizes newspaper via extensive subscriptions bought on behalf of beauracrats.

So basically, the French is far less free. This is what you get.

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The IMF data show Libya’s reserves to be 4.6 million ounces, a figure of nearly 144 tons. At current market prices the value is over $6bn.

cryptogon.com
May 18, 2011

Pookie let me know about issue #5 of The Gold Standard (.pdf), which includes an interesting comment from this Wall Street Journal piece about Gaddafi’s vast gold holdings. The comment is no longer posted at the Wall Street Journal:

PvC from Belgium comments on Wall Street Journal Blog: “It seems to me that the war in Libya is not only an oil grab anymore, but a gold grab as well. It is reported that Libya’s central banks are hoarding 140+ tons of gold. The central banks are in three locations. Two of them were attacked. Too many coincidences piling up here…”

Here’s some more info on the gold via BBC:

The IMF data show Libya’s reserves to be 4.6 million ounces, a figure of nearly 144 tons. At current market prices the value is over $6bn.

Related: Libya’s Sea of Fresh Water Beneath the Desert, But Wait, There’s More

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Paul Craig Roberts | Strauss-Kahn could have been set up by rivals inside the IMF.President Bill Clinton survived his sexual escapades, because he was a servant to the system, not a threat. But Strauss-Kahn, like former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, was a threat to the system, and, like Eliot Spitzer, Strass-Kahn has been deleted from the power ranks.

 

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London Evening Standard | Almost 60 per cent feel the International Monetary Fund chief is innocent and has been framed in a conspiracy.

 

Rashid Razaq and Peter Allen
London Evening Standard
May 18, 2011

A majority of French people believe presidential hopeful Dominique Strauss-Kahn, accused of sexually assaulting a chambermaid, is the victim of a plot.

Almost 60 per cent feel the International Monetary Fund chief is innocent and has been framed in a conspiracy.

Straus-Kahn, 62, is being held in Riker Island prison in New York. He denies a string of charges including criminal sex acts, attempted rape and illegal imprisonment.

Read entire article

 

The hotel maid at the centre of sex attack allegations against IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is in hiding and feels “very threatened”, her lawyer has said.

 

Sky News
May 18, 2011

The hotel maid at the centre of sex attack allegations against IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is in hiding and feels “very threatened”, her lawyer has said.

The 32-year-old is a widow with a teenaged daughter and was unaware of Strauss-Kahn’s identity until after the alleged incident at a hotel in New York, Jeffrey Shapiro said.

He added any suggestion his client was involved in a conspiracy to frame him was “ridiculous”.

The head of the International Monetary Fund, who is facing growing pressure to quit, has reportedly been placed on suicide watch at New York’s notorious Rikers Island prison.

Guards are said to be regularly checking on the 62-year-old, but he is not believed to have attempted to harm himself.

Full article here

 

Another Woman Steps Up: Former Employee Sent Letter To IMF, Warning Organization About DSK Following Her Own Affair

 

And so another woman appears on the DSK scene, so far unnamed. As AP reports, “An employee who had a brief affair with IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn warned the organization about his behavior toward women in a letter sent three years ago.”

 

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
May 18, 2011

And so another woman appears on the DSK scene, so far unnamed. As AP reports, “An employee who had a brief affair with IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn warned the organization about his behavior toward women in a letter sent three years ago.” And no, this is no the Hungarian Piroska Nagy who almost caused the downfall of DSK if only the bailout crew had had enough brains to do a little more to the “head” than censure him. But it appears that the two are close: “The person who confirmed the existence of the letter is close to the former International Monetary Fund employee, Hungarian-born economist Piroska Nagy. The person declined to be identified, citing the sensitivity of the matter.” As a reminder the so far only known major transgression of DSK, Nagy, had worked at the IMF for decades, and left the organization after the affair with Strauss-Kahn in 2008. An IMF-funded investigation into the affair cleared Strauss-Kahn of wrongdoing but criticized his judgment. If it now turns out that the IMF had been officially warned about DSK, yet completely ignored the charges, we may have another public humiliation ala the SEC and Bernie Madoff, which ultimately will strip the organization of even more “bailout” and dollar-alternative power. Which begs the question: just how far will the powers that be go to make sure the SDR concept is now and forever killed as a USD-replacement currency?

 

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A majority of French people believe presidential hopeful Dominique Strauss-Kahn, accused of sexually assaulting a chambermaid, is the victim of a plot.

 

Rashid Razaq and Peter Allen
London Evening Standard
Wednesday, May 18, 2011

A majority of French people believe presidential hopeful Dominique Strauss-Kahn, accused of sexually assaulting a chambermaid, is the victim of a plot.

Almost 60 per cent feel the International Monetary Fund chief is innocent and has been framed in a conspiracy.

Former French culture minister Jack Lang described the treatment of Strauss-Kahn as a “lynching” that had “provoked horror and aroused disgust”. Liberation, a Left-wing daily newspaper, has published details of off-the-record comments made by Strauss-Kahn as recently as April 28, in which he said he feared a plot.

Discussing his plans to challenge Nicolas Sarkozy as Socialist candidate for the presidency next year, he said he imagined “a woman who had been raped in a car park and who was offered between 500,000 and a million euros to make up such a story”.

Full story here.

 

IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was placed under a suicide watch, even though he wasn't suicideal in jail, while the hotel maid who accused him of attempted rape said through her lawyer that she had no idea who he was when she reported him to the police. (May 17)



The suicide watch is standard practise at the jail where Strauss-Kahn is being housed. It must be noted he has had not tried to harm himself.

More Related Coverage

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Mail Online | The extraordinary revelation emerged in Paris.

Peter Allen
Mail Online
May 17, 2011

Dominique Strauss-Kahn feared that one of his political opponents would pay a woman more than $1million to say he raped her, it emerged today.

The extraordinary revelation emerged in Paris as the International Monetary Fund head remained in a New York police cell accused of launching a sex attack on a hotel maid.

A writer in the French capital has also come forward to say that the 62-year-old attempted to rape her a decade ago.

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Mainstream American media turned its attention towards the International Monetary Fund this week, but coverage didn’t concern the looming economic crisis.

RT
May 17, 2011

Mainstream American media turned its attention towards the International Monetary Fund this week, but coverage didn’t concern the looming economic crisis. Instead, it is the sex scandal of IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn that has turned heads today. Is this news of an alleged rape a legitimate story or merely smoke and mirrors to obscure the real story? Former Reagan administration official Paul Craig Roberts shares his take on it.

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This is going to bring a focus on the IMF, which through the back door has been putting the American taxpayers on the hook to bail out Greece and Ireland and those European countries which are in fact bailouts of those European banks.”
 
Pat Buchanan: IMF Sex Scandal "A Bad Day For The New World Order

Real Clear Politics
May 17, 2011

Pat Buchanan on the sex scandal surrounding IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn:

“Good news for Sarkozy, he’s out of the IMF, but more important, this is going to bring a focus on the IMF, which through the back door has been putting the American taxpayers on the hook to bail out Greece and Ireland and those European countries which are in fact bailouts of those European banks. And Ron Paul is right on top of this, and, Joe, I see this as bringing the IMF, at this critical point, when the bailouts in Europe are in big trouble, it is put a limelight on the one institution other than the European Central Bank, which is baling out these European countries and banks.”

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Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry | There is an allegation he tried to rape French journalist Tristane Banon in 2002 and then covered it up. read more ...

Zero Hedge | A “Tiger Woods effect” is now imminent. read more ...

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New York Times | A flight risk and accusation a similar attack may have occurred.

 

JOHN ELIGON
The New York Times
May 16, 2011

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the leader of the International Monetary Fund, was ordered on Monday to be held without bail over allegations that he had sexually assaulted a maid in a $3,000-a-night suite at a Midtown hotel.

Prosecutors had asked the judge, Melissa C. Jackson, supervising judge of Manhattan Criminal Court, to remand Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62, contending that he was a flight risk. They also indicated that a similar attack may have occurred.

“Some of this information include reports that he has in fact engaged in conduct similar to the conduct alleged in this complaint on at least one other occasion,” said John McConnell, an assistant district attorney, adding that the district attorney’s office was still investigating the other occasion, which occurred outside the United States.

 

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RT talks to Gerald Celente, the director of the Trends Research Institute in New York.

Russia Today
Monday, May 16, 2011

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International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn allegedly forced a New York City hotel housekeeper to perform oral sex and submit to anal sex, in addition to allegedly attempting to rape her, according to a complaint filed today by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Monday, May 16, 2011

ABC has released the details of the full complaint issued against DSK:

International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn allegedly forced a New York City hotel housekeeper to perform oral sex and submit to anal sex, in addition to allegedly attempting to rape her, according to a complaint filed today by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.

The complaint charges him with two counts of criminal sexual act in the first degree, one count of attempted rape, sexual abuse in the first degree, unlawful imprisonment, sexual abuse in the third degree and forcible touching.

The complaint is a terse charging document, less than a full page in length.

It charges that he forcibly touched the housekeeper’s breasts, attempted to pull off her panty hose, twice “forcibly made contact with his penis and the informant’s mouth” and that “the defendant engaged in oral sexual conduct and anal sexual conduct with another person by forcible compulsion.”

More here.

And as the araignment continues, the DA Cyrus Vance Jr, has stated that since DSK is such a great flight risk, he should not be granted bail. We shall see if the judge follows through with thie request shortly.

Criminal Court Complaint

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Habit of sexual molestation and perverted depravity....

Globalists Like To Rape Women, As Well As Nations

Paul Joseph Watson | Habit of sexual molestation and perverted depravity illustrates sordid underbelly of the elite.

May 16, 2011

Given the fact that the likes of IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn and other top globalists are intent on raping the national and monetary sovereignty of countries in pursuit of their new world order, it’s no surprise that they also seem pre-occupied with raping women, amongst a host of other sordid and predatory perversions.

Strauss-Kahn was pulled off a jet at Kennedy Airport in New York by police Sunday after a hotel maid accused him of attacking and attempting to sodomize her. The fact that Strauss-Kahn left his mobile phone in the hotel room suggests he tried to make a quick getaway.

However, it’s not the first time the IMF chief has been accused of rape. French writer Tristane Banon is now considering legal action against Strauss-Kahn for an alleged sexual molestation that occurred in 2002. According to Banon, during the course of an interview Strauss-Kahn acted like a “rutting chimpanzee” as he violently attempted to tear off her clothes.

Strauss-Kahn’s alleged penchant for sexually assaulting women brings to mind the claims against his fellow globalist Al Gore which became public last year. Masseuse Molly Haggerty alleges that Gore invited her to his hotel room before pinning her down like a “crazed sex poodle” before groping her as she struggled to escape.

But Gore’s behavior is relatively tame compared to former President Bill Clinton. Juanita Broaddrick went public in 1998 to claim that Clinton raped her two decades earlier. Broaddrick alleged that Clinton forced her down on the bed in a hotel room, tore away her underwear and began aggressively raping her while biting her lips as she begged him to stop. Although Clinton denied the charges, he agreed to an $850,000 settlement to avoid the case going to court, “A lot of money from someone who claims he did nothing wrong,” as Larry Elder wrote.

Despite the fact that Clinton publicly lied to the American people during the Monica Lewinsky scandal when he said, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman,” the numerous other women who alleged affairs or who claimed they had been raped or molested by Clinton were all dismissed as liars by the corporate media, just as Lewinsky was branded deceitful before she produced the semen-stained dress that proved her story to be true, and just as Gennifer Flowers was also savaged by the establishment before Clinton, during the Paula Jones deposition, was forced to admit the he did indeed have sex with Flowers.

However, sexual molestation of women only scratches the surface of the deep and sordid circles that the elite prefer to move in when it comes to acting out their forbidden perversions.

Politicians such as Larry Craig and Mark Foley are lightweights in comparison to the horrors of the underground child sex trafficking networks run exclusively for the pleasure of the elite.

As we have documented, almost every major pedophile network that has come to public knowledge has included tentacles that stretch high into the upper echelons of the global power structure.

On June 29 1989, the Washington Times’ Paul M. Rodriguez and George Archibald reported on a Washington D.C. prostitution ring that had intimate connections with the White House all the way up to President George H.W. Bush. Male prostitutes had been given access to the White House and the article also cited evidence of “abduction and use of minors for sexual perversion.”

In July 1990, a Nebraska Grand Jury was convened to hear allegations that Lawrence “Larry” King, then manager of the Franklin Community Federal Credit Union and a rising Republican Party star, along with Washington lobbyists, had set up a child prostitution ring in which minors were transported around the country and forced to have sex with King, other top officials, and according to victims who some allege were later harassed into recanting, then-Vice-President Bush.

The Grand Jury dismissed the case as a hoax but former Nebraska State Senator John DeCamp later investigated the claims and was horrified to learn that they were indeed legitimate.

Click for enlargements.

The video which you can watch in full below, Conspiracy of Silence, was produced by British Yorkshire Television and was scheduled to air nationwide in the U.S. on the Discovery Channel on May 3, 1994. Despite appearing in TV guides, the documentary was pulled at the last minute. Key politicians implicated in the scandal intimidated Discovery into canceling the program and it was never shown in the U.S.

The documentary team interviewed victims of the Franklin cover-up scandal and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Washington’s political elite had been involved in Larry King’s pedophile ring.

** "see video on orginal web page" **

 

Connections between male prostitutes and the White House emerged again in early 2005, when James Dale Guckert, working under the pseudonym Jeff Gannon, was given privileged access to the White House despite his lack of suitable press credentials. Gannon first came under scrutiny when he repeatedly gave President Bush softball questions during press conferences – leading many to charge Gannon was a White House plant. Photos emerged of Bush embracing Gannon and appearing very affectionate towards him during meetings. It later came out that Gannon had previously placed ads on homosexual escort service websites.

In almost every case of human trafficking for child sex slavery, from Chile to Australia, to Bosnia, to Portugal, to Belgium, court proceedings get shut down or diverted when a clear connection to the elite arises.

In the mid 1990′s, convicted child rapist Marc Dutroux built a secret prison cell in his Charleroi basement where he kept abducted young girls hostage at the behest of what he called “a big crime ring,” which in the 2004 court case was thought by many to encompass some of Belgium’s top politicians, judges and policemen. The reason why it took so long to apprehend Dutroux was that he was being legally protected by these same individuals.

Material witnesses at the trial described “child sex parties involving judges, politicians, bankers and members of the royal family.” Victims that managed to survive (most were butchered snuff style after being raped) verified the claims.

Police actually visited Dutroux’s home and heard the cries of help from children concealed in his basement yet believed Dutroux’s explanation that the sounds were coming from kids playing in the street.

Dutroux was eventually convicted for his role in the pedophile ring but the involvement of the elite of the country was never properly investigated.

After Dyncorp and Halliburton contractors were exposed as having operated child prostitution rackets in the Balkans from the late 1990′s onwards (and more recently in the case of Halliburton), Rep. Cynthia McKinney attempted to get answers as to why the U.S. government continued to do business with these corporations.

On March 11th 2005, McKinney grilled Secretary Rumsfeld and General Myers on the Dyncorp scandal and its protection by the U.S. government.

“Mr. Secretary, I watched President Bush deliver a moving speech at the United Nations in September 2003, in which he mentioned the crisis of the sex trade. The President called for the punishment of those involved in this horrible business. But at the very moment of that speech, DynCorp was exposed for having been involved in the buying and selling of young women and children. While all of this was going on, DynCorp kept the Pentagon contract to administer the smallpox and anthrax vaccines, and is now working on a plague vaccine through the Joint Vaccine Acquisition Program. Mr. Secretary, is it [the] policy of the U.S. Government to reward companies that traffic in women and little girls?” asked McKinney.

In late 2005, Halliburton subsidiary KBR and Dyncorp lobbyists worked in tandem with the Pentagon to stall legislation that would specifically ban trafficking in humans for forced labor and prostitution by U.S. contractors.

Where were the investigations and convictions in other cases of establishment-orchestrated child slavery and prostitution? Like the NATO officials responsible for the mushrooming of child prostitution in Kosovo?

What happened to UN officials identified as using a ship charted for ‘peacekeepers’ to bring young girls from Thailand to East Timor as prostitutes? In every example, the case seems to get shut down when direct ties to people in positions of high power are established.

The behavior of Strauss-Kahn, Gore, Clinton, and every other globalist underscores how our planet is being seized by people who are predators in more than one sense, and whose conduct illustrates how they deserve to be behind bars more than they do accumulating more and more power in the move towards global governance.

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The New York Post has a fresh batch of details about what went down yesterday, when IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was pulled off an Air France jet and booked on allegations of attempted sexual assault.

 

Joe Weisenthal
Business Insider
Monday, May 16, 2011

Original post: The New York Post has a fresh batch of details about what went down yesterday, when IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was pulled off an Air France jet and booked on allegations of attempted sexual assault.

From the report:

• The maid actually picked Strauss-Kahn out of a lineup once he was taken in.
• She has since been taken to a hospital for trauma.
• As evidence that he was trying to get out of town fast: supposedly he left his cell phone in his room.
• Strauss-Kahn has a deal with Air France so that he can get on any flight, first-class anytime he wants… hence his ability to just go to JFK and jump on the next flight.
• When approached by police, he asked: “What is this about?”
• He was not handcuffed.

Read the whole story here >

Update: The WSJ has some more, including the fact that Strauss-Kahn’s arraignment has been delayed as the police seek a warrant to examine his body for scratches.

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These are the kind of people that are running the IMF and we want to turn the world finances and the control of the money supply to them,” Paul said.

Fox News
Monday, May 16, 2011

The leader of the International Monetary Fund now embroiled in a criminal assault case in New York City was cleared in 2008 of harassment charges after an affair with an IMF economist.

But it’s that kind of behavior that should make the world wonder about trusting the IMF, Rep. Ron Paul said Sunday.

The 2008 Republican presidential candidate told “Fox News Sunday” that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was pulled off an Air France flight moments before take-off from New York Saturday and arrested on charges of a criminal sex act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment, said the whole course of events “is a bit ironic.”

“These are the kind of people that are running the IMF and we want to turn the world finances and the control of the money supply to them,” Paul said. “That should awaken everybody to the fact that they ought to look into the IMF and find out why we shouldn’t be sacrificing more sovereignty to an organization like that and an individual like he was.”

 

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