Questions Raised About DSK Saga
Deaglán de Bréadún
Journalism is getting a bit of a kicking these days with the Leveson inquiry in the UK and the furore over the RTE “Mission to Prey” programme. In that context, it is good to come across an example of sustained research and “digging” in the case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
My colleague Ruadhán Mac Cormaic has a useful follow-up piece in our own paper and to read it, click here. Essentially, the scenario that emerges from the article which was written by Edward Jay Epstein and originally appeared in the New York Review of Books and was also featured in shorter form in last weekend’s Financial Times is as follows:
DSK, who was MS of the International Monetary Fund at the time and a contender for the French presidency, was involved in a sexual encounter at his hotel room in New York. He maintains this was consensual, whereas the hotel maid claimed he forced himself upon her.
But there were all sorts of comings and goings involved the maid and other members of the hotel staff, which remain unexplained. There is an allegation of “high-fives” being engaged in by two people close to the events in question. DSK’s blackberry went missing, which may or may not be significant. There was a delay in calling the police.
Ruadhán sets out the main points as follows:-
People close to Mr Strauss-Kahn say he had been warned in the days leading up to his arrest that one of his Blackberry phones might have been tapped by his enemies. A friend of his working temporarily in the head office of the ruling UMP party in Paris told him that at least one of his private emails had been read in the office. The Blackberry remains missing.
Almost 90 minutes passed between Ms Diallo alerting colleagues to the alleged assault and the police being called. During this time, security cameras recorded a senior hotel employee and an unidentified man “high-fiving each other” and doing what looked like a “dance of celebration that lasts for three minutes”.
Contrary to Ms Diallo’s initial account, keycard records show she entered a neighbouring room (number 2820) on the VIP floor before and after the alleged assault in Mr Strauss-Kahn’s suite. The resident of that room has never been identified
DSK’s political opponents have denied and ridiculed the whole thing. But there is still something odd about it all … For more on this issue, click here.
