IMF chief arrested in alleged sex assault
NEW YORK — The head of the International Monetary Fund was charged early Sunday in connection with the alleged sexual assault of a housekeeper at a Manhattan hotel Saturday, a New York police spokesman said.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 62, who had been removed from a Paris-bound flight in New York minutes before takeoff Saturday, was questioned by the New York Police Department’s special victims office and arrested at 2:15 a.m. Sunday on charges of criminal sex act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment, a spokesman said.
Strauss-Kahn’s attorney, Benjamin Brafman, said Sunday his client has denied all charges and would plead not guilty.
The allegations create immediate uncertainty for the Washington-based IMF, which has been playing an important role in stabilizing the global economy amid the financial crisis.
An IMF spokesman said the organization would have no comment on the case. “The IMF remains fully functioning,” she said.
The arrest also promises to stir up politics in France, where Strauss-Kahn is widely thought to be considering challenging French President Nicolas Sarkozy in next year’s election. Polls have indicated that he would have a good chance of defeating Sarkozy.
“He won’t be able to be a candidate for the Socialist Party presidential primary,” Jacques Attali, a fellow Socialist leader, told French reporters.
Sarkozy’s government spokesman, Francois Baroin, said Strauss-Kahn should benefit from the innocent-until-proven-guilty principle and called on political figures and commentators to use caution in dealing with his case.
Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry, acknowledged, meanwhile, that news of Strauss-Kahn’s arrest had arrived in Paris “like a thunderbolt” during the night, throwing Socialist militants into disarray. But like Baroin, she urged the country to withhold judgment until the situation in New York becomes clearer.
Housekeeper details alleged attack
The alleged sexual assault occurred around 1 p.m., police told the Associated Press.
The housekeeper told authorities she entered Strauss-Kahn’s suite at the luxury Sofitel hotel not far from Manhattan’s Times Square at about 1 p.m., and that he attacked her. She told police she was planning to clean the spacious $3,000-a-night suite, which she thought was empty, according to the AP.
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, the woman told police, according to the AP. She said she fought him off, but he then dragged her into the bathroom, according to the account.
The woman was able to break free again, escaped the room and told hotel staff what had happened, and they called police, authorities said. Strauss-Kahn bolted the hotel room, leaving behind his cell phone, police told the AP.
The NYPD learned Strauss-Kahn was on a plane bound for France and asked officers with the Port Authority of New York to board the plane and remove him.
At 4:40 p.m., about 10 minutes before Air France Flight 23 was to take off Saturday, officers with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey removed Strauss-Kahn, authorities said. They did not handcuff him. They then turned him over to the police.
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Whos controlling who???
http://allafrica.com/stories/201012280005.html
Zimbabwe: U.S. Controls IMF - Wikileaks Cable
20 December 2010
THE West's claim that its sanctions are targeted at the Zanu-PF leadership in Zimbabwe have been exposed for the sham they are by a WikiLeaks cable released yesterday that shows that the US government directed the IMF not to restore Zimbabwe's voting rights and lines of credit.
The IMF has over the years masqueraded as a multilateral institution that operates independently of the whims and caprices of its host, the US government.
One of the cables, dated September 2005, from New Zealand, titled "New Zealand: Response to demarche on Zimbabwe Vote in IMF," and directed to the New Zealand Agency for International Development, which handles issues related to the IMF, shows that the US controls the IMF and played a lead role in blocking the IMF from reinstating Zimbabwe's voting and borrowing rights.
"On September 2 (2005), a representative of New Zealand's Treasury noted Zimbabwe's decision to pay back US$120 million of the US $290 million it owes the Fund. The representative asked whether the US government would now consider Zimbabwe to be in compliance with its IMF obligations, or whether the United States still believes Zimbabwe should be expelled from the Fund.
"Post seeks Department guidance on how it should respond to these questions. Post also notes that the Treasury representative is due to deliver a recommendation on the issue to New Zealand's Finance Minister on September 5 (2005) and that a response by COB September 2 (Washington) would be very helpful," reads the cable signed by one Burnett
Analysts say the cable is disturbing given that Finance Minister Tendai Biti has received many "technical experts" from the IMF and only recently wanted Zimbabwe declared a "Highly Indebted Poor Country" at the behest of the IMF, a development that would have seen the IMF, and consequently the US by proxy, take over and direct not only the country's economic affairs but also the exploitation of its natural resources.
HIPC status would have served the US well in "smuggling" people into Government, disguised as technical experts, obser-vers say.
The US and its other Western allies inclu-ding Britain have been pursuing regime change in Zimbabwe.
The latest revelations also come at a time when Minister Biti's budget has raised a storm given its attempt to use Government processes to realign power centres to MDC-T ministers part of which was Minister Biti's attempt to transfer executive powers from the President to himself through amending the Exchange Control Act through the Finance Bill that was recently rejected by Senate and sent back to the Lower House for review.
Minister Biti, consequently, came under fire from the three principals to the GPA and inclusive Government; President Mu-gabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara; as well as fellow Cabinet ministers over his bid to usurp executive powers.
The WikiLeaks report also said a respo-nse from Washington would be very helpful before treasury representatives delivered recommendations to New Zealand's Fina-nce Minister on September 5, 2005.
Relevant Links
The report also said on September 2, 2005 representatives of New Zealand's trea-sury asked the US if Zimbabwe should remain expelled from the fund after noting Zimbabwe's decision to pay back US$120 million of the US$290 million it owed.
This came at a time when the Bretton Woods institution had instituted compulsory withdrawal procedures against Zimbabwe, again at the behest of the Anglo-Saxon alliance.
The representatives asked whether the US Government would "now consider Zimbabwe to be in compliance with its IMF obligations, or whether the US still believes Zimbabwe should be expelled from the fund.
The New Zealand Treasury also reportedly sought the US guidance on how it should respond to the questions raised.
Efforts to get comment from Minister Biti were fruitless at the time of going to press
Suzexx