On Tue, May 17, 2011 at 8:48 PM, C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu>wrote:
> A much more serious account:
>
> <http://www.counterpunch.org/johnstone05172011.html>.
>
>
> On 5/17/11 10:42 PM, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
>>
>> http://powerwall.msnbc.msn.com/politics/bernard-henri-leacutevy-defends-accused-imf-director-1688448.story
>>
>> Bernard-Henri Levy
>>
>> I do not know what actually happened Saturday, the day before yesterday,
>> in the room of the now famous Hotel Sofitel in New York.
>>
>> I do not know-no one knows, because there have been no leaks regarding the
>> declarations of the man in question-if Dominique Strauss-Kahn was guilty of
>> the acts he is accused of committing there, or if, at the time, as was
>> stated, he was having lunch with his daughter.
>>
>> I do not know-but, on the other hand, 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.
>>
>> And I do not want to enter into considerations of dime-store psychology
>> that claims to penetrate the mind of the subject, observing, for example,
>> that the number of the room (2806) corresponds to the date of the opening of
>> the Socialist Party primaries in France (06.28), in which he is the
>> uncontested favourite, thereby concluding that this is all a Freudian slip,
>> a subconsciously deliberate mistake, and blah blah blah.
>>
>> What I do know is that nothing in the world can justify a man being thus
>> thrown to the dogs.
>>
>> What I know is that nothing, no suspicion whatever (for let's remind
>> ourselves that, as I write these lines, we are dealing only with
>> suspicions!) permits the entire world to revel in the spectacle, this
>> morning, of this handcuffed figure, his features blurred by 30 hours of
>> detention and questioning, but still proud.
>>
>> What I know as well is that nothing, no earthly law, should also allow
>> another woman, his wife, admirable in her love and courage, to be exposed to
>> the slime of a public opinion drunk on salacious gossip and driven by who
>> knows what obscure vengeance.
>>
>> And what I know even more is that the Strauss-Kahn I know, who has been my
>> friend for twenty years and who will remain my friend, bears no resemblance
>> to this monster, this caveman, this insatiable and malevolent beast now
>> being described nearly everywhere. Charming, seductive, yes, certainly; a
>> friend to women and, first of all, to his own woman, naturally, but this
>> brutal and violent individual, this wild animal, this primate, obviously no,
>> it's absurd.
>>
>> This morning, I hold it against the American judge who, by delivering him
>> to the crowd of photo hounds, pretended to take him for a subject of justice
>> like any other.
>>
>> I am troubled by a system of justice modestly termed "accusatory," meaning
>> that anyone can come along and accuse another fellow of any crime.
>>
>> I am troubled by a system of justice modestly termed "accusatory," meaning
>> that anyone can come along and accuse another fellow of any crime-and it
>> will be up to the accused to prove that the accusation is false and without
>> basis in fact.
>>
>> I resent the New York tabloid press, a disgrace to the profession, that,
>> without the least precaution and before having effected the least
>> verification, has depicted Dominique Strauss-Kahn as a sicko, a pervert,
>> borderlining on serial killer, a psychiatrist's dream.
>>
>> I am angry with all those in France who jumped at the occasion to settle
>> old scores or further their own little affairs.
>>
>> And I hold it against the commentators, pundits, and other minor figures
>> of a French political class overjoyed at this divine surprise who
>> immediately, indecently, and at the very first opportunity, commenced with
>> their de Profundis drivel by talking about a "redistribution of the cards"
>> or a "new deal" at the center of this or of that. But I must stop here, for
>> it makes me nauseous.
>>
>> I'm angry, to name one, with the French MP Bernard Debré, who comes right
>> out and denounces a man he calls "disreputable," one who "wallows in sex"
>> and has conducted himself, for a long time now, like a "scoundrel."
>>
>> I hold it against all those who complacently accept the account of this
>> other young woman, this one French, who pretends to have been the victim of
>> the same kind of attempted rape, who has shut up for eight years but,
>> sensing the golden opportunity, whips out her old dossier and comes to flog
>> it on television.
>>
>> And I am, of course, dismayed at the political impact of the event.
>>
>> The French Left that, if Strauss-Kahn were really out of the arena, would
>> lose its champion.
>>
>> France, that has counted him among her most devoted and competent servants
>> for so many years.
>>
>> And Europe, not to say the world, that is indebted to him for
>> contributing, for the past four years at the head of the IMF, to avoiding
>> the worst.
>>
>> On one side, there were the hardline ultra-liberals, partisans of rigorous
>> plans, without modulation nor nuance, and on the other, those who, Dominique
>> Strauss-Kahn at their head, had begun to implement rules of the game that
>> were less lenient towards the powerful, more favorable to proletarian
>> nations and, among the latter, to the most fragile and vulnerable.
>>
>> He was arrested just hours before the meeting during which he would face a
>> more orthodox German Chancellor to plead the cause of a country, Greece,
>> that he believed could be brought back to order without being brought to its
>> knees. His defeat would also be that of this great cause. It would be a
>> disaster for this entire part of Europe and of the world, because the IMF,
>> under his leadership and for the first time in its history, did not intend
>> to sell out to the superior interests of Finance. And that would really be a
>> dreadful sign.
>>
>> Editor's Note: This column has been translated into English from French.
>>
>> ---
>>
>> Bernard-Henri Levy is one of France's most famed philosophers, a
>> journalist, and a bestselling writer. He is considered a founder of the New
>> Philosophy movement and is leading thinker on religious issues, genocide,
>> and international affairs. His most recent book, Left in Dark Times: A Stand
>> Against the New Barbarism, discusses political and cultural affairs as an
>> ongoing battle against the inhumane.
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