Dominique Strauss-Kahn 'a suspect' in prostitution ring inquiry

[T_i_B]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17110618

Former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn is being questioned by French police as a suspect in a prostitution ring inquiry, a prosecutor says.

Mr Strauss-Kahn, once a front-runner for the French presidency, is being held in custody at a police station in Lille, northern France.

Police have questioned a number of prostitutes who have admitted having sex with Mr Strauss-Kahn. He insists he did not know that the women were prostitutes.

"I challenge you to distinguish a naked prostitute from any other naked woman," his lawyer Henri Leclerc has told French television.

[MADem]

1. What, did they deduct it as an "in-kind" campaign contribution?

Or does he always just whip out his wallet every time he has sex?

That guy is not telling the truth, I suspect. And this reporting pulls up mental images that do nothing for holding down one's breakfast:

In this separate inquiry, French police have already arrested eight men on suspicion of organising a prostitution ring and misusing corporate funds to pay for sex in a scandal known as the "Carlton affair" because of a Lille hotel where clients were allegedly supplied with call-girls.

Three of the suspects were said to have been close to Mr Strauss-Kahn, who is said to have taken part in sex parties in Paris and Washington in late 2010 and early 2011.

Reminds me of the Berlusconi pics--ugh!

[dipsydoodle]

2. I'm not sure its his wallet he whips out

[JDPriestly]

24. In France, paying a prostitute is legal; organizing a prostitution ring would not be legal.

Prostitution in France (the exchange of sexual services for money) is not illegal, but several surrounding activities are. These include soliciting, procuring, operating a brothel (maisons closes, lupanar or bordel in French), living off the avails, and paying for sex with someone under the age of 18.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_France

No doubt, Dominique Strauss-Kahn used prostitutes. Whether the Sarkozy regime can prove that he solicited, procured, operated a brothel, lived off the the avails or paid for sex with someone under the age of 18 may be more difficult to prove. I think that this is part of a campaign against legal prostitution in France. The campaign is a good idea. Using the campaign to get rid of a very popular political opponent is not.

The practice of prostitution has been quite common in France for a long, long time. It's a shame, but that is how it is. Strauss-Kahn is being used as an example. There is nothing wrong with using him as an example, but please keep this in a cultural perspective.

And remember what happened to Eliot Spitzer. We lost an important leader at a time when his voice was needed. What he did was wrong, but silencing him through scandal was even worse.

[MADem]

26. It may be legal in France, but it's not legal in NY, NJ or DC.

Using Spitzer to justify DSK is just strange to me. America does not share that French culture.

And Spitzer was "the law." He knew better. I don't think we "lost" him--I think we avoided him. Yes, he's smart, he had good ideas, but he also had a hubris-soaked blind spot that was as big as New York City. He makes a better pundit than a leader. They also serve who give good ideas to others.

I also think using the "cultural" excuse is a bit weak, too, even for DSK. Bottom line--they may not make a big stink about it in gay Paree, but people who use prostitutes are regarded in a certain fashion, and it's not an ennobling practice.

[JDPriestly]

39. True. But we are all bound by our cultures.

It's just a shame that we are so terribly human and make so many stupid mistakes.

I much prefer 10 Spitzers to one Santorum although I think we can be pretty certain that Santorum has never frequented a prostitute.

As for Strauss-Kahn, he obviously has a problem from our point of view. But having lived in other countries, I realize that moral points of view differ. I am very circumspect in my personal life. It is for that reason that I can be more tolerant of others about these things. But if I as an American woman lived in Saudi Arabia, I would probably be viewed as quite a scandalous woman.

I think that the French ideas about love and sex are changing. Strauss-Kahn is part of that change, maybe a catalyst. It has not been such a long time since a French Prime Minister's mistress attended his funeral. I think she might even have served as one of the Prime Minister's top advisers.

[lunatica]

3. So Dominique never sees women dressed?!

These so-called, alleged, no proof there, naked women in his life just look like all the other naked women around him. And is it possible that when they ask to be paid for acts that, it seem, every other woman does with him too, that he doesn't get a hint?

If that Idiocrat lawyer ever saw me naked he wouldn't claim all women are indistinguishable from each other. LOL!

[seabeyond]

6. maybe that is why he assumed a maid was there for a bj... cant tell the prostitutes

from nonprostitutes anyway.

[rfranklin]

9. Well, the Upstairs Maid costume is a popular fantasy...

he might have assumed that she wanted to fulfill it with him.

[seabeyond]

12. or, that women are to just be used and are of little consequence. nt

[greiner3]

4. Can anyone say;

'Sex addict?'

[rfranklin]

5. Somebody really wants this guy out of the way...

It seems just like the operation that took out Eliot Spitzer.

[FourScore]

7. That was my first thought as well. n/t

[msanthrope]

8. What operation makes men whip it out when they shouldn't? Hubris isn't CIA blackop. nt

[rfranklin]

10. It is a natural urge to copulate that is most easily satisfied if you are very wealthy...

and consequently easily exploited by opponents because they know that the general population will cluck their tongues over such transgressions while much more important issues are neglected.

[msanthrope]

13. Use of corporate funds to bribe officials isn't an important investigation? You might want to read

up on the Carlton Affair...would you support the French government dropping the case against Eiffage?

If a Wall Street firm paid for prostitutes for federal officials here, wouldn't you want them investigated?

[rfranklin]

14. And you don't think that happens daily in Washington?

My point is that it does go on and it is only when someone really orchestrates a honey trap do these guys get nailed. And it usually doesn't have much to do with the actual offenses, it's a political move.

[msanthrope]

16. Poor, poor, DSK will just have to deal with the bourgeois values of the French about sex, I guess.

Poor, poor, honey-trapped male....

[Scout]

14. of course not, he was just fulfilling his natural urge to copulate!

and it's just a big conspiracy by the pearl-clutching anti-sex clucking prudes!

[rfranklin]

17. No conspiracy on their part, they are just the intended audience...

My point is that these things usually only come out when someone wants to gain political advantage. Why did all the corruption of the mortgage mess get ignored?

[msanthrope]

19. Maybe if Elliot Spitzer hadn't been so busy with his 5k a visit prostitute, he might have found time

to look into derivatives????

[msanthrope]

18. How was DSK supposed to know that all those naked women at the orgy really weren't into him?

How was he supposed to know they weren't prostitutes, paid for by the company who provided the orgy and hotel space???

Look, from what I hear, women of all ages are just lining up to fuck him...heck, one even put a maid's uniform on and pretended to clean a hotel room just to get near him!!!!

[ronnie624]

21. There isn't much to read up on yet.

No charges have been filed against Stauss-Kahn, and this article says, "He is not believed to be a major figure in the organization of the hotel rings."

http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2012/02/21/dominique_strauss_kahn_ex_imf_chief_questioned_in_carlton_affair_prostitution_ring_scandal_.html

[msanthrope]

23. Too bad you don't read French. There's plenty on Eiffage in the French press. nt

[rfranklin]

25. Too bad you are so arrogant and need to flaunt your superior language skills...

otherwise you might translate for us rubes.

[msanthrope]

33. How much translation do you really need to figure out what DSK is? Once you know what 'cochon'

means, it's pretty simple.

[ronnie624]

28. Too bad.

But I'm sure I would find little more than innuendo, just like everywhere else, currently.

[msanthrope]

31. Arrests and a continuing investigation.....here are the main players, including police officials.

http://www.france24.com/en/20111026-carlton-prostitutes-scandal-strauss-kahn-roquet-paszkowski-lagarde-lille

Google will translate most French papers for you.

[ronnie624]

37. That article doesn't accuse Strauss-Kahn of misusing corporate funds.

It associates him through rumor, with those who have been accused.

Being a pig is not illegal.

[msanthrope]

38. French police put him on garde à vue this morning. DSK has admitted attending the sex parties,

and the businessmen arrested, and some of the prostitutes have given testimony as to his involvement.


We shall see. He's taken himself out of the running for public office, though.

[smirkymonkey]

30. Apparently IMF expense account funds were used to finance his little flings,

so that would be an issue any way you look at it.

[aquart]

34. "Shouldn't"?

[msanthrope]

35. Yes. There are times one should refrain from whipping out one's penis. nt

[MADem]

20. Eliot Spitzer took out Eliot Spitzer.

He should have done less of that "smooth operator" shit and spent more time at home with his damn family.

Hubris and an above-the-law attitude did him in. Damn shame, he's a smart guy, but he was wrong.

[LanternWaste]

22. Yeah... his own common sense.

"somebody really wants this guy out of the way..."

Yeah... his own common sense.

[MicaelS]

27. The only thing that took out Spitzer and DSK..

Were their respective penises.

[BadtotheboneBob]

11. Bailiff! Whack his pee-pee!

Sorry... couldn't resist

[erpowers]

29. Naked Prostitutes Require Payment

At the end of the excerpt in the original post Strauss-Khan's lawyer stated, "I challenge you to distinguish a naked prostitute from any other naked woman." No, you cannot tell that a naked woman is a prostitute just by looking at her; however, if a woman only agrees to sleep with you if you pay her then most likely she is a prostitute.

[Beacool]

32. Chauvinists a-hole!!!!!!!!!

"I challenge you to distinguish a naked prostitute from any other naked woman," his lawyer Henri Leclerc has told French television.

Strauss-Kahn and his lawyer. The guy is a creep who has a history of assaulting women.

[aquart]

36. What STUNNING obfuscation.

SOME men are being charged with running a prostitution ring and supplying prostitutes to businessmen, not unlike the plot of several Rock Hudson movies I recall.

DSK KNEW those men. DSK attended parties thrown by those men.

Therefore....? Because that, my darlings, is all the available information I got from that article. You?

[Prometheus Bound]

40. Jailed in two countries in six months.

No one deserves it more.